Hi , some advice please , this morning i have had a summons for non payment. I have spoken to the council and my account is actually up to date but i pay a week late each month due to when i can afford it. I haven't received a final demand but did receive a letter warning me to pay on time I have asked them to remove the costs of £70 as im not actually in arrears , which they have refused. Is there any way at all around this? Thanks

Not really - where a reminder has been issued then, even if you pay the amount within the 7 days it acts as a 'black mark' - On the 3rd default you lose the right to pay by instalments - this also occurs if you do not pay one of the earlier reminders within the 7 days. If the summons has already been issued then you have already lost the right to pay by instalments - most likely you have not paid the amount shown on a reminder within the 7 days.

At a specific date you can be at the point where the total amount due to that point has been made but you have lost the right to instalments due to late payment. http://lgfa92.co.uk/court-summons-ahead-payments/

You could ask them to withdraw the summons based on your financial situation and move your payment date bit they don't have to.

Craig

Send a written complaint to the Head of revenues at the council. Whilst the last reply is totally accurate, i think it is pretty unfair issuing a summons if you have been just a week late. There should be a way of changing the payment date, so you are not late paying in future.

You can attend the Magistrates on the day given and insist on speaking to Magistrates. But the council will then sting you with further charges. Many councils have outsourced their council tax collection to Capita and no doubt they will try to earn extra amounts by being strict on late payments.

Thanks for the advise , i managed to get them to remove the summons as im actually up to date , they said the system throws these things up automatically

You can attend the Magistrates on the day given and insist on speaking to Magistrates. But the council will then sting you with further charges. Many councils have outsourced their council tax collection to Capita and no doubt they will try to earn extra amounts by being strict on late payments.

The Magistrates cannot do anything other than grant the order unless it can be shown the reminder (and this the summons) was issued wrongly under legislation - they can only decline the order on a legal basis, not whether it is fair or not.

Craig

Thanks for the advise , i managed to get them to remove the summons as im actually up to date , they said the system throws these things up automatically

That's good - I used to withdraw loads and give people the benefit of the doubt (I used to get wrong for it lol).

Craig

problem is, it will be recorded as being a month late, not a week late hence the way they have gone about it. Some councils can take a pragmatic approach to these things but others absolutely wont. The bigger boroughs tend to be the worst because most of them had huge arrears problems going back years because it was politically expedient to allow things to slip. No such element at play now

Council tax people are terrible , I had them chase me for years for a 6 weeks of unpaid council tax , which I did not infact owe , it was owed by a old tenant in a house that I rent out....in the end they said I owed them 1 days worth of money !!! so I paid them , they are terrible !

Hi,

I recently rented out one of my properties and my tenant vacated without notice and eventually I gained access to the property once it was confirmed he did one on me. As he was on housing benefits, the council tax was paid by the DSS. However, on vacating, I took on the owed amount. In short, I received a letter from the council informing of the amount due (no specific payment date was noted) and a payment plan was annotated. However, this was contradicted as I missed a payment so I was then not able to pay by D/D. The payment I missed was a listed payment prior to the letter being sent and me being in possession of the property.

Although the letter was dated 22/12/2016, I did not actually receive the letter until the new year due to the Christmas period. Based on the letter, I decided to pay in full and this was done on 24/1/2017 as that was when I got paid. On the evening of the 26/1/17, I received a court summons due to not paying council tax so I contacted my bank who then confirmed that payment would have hit the council by 26/1/2017. The court summons was dated 24/1/2017 so this would not have been deemed served until 26/01/2017; they day payment cleared in there account.

I contacted the council the morning of 27/1/2017 to confirm if payment had been received and they said no then an hour later said they had found the payment and have just allocated it against my account. They also apologised.

They said I did would not have to attend court or have to pay the fee. I then requested this be sent via mail. No letter has been received and they will not answer any of my correspondence; clearly I am worrying. I then contacted the Court and have since received confirmation that I don't need to attend as the council stated that I have paid in full so the case will withdrawn at court on 13/2/17 (not quite sure what this means - is the case still being viewed?)

As I only paid the council tax owed prior to receiving the summons, do I now still need to pay the court fees? I was of the understanding this was a time overlay of me paying at the time of them issuing a court summons. No mention has been made that I owe or don't owe.

Also, does having a court summons, even though it has been withdrawn, sit on any public records or even my DBS? I ask as this could impact my job.

I did not go out of my way not to pay, I was trying to get my house back again from a rogue tenant and I did pay as a matter of priority.

Many thanks

you need to start a new thread

of your OWN please