Council Tax Arrears - Court Summons!

[adridude]

Hello Again,

 

I've just been summoned to court (14-12-06) as I am £614 in council tax arrears.

 

Currently I am not working, so it's a bit difficult to pay it from JSA (which is temporary anyway).

 

Is there any way I can stop this court hearing and agree to pay a small sum each week or whatever off?

 

Also is THIS a CCJ? (Never been to court eek!)

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Adrian

[MrShed]

I do not know the answers to the rest of your questions, I'm afraid, and the best people to speak to regarding it would be your local council tax department. In particular, I am sure that you get reduced council tax when you are claiming benefits, and so may be worth mentioning this to them.

 

However, this is NOT a CCJ. A CCJ(county court judgement) is ONLY put on your credit file if you are taken to court and lose, and you then do not pay the full amount within 14 days. For this reason, if you will not be able to pay the full £614, it is well worth attempting to negotiate some kind of pay off schedule to prevent things going to court. However, the council may well be somewhat less receptive to this than private firms would be. I would strongly suggest NOW paying them as much as you can comfortably afford, along with a realistic schedule of payments you can meet. This will be in your favour with the judge, as it has shown you have attempted to resolve the situation. Can I also suggest posting in another more suitable area of these forums with regards this, other users who do not frequent this section will be able to help you more than my limited knowledge of this area.

[adridude]

where else would I put this in the forums? lol

[MrShed]

Here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-bailiffs-advice/

[adridude]

Hello Again,

 

I've just been summoned to court (14-12-06) as I am £614 in council tax arrears.

 

Currently I am not working, so it's a bit difficult to pay it from JSA (which is temporary anyway).

 

Is there any way I can stop this court hearing and agree to pay a small sum each week or whatever off?

 

Also is THIS a CCJ? (Never been to court eek!)

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Adrian

[Gruffy]

The best thing you can do is to contact the council ASAP and explain your situation, as you probably qualify for Council Tax benefit anyway if you are receiving JSA (although it depends on whether you live with a partner etc etc) -

 

Not sure of the forum rules on posting links - hope I'm not breaking any but this is the link for DWPs info on it :

 

DWP - Services and benefits - Council Tax Benefit

 

And no it is not a CCJ, so don't panic on that matter, however the best thing is explain to the council your situation as soon as possible!

[Gruffy]

As I said in my other post - phone the council tomorrow and explain.

 

If there is one lesson I have learnt in the past couple of months is always talk to people you owe money too! - In your case though you should be able to claim Conucil Tax Benefit - see my other post!

[adridude]

I missed several months in the past due to prolongued sickness, and also owing several people money I borrowed from when I was sick and that.

 

I've applied for council tax benefits, but what about the arrears. All £600 of it! Will they allow me to pay monthly or periodical installments ipo court action.

 

I would have thought that court would be pointless given that I have no income and that I am offering a decent payment compared to my other expenses and debt which I'm paying off.

[callumsgran]

You'll still be liable for arrears while you were working, if it goes to court you can make a payment arrangement and if you fail to keep to it you will have an attachment to earnings made

In your case to your jsa

[MrShed]

CB, as far as I know you cannot currently get an attachment against benefits, only wages. I await correction though!

[adridude]

that's gonna be fun. I'm paying of £10 a week for a social fund loan I took out while not working ages ago.

 

So if they don't attach, what happens with the arrears? They will need paying eventually, and I am happy to do so when I start work, but I can only pay a reasonable amount, i.e. 30/month or something

[MrShed]

The other methods of enforcement are: baliffs, deducting direct from your bank account and attaching an order to any property you own. Baliffs is the likeliest one. To be honest, never mind when you start working, you need to be paying off an amount before then, even if it is only a token amount. Will you be working full time, when you do start working again? If so, £30 per month seems low, and the court would probably agree - an attachment order is done on a (fairly) fixed calculation, and it would probably come out as substantially more than £30. This is going to sound very harsh, and it is not supposed to, but I get the impression that you want to pay off the debt in a way such as not to inconvenience you. This will not be the case, you will have to make sacrifices to pay it off at a reasonable amount. Of course, depending on what the council say, it may be too late for this anyway.

