Council Tax Direct Debit not taken - a big bill this morning

jeffdjeff

When we moved in to our new house nearly 4 years ago, my wife phoned the council to set up a direct debit to pay the council tax. The annual bills came through and seemed to indicate that the dd had been set up (the wording has changed on the bills over the years, but the recent ones state at the top 'this is for information purposes only as you pay by direct debit'. It's now come to light that no payment has ever been taken since moving in, and so this morning we received a pretty hefty bill in the post asking for payment within 7 days.

Now, looking more closely at the bills, at the bottom is does show the account to be in arrears which we should have noticed but unfortunately didn't (it's in standard black text before the monthly payment amounts and we both didn't spot it). Prior to moving to this house we rented for 6 months and were chased pretty promptly for payment of council tax, and so we're struggling to understand how this has gone unnoticed for so long. As mentioned we should have noticed, but with a joint and 2 single bank accounts and the bills indicating they were being paid by direct debit we both unfortunately didn't. This morning's bill states that if it's not paid within 7 days we'll lose the right to pay by installments - can the council enforce this, or taking into account the sizeable amount can we elect to pay it off by installments? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks!

opinions4u

1) Yes they can enforce it.

2) But you'd be better talking to them about any alternatives that they are prepared to offer as there is more than an element of fault on their part too.

To be honest, I find it amazing that you weren't getting some pretty blunt correspondence from your local authority about 3 and a half years ago.

UnderPressure

Depends how reasonable the coucil is TBH, generally if you dont pay in full now under the circumstances of owing them 4 years, (and I have to say this is a SERIOUS !!!! up TBH on your part how can you not notice is beyond me) they will probably take you to court to get a liability order, they "may" then allow you to set up an installment plan but bear in mind if you both work etc they will want it paying reasonably quickly maybe within 12 months and also they will expect you to stay up to date with your current years bill as well.

In short if you work to a certain extent your screwed, they wil nto accept a fiver a month or something stupid only if you claim benefits etc, adn also when you ring them up and tell them what you have posted so far as "not realising" I would not expect much sympathy as they will also tell you it was stated on your bill you were in arrears.

Sorry I dont mean to sound harsh but this is a little beyond belief that you would "miss" your council tax not being paid, and if you already have a record of non payment from your previous addres then they arent going to buy so be prepared...........................

From what I can see the only way you could "miss" such a payment for 4 years is if you were rich, then the bill should not be a problem, I suspect you knew about this aand maybe thought you would somehow slip through the net?????

Either way I would deal with it and quickly otherwise it will be off to court then the bailiff's will visit and if it is still not paid although rare you "could" find yourself in front of a magistrate and they certainly will not believe you "missed" it..................

Best of luck deal with it head on, I would be on the phone 9am Tuesday morning, I woild not really try to tell them it is there fault either but what else can you say?????????

molerat

I bet the OP would have noticed if they were taking the DD twice each month

jeffdjeff

UnderPressure wrote: »

Depends how reasonable the coucil is TBH, generally if you dont pay in full now under the circumstances of owing them 4 years, (and I have to say this is a SERIOUS !!!! up TBH on your part how can you not notice is beyond me) they will probably take you to court to get a liability order, they "may" then allow you to set up an installment plan but bear in mind if you both work etc they will want it paying reasonably quickly maybe within 12 months and also they will expect you to stay up to date with your current years bill as well.

In short if you work to a certain extent your screwed, they wil nto accept a fiver a month or something stupid only if you claim benefits etc, adn also when you ring them up and tell them what you have posted so far as "not realising" I would not expect much sympathy as they will also tell you it was stated on your bill you were in arrears.

Sorry I dont mean to sound harsh but this is a little beyond belief that you would "miss" your council tax not being paid, and if you already have a record of non payment from your previous addres then they arent going to buy so be prepared...........................

From what I can see the only way you could "miss" such a payment for 4 years is if you were rich, then the bill should not be a problem, I suspect you knew about this aand maybe thought you would somehow slip through the net?????

