hello i hope this is in the right place,

firstly i`ve been paying my council tax since:

december - paid

january - paid

february - paid

march - missed it

april - paid

may - paid

was recently sent a letter saying they are taking me to court and adding 92£ court summon cost to my bill!

because i missed the march payment, this is crazy!

they should of at least sent me a warning letter or somthing,

i missed march but kept paying april and may etc so they know i didnt stop paying i just missed 1 month and got it mixed up.

i rang the number on the letter and they told me theres nothing they can do and i must pay in full etc lady on the phone didnt really care much.

i tried to go to the manchester city council building today but by the time i arrived it was already closed. will try again tommorow.

the reason i missed march payment was because my mothers younger brother passed away in early march and it was a hard time for us, we didnt think about much and the bill was at the back of our minds

we still started paying april may etc so shouldnt they have sent us a letter saying hello we see you have paid recently but you missed a month, even tho you are continuing to pay us can you please finish the march payment etc, not just suddenly summon us to court

i always keep receipts and i checked on them and they are right we missed march, but continued to pay april may etc.

any advice guys?

appreciate it

again i hope this is the right forum im posting sorry if not

Hi,

I've moved this thread to the appropriate Forum, sorry I can't help you much but hopefully someone will shortly.

Hi

Each Councils operation of Council Tax Payments when you are paying by set Instalments is slightly different.

My own Council if paying Council Tax by instalments if you miss an agreed payment date and haven't cleared this and the next payment on the next payment date in full they then enforce by writing that xx payment on said dates have been missed and fully withdraw the instalment plan and demand the remaining full council tax years payment in full, you are also not entitled to pay by instalments and must pay the following yrs when it arrives in full. There are exemptions to this remember this is my own councils operation of this yours may be completely different.

What you need to do is contact the Council (or look on there website) and ask them clarification on what there policy is when paying Council Tax by Instalments if you miss a payment what is there procedure.

was recently sent a letter saying they are taking me to court and adding 92£ court summon cost to my bill!

because i missed the march payment, this is crazy! they should of at least sent me a warning letter or somthing, i missed march but kept paying april and may etc so they know i didnt stop paying i just missed 1 month and got it mixed up.

Each council will operate slightly differently in respect to dates of when reminder notices are sent but the statutory basis for the reminder is to give 7 days to pay the missing instalment followed by a further 7 days to pay the full balance (if the instalment is not paid). If the reminder is not complied with a court summons would be the next step. In some cases a final notice may be issued, this gives only 7 days to pay in full or a summons would be issued.

The problem you have is that the payments before April are from last years charge - this years charge would start again in April. For last year's charge, unless they amended this year's charge to role it in, you had a separate set of instalments. The standard process for the previous years charge would have been to issue a final notice and then the summons because of non-payment.

This year's payments will be dealt with separately and, if not paid, will see a reminder notice issued.

All you can do is to ask the council as to whether or not they will withdrawn the summons. Legally they don't have to, the only relevant question for the issuing of the summons is whether a final notice was not paid - the reason why is not relevant to the legislation. Providing they issued the final notice to the correct address the fact you did not receive it does not prevent the summons being issued unless you can categorically show it was not received.

thanks for the advice guys, i went to see the council in person and explained the situation, the guy said i shouldnt have to pay the summons costs because i carried on paying i never stopped, i just paid the wrong months etc so there was no failure to pay.

he said because he works for the council he advises me to pay the summon cost then get it back later, but personally he said he thinks i should not and i should write a letter to them showing the reasons and everything

i sat down and wrote a letter starting with hello sir/madam please can you remove the summons costs because of XXX reasons regards.

after writing this i handed it back to the gentleman and he faxed it through to them, he said call back in 2 weeks and maybe 50/50 chance you can get it removed, if not they send bailiffs if i refuse to pay or am not able to pay.

going through all this put alot of stress in me but after speaking with him and writing the letter i feel hopeful and a weight lifted, also the great advice you have all given me too so thank you very much each of you and i will be sure to update this later and let you know the outcome.

In the meantime contact your local Councillor(s) and ask they intervene on your behalf. Best initial contact is by phone.

https://www.writetothem.com/

thanks for the advice guys, i went to see the council in person and explained the situation, the guy said i shouldnt have to pay the summons costs because i carried on paying i never stopped, i just paid the wrong months etc so there was no failure to pay.

As far as council tax legislation is concerned there was a failure to pay for a month - if an instalment was due that month then the payment arrangement is defaulted on and the council can continue with any action.

As to whether or not the council will look at the case and review the issuing of the summons then that is their discretion - either way you're one payment short so they may be better minded to withdraw the summons if you make up the missing payment (it was often an option I would allow - pay the amount and the summons would be withdrawn and payments re-instated providing the person was not a regular bad payment.)

yes this, i was paying regular and never missed until this one payment, our minds were not in the right place at the time, as soon as the summons came through we went to post office and paid it off the same day, but not the summon costs

They can continue for the summons costs if they wish to do so and apply for the liability order

- once the summons costs are added they become collectable as per any council tax would be as far as a liability order is concerned.

Some councils will continue for 'costs only', some won't.

All you can really do now is to wait for their response.

i would like to state ( even though late) my problem was solved by writing a handwritten letter and explaining the situation to the council. they did not contact me afterwards or anything, but i "assume" since there was no contact that the matter was solved! hopefully they wont bring it back later.

my advice for you Hamad is to gather your evidence of your last payments ( latest reciept bill etc) or if you paid by card then a statement showing it or something. aslong as you have proof just send it to them and say i moved out and confirmed by phonecall that my last payment was finished.

good luck!

also if you make your own topic i think you will get more helpful replies, most people wont bother with this anymore because it already has quite a few replies i guess

You must of had previous problems with council tax.

You pay 10 payments per year not 12

Feb and march are non payment month's.

But let me just clear up your payment history.

You said

december - paid

january - paid

february - paid

march - missed it

april - paid

may - paid

But in reality it is this.

december - paid

january - paid

february - paid

march - missed it

april - late

may - late

 

 

You must of had previous problems with council tax.

You pay 10 payments per year not 12

Feb and march are non payment month's.

 

 

 

 

Not quite correct as you can now pay over 12 months which obviously means you get no "free" months.

it was a arranged payment plan to pay an amount once a month over 12 instead of the total amount at once

So you must have previous years arrears too as well as this years debt you are paying ?? Or were?

So you must have previous years arrears too as well as this years debt you are paying ?? Or were?

Yh thats correct i had arrears for 2017.

The point was that i kept up with the payment plan but missed 1 month but kept paying the months after.they took it the wrong way like i was avoiding paying one month on purpose lol. A simple letter fixed it tho but they really try to chase you hard with threats :/

right so as far as I know.

because you ran the previous years arrangement into the new year [april]

they've added that to the old arrangement so will be a rolling monthly payment now as was till paid off by april 2019

and yes they do now do 12mts certainly in my area