council tax court charge

[ss002d6252]

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All you can do is to ask the council as to whether or not they will withdrawn the summons.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.

[ss002d6252]

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.)

[ss002d6252]

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.