Either way I would deal with it and quickly otherwise it will be off to court then the bailiff's will visit and if it is still not paid although rare you "could" find yourself in front of a magistrate and they certainly will not believe you "missed" it..................

Best of luck deal with it head on, I would be on the phone 9am Tuesday morning, I woild not really try to tell them it is there fault either but what else can you say?????????

Thanks for taking the time to reply, let me clarify a few things. We had no intention of avoiding payment - that's why my wife phoned to arrange a direct debit. As mentioned the bills then came through annually stating at the top 'For information only as you currently pay by Direct Debit'. I don't understand why you think it's so difficult to miss 2 lines of black wording at the bottom of a bill.

We also don't have a previous record of non-payment (apologies if I didn't make that clear in the original post). At the time we had bought a house but were living in rented accomodation while work was done on it, and so this entitled us to a rebate on the council tax. The reduced payment was efficiently pursued by the council, and so we don't understand how they didn't pursue this. As for who made the mistake, if we provided the direct debit details are we liable if they chose not to take any payments?

opinions4u

jeffdjeff wrote: »

As for who made the mistake, if we provided the direct debit details are we liable if they chose not to take any payments?

Well I don't see why other residents in your area should pick up the bill on your behalf.

Of course you are still liable.

jeffdjeff

molerat wrote: »

I bet the OP would have noticed if they were taking the DD twice each month

Hopefully I would have as that would be more obvious than noticing something that's not there. As mentioned, we have a joint and 2 single accounts - the joint a/c which I mainly look after has direct debits for amongst other things mortgage, gas, electricity, water, broadband, contact lenses, life assurance, credit card....I'll pay more attention in future

jeffdjeff

opinions4u wrote: »

1)

To be honest, I find it amazing that you weren't getting some pretty blunt correspondence from your local authority about 3 and a half years ago.

Yes, this is the bit we can't understand. We should have noticed but unfortunately didn't. I'll read the annual council tax bills more carefully in future! The bit showing the arrears is 2 lines in black text, and nothing else was sent until today.

jeffdjeff

opinions4u wrote: »

Well I don't see why other residents in your area should pick up the bill on your behalf.

Of course you are still liable.

We're not expecting to avoid payment, but were hoping for some advice on whether it's fair to pay it in instalments. The comment was relating to the post stating who has made the mistake. If we correctly provided direct debit details, but the council did not take any payments then who is at fault? If the council is at fault then surely it's fair to expect some flexibility in paying off a sizeable bill (well at least a bit longer than the 7 days stated).

dave2

Call up, explain you thought that it was being paid through the DD and while you intend to pay the bill you can't finance paying it all off in one. It depends on your council but they probably will agree to a payment plan regardless, but especially so in the circumstances.

You need to sort this right away though.

daveyboy27

Basically, at 7 day letter stage the Council have secured the debt in a court and it will be subject to court costs. If your letter just says reminder then it hasn't got that far. If your bill says subject to court proceedings at the bottom it has been summonsed and secured. The onus is always on the payer to notice that a bill is paid or not. A Council deals with thousands of accounts and will have given you several chances to pay by sending lots of reminders to you first. It then gets passed into Debt Recovery if those are ignored and the account summonsed.

Fours years of non payments would have accumilated a large scale debt, which I'm surprised hasn't ben sent out to bailiffs to deal with and collect. It is true that once a debt becomes summonsed it becomes due all at once and you lose the right to pay over 10 months.

If you cannot afford to clear the bill within 10 months you would need to fill in a budget form at your local Council listing all of your financial incomings and outgoings for them to access if your offer of payment you are making is acceptable.

Council Tax is classed as a priority debt and should be paid ahead of other loans, satelite TV, cigarettes and alcohol.
If you do not pay at all - bailiffs may be sent out to seize goods and/or collect payments, or the Council could elect to take you to court for non payment and ultimately you could be sent to prison for up to 90 days for non payment.