Hi

Hope someone can help.

I am reading conflicting accounts regarding councils sending out summons for court appearances re council tax. On one hand, I'm reading it's illegal and, on the other, just came across this piece on the web which seems watertight. Please can someone clarify the situation? Many thanks.

"There is no statute which authorises (or prevents) a council preparing a summons on the court’s behalf. Under section 51 of the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/43/section/51), a person can apply to the Magistrates’ Court for a summons. If it is granted, it is customary that the person applying drafts their own summons, which in the case of Council Tax is the Local Authority.

There is no statute which authorises a summons to be issued by the Local Authority. The summons is issued by the court when the application is approved and endorsed by a Legal Adviser and the Council informed of the outcome of their application. The summons may then be printed by the complainant and that is now the normal custom in relation to all summonses.

It is the responsibility of the person applying for a summons to serve it on the respondent and Rule 99 of the Magistrates’ Courts Rules 1981 sets out how that may be done, which includes by post. There is no agreement between courts and local authorities to do this, as it is the legal duty of the local authority in every case".

When the term "issue" is used in the context of a Council Tax Summons, it merely means the Justices Clerk or legal advisor (if they're not the same thing) authorises a complaint list (probably delivered electronically) which has typically – depending on the size of the billing authority – between a couple of hundred and several thousand names on it.

The bigger concern in this area is that local authorities are recklessly making applications and courts recklessly rubber stamping these, as opposed the practice of councils "distributing" the summons. Note, the deliberate avoidance of the word "issue").

However, there are plenty of other areas to challenge the lawfulness of these liability order applications.

The story (below link) typifies council tax system failures where staff take a back seat and leave their computers to get on with it.

Students troubled by council tax demands

Several students have received summons to court over council tax exemption errors

 

Several students at the University of York have received “irritating” council demands for council tax, including court summons and multiple phone calls.....

Much of the costs are attributable to checking summonses individually etc. before they are issued. There are definitely grounds for challenging court costs on this basis because the expenditure is fictitious.

You are absolutely right. They are just churned out with very little cost to the councils. I've had a couple of these in the past and I've challenged the "court costs" and never had to pay them. I do expect it depends on individual councils though; some may not back down.