Council tax Attachment of earnings

Miss_Luicfer

hi guys, Long time luker 1st time Poster.

I have finaly cleared my debt of and now we are looking at my OH.

My OH has a Council tax Attachment of earnings, which happened last November.

Now, we were never informed this was going to happen. He had DCA's at the door and letters about the debt, but it stopped, until he noticed that £458 was been taking out of his wages.

We had no letter, no confirmation of our SOA and his employers did not inform this was happning.

We know the debt is with Barrow and suitor ( i think that is them) But have no idea how much is outstanding.

I have 2 questions, Do DCA or the Council have to inform us of an Attachment of earnings? and is it normal for the Payments to be split into 2 and increase on a monthly basis?

Cheers

Tixy

Hi Miss Lucifer and welcome.

I wonder if this link may help you at all. Although its guidance for the employer it may still be useful.

Specifically in papagraph 3 it says the amount deducted is calculated by the employer http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/ctax/ctil/aeo-guid.pdf
and it outlines the steps that should have happened to get to this stage. It sounds like you should have been summoned to court to explain why the CT was not being paid - I assume this didn't happen?

Do you have council tax arrears from 2 properties or 2 tax years? This may explain why there are 2 payments. I would not expect the amount to be increasing unless your OHs salary is also increasing.

Tixy

Also this below is from Payplan's website which also explains about them a bit. It also gives a maximum amount they are allowed to take of 17% of his net pay.

Hope this helps.

Liability Order

Once you are in arrears with Council Tax your local authority can apply to the magistrates' court for a liability order. The magistrate will issue a summons for you to appear before them on a specified date. You do not have to attend but if the arrears are due to an inability to pay it is a good idea to go to the hearing and explain your circumstances to the magistrate. Although the liability order will still be granted, if at a later date you are summonsed to a committal hearing, the fact you have already explained your circumstances at the earlier hearing will help persuade the magistrate that you have a genuine case. The application for the liability order will add about £40.00 to your bill. Once the authority has a liability order they can use a wide of range of enforcement methods to recover the arrears.
However, it is never too late to negotiate an arrangement to pay and by doing so you may avoid enforcement. If you have received reminder letters because of late payments contacting the local authority quickly can sometimes prevent the issue of a liability order against you.
Attachment of Earnings

This is a popular method of enforcement. Following the granting of a liability order the local authority can order your employer to pay an amount of your wage directly to them towards your arrears. For each deduction made the employer can deduct £1.00 from your wages. The amount of the deduction is based on a pre-arranged formula and can be as high as 17% of your normal take-home (net) pay. Be aware that once a liability order is in place and the local authority decides to go for an attachment of earnings, then negotiations regarding the monthly amount will be difficult. If you already have an attachment of earnings order against you and are finding the amount you have left to live on is not enough, get advice from a Payplan adviser.

Miss_Luicfer

The debt if for 5 years worth.

He was never summoned to court, I open all the mail in the house and have never come across anything.

we are happy this is beening paid off, it is just getting to be alot now and we are just shocked about how this happened.

I am going to get my OH to ring bristow and sutor tonight and get this sorted, as we need to know how much we have paid and what is outstanding.

Tixy

Miss_Luicfer wrote: »

I am going to get my OH to ring bristow and sutor tonight and get this sorted, as we need to know how much we have paid and what is outstanding.

Good idea. I'm not sure what to advise about you not having had the notice to give you the opportunity to speak in court. From the payplan info it almost sounds like it wouldn't have made much difference to the outcome, although that doesn't alter the fact you should still have had the chance.

I expect you are going to be stuck with this AOE for a number of years but at least if you get the details from bristow & surtor you will know where you stand, and can keep a record of the deductions so you can keep a running tally of how much you owe.

If you dispute the amount being deducted on a monthly basis you would need to speak to his employer and ask them to explain how they are calculating the deduction.

Miss_Luicfer

Sooo Mad! :mad:


Just got of the Phone with Bristow & sutor. They have my OH address wrong, I told them that we have never lived in Kettering on which there reply was yes you have and you moved there in March 08. I then asked on where they got there information from, they wouldn’t say. Now My OH has lived in the House on which the council tax is owed for 10 years, we moved out in feb after a horrendous burglary (3 to be precise).

So all the paperwork about this CTO has been sent to the wrong address, they said they have tried to ring us (they have my mobile no, not my OH). I have never heard from them and they have apparently sent my OH e-mails, Never got them and my OH has all his e-mails archived (he is an IT geek).

Don’t know what to do from here. Still need to sort out the large payments but also now need to complain. This Debt free stuff is like hitting your head on a brick wall.