Hi,

After dealing with an ex-council for months and months they have issued a court summons for both myself and hubby. How do I make a posting in the correct thread as I am totally stumped

Cheers

Hi and welcome to CAG.

I have asked the site team to move it to the right place.

Moved to Council Tax forum, I can move to legal but may get more advise here for now!

Jogs

Hi All

Both my hubby and I received a summons ;for Council tax for a property this morning that we moved out of in 2009. But still owned it. Our daughter lived there until June last year when we handed the keys back to the mortgage company. The mortgage company did nothing about it, even though we supplied them with a 8 page letter giving them the go ahead to repossess the property. they eventually did at the beginning of this year, but by this time we had run over our 6 month free council tax period.

Every time I rang the council I was given different advice, they were horrific, and eventually I got in touch with the leader of the council who farmed it out to other people to deal with it. This itself was hilarious. And the final email was from a member of the council and the information she supplied was factually wrong, telling me that my daughter only left the property this year and not last year. I replied asking her asking if her response was factually correct to which she replied it was.

Today we received a summons to us. We both received a summons which has been issued from the council and not the courts, it does not say if the debt is each or is to be halved (we only owe £59.22 in total) with costs of £35.00, but the summons make it look like it was per person, when really it should be joint!

The surname on the summons for both of us is spelt wrong. i presume they will say it is a Typo. The village name is wrong.

I am so annoyed with them. We had been totally up to date when we left. We are paying council tax in the property we now live in which is a council house. there are thousands of people who never pay and they get off with it, yet they are chasing us for under £60. We now live in Scotland, and this debt was in England.

Are we stuck where we have to pay it? I read on a few different forums that it would be Perjury to send a letter out as a summons if it is not through the council. But then I read that councils are allowed to issue their own summons. I have also been told that if they ask for my hubby's employment details we do not have to supply them as they are only allowed to request and not demand.

the council will not accept that their staff have acted wrongly, giving out wrong information. The do not record calls, so it is my word against theirs. they are a disgraceful council. I have just submitted a complaint into the Local Authority Ombudsman, but I have been told by some people, that they tend to be bias towards the council. I have no idea if this is true.

Can anyone help are we stuck with it.

Thanks

Helen

The spellings that are wrong will be ignored as they will not be deemed sufficient to alter the fact the summons has been issued. You get one each as it is classed as joint & severally liable meaning that if they obtain the Liability Order they can enforce against either of you.

I would urge that you try and pay in full as should the Council obtain a Liability Order then they could add up to another £100 or so in costs. If they do ask for employment details you are required by law to disclose them - believe the fine for this can be £500 max. I doubt if the LGO will get involved as you need to exhaust the Councils compaint procedures first.

do you dispute that you owe the council tax debt?

if so, it would help if you could explain why

Two threads merged.

I have just submitted a complaint into the Local Authority Ombudsmanicon, but I have been told by some people, that they tend to be bias towards the council. I have no idea if this is true.

Its generally the other way round, the Ombudsman likes to favour the public.

If they do ask for employment details you are required by law to disclose them

Providing it is requested in writing under regulation 36 of the council tax (administration and enforcement) regs 1992.

Providing it is requested in writing under regulation 36 of the council tax (administration and enforcement) regs 1992.

That is a corporate regulation not a law.