who can change a CT Liability Order?

[casbah31]

Ok brief background

Had yrs of trouble with LA.

Thought I'd finally sorted it in 2008!!! but being a smart alec I thought I'd get one over on them, and set up a Standing Order to pay the 08/09 tax bill on a weekly basis. In july that year recieved a summons for the magistrates court, thought right I'm going to go and argue for the little man, went to court, waited hours and finally got in, explained to the court that I had been making weekly payments and was in fact, 6 weeks prepaid. The council then hit back with.................................... you should have set the SO for the month before so that when it was due in the April it was up to date, I had effectively put myself in one months arrears Doh!!! so the magistrates informed they HAD to issue the LO. But I could continue making the payments as I had been. Fast forward to Jan 09 all paid and up to date!!! LO finished.

In Jan '12 received a letter form LA informing me that every payment I had made AFTER the court hearing was 'allocated elsewhere' Now what I want to know is, if the court has ordered I pay £xx per week towards that LO numbr then how can the council change this???

It seems I will be forever under an LO been to my local councillor who was as much use as a choclate fireguard, he wants to to go for (yet another) meeting with the council, for them to exoplain where the money has been allocated.

The council has used previous years payments to pay bailliffs fees which I have disputed can they do this????

 

Ho hum

[revshelp]

As far as I remember the magistrates only make a LO for the whole amount, and it is then up to the Council to choose which method of enforcement is appropriate. Here's the extract of the regulations:-

 

 

Application for liability order

 

34.—(1) If an amount which has fallen due under regulation 23(3) or (4) is wholly or partly unpaid, or (in a case where a final notice is required under regulation 33) the amount stated in the final notice is wholly or partly unpaid at the expiry of the period of 7 days beginning with the day on which the notice was issued, the billing authority may, in accordance with paragraph (2), apply to a magistrates' court for an order against the person by whom it is payable.

 

(2) The application is to be instituted by making complaint to a justice of the peace, and requesting the issue of a summons directed to that person to appear before the court to show why he has not paid the sum which is outstanding.

 

(3) Section 127(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980(1) does not apply to such an application; but no application may be instituted in respect of a sum after the period of six years beginning with the day on which it became due under Part V.

 

(4) A warrant shall not be issued under section 55(2) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 in any proceedings under this regulation.

 

(5) If, after a summons has been issued in accordance with paragraph (2) but before the application is heard, there is paid or tendered to the authority an amount equal to the aggregate of—

 

(a)the sum specified in the summons as the sum outstanding or so much of it as remains outstanding (as the case may be); and

(b)a sum of an amount equal to the costs reasonably incurred by the authority in connection with the application up to the time of the payment or tender,

the authority shall accept the amount and the application shall not be proceeded with.

 

(6) The court shall make the order if it is satisfied that the sum has become payable by the defendant and has not been paid.

 

(7) An order made pursuant to paragraph (6) shall be made in respect of an amount equal to the aggregate of—

 

(a)the sum payable, and

(b)a sum of an amount equal to the costs reasonably incurred by the applicant in obtaining the order.

(8) Where the sum payable is paid after a liability order has been applied for under paragraph (2) but before it is made, the court shall nonetheless (if so requested by the billing authority) make the order in respect of a sum of an amount equal to the costs reasonably incurred by the authority in making the application.

 

It would appear that the council's computer system has assigned the payments (so called soft cash) to the oldest debt as the as your standing order didn't match the instalments.

[casbah31]

So? I can request they put them back? and the LO is satisfied??? ( would much rather kick butt)

[ploddertom]

It appears to me that you have been paying monies to the Council using an incorrect account number. Most Council Tax bills are made up of:

i - Property Ref No - never changes

ii - Account No - never changes

iii - Reference No - changes on a yearly basis so the Council know which year you are paying

 

The chances are you have been paying an old Reference No which has all been allocated to year 20xx and the Councils computer has thrown a strop and put it into a Suspense account. It is quite easy to sort out but like evrything and everyone at the Council they will suffer from GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

[outlawla]

This is from another thread and might have some relevance:

 

 

This was the information I was referring to in my previous post.

 

This Council Tax Investigation may have something relevant to your case.

 

QUOTE:

3.3.1

The collection and reporting of Council Tax income is straightforward when a tax payer pays their annual charge within that year. Complexities arise when a Council Tax Payer falls into arrears and owes the council money for past years as well as the current year. There is significant case law (for example, Peter v

Anderson

(1814)) however,

put simply, if a person specifies which years debt the payment should be assigned it should be assigned to that years debt

.

 

3.3.2

The council tax system has built in allocation rules to ensure that the law with respect to specified payments is met. For instance, if a customer has a payment plan for any year of debt and the payment they make matches the planned instalment then the money will be allocated to that year (this is known as “hard” allocation on the council tax system).

I

f the system is unable to “hard allocate” then it will instead “soft” allocate

and the debt will be used against the oldest debt unless manually adjusted.

 

[casbah31]

isn't it strange that every payment made before the court hearing was credited to the correct tax year, but starting the day after the court hearing they go astray