Thread: Council Tax Court Fees

just had a interesting conversation with a taxi driver on my way home from shopping,hes tryhing to get the charges back when the council take yhou to court,theyh charge 55.00 he reckons it onlyh costs about 70p,and has asked them for a Breakdown of charges.

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I presume it depends on how much it cost a council to get an order from the court

Court costs for council tax are set by the court and are intended to mitigate the cost of the courts time as well as the Council.

Don't forget, Council tax matters are dealt with in the criminal court system, not the civil courts.

I done some of my own work on Council Tax Court Costs and was able to establish that it does NOT cost in excess of £50 but infact around £3 to get a "Liability Order" on a specific case. The orders are rubber stamped automatically by the computer system. I would always challenge these charges and insist the local authority prove the cost of the "Liability Order" as I am sure they can't and you will get your refund - in my case the Council refunded £47 out of £50 because it was in fact £3 to get the liability order.

Do you know if that applies to a set charge for issuing a summons to court for non payment of C Tax? We received a sort of pre-printed form saying that a date had been allocated but it did not seem to come from the court at all but from the council. I queried it at the time and they quoted all sorts of laws and rights that the government has given them - Ill try to dig that out and have a look -might be useful - have paid it without court involvement anyway but still had to pay that extra fee.!

Court fees are FIXED by the Civil Procedure Rules for civil cases, and the Criminal Procedure Rules for criminal cases. It is NOT POSSIBLE to obtain ANY DOCUMENT written and signed and stamped by a Judge, from a Court, for £3.

The Court will charge a fee for raising the Action against you, and if the Action results in an Order, or a Notice, another fee will be charged. It doesn't matter who the plaintiff or claimant is; the charge is the same. It also doesn't matter what the cost of producing the document is; the fee is for a service and it is fixed.

Originally Posted by thesergeant

Stonelaughter,

I have started a similar thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...liability.html

In my case the liability order states: Court Costs £3, Authority Costs £57.

I have paid the outstanding Tax and these fees, now I am about to send an lba to the council as they have not provided me with proof that their costs in my case are £57.00 for a computer generated order.

The Council have stated that the Courts have provided the costs and its nothing to do with them. However all the Court have done is looked at the costs and agreed that they consider them reasonable.

However in my case the matter has not gone to court, so my position is how can the costs be £57.

can I make the claim at county court ?

You're mixing up your Laws. The whole "pre-estimate of loss" thing is to do with breaches of contracts, and other agreements regulated by Contract Law. Council tax, prosecution for criminal offences (of which non-payment of council tax is one) and payment of court fees are not regulated by contract Law and require no agreement from you. You have no basis for a case - it matters not a jot what it cost them to produce the order; that's the fee they charge and that is that.

Originally Posted by thesergeant

Well all I can say is damn !!

Do you remember, right back at the beginning, when you joined the site, you were told to read and thoroughly understand the FAQs and various related documentation BEFORE YOU BEGAN so that you didn't come a cropper? Can I suggest that "thoroughly understand" is the most important part of that, and it's the part you seem to have missed out?

Yes I understand all that; but it was the fact that you said "...it didn't cost them £57 to..." - you saying that seems to suggest that you have misunderstood the ENTIRE POINT of the bank charges reclaim process. Had you understood that, you would never have sought to apply the same principle to something so wholly, so utterly unrelated to it... *sickly sweet smile*

Yes, which shows that you don't understand the bank charges reclaim Law AT ALL.

This post from a magistrate's blog is quite interesting on the subject of council tax.

Originally Posted by thesergeant

Pat,

Now that is a useful post, unlike Stonelaughter's.

What, you don't think that I am prompting you to re-evaluate your understanding of bank charges reclaim Laws? You don't think that that would be a wise move in light of your new understanding? You're more stupid than I thought.

Luton Borough Council tried to charge me £55 court fees for non payment of council tax. I only had approx £100 left to pay on the account and told them I would pay the outstanding amount but not the £55 cost as I was not the one who had incurred the cost so I won't be paying it. I have had no come back on it at all and this was about 3 months ago.