[Billyhunt]

Hi adridude

 

If someone is receiving JSA or contribution-based JSA, the local authority can apply to the local benefits office for third party deductions to recover council tax arrears. Third party deductions can only be made from income support, pension credit, income-based JSA or contribution-based JSA, and not from any other benefit, even if this is being paid in the same order book or giro.

The maximum amount of the third party deduction from income support, pension credit, income-based JSA, or contribution-based JSA if a person has underlying entitlement to income-based JSA, is 5 per cent of the personal allowance for a single person over 25, regardless of the persons actual age and whether s/he is claiming as a couple or a single person. There are also limits on the total that can be deducted from a someones benefit, for example, for council tax plus other arrears. The maximum amount of a third party deduction from contribution-based JSA, if a client has no underlying entitlement to income-based JSA, is one third of the personal allowance for someone of their age.

 

Contact the local authority and let them know you are currently on JSA as you may be entitled to council tax benefit/housing benefit and you may also be able to pay a small amount off of the arrears. Although difficult on JSA, at least you will show you are paying something towards the arrears.

 

Hope this helps.

[adridude]

Hi Guys,

 

I've just spoken to CLSDirect (Consumer Legal Service Direct) and asked them a few questions about court and making a claim etc...

 

At the moment the Councilis taking me to court due to tax arrears. I've spoken to them and there is nothing I can do about it.

 

What distressed me is that the court has power to ruin my life.

 

They advised me that the court wouldb e able to cancel my gym subscription (£25 a month) and use that to pay my debt off.

 

CAN THEY DO THIS????

 

My life is my sport.

Without it I would be nothing, depressed . Thats why I took it up in the first place.

 

Can someone help me?

it's all I have left, do they have the right to take my health from me?

 

Cheers

 

Adrididude 

[natheyabdn]

I believe they can tell you to cancel some things deemed not necessary however - excercise is apparently fantastic at combating depression therefore if you get a note from your doctor etc they may let you keep this under health reasons.

 

Its worth a try!

 

Hope i've helped a little.

 

Nathe

[adridude]

This is so annoying. I'm seeing my GP at 2ish today so I'll mention it.

 

Regardless, if this judge tells me to cancel my gym and sports, I WILL and I swear call him every name under the sun there and then.

 

I have no respect for someone who doesn't respect someone's elses health concerns.

[PKea]

Surely, You can do exercise without a gym.

There are many ways to keep healthy without machines.

I bet for every machine exercise there is an equivalent exercise that can be done.

There weren't gyms about when the Olympics started.

[adridude]

oh ok

 

so they expect me to swim down the local canal which everyone ****es in then?

 

Not only that but I've been on the county swimming team for 6 months now. I think that training in a canal isn't exactly county standards :-\

[LondonPam]

As far as I know the court can not cancel any gym membership etc that you have. However, if you have asked to pay so much per month based on an I & E form and that includes your gym..then they may say that you are spending money on non-necessities and decide you should pay more than you have stated. Does that make sense lol

[adridude]

non-necessities? Would gym come under that? As far as I'm concerned, without excercise and that I'd go straight back on the bottle and prolly end up in a grave within a year.

[natheyabdn]

non-necessities? Would gym come under that? As far as I'm concerned, without excercise and that I'd go straight back on the bottle and prolly end up in a grave within a year.

 

As i previously said - they cannot take something away from you if it is beneficial to your health - the last thing they want is someone to commit suicide etc, explain this to your doc, also once you go to court explain it to your solicitor and hand over any letter from your GP, its your solicitors job to advise the judge of your circumstances etc.

 

I would HIGHLY recommend NOT calling the judge every name under the sun as he will most likely hold you in contempt of court, but i doubt it would get to the stage where he/she will order you to stop going to the gym.

 

Especially not with the reasoning you have provided - like i said, get something from your doctor!!

 

Hope this helps.

 

Nathe

[JonCris]

The court CANNOT force you to breach your contract with the gym almost certainly causing you further financial losses. That would be perverse

[adridude]

I can leave after a month, nothing in the contract stopping me.

 

Any ideas as to how I can protect this??

[steve5080]

Have you tried talking to your doctor as Nathe has already sugested twice!

[adridude]

I couldnt go the job centre needed me to go down and sort their error out.

 

so I gotta remake the appointment

 

AHHHHH