Council Tax issues :(:(

stephbond89

Hiya, we have been very silly, though not intentionally...we have had a very tough financial year and are only just able to get on our feet!!! Please I don't want any silly or obvious comments from people who just want to be smarmy and basically nasty about this, yes I know it was stupid, yes I know I need to be more in control and i know council tax is number 1 priority like rent or mortgage, which i have tried very much to make it, but when you have debt collectors and electricity companies threatening to cut you off its hard to live like that, but I am now nder control but need help.....


We live in Warrington, Cheshire and have £1511 in council tax arrears that is that is £686.00 for 2009/2010 and £825.00 for 2010/2011 (we were paying the 2010/2011 bill until we tried to make an arrangemenrt with the council 2 months ago to pay the £686 we owed- but was refused this payment plan, I got confused what I was meant to do as they said a summons would be sent to me- i expected this to be within the next couple of weeks, but i still have not gotten this. I have emailed them numerous times about it to try to come to a payment plan but they take weeks to email back or just ignore me completely.
I have now been tyold the summons is been issued int he next 7 days and I am worried.
I have once again emailed them asking if they would accept £150 a month payment plan for 10 months to clear the debt, but again I have heard nothing back and they keep saying I am to wait for the summons and to then phone the recover dept. to set up a payment plan, but I want it sorting before that preferably!
I am 31 weeks pregnant, if it is another week before I get the summons that makes me 32 weeks pregnant, i am guessing it would be approx 2 weeks-4 weeks before the court date making me then 34-36 weeeks pregnant!! I can do without the stress but they dont seem to be willing to come to a payment arrangement.
What I want to know is how likely are they to refuse a payment of £150 per month outright and instead ask for a liability order and make us bankrupt (my husband works in securtity industry and so if he is made bankrupt he would lose his job as he would no longer be able to get an SIA license to do his job), or send bailiffs?
What are they most likely to do?
Do you have any ideas on something i can do?

char_student

HI Steph

I am very sorry to hear the situation you are in. The council are usually willing to negotiate. I think you should either take a trip to your local CAB who usually have a contact at the Recoveries dept at the council or call the council directly to ask to negotiate. I work at a CAB, I have called our local council many times and we can almost always negotiate

Morgan_Ree

I'm afraid it's too late to agree a payment plan with the council themselves
The problem you've got is that if you've already been sent (or in the process of being sent) a summons then it's no longer in the council tax depts hands

You need to wait for the outcome of the court summons. It could be something like deductions from your earnings (so your/your husbands finance dept will find out) or baliff action.

I know how stressful it is. I've been there myself. I owed around £1800 on the council tax a few years ago. Luckily the court appt baliffs I had to deal with were fantastic and agreed a decent payment plan with me.

stephbond89

They say that I have to go through their recovery dept to set up this payment plan for some reason, I have had many direct debits set up which ive had to cancel a few times due to the funds simply not been available (if id left them to go through id have been charged and the payments wouldnt have been amde anyway!). It angers me though that they seem to ignore my emails or take weeks, even months sometimes, to reply to them and when they do they're unhelpful Its like theyre forcing me to call them, which I know isnt a good idea as it means i have no recording of whats said if they agree to something then change their minds. :(:(

stephbond89

Morgan_Ree wrote: »

I know how stressful it is. I've been there myself. I owed around £1800 on the council tax a few years ago. Luckily the court appt baliffs I had to deal with were fantastic and agreed a decent payment plan with me.

See bailiffs I can kind of deal with as Im not the type of person to 1) be walked all over, I know the law wherer it comes to bailiffs, so know what they can and cant do and 2) know that so long as I answer the door and try to get it sorted with them, they wouldn't come in and take things but would hopefully allow me to fix the issue.

