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

jeffdjeff

dave2 wrote: »

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.

Thanks, we'll be going in first thing Tuesday morning to sort this out.

ERICS_MUM

If the direct debits were for monthly installments then I'm surprised you didn't notice that they weren't going onto your account. Over the 4 years that would be 40 missing direct debits. The council might hold you equally at fault and expect a quick repayment.

If the direct debits were for one "bullet" payment per year then it would not have been so easy for you to notice it hadn't gone through your account - I would ask if I could repay in installments, but not over a period of 4 years (maybe one year ?).

I don't think you are alone in not thoroughly checking your bank statements against a list of direct debits, standing orders and cheques that you expect to be debited or credited on particular dates, but that's the way to go.

Good luck in sorting it out - let us know how you get on.

Linda :j

daveyboy27

If a DD fails a local Council is just informed, they are not told why. They cannot try again without the consent of the account owner. They wouldn't call them as this would be too costly and the resources wouldn't be available. That's why you had more bills. You are 100% liable and this isn't the Councils fault.

You need to be pro-active, and call them on Tuesday

.

jeffdjeff

daveyboy27 wrote: »

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.

Thanks, this morning's bill is titled 'Reminder Notice for Council Tax' and requests payment within 7 days to 'prevent further recovery action'. This is the first reminder we have received, prior to this we've only had the annual bill displaying the 'for information purposes only' and detailing the payments for the next year. In the instalment details it states 'As you currently pay your bill by Direct Debit, no further action is required.' Our first bill after the direct debit details were provided shows' INSTALMENTS TO BE PAID BY DIRECT DEBIT...FIRST INSTALMENT DUE XX/XX/XXXX' This is the bit that is confusing us as it all looks to have been set up, the bills indicate this and yet nothing has ever been taken. It would be interesting to understand how it has just been spotted, and if anyone else received such a letter this morning. Anyway, thanks for the helpful advice, much appreciated.

jeffdjeff

daveyboy27 wrote: »

If a DD fails a local Council is just informed, they are not told why. They cannot try again without the consent of the account owner. They wouldn't call them as this would be too costly and the resources wouldn't be available. That's why you had more bills. You are 100% liable and this isn't the Councils fault.

You need to be pro-active, and call them on Tuesday

.

Wouldn't a 'reminder' be expected a bit sooner than 4 years though? We're not questioning our liability, and will be paying the full amount, it's the advice on whether it's fair to pay it in instalments we're after.

YorkshireBoy

daveyboy27 wrote: »

If a DD fails a local Council is just informed, they are not told why.

Yes they are. Google 'ARUDD' for further details.

They cannot try again without the consent of the account owner.

Yes they can. Google 'AUDDIS' for further details.

jeffdjeff

daveyboy27 wrote: »

If a DD fails a local Council is just informed, they are not told why. They cannot try again without the consent of the account owner. They wouldn't call them as this would be too costly and the resources wouldn't be available. That's why you had more bills. You are 100% liable and this isn't the Councils fault.

You need to be pro-active, and call them on Tuesday

.

Regarding the 'who is at fault' here, if you received annuals bills stating 'This is for information purposes only'... 'As you currently pay your bill by direct debit no further action is required' and then received a large bill out of the blue asking for full payment within 7 days, would you deem yourself to be solely at fault?

jeffdjeff

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

If the direct debits were for monthly installments then I'm surprised you didn't notice that they weren't going onto your account. Over the 4 years that would be 40 missing direct debits. The council might hold you equally at fault and expect a quick repayment.

If the direct debits were for one "bullet" payment per year then it would not have been so easy for you to notice it hadn't gone through your account - I would ask if I could repay in installments, but not over a period of 4 years (maybe one year ?).

I don't think you are alone in not thoroughly checking your bank statements against a list of direct debits, standing orders and cheques that you expect to be debited or credited on particular dates, but that's the way to go.

Good luck in sorting it out - let us know how you get on.

Linda :j

Thanks Linda, it's a combination of having 4 accounts, many direct debits and the bills stating 'for information only, you currently pay by direct debit no further action is required' that led to us both thinking it was all set up - I'll definitely check more carefully in future!

jonesMUFCforever

I don't know what the fuss is all about.
OP thought that the payments were being made by DD - they were not so the money must still be in OP's bank account waiting for him to issue a cheque to the council on Tuesday morning?

Rupert_Bear

Very strange. My local council even sent me a letter last year advising that my payment made recently was 1p underpaid and requested the account was brought up to date immediately. Could not believe they sent out a letter costing about 30p to advise of the shortfall.

With reference to the OP surely the money must still be in their bank account and all they need to do is send off to their local authority. My feeling is the OP was in the end aware of the situation but chose to ignore it and is now feeling perhaps hard done it has now to be paid.