Court Summons for Council Tax

purplegirluk1

Hiya, right first off, I am not sure if this is the best place to post this so please move it of I am wrong, sorry if I am.

I am having a nightmare with a council tax bill. It is pretty complicated and I cannot see a way out of it, any advice would be wonderful. By out of it I mean to be allowed to pay by monthly installments.

Basically, I get a letter in January addressed to both myself and my ex partner who moved out in march 09. It stated that we owed £130.59 in unpaid council tax from 2007/2008. Now I don't pay council tax as I receive ct benefit. I called and explained I could not afford to pay in full but asked to set up a monthly agreement. The advisor agreed and went thought the whole process, took my card details only to find her system would not allow her to do it. She said that there was a problem and that it could only be set up after the new tax year. She did not tell me that there was any urgency, just that it needed to be after the 1st April. A letter arrived on Monday dated 13th April (I have ongoing issues with my post being put through the letter box for the flats above and not being passed on) I called on Monday of this week and explained what had happened and was told it was too late and that it had been passed on to the courts. I recieved a summons today with added charges. I have written a letter explaining that I did try to set up the payments but it was an issue with their system that stopped me. I then did not get the reminder until after the cut off date (a date I was not made aware of on the telephone) Now I am being asked to make the payment in full as well as £60 for the court and local authority. I was unable to pay £130.59 out right so cannot afford to pay even more. I have just spoken to the head council tax officer on the telephone who says there is no record of me speaking to anyone about setting up the direct debit and basically unless I can prove my post goes missing I have to go to court and pay in full with charges. I am so worried now.

The thing that is annoying me is that I tried to pay and feel like i'm being penalised for their system not allowing me to pay. Any suggestions?

DVardysShadow

No help for now, but when this kind of thing happens, you _must_ write a letter and keep a copy. Councils try and do everything by phone and cut down the costs of dealing with correspondence. But when they don't play a straight wicket afterwards, you just have to write each and every time.

RAS

purplegirluk.

Did you recieve CT credit in 2007/08?

irrespective of that, the way you have been dealt with since january stinks and you should contact your local councillor, who can call off the hounds and sort out the additional charges.

purplegirluk1

hi, in 2007/2008 we were paying some council tax, not the whole amount. I am just upset that I wanted to pay and now it's got very complicated.

RAS

So get hold of your councillor who will be very unpleased to find his voter was unable to pay their CT when they tried.

purplegirluk1

I will give it a go, it can't hurt can it. Thanks.