But Im worried about the bankruptcy thing, I know its unlikley unless u owe a huge amount of money and £1500 isnt exactly millions, and isnt really an amount anybody would push through for bankruptcy but I know the council are very greedy- if we're made bankrupt it would wipe our debts, but we'd lose everything we own, and my husband would more than likley lose his job due to him needing an SIA license to work in security, so they'd take away our income too!!!

I just hope the council will allow a payment plan !

CIS

I have once again emailed them asking if they would accept £150 a month payment plan for 10 months to clear the debt, but again I have heard nothing back and they keep saying I am to wait for the summons and to then phone the recover dept. to set up a payment plan, but I want it sorting before that preferably!

At this stage you have lost the right to pay by instalments so its standard practice to obtain the Liability Order before agreeing an arrangement as it allows the debt to be secured in the face of further default.
I work on a council tax recovery team and 90% of the arrangements which are made after a summons come though ourselves to be Ok'd before being allowed so I wouldn't worry about having to contact the recovery team.

We live in Warrington, Cheshire and have £1511 in council tax arrears that is that is £686.00 for 2009/2010 and £825.00 for 2010/2011 (we were paying the 2010/2011 bill

At this stage in the year I would personally be looking at recovering the £825.00 by march , with costs of £70.00 , your looking at somewhere in the region of £112.00 pm from August to March to clear the current year.

If you paid the £150.00 then you would have paid approx £300 of the arrears from 09/10.

Providing you supplied suitable inc/exp and your wages details and taking in to account your current circumstances then I would accept £150.00 p/m until March and then review the remaining balance to run alongside the balance from April.

What I want to know is how likely are they to refuse a payment of £150 per month outright and instead ask for a liability order and make us bankrupt (my husband works in securtity industry and so if he is made bankrupt he would lose his job as he would no longer be able to get an SIA license to do his job), or send bailiffs?

They would try a bailiff first before bankruptcy but with the offer your making then I would expect they would accept the arrangement. If you default on any arrangment after the liability order then you probably will have a bailiff sent.

CIS

I know how stressful it is. I've been there myself. I owed around £1800 on the council tax a few years ago. Luckily the court appt baliffs I had to deal with were fantastic and agreed a decent payment plan with me.

The bailiff's for council tax are appointed by the council and not the court.

Morgan_Ree

stephbond89 wrote: »

See bailiffs I can kind of deal with as Im not the type of person to 1) be walked all over, I know the law wherer it comes to bailiffs, so know what they can and cant do and 2) know that so long as I answer the door and try to get it sorted with them, they wouldn't come in and take things but would hopefully allow me to fix the issue.

But Im worried about the bankruptcy thing, I know its unlikley unless u owe a huge amount of money and £1500 isnt exactly millions, and isnt really an amount anybody would push through for bankruptcy but I know the council are very greedy- if we're made bankrupt it would wipe our debts, but we'd lose everything we own, and my husband would more than likley lose his job due to him needing an SIA license to work in security, so they'd take away our income too!!!

I just hope the council will allow a payment plan !

I know it's easy for me to say but honestly try not to worry about being made bankrupt. There are other avenues for the court to go down before bankruptcy. Such as an attachment or earnings, a charge being put on your home or baliffs like I had to deal with.
For a 1st offence so to speak (I mean the first time you've been summoned to court for your council tax) I very much doubt the would take such drastic action.
I could see it happening after repeated attempts to recover the money, but not for the 1st time.

Hope everything works out ok

Morgan_Ree

CIS wrote: »

The bailiff's for council tax are appointed by the council and not the court.

Sorry my mistake. I just assumed they were from court as they contacted me after I was due at court.

CIS

Sorry my mistake. I just assumed they were from court as they contacted me after I was due at court.

Its a common mistake that people make as some councils send a bailiff quite quick after the liability order so people assume the courts have sent them.

stephbond89

This is actually the 2nd time we have been summoned, the first was a couple of yrs ago for a different property, the same problem happened again We got into a payment arrangement after that and were fine. But now this again, thats another reason I worry.