Council Tax Arrears Scotland

smunchkin

Hi Looking for a bit of advice
Recieved a Summary Warrant today from Scott & Co Sheriff Officers for unpaid council tax totalling £1373.55.

We have 7 days to pay this, we can't pay this in full at the moment and I am so worried as to what will happen now!

What would be the next step and will they accept a monthly payment arrangment or is it to late for this now, and if they did accept a monthly amount how much would they be looking for for?

Will they arrest our wages?:(

Any advice much appreciated

Tixy

Hi

I'm not totally certain (as its Scotland) but I would think that you should be able to arrange to pay in installments and if you can come to a reasonable arrangement with them they should not go for an arrestment of wages.

Bearing in mind it is a priority debt (and so should come before any unsecured debts/cards/loans etc) how much could you afford to pay each month? I would guess that if you could afford to pay within no more than a year they may be willing to accept.

EDIT - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/factsheet.php?page=03_recovery_of_council_tax see this - it appears you need to apply for a 'time to pay order'

tartantotty

If you contact Scott and Co they should be willing to work with a payment plan.

If you prefer to do it via a 3rd party (sometimes its a bit easier to get someone to do the talking for you!), try your local trading standards. I know that in Moray and Aberdeen City the council trading standards dept have money advisors (debt management) who will work on your behalf, and are really good. I don't know if its the same in all scottish council areas mind.

Also the debt management people at Citizens Advice Bureau, or the CCCS might be able to help.

niccatw

Scott and Co have a website and you can usually set up a repayment through them on the website (at least I was able in the Glasgow area). I offered a payment of £50 pm for £1000ish of debt and the were ok with that (that was 2008)

If it's too late for that, you should still be able to negotiate with them before they would go for wage arrestment.

smunchkin

Thanks for your replies!

I spoke with somone at The National Debtline today so she has given me a number for us to contact a Money Advisor, we have other debts aswell so I think that it is somthing that we are going to look into.

Thanks again I feel more positive about things!

niccatw

Do come back if you want to discuss things more before taking a decision on your next step.

I had a list of options through CCCS, including DMP, IVA and bankruptcy. In the end I decided it was bast for me to keep making the minimum repayments myself... but I only cam to that decision speaking to the people who had chosen the various different options and getting an idea of how it worked for them and whetherthat would suit my circumstances or not.

Good luck

smunchkin

niccatw wrote: »

Do come back if you want to discuss things more before taking a decision on your next step.

I had a list of options through CCCS, including DMP, IVA and bankruptcy. In the end I decided it was bast for me to keep making the minimum repayments myself... but I only cam to that decision speaking to the people who had chosen the various different options and getting an idea of how it worked for them and whetherthat would suit my circumstances or not.

Good luck

Thanks for that!

After sleeping on things I am not sure if that is the way to go, so going to really look into things today and see what we will do.

I think I will make a monthly payment offer to Scott & Co and take it from there.

Thanks again:)