Any advice very welcome. Like many others I try and keep up to date with my council tax but fell foul of missing some payments this year by the date they weere due. However, I never missed dates by very much and it only happened a couple of months. Anyhow as at the end of November I was ahead of my payments so I only owed the final installment for this year. I should have paid that in January but my Mum was ill and I visited her at same time that last payment was due in Jan. Tbh I totally forgot about it. When I logged on line at start of this week to pay I saw I had been awarded 'Costs' of £136!! I contacted the council and dealt with a very un-pleasantlittle upstart. After pointing out I had now cleared all I owed and asked for an explaination of said charges all I was told was they had only been added in last 48hrs and I had to pay them there and then. I pointed out that I had recieved no communication since October from the Council so could they explain what these charges were for? I was advised they are for owing us council tax. After going away to check I was told a summons was 'in the' post, Charges are just that charges and was I going to pay now or what? Again I asked for an explaination and breakdown of charges and was told 'they are just charges' you have to pay. For the umpteenth time I pointed out I owed nothin and was then told 'you cant escape em' and if you dont pay now the court will let us send in the bayliffs. When I pointed out they never needed to go to cout as I was upto date I was told 'It dont work like that' and charges are no different to owed tax! Subsequently I have been told that in actual fact the 'charges' they would never break down are made up of three elements - cost of summons, cost of liability order and councils costs. If that is so are they not comitting fraud by demanding money that is not due before any summons hearing? Additionally are they allowed to get a liability order when I am up to date with what is owed upto April 2013? I have heard some councils dont persue liability orders if no tax is owing by date of the hearing? Can anything be done about these costs?