Hi, I really hope somebody can help me. I have made regular monthly payments on my council tax but some of the payments have been late by a week, occasionally a couple of weeks. However, I have never missed a month, and am not in arrears but I received a court summons for arrears and now have a Notice of Liability Order for £196.00.

Having done some reading up I understand that if your payments are not dead on time they can make you liable for the full amount but I do not, to my knowledge, remember receiving a notice imposing this. I have continued to make monthly payments.

I only received it when I got home from work today so haven't called the Council yet. I am scared to death as I don't have the full amount and don't want to get involved with bailiffs or have them contact my employer.

Can anybody give me any advice?

Hi, I really hope somebody can help me. I have made regular monthly payments on my council tax but some of the payments have been late by a week, occasionally a couple of weeks. However, I have never missed a month, and am not in arrears but I received a court summons for arrears and now have a Notice of Liability Order for £196.00.

 

Having done some reading up I understand that if your payments are not dead on time they can make you liable for the full amount but I do not, to my knowledge, remember receiving a notice imposing this. I have continued to make monthly payments.

 

I only received it when I got home from work today so haven't called the Council yet. I am scared to death as I don't have the full amount and don't want to get involved with bailiffs or have them contact my employer.

 

Can anybody give me any advice?

Having given this some thought, should I just call the Council tomorrow and try to arrange to pay something each month as I have read through some other threads and it seems that Councils can take you to Court for not paying on the due date, something I was not previously aware of.

I would be grateful for any advice as I am really worried.

You normally have about ten days from each instalment due date to make the payments before reminders are issued. You should have gotten a reminder notice for each late payment and a final notice before getting the summons so if you've not got that then you should query it with the council.

Don't worry about bailiffs, they are used quite far down the recovery process and as long as you cooperate then the council will have no reason to use them.

You have two options:

1- Pay the whole amount on the summons before the court date to avoid a liability order. However, you've said you can't afford this.

2- Let the debt go to court. All this means is that the council obtain a liability order which gives them additional recovery powers and consequently you don't have to attend. Once a liability order is in place you will be able to make a payment arrangement with them to pay the debt off. You can continue to make payments without an arrangement in place because they certainly won't turn them away. You will have two lots of costs added to your account - one for the summons and one for the court date. This arrangement will be slightly different to the previous one in that it's extra important to make sure payments are paid on the due date. Failure to do that means the council have the right to take the debt further and there's no reason for it to get that far.

Try not to worry about it, it's not really a huge deal as this liability order won't affect your credit rating and as long as you comply and stick to your payment arrangement then they have no reason to involve bailiffs. All that talk on the summons is just designed to scare people into paying up.

if you have not spoken to the council

do so and make a new arrangement - simple as that

explain that you have not apparently received any prior notes about the situation indicating they would be getting an lo and would have resolved the situation had you had.

as explained already the lo does not really change anything

dx

as explained already the lo does not really change anything

 

dx

Except add up to £150 to the bill depending on which council you are with.

So what is your situation at this very moment, is a payment due or are you fully up to date?

Except add up to £150 to the bill depending on which council you are with.

 

So what is your situation at this very moment, is a payment due or are you fully up to date?

There is a payment due, there are two left for this year and they want both payments plus the court costs. I am going to see if I can borrow the money off my mum and pay it all off but if not I will call them on Monday to see if I can just pay some each month. I will definitely mention that I have not received prior notice. I live in a flat and I am sure that some of my post is not reaching me for some reason.

Until now I didn't realise that they could take you to Court for not paying dead on time, I thought it was only for arrears. They have received monthly payments from me without fail ever since I have lived here. I was quite shocked. I need to set up a direct debit and see if they will take the money out when I have it in my account. I have to budget very carefully as I live on my own and have to pay everything out of my (very low) salary.

Thanks everybody for your replies anyway, it is very much appreciated.

Boo,

Am not sure where you live but check out whether your council accept payments by either standing order or set up a payment on your bank account rather than direct debit. I have set up a payment on my account so that, when I get paid each month, I go onto my internet banking and simply send the payment through to the council. I did this because I didn't want to set up a DD and the council stopped the payment books they had previously used.

Leaves you in control of the money going in and out and the date it goes.

Feebee_71

Fully in agreement with that. Think very carefully about setting up an automatic payment method of any sort unless you can guarantee that there will be money in the account.

If there isn't enough at payment time, you will get charges added on by the bank and that will only make things worse if you are running close to the bone each week.

Boo,

 

Am not sure where you live but check out whether your council accept payments by either standing order or set up a payment on your bank account rather than direct debit. I have set up a payment on my account so that, when I get paid each month, I go onto my internet banking and simply send the payment through to the council. I did this because I didn't want to set up a DD and the council stopped the payment books they had previously used.

 

Leaves you in control of the money going in and out and the date it goes.

 

Feebee_71

thats the way i have always paid ctax

internet banking

click the pay now button on my bills list.

i decide when they get it as my payment is never exactly the same week

never had any issue with the council on this

all i did was explained years ago how i get paid, and they accepted they will get paid as near as i can to their due dates.

dx

Dx,

Until last year the council automatically sent out a payment book in March with the forthcoming year's bill. They also included details of how to pay by DD or SO. The payment book could be presented at the council offices or at the post office free of charge until 2 years ago when they removed the free payment at the post office option and you couldn't pay at the council offices anymore. They were clear that this was because they wanted (expected) most households to pay by DD as it reduced the work for the council.

Now that you cannot pay by cash they do allow households to pay by cheque (which is how my parents pay theirs) sent in to the council but still say they would prefer payment by DD. I chose to set up a regular (but variable) payment from my bank as it means I stay in control and would advise others look into the same if they have internet banking.

Feebee_71

exactly

just nick the sort and a/c from the back of any CTAX bill and set it up on internet banking site

hello guests....

dx waves

Dx,

The payment book could be presented at the council offices or at the post office free of charge until 2 years ago when they removed the free payment at the post office option and you couldn't pay at the council offices anymore. They were clear that this was because they wanted (expected) most households to pay by DD as it reduced the work for the council.

 

Now that you cannot pay by cash they do allow households to pay by cheque (which is how my parents pay theirs) sent in to the council but still say they would prefer payment by DD.