Council Tax Court/Bailiff Charges

Stoozie1_2

Hi,

We're hoping to hear this week that our Council Tax band is being changed due to their mistake, but we'd like to know whether we can then claim back any charges which have been added to our bills. We have had court charges and now bailiff charges added on, but we feel that if the banding was done properly in the first place, we would have been up to date with our payments and would therefore have incurred no charges.

Also, would the council then have to correct out credit file, as again this would have been unaffected if the banding was correct initially?

Thank you in advance for your help,
Stoozie

moneymare

Council Tax should not be reflected on your credit file as most work is dealt with by magistrates court. Only time the County Court get involved is if the council have gone down the charging order/bankruptcy route.

lincroft1710

When you say "We're hoping to hear this week that our Council Tax band is being changed due to their mistake", do you mean you've been told your CT band will actually be changed or you just hope it will be. CT banding is not the responsibility of the council, but is dealt with by the Valuation Office Agency, part of HMRC.

In any case if your band is reduced it is doubtful the Council will reimburse you for court/bailiff's fees as they will probably claim these fees would not have been incurred if you had paid your CT bill on time. I am not judging you, just saying what I think they will say.

However, there is nothing to stop you asking the council, or even the VOA, but VOA will almost definitely say it is between you and council.

CIS

We're hoping to hear this week that our Council Tax band is being changed due to their mistake

You need to shout at the VO on this one - the wrong banding has nothing to do with the council.

You'll not get the bailiff fess reimbursed by the council as they were issued correctly as the banding stood at the time and would quite possibly have been incurred even if you banding had been at a lower level as now decided by the VO.

You may be able to get something out of the VO but again you'll need to fight it out with them rather than the council.

hodgester

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