Help: Council Tax - I missed a payment. Now they want my employment & bank details.

HappyMJ

NeverEnough wrote: »

Its not like a credit card or unsecured debt - you really can go to jail if you default on council tax.

You will not go to jail if you cannot pay your council tax. You will only go to jail if you refuse to pay your council tax. Again from personal experience from someone who has been unable to pay for many years. Current arrears over £4,000. I can't pay. Council gets liability order. They send bailiffs. Bailiffs turn up and I refuse entry and they go back to council. Council then asks court to ask me to fill out means enquiry. End of matter.

CIS

Hi,

I'm sorry my first post is a cry for help - I guess we all started like this?...

I pay my council tax monthly £70ppm over 10 months in a year by standing order. This month, my standing orders tried to leave my account a day before payday (this is fine.. just bad admin on my part which is now rectified)

Now, the council have sent me a final demand for £420 which needs to paid in full - (I was late in my first payment to them for the year bill). - I can't afford £420 immediately they really must think we grow money in the garden!

I've just paid them £70 online right now and will pay them another £70 on my payday (24/09/10) - and £70 every payday after.

In their letter, they say that no payment arrangement will be considered without me giving them my employment details and setting up a direct debit.

But quite honestly, I don't want to give them my employment details, (why should I?) I'm not a bad payer, it was just an oversight - I can afford to pay them £70 each month, is there anything I can say back to them to prevent them from obtaining my employment and bank account details, I think this is awful!

Thanks :-)

By the sounds of it you have received a Final Notice - this means that you have had 2 previous reminders - or you have not paid the amount on a reminder within 7 days.

At this stage , once you have lost the right to instalments, the council do not have to accept a payment arrangement.

The local authority will either, at their own discretion, accept an arrnagement at this stage on the basis that if you default then a summons will be issued, or they will accept an arrangement on the basis they will obtain a liability order in any case.

To accept an arrangment at this stage is at the council's discretion and they can set conditions such as providing employment details however they cannot attach your earnings unless they obtain a liability order.

They only way in which you legally have to supply your work details is in writing once a Liability Order has been issued and a formal request has been issued under regulation 36 of the council tax (administration and enforcement) regulations 1992.

As Ive stated above though if you dont supply it as the council request now then they probably wont accept a payment arrangement from you.

Unique79

Hi,.. thanks for all the replies,

Please hold fire until I can respond in full... I'm writing it now :-)

Unique79

Wow this forum moves fast don't it?

Ok.. first of all, thank you for everyone for your support and advice it's appreciated and good to know there's like minded people out there.

Second, just to address McKneff's comment that it's me in the wrong, I know I am - but they didn't event get in touch to say "by the way, you're late.. pay up or else" - they went straight into the 'or else' bit. (This is my objection to them)


Thank you Dancing Fairy and NeverEnough in paticular for your comments.

Ok, a bit of history - a long time ago, I had c/tax arrears with this council, 2 years ago and paid them back last year (whilst staying up to date with last years c/tax as well - good huh?)

The text of my letter to them in reply to their first and second reminders to me is as follows (their reply will follow after)

Dear Sirs,

Last month (April), I received a reminder notice for late payment of Council Tax. I received this on the day I paid it which was
23rd April 2010 so I considered the matter resolved.

Today, I’ve received what looks like a generic reminder notice advising me again that I am late, I have in fact paid this today and
appreciate that it’s automatically generated because of the late payment.

I pay my Council Tax as soon as I am paid my salary, which is the 24th of each month, there is also a standing order from my bank
account which pays this automatically. Your records will also show this.

I wrote to you on 28th September 2009 asking for help with this account and you helped my matching a repayment plan to what
I could afford (letter attached).

You will see from our agreement and your records that despite previously being in debt with you, I have managed to get up to date with my account which involved double payments for 5 out of 8 months.

My payment dates and amounts are listed below for reference:

• 26th October 2009 £150
• 27th November 2009 £150
• 24th December 2009 £150
• 26th January 2010 £150
• 25th February 201 0 £70
• 25th March 2010 £70
• 23rd April 2010 £127.22
• 24th May 2010 £70

Total = £937.22 (an average of £117.15 per month)

As you can see, my payment history on this account has always been between 23rd and 27th of each month and may I request
that my payment date remain the same. It’s not that I don’t have the money to pay, it just that you ask for it too soon. (then
appear to penalise if payments are not met on time).

I understand a possible way to enact this is to pay double for one more month to ‘keep me ahead’ but as I hope you can
appreciate having done this a lot recently, there’s no more money left available to do this. In addition, in order to pay you, I’ve
had to lower my payments to other debtors and now, (quite rightly) they are asking me for higher payments as they know my
Council Tax Arrears have been paid. (They know this as it was part of my negotiating with them).

For instance, I can’t pay June’s Council Tax on 1st June as I have just paid May’s Council Tax with my May salary. I won’t be in a
position to pay June’s Council Tax until I am paid in June. (I can’t give you what I don’t have, but as soon as I have it, you get
paid). This letter also serves to state that I will be making June’s payment on 24th June 2010.

I wish to point out that I’m not refusing to pay, nor am I requesting lower payments, just merely to pay my Council Tax in the
month it’s due, once I am paid.

I do hope this agreeable, please contact me with your response.

Kind Regards,

And they replied 23 days later:

Dear Mr Unique79,

Thank you for your email regarding your Council Tax account. I note that you have stated that you pay the Council Tax after you have been paid and that because of this, you pay your Council Tax late. The legislation does state that you are to pay as billed and therefore the bill issued to you for this financial year should be adhered to.


However, due to your circumstances, I have amended the payment date to the 28th of each month. This should prevent any further recovery documents being sent. I have also amended your account so that for future financial years your payment date will remain as the 28th of each month.

I trust that this is a satisfactory conclusion.

So I would imagine that those first two I received are the reason I'm in my current predicament?

Given the the history, do you think they'll reinstate instalments or if it got through to court they'd understand?..