court summons - council tax

CIS

Cis

so are you saying they are probably being summonsed because they keep paying by cheque so possibly the council keep getting money late? That would be fair enough but why don't they write to them if a payment is late?

Thanks

There would have been a reminder issued. The council tax systems don't let a summons go if at least 1 reminder hasn't been issued.

In order to qualify for the exemption you have to be full time students - part of the form requires the university to verify how many hours per week your course runs (If I remember rightly it has to be 16 hours or more per week.)

Its 21hrs per week for at least 24 weeks.

PinkLipgloss

Thanks for the clarification CIS - I couldn't quite remember as it was a while back.

[Deleted User]

Claire_Bear wrote: »

Hi, I have an issue with council tax at the minute as well. There is currently 4 of us living in a student house. Myself and two others are students, but the other person isn't, and is currently in full time employment. We've been in the house for a year, but earlier this month all four of us received court summons saying that we haven't paid our council tax, and we owe the sum of roughly £1500. Obviously as students, 3 of us are exempt from council tax, does this mean that the fourth member of the household will have to pay the entire amount? We thought that because the house is technically a student house, there would be no tax to pay at all. This is the first we've heard from the council about it, we've had no monthly bills and no other mention of it until we received our summons, so we're all slightly baffled as to where this has come from. The non-student rang them up today, and they said they're going to investigate the matter.

The non-student will definately be liable, but will get a 25% discount for being the only council tax payer in the house. (£1125).

Having said this the Council will need proof that all the student members in the house are, and have been, registered students in full-time education for the entire period that they have been residents there.

Given the large sum of money at stake here, I suggest you get your University Department to write you a letter as proof of registration asap. And the non-student ought to talk with the Council asap to get things sorted as if it remains unpaid they will end up summond to court, and then admin fees etc will be added to the bill.

Also suggest they move into another house (with other employees, who can contribute to future Council Tax bills)

Even though you have not-recieved council tax bill before now, it is the residents responsibility to inform the council they have moved in to the property (not the council's responsibility to chase all people who move house throughout the year). And they do not know you are students unless you tell them.

The Direct Gov webpage explains council tax requirements, responsibilities etc

I empathise with the person who has to pay that bill, it will be a shock.

Good luck, hope it gets sorted soon.

Elsewhere

lloydstsb, it could possibly be the Post Office's fault. A few years back we were getting reminders about unpaid bills - yet we'd been paying them (by cheque) in plenty of time at our local sub post office. Turned out the people who ran the post office had been paying customer's money into their account and just sitting on it, racking up interest for a while, before passing it along.

I believe they got prosecuted over this by the police.