I have a question if anyone can help.

I have recently received a court summons for unpaid council tax.

of course tax must now be paid in full with costs.

If i happen to just start paying a little bit which is the likely outcome can a liability order still be issued ?

If so how long could it be before a possible prison sentence ?

Welcome to the site.

You still have time to try and make an arrangement with the Council even before the hearing.

If you can do this it will save you costs.

However much is down to whether they agree with your offer.

Prison sentences are only used as a last resort,in fact where there is a clear indication that the account holder refuses to pay,and all recovery efforts are exhausted.

I suggest you contact the Council ASAP and make an offer of payment and arrangement.

Will move your thread from here.

Keep us posted.

i would also ask for cost to be removed as they have no right to add them, only the magistrtaes court have the power to do that!

i would also ask for cost to be removed as they have no right to add them, only the magistrtaes court have the power to do that!

The adding of costs is quite legal and is covered in the appropriate statutory instrument (reg 84 of the council tax (administration and enforcement) regs 1992).

Yes the costs will be added to any arrears.

The costs can vary anywhere between £60 and £100.

I did a freedom of information request asking to see the breakdown of the costs.

They put these cases in front of the Courts in blocks and I learned that they actually only pay the Court a couple of quid per application for liability order.

The only way to avoid the costs is to make arrangement before the hearing (but not at the last minute)

The only other way is if its discovered later that the charges were wrong-in which case the costs would be taken off the main arrears-I know this because it happened with me.

The adding of costs is quite legal and is covered in the appropriate statutory instrument (reg 84 of the council tax (administration and enforcement) regs 1992).

the adding of costs is legal however it is at the magistrates disgression, not the council. i fought this in court and won as i had paid my bill but refused to pay the costs they had added. i rang and gave them the opportunity to drop these costs but they declined. they told me i had to pay the cost of going to court so that i wouldn't have to go to court. costs are discussed between the council and the court before you receive your bill and set then, however they should not be applied to your bill until the court awards the liability order, not at the point the summons is sent as most if not all councils seem to be doing. the point is not that costs are legal its the timing of them being applied.

"they told me i had to pay the cost of going to court so that i wouldn't have to go to court."

Crazy....and if you paid your arrears off before the liability order-then there NO liability order is there...

that was the point. i had got behind at xmas but knew i would be on time with last 2 payments. they wouldn't accept. the costs they can add are only those reasonably incurred upto that point, however they add the whole lot on and that is the point that shouldn't be happening. they don't have the power just the arrogance

if you want to laugh check this, in court not only were they trying to get the costs added (approx. £35 - £40), they also tried to add another £16 on for my arrogance at challenging them in court

In my FOI request to my local Council-they arrive at fixed costs of £60 per L/0 by adding up admin costs/letters/stationary etc then divide this by xxx account holders.

I will try to find it and post it up.

I have a question if anyone can help.

I have recently received a court summons for unpaid council tax.

of course tax must now be paid in full with costs.

If i happen to just start paying a little bit which is the likely outcome can a liability order still be issued ?

If so how long could it be before a possible prison sentence ?

A liability order will be issued if the whole balance isn't paid before the court date. If you aren't able to do that then you need to let it go to court, the council will obtain a liability order and then you should call them up and make an arrangement to pay it off. And prison for non-payment is a last resort, extremely rare, and only really occurs when people refuse to pay, not when they can't pay.

when i had to fight this, this site was invaluable. try it

ww.isitfair.co.uk

the info there all checked out when cross referenced, and they beat my LO for me. and don't worry about a liability order being awarded as it is just a step the council have to take before it can start any kind of recovery, it has no effect on credit rating and won't show up anywhere in the future (unless you want to be a jp).

Hi

Welcome to The Consumer Action Group.

I am just letting you know that as you haven't had any replies to your post yet, it might be better if you post your message again in an appropriate sub-forum. You will get lots of help there.

Also take some time to read around the forum and get used to the layout. It is a big forum and takes a lot of getting used to.

Once you start to find your way, you will soon realise that it is fairly easy to get round and to get the help you need.

It can be bit confusing at first.