Birmingham Council is threatening to take me to court. Advice?

Sandwich

Last Friday I received a 'red letter' from Birmingham City Council demanding payment of the first instalment of my outstanding CT liabilities. They said if I don't pay immediately that they will start court proceedings. I've never had to go to court before and I'm really worried.

I'm in a strange situation in that for the past two years I was told that I wasn't liable for CT. I still have letters stating that my CT liability was £0 for 2009 and 2010. However, in May I got a CT bill stretching back to September of 2009! It appears as though my student exemption wasn't valid, so they've billed me for that whole period. As you can imagine, it's quite a big bill. And I can't pay it.

So I applied for CTB and to have it backdated to 2009. They say that they usually only backdate 6 months, max, but I'm hoping they will take pity on me and backdate it further. Anyway, to cut to the point, my application is taking a long time and the Council refuses to put a hold on my bill. I've explained my situation but they are just going to take me to court anyway. Which is pointless and a waste of resources in my opinion.

So can anyone give me any advice as to what I should do? I am at a complete loss here. Should I be worried about court proceedings at all? Should I call the Council and try and arrange some kind of reduced payments, or should I pay nothing and just wait until the result of my application?

I'm also wondering what will happen if they refuse to backdate my claim and demand payment. I can't pay it so what will the court do? I presume they will ask me to pay what I can afford?

SuziQ

I have no experience of this, cut could you get some advice from the citizens advice bureau? Councils/ council tax are not to be ignored, as they will take you to court. However I have also read that it you fill out an income/outgoings form for the court that they may give you the opportunity of a very low repayment.

Why was your student exemption deemed invalid? If you still believe you were entitled to exemption, could you get something from where you were studying to prove the circumstances?

Caz3121

there is some information here about PHD students and council tax
http://www.npc.org.uk/campaigns/PostgraduateCouncilTax.pdf, it looks like different cities have different rules

don't think that council tax debts expire but I would certainly dig out the letters saying you were due £0 as someone has made a mistake there. If you can't get them to right it off they should give you time to pay it over

Hammyman

Sandwich wrote: »

I'm also wondering what will happen if they refuse to backdate my claim and demand payment. I can't pay it so what will the court do? I presume they will ask me to pay what I can afford?

Imprison you. Council Tax is one of the few debts you can be sent to prison for if you do not pay.


You probably won't get it backdated 2 years and even if you do, at the moment the money is owed and is well overdue. You have to pay this and it is a priority debt. That means it takes precedence over outstanding phone bills, credit card debts, loans etc because, as I said, you can do prison time for not paying. This needs to be sorted out now. You have long since gone past the ability to shove the letter down the sofa and ignore it. It takes a long time before they issue a red letter.

Also when it comes down to working out what you can afford to pay, any loan and credit card payments you have are NOT taken into account. They are only interested in MINIMAL living expenses - food, rent, TV licence, gas, electric and water.

RAS

Please, please folks.

Imprisonment is only an option for people who flatly refsue to pay the CT for years.

Sandwich, you do not go to court. It is an admisnterative process that takes place in the magistrates court when liaibility orders are granted. That is when bailiffs are instructed.

It does not help that some of the companies running CT for Councils now it is outsourced also run bailiff companies.

Get hold of your student welfare folk at the university and ask them for help and get hold og your local councillor.

By the way, bailiffs have no wright to enter your house unless you leave the door or window open or invite them in. Don't, then the debt has to be passed back to the Council.

CIS

there is some information here about PHD students and council tax
http://www.npc.org.uk/campaigns/Post...CouncilTax.pdf, it looks like different cities have different rules

That's not quite up to date - since May this year the rules changed so that you need to 'study' not 'attend'.

The council have acted correctly in law if they have removed an exemption to which you were not entitled - the onus is on the tax payer to advise the council if they are no longer entitled to an exemption. The council will review some discounts & exemptions but its your responsibility to ensure your bill is correct.

You need to speak to them and see if you can negotiate but the ball is in their court in respect of the action they can take.

