Council Tax Fine do I have to pay it?

Poppy9

DjP wrote: »

Hi,

A quick update, and another querry ... this time I think I may be in the right, where as last time I thought I might be in the wrong ...

I'm bouncing around (ie not staying at my home all that much) as a result of the afformentioned death in the family.

Well ... the letter (dated 22nd May 2009) said that I had paid my council tax, but still needed to pay £75 (which had been levied on the account, as a summons had been issued). The letter goes on to say, 'This must be paid before 13th June 2009 to avoid further action'.

Like I said I'm bouncing around, so not yet dealt with it.

But today I found a letter dated 10/06/2009.

I say letter but it's actually a 'Notice of libility order', it goes onto say, 'on 08/06/2009 Thames Magistrates' Court issued a libility order against you for not paying your Council Tax. You must pay £95 within 14 days'

Now that can't be right can it. They have added £20 onto the bill. And anyway I paid my council tax, it was just the summons I didn't pay, as I wasn't told about it before this. But the dates ... they said I have until 13/06/09 to avoid further action. Yet on 08/06/09 they took further action.

What should I do?

And why have they done this.

Can I charge them £95 for misleading information ... mmm worth a try.

Surely I don't have to pay the extra £20?

Thanks again for any help you can give,

x

It's the 13th June today so have you paid the £75 demanded in May?

DjP

Err no I was going to pop in and pay for it in person tomorrow, that's the reason I came back to my flat tonight.

But then I read that letter.

So not sure what to do.

aloiseb

Contact them as soon as you can. Tomorrow (or later today now isn't it!) Otherwise I can imagine they might think you are evading payment, and will charge even more. It looks as if you might need to contact 2 separate sets of people if the second letter crossed with the first?
You need to get this sorted out quickly. If necessary pay them the money now, then ask questions afterwards. If it turns out to be unfair maybe you can claim it back, but once debt collectors and bailiffs get involved, things can spiral out of hand horribly quickly.

I'm so sorry for you having to deal with all this in your situation....just don't let it get out of hand, and go up even more!.... cos as another poster explained above, these council guys can't have hearts cos too many blaggers try to take advantage if they do!

CIS

A quick update, and another querry ... this time I think I may be in the right, where as last time I thought I might be in the wrong ...

I'm bouncing around (ie not staying at my home all that much) as a result of the afformentioned death in the family.

Well ... the letter (dated 22nd May 2009) said that I had paid my council tax, but still needed to pay £75 (which had been levied on the account, as a summons had been issued). The letter goes on to say, 'This must be paid before 13th June 2009 to avoid further action'.

Like I said I'm bouncing around, so not yet dealt with it.

But today I found a letter dated 10/06/2009.

I say letter but it's actually a 'Notice of libility order', it goes onto say, 'on 08/06/2009 Thames Magistrates' Court issued a libility order against you for not paying your Council Tax. You must pay £95 within 14 days'

Now that can't be right can it. They have added £20 onto the bill. And anyway I paid my council tax, it was just the summons I didn't pay, as I wasn't told about it before this. But the dates ... they said I have until 13/06/09 to avoid further action. Yet on 08/06/09 they took further action.

What should I do?

And why have they done this.

Can I charge them £95 for misleading information ... mmm worth a try.

Surely I don't have to pay the extra £20?

Thanks again for any help you can give,

The Council are able to charge a fee for the issuing of the Court Summons and Liability Order . There are 3 different ways they can charge fees depending on the local authority:

1) Cost for Summons and cost for Liability Order
2) Cost for Summons only
3) Cost for Liability Order only

My local authority used to charge for the liability order only however we have recently swapped to splitting the charge and charging for issuing the summons and liability order.

There is quite a bit of work which has to go in to issuing the summons so a that stage you are billed costs as otherwise people, if the council just charge for the Liability Order, pay between the summons and liability order and don't pay the costs which leaves the authority out of pocket.

You have no real argument over the fees as the local authority will always get the magistrates approval for the fee structure.

You may however have some luck with the dating of the letter. The court summons would have given the date of the hearing, this is the date the Liability Order is legally granted on , if this date was wrong then the Liability Order may be invalid.

If however it was just the wording of a letter the council has issued to you then you would need to argue the dates with them as the wording of a general letter issued by them would not invalidate the fact that you owed the money and a liability order could be issued for that balance.

I'm so sorry for you having to deal with all this in your situation....just don't let it get out of hand, and go up even more!.... cos as another poster explained above, these council guys can't have hearts cos too many blaggers try to take advantage if they do!

We do have a heart (sometimes) . You do however get told some many stories that you become very cynical.

Mary_Hartnell

I remember my wonderful council issuing me with a court summons for an unpaid debt (that I had paid months earlier).
The covering letter said I had 10 days (if I remember correctly) in which to enter a defence or pay the sum and legal fees involved. BUT it seemed to have taken a week to arrive. Having grabbed it off the mat, I was sitting on a train, on the way to a business meeting and it was a Friday.
Needless to say when I took time off and went along to the court on the Monday morning I discovered that the covering letter was all "b u l l s h i t".
I never even got an apology for their gross inefficiency - though I did have the satisfaction of learning that the chief executive and head of finance got the sack about 3 months later.
So don't assume that these people know what they are doing.