Hi guys, i was redundant for a few months and was unable to pay my bills so i have a few arrears. I recently had a job and been working since. In May i received a court summons from my local council tax office for non payment of council tax. I called them immediately and set up an arrangement with them to pay monthly since i had an income. I paid in June and missed July because of a massive drop in income as my wife went on maternity with our second child. I called the council and told them that we had had a change in circumstances and that we could not afford to pay the monthly council tax arrangement as agreed. They then sent me a change of circumstances means statement to fill in which i did and returned with an offer of £50.00. Then i paid the £50 in August as soon i got paid. I later received a letter saying that the offer was rejected and that the full arrears was now outstanding for last year and the arrears for this year so far. My wife and i agreed that we will pay £200 today to the council, so i called on my way to work looking to pay the £200 as we agreed only for them to tell me that a judgement had been given and that they were going for an attachment of earnings on my salary. I dont understand as i am a money advisor myself and i have advised several people on such issues. What i know is that they are supposed to issue a summons and then if i do not attend then judgement will be given and then i should have been sent a liability order and a form from the court informing me of a an attachment of earnings order which includes a statement for me to fill in my income and expenses and then tick the option to ask for the order to be suspended followed by an arrangement based on my affordability. It seems that they have skipped all of these procedures and i do not know what to do now. Please i need some further advice on what i can do to suspend this order as i do not think i have been treated fairly at all. Thank You and appreciate your comments in advance.

Hi cas

Welcome to CAG

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

Thread moved to the correct forum.

About to go out, but name this local authority? they need a damn good shooing, I am amazed that LA's think they can act this way......enter into their complaints procedure and exhaust it, this is NO WAY for a corporation to act, if they still mess about then you can seek advice from the government ombudsman.

http://www.lgo.org.uk/

How can they have a judgement if they didn't take you to court?

Thank you all for your quick resposes. This is what i am concerned about. I asked them when the court date was and they said that the court date was in May. In May? Yes i did receive a summons but i made an arrangement to pay and that was agreed and i was told to ignore the summons as the recovery process was stopped. This is so unfair.. its funny how you dedicate your life and time advising people and now i know just how my clients feel. Its a horrible feeling!

Can anyone please help me with advice on legislations, proceedures etc i can use or anything i can do to suspend this attachment of earnings order? Thanks Guys

If they have a Liability Order against you then they can mostly choose whichever enforcement method suits them best - remember it could have been Bailiffs.

PT

Ok i did not receive any liability order to start with as the court session never took place because i made an arrangement. So it seems they may have gone to court but i was never notified of the date and no liability order has been served.

You must therefore take this up with the Council re the due process.

at the point that you made an arrangement to pay, did the council actually agree to withdraw the summons?

or did they just tell you not to worry about the summons as you had made an arrangement?

most councils that i know of will not normally withdraw the summons unless you clear the full balance for the year

when they advised you that recovery had been stopped, they may have meant that they would not take any further action beyond the summons/liability order on the condition that you maintained the payment arrangement

I agree with id6052 - that;s pretty much how most councils work (I'm a council tax recovery officer)

Once a summons has been issued then standard practice is to still obtain the Liability Order and hold any further action on the basis that payment is made.

As you don't have a formal arrangement with the council there would be no problems with them issuing an Attachment of Earnings Order.