Council Tax Benefit is not treated in Council Tax law as anything other than a payment to your account, it has no special status. The council are correct in continuing action and then , if any Council Tax Benefit is awarded, it will be offset against any balance due.

They can't take pity on you - the awarding of Council Tax Benefit is set by law and they have to apply it.

CIS

Imprisonment is only an option for people who flatly refsue to pay the CT for years.

The council can take committal action for a single years (or even part of a year) council tax if they so wish. Whether the magistrate grants the application of not is their decision.

Sandwich

Thanks for the advice guys. I knew CT liabilities were serious, but not this serious. I think I need to give you some more information to get the best advice. My situation is this:

I started a PhD, full time, in 2007. As a full-time student I was not liable for any CT. In February 2010 I switched to part-time for financial reasons (at my uni, PT students get a 75% discount on their fees). However, I wasn't doing any less hours. I was still studying more than 16 hours. Also, my university agreed to backdate my switch to part-time to the start of the academic year (September 2009) instead of calculating my fees for the year on a pro-rata basis, basically just to do me a favour.

I didn't inform the Council of my switch because I was still doing full-time hours, and I thought that my uni would inform the Council of any changes which would affect my liabilities.

Then, in May of this year I got a CT bill which was backdated to September 2009, i.e. the date I switched to part-time (at least on record).

With all of this being the case, I don't know what to do. Is my best bet to try to get a student exemption up until February 2010, which is when I requested the transfer to part-time, and just try to pay the outstanding balance (which would be just a few hundred pounds? Or is that pointless because my University backdated my transfer to September 2009?

Or, should I contact the Council and offer to pay some of the outstanding amount if they will agree to not take court action until my CT benefit application is processed? The total bill is for something like £1500 and they want immediate payment of one installment of £170. Would offering them something like £50 help, or would they likely refuse that?

I can't believe they would actually send someone to prison for not paying Council Tax, especially if it's for such a short duration. I'm sorry but that is a disgrace.

Sandwich

Red_Shoes_No_Knickers wrote: »

Surely the 'disgrace' is a PhD student not realising they needed to inform the council people of a change in circumstances?

No I don't think that's a disgrace. Disgrace is quite a harsh word.

A mistake is a better word to describe my fault because actually if I had informed the Council that I was a part-time student I would have been eligible for CT benefit, which I most likely would have received given that my income in the years in question was less than £6000. So it's not like I was trying to defraud the Council or anything.

Disgrace is more apt to described putting somebody in a cage because they could not pay a bill. Note: I said 'could not', not would not, because it is not a matter of choice when you literally do not have an income sufficient to be able to afford a yearly CT bill of nearly £1000 on top of rent, groceries, heat, etc, etc.

CIS

I didn't inform the Council of my switch because I was still doing full-time hours, and I thought that my uni would inform the Council of any changes which would affect my liabilities.

Its not the Uni's responsibility.

?

Or, should I contact the Council and offer to pay some of the outstanding amount if they will agree to not take court action until my CT benefit application is processed? The total bill is for something like £1500 and they want immediate payment of one installment of £170. Would offering them something like £50 help, or would they likely refuse that?

Your lucky your getting instalments for previous years, legally its due in 1 payment for anything prior to 1st April 2011.

They are very unlikely to cease action on the basis of a benefit claim as there is no requirement for them to do so. If you don't get CTB or full CTB then there's still a charge due and they've just wasted 2 or 3 months of collection time.

viktory

If I were in your situation I'd write to the CT department, explain the situation and make a REALISTIC offer of payment, starting immediately. It is highly unlikely you'll get CTB for the whole amount, and by making a sensible offer you are demonstrating that you understand the seriousness of this debt and are willing to pay it. So many of my leaseholders think that they can just stop paying their service charges when they become unemployed - and are usually gobsmacked when we refer them to court. Similar situation here. You are applying for benefit but need to show willing in the meantime.

Red_Shoes_No_Knickers wrote: »

Surely the 'disgrace' is a PhD student not realising they needed to inform the council people of a change in circumstances?

Well, yeah. The old 'I thought someone else would inform them' line is the oldest in the book. Time to accept you should have taken responsibility for your council tax. Now you are paying the price.