Unfair Council Tax Office Tactics

taxi97w

I have just got my second 'red' late payment for my council tax for this year. With this council that I'm with- if you are late 3 times with your council tax payments in 1 council tax year, they will issue a summons for me to appear in court that will cost me £65 court costs and they will be asking for the full amount of council tax owing! Is it just me who thinks that if you're late/unable to pay £60 - you're not going to have £65 for court costs, let alone the couple of hundred still owing? This remindeds my of the unfair bank charges- is £65 a reasonable amount to expect for a summons to be issued?

dmg24

Simple answer - pay on time!

Voyager2002

taxi97w wrote:

- is £65 a reasonable amount to expect for a summons to be issued?

Yes, that is what it costs.

Anyway, you can avoid this by telephoning when you are in danger of missing your first payment and negotiating a schedule that you can manage.

taxi97w

dmg24 wrote:

Simple answer - pay on time!

If I could have done that I would have. As it is, unforseen circumstances do happen and no amount of planning can stop a tornado when it's headed in your direction.

taxi97w

Voyager2002 wrote:

Yes, that is what it costs.

Anyway, you can avoid this by telephoning when you are in danger of missing your first payment and negotiating a schedule that you can manage.

I know what it costs. The question is 'is it reasonable?'.

taxiphil

Unfortunately Councils are packed with armies of vindictive, pedantic little Jobsworths who don't understand common sense or compassion.

If these people were working in the private sector they wouldn't last five seconds, as they wouldn't have the faintest idea about delivering efficiency or good customer service.

These unaccountable, anonymous weasels can get away with anything as they have a monopoly on what they do and aren't in competition with any other service provider. Which is why Council Tax is so ludicrously expensive. They can name their price. We have to pay or go to prison.

Maybe we should try charging them £65 for every time they fail to repair a pothole in the road on time, or the next time my binman leaves my wheelie bin at the other end of the road I should charge them a £30 penalty for me having to go and retrieve it in the rain.

taxi97w

taxiphil wrote:

Maybe we should try charging them £65 for every time they fail to repair a pothole in the road on time, or the next time my binman leaves my wheelie bin at the other end of the road I should charge them a £30 penalty for me having to go and retrieve it in the rain.

I've often thought that.

Bossyboots

taxiphil wrote:

Unfortunately Councils are packed with armies of vindictive, pedantic little Jobsworths who don't understand common sense or compassion.

If these people were working in the private sector they wouldn't last five seconds, as they wouldn't have the faintest idea about delivering efficiency or good customer service.

These unaccountable, anonymous weasels can get away with anything as they have a monopoly on what they do and aren't in competition with any other service provider. Which is why Council Tax is so ludicrously expensive. They can name their price. We have to pay or go to prison.

Maybe we should try charging them £65 for every time they fail to repair a pothole in the road on time, or the next time my binman leaves my wheelie bin at the other end of the road I should charge them a £30 penalty for me having to go and retrieve it in the rain.

Maybe if so many people didn't default on their council tax payments they could afford to do the potholes and have enough binmen to bring yours back each time.

I am not getting at the OP with this comment, but those who persistently appear before our local court because they haven't bothered to pay, not that they can't afford to.

As for being in the private sector, I don't know many companies who would allow you three warnings before being taken to Court. My company only issues one for unpaid bills and then proceedings are issued.

As for the cost of being taken to Court, there are fees to pay to the court and it costs the council time and expense to do this. It is only right that defaulting payers should meet those costs, not everyone else.

superscaper

Exactly, if the court costs were picked up by the council then they'd be making a loss in trying to claim the money owed which defeats the point of trying to get the money in the first place. And if they started giving up on trying to collect the debt because it wasn't worth it where would it end? The council would end up in a really bad position of having many more people not paying safe in the knowledge the council can't afford to enforce payment. It is completely fair that the plaintiff picks up the court costs if they are found to genuinely owe money.

taxi97w

Bossyboots wrote:

As for the cost of being taken to Court, there are fees to pay to the court and it costs the council time and expense to do this. It is only right that defaulting payers should meet those costs, not everyone else.

Do you know exactly how this process works? I would just like to know if £65 is too much to ask- like the unfair bank charges that have gone on for years without anyone batting an eyelid, until just recently.

Bossyboots

taxi97w wrote:

Do you know exactly how this process works? I would just like to know if £65 is too much to ask- like the unfair bank charges that have gone on for years without anyone batting an eyelid, until just recently.

The court fee alone is £25. I think you are getting off very lightly only being asked to contribute an additional £40 towards the costs which is pretty much a standard costs award in the magistrates court for someone on a low income, so I cannot imagine you could argue that it is unreasonable.