Council Tax- need to pay back

andrew71

Dealt with now

CIS

I work in council tax recovery.

Council Tax does not affect credit rating (unless they further down the line take bankruptcy action).

The court will issue a Liability Order (L/O) based on 1 decision - are you the liable person - which you are. At this stage the magistrate has no power to decide on the amount owed etc.

The council will usually apply for a L/O unless you can clear in full by the court date as the L/O gives then further powers if a person defaults after it has been granted.

CCJ's aren't usually used for council tax debt as its a criminal matter (i.e magistrates court) and not a civil matter (they can use the county court route but its less often used and more difficult for the council as their is already a specific criminal court route in legislation.)

The benefit section would not always cross reference data on a regular basis (some data matches are done annually) so would not have been aware of the Carers Allowance until they were otherwise alerted to the fact. Did you not declare the CA on your benefit claims forms ?

andrew71

Matter is dealt with now

CIS

So from what you say it make no difference if we pay it off now via credit card or go to court and get it paid off over 3 years?

The main difference would be the cost of the interest compared the cost of the court action.

presume this figure would be added to our council tax bill? working out at about £50 per month on top of the council tax bill for next year?

Once its summonsed its a separate balance with a separate payment arrangement - people combining payments often causes trouble as most system will try to allocate the payment to one balance or the other which then causes one to be in arrears until its sorted - if the payments are made separate the systems can usually allocated them to the right balance

With the bills they said for this year we now have to pay £159 per month upto January 2010. Which would clear this years bill. Now that is fine but the lady who my wife spoke to said our new payment for the rest of this year would be £120 per month

It looks that they have stretched the payment out to March for you - the change in amounts would roughly give you payments needed if they had stretched it that far.

andrew71

Now this may seem cheeky to ask but you never get if you don't ask

Now that we have paid back what we owe would we be able to reapply for a council tax rebate if we gave full evidence of what we earn?

CIS

Now this may seem cheeky to ask but you never get if you don't ask

Now that we have paid back what we owe would we be able to reapply for a council tax rebate if we gave full evidence of what we earn?

There's no rule sto say you cant now apply but you may not be granted backdating (certainly not 3 years worth )and any future payments would be based on your circmstances.

Zara33

andrew you and your wife are aware that she can only earn £95 per week whilst claiming Carers allowance.

andrew71

CIS wrote: »

There's no rule sto say you cant now apply but you may not be granted backdating (certainly not 3 years worth )and any future payments would be based on your circmstances.

I understand we wouldn't get any back pay it would just help out in the future, I may pop down or give them a call tomorrow to see what the situation may be.
Thanks for the advice

Zara33 wrote: »

andrew you and your wife are aware that she can only earn £95 per week whilst claiming Carers allowance.

My wife only works part time she earns £96 per week but she pays into a union and also some other scheme which brings her takings down under the threshold.