Council Tax court fee

raskazz

Long story but will make it as brief as possible.

Over 5 years ago I lived with one other student, we were both in our final year of our university degrees and lived in a rented property. At the start of the academic year we sent our student registration certificates to Southwark Council to claim exemption from Council Tax. I left the property after graduating in July the next calendar year and my flatmate moved out in October when the tenancy came to an end.

Last month to my surprise I received a "Notification of proposed bailiff action" as a result of a Council Tax Liability Order from a magistrates court. The reason is that my flatmate obviously ceased to be a student after graduation in July and as they remained in the flat until October a certain amount of council tax becomes payable. This I am happy to accept that we owe and we should probably have realised this at the time. However, a £95.00 court fee has been added to the council tax due.

My issue with the court fee is that we never received a council tax bill, reminder, final notice or summons. Indeed the Notification that I received last month had the wrong postcode on so even if Southwark had posted them they would not have been received. I understand that under the DPA I can request copies of the previous correspondence - my question is, if the previous correspondence was posted to the incorrect address, am I liable for the court fee?

Cheers

lincroft1710

Even though the Notification had the wrong postcode, somehow it was still delivered. As we don't know the address Southwark sent correspondence to, at the moment it's impossible to determine if any relevant paperwork had been correctly served. But if any papers were sent to the last known correspondence address they will have been correctly served.

raskazz

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Even though the Notification had the wrong postcode, somehow it was still delivered. As we don't know the address Southwark sent correspondence to, at the moment it's impossible to determine if any relevant paperwork had been correctly served. But if any papers were sent to the last known correspondence address they will have been correctly served.

Thanks. I should have made it clear that the notification was delivered to my current address which is not the address that the council tax liability is due for. Certainly we never received any bill, reminder etc at the address that the council tax liability is due for when we were residing there. Would it be correct to say that if the final notice and summons was not sent to the correct address or last known address then notice was not correctly served and so the court fee cannot apply?

CIS

Would it be correct to say that if the final notice and summons was not sent to the correct address or last known address then notice was not correctly served and so the court fee cannot apply?

Legislation requires that documents be posted to the last known address in order to be served correctly. If it comes down to arguments over whether the docs were received then council will win providing that they can show they were posted to the last known address, proof of postage is legally proof of receipt.

raskazz

CIS wrote: »

Legislation requires that documents be posted to the last known address in order to be served correctly. If it comes down to arguments over whether the docs were received then council will win providing that they can show they were posted to the last known address, proof of postage is legally proof of receipt.

OK, so if it was found that they posted the summons to an address with postcode XX1 1XA instead of the correct postcode XX1 1XB (as appears to be the case) then it was not posted to the correct last known address and as such was not served correctly?

CIS

That would depend on who gave them the address and whether they could then show that you had received them.

raskazz

CIS wrote: »

That would depend on who gave them the address and whether they could then show that you had received them.

Thanks. No-one would have "gave" them that incorrect address as that was the address of the property which the council tax pertained to, but with an incorrect postcode. I guess in light of this, they would have to prove that they were received at the correct address despite the incorrect postcode. Is it normal practice for them to issue such documents by a trackable method of delivery?

lincroft1710

It may not be the case here but I came across several instances where there was confusion over the correct postcode, the council would have one postcode, Royal Mail another, when both authorities should be in agreement.

CIS

The legislation under which council tax is governed does not require proof of receipt/delivery and documents are served with reference to section 7 of the
Interpretation Act 1978.

7 References to service by post.E+W+S+N.I.

Where an Act authorises or requires any document to be served by post (whether the expression “serve” or the expression “give” or “send” or any other expression is used) then, unless the contrary intention appears, the service is deemed to be effected by properly addressing, pre-paying and posting a letter containing the document and, unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.

I agree with Lincroft1710 in that there are reasonably regular cases where the postcodes with Royal Mail, the council and the VOA disagree. If you wanted to dispute the receipt of documents and the council wont budge you would need to dispute the summons with the court at the hearing on the basis that documents were not served correctly. it would then be down to the magistrate to determine if service by the council was correct or not.

If the name, house number, street and town were correct and it was only the postcode being slightly incorrect by 1 digit then I cant see that Royal Mail would have a problem with the delivery , (they often deliver without a postcode even being shown on the letters) and you would probably need a sympathetic magistrate to decide the summons was incorrectly issued.

John_Pierpoint

........and the Post Office often deliver mail to me even when it has the correct post code and address for a town 100 miles away.

custardy

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

........and the Post Office often deliver mail to me even when it has the correct post code and address for a town 100 miles away.

and some folks are stuck in the past. The Post Office hasnt delivered mail for years.
still putting your calls through the GPO?