Council tax summons!

thebettingbride

Hi there,

I'm hoping some one can help me. With the busyness of December I made a mistake and forgot to pay my council tax, and I have literally just been paid for this month so was just about to sort out my bills but have received a court summons from the council for missed council tax. They didn't send me any reminder letters, just lumped me with a summons and extra £60 cost added to the full figure of my bill of which they're demanding payment in full! I can't afford to pay that in full, I just about manage to buy food every month!

I'm hoping we can come to some arrangement to pay it in installments if I ring them up but considering they didn't give me any warning is there any way I could fight against the summons costs and have it removed?

Not a great start to the day

System

The directgov website has details about missed payments :
directgov

The relevant paragraph is:

Missed payments

If you miss a Council Tax instalment you'll get a reminder notice giving you seven days to bring your Council Tax payments up to date.
If you don't pay within this time, or if after a second reminder you fall behind with your payments again, you'll be asked to pay the full outstanding balance of your Council Tax bill.
If you don't pay the balance, the council will probably start legal action to recover the money.

So, since the council did not follow the above process, because they have not sent you any reminder, I would think you have a good case for the court fee to be removed. Be wary tho. some councils have removed the fee but do not cancel the court summons - go figure :eek:

CIS

The quote above is a general description of the process only and can vary.

The minimum you would receive at any time of the year is 1 reminder - this will have been issued as the main council tax systems used are specifically hard coded to not allow a summons without a reminder being produced.

You need to speak to the council with respect to when this reminder as sent. From their point of view (and the legal point of view) the fact they issued a document is seen as proof of receipt (unless of course it has been returned by royal mail or sent to a wrong address).