Am dealing for a mate with this stuff.

Brief summary;

Guy was self employed.

He has his own house-and also bought a second house intending to do it up for renting out.

Credit crunch came before he did any work on second one.

Its unfurnished-no gas conected no water-in fact still boarded up.

Council gave remission for one year.

Then charged full rate.

He fell behind with his council tax for main home (missed 2 payments)

Council got liability order bailiffs etc.

He paid 300 quid -this was for 2009/2010 account-so all finished.

He also paid arrears on second property from liability order of £250

In May he became unemployed.

Council had sent CT bills for 2010/2011 for both properties.

He didnt pay the first instalments in April.

Council then send summons for both properties (Full amounts)

He calls them and says-I am unemployed now so what to do ?

Council said-we will adjust bill for your main home as you now on benefits.But second property-we can only give 10% discount.

Ok send offers to repay.

This was 2 weeks before Court hearing.

He immediately sent back forms-asking for them to take £3.25 from his JSA for main property.

And said same for other-additionally he offered £5 a week as sep payment.

The total payable after the adjustment on the main home was £120 quid.

They gave 10% discount on the second property which took it to around £800

This week he gets Pre-distress notifications for both property.

Seems they went ahead despite his offers.

His home property now gone from £120 to £194

Other from £700 to £972.

I think this is blatant p*** taking.

This council seems too litigant hungry and seems to me as tho they are bumping up the CT accounts regardless of co-operation.

Any thoughts on this ?

Ok its possible that the second property was a good target for them...but the guy is on JSA and offered to pay the £120 by deductions from his benefit with 2 weeks before the Court hearing.

Why do they think its ok to go to Court and add on 60 or 70 quid costs ?

In response to the last question - because they can.

This a legacy of Gordon Brown. I watched him on the parliament channel saying that 'all' Government and Government executive departments would be required to become totally self funding and that any reliance on the treasury must end. He mentioned council tax arrears and collection in that speach.

(That's not quoting his exact words, but I will see if I can find it on Hansard).

The court fee for liability orders ranges between £60-£160 depending on which council area you are in so it would appear that the fee is not dependent on the amount of work required to draw up a list, but rather on how much profit they want to make and what they think they can get away with especially taking into consideration the actual court fee is only £3 per claim.

Like the banks, they will not substantiate how they come to that figure.

Taking the minimum fee, it does not take someone 6 hours on £10 per hour to ready one claim let alone the dozens that is claimed at the same time, (they always make bulk claims and not individual ones), as it is all done by a press of a key on a computer.

I think the DVLA is a very public success story of those orders.

The councils have full discreation on how the collections should be made and are not bogged down by any legislation on spreading payments, but are sticking to the letter of the law with 2 notices and then a liability order summons and are not at all interested in the ability of someone to pay.

I was reading an article how they are going more and more for bankruptcy, (whatever that achieves) with Manchester council leading the way on this.

I have often wondered why councils should think that if someone can't afford the monthly instalment, they would be in a position to afford the whole outstanding amount plus, to some, the considerable sum of the added on fee.

My personal belief is that they are trying to balance out the payments of benefits so those aren't paid by the council tax itself, and to become totally independently funded.

Being a Parish Councillor here in the Shires, this is close to my heart and I don't know how to get the local CT office to see some sense. there are some people whoi cannot pay and would love to pay if they can. I have been able to get the benefits in place for those who need it. I shold not say this on an open forum, but I pay my CT in two months blocks. I hate council tax (bear in mind, we do our work for nothing, oh I fib, I get a ream of paper and one round of cartridges for my printer as recompense for a year). this is to print my copy of the Minutes...

Back to CT, it has to be looked at again. The district council here is deadly regarding the collection of arrears. The way i pay mine is in protest of the system. 14th day of the second month at 4pm, they get paid the previous two months. If everyone did this, it might make them think.

I know I haven't contributed much to this question, but I think the second home of the OP was fair game for them and they did because they can.

there are some people whoi cannot pay and would love to pay if they can

I think you could have phrased that better, does anyone actually love paying taxes

Thanks for replies.