council tax summons

torque15

Hi i wonder if anyone could help.Ive had a letter for council tax the summons and to appear in the magistrates court of non payment,i havent been able to pay because i was waiting 16 weeks for the tax credits to process, im so scared that they will send me to prison the amount is for £2453 which i dont have , they have said if i pay the full amount i will not have to appear i only have £360 which i will pay to them .Do you think if they have at least seen that im willing to pay that i will go to prison,very worried mother.

HappyMJ

They won't send you to prison. That's only there as a last resort for wilful refusal to pay the tax. i.e you have the money and refuse to hand it over.

viktory

Did you not pay anything during the sixteen weeks you were waiting for TC to pay you? Further, did TC not give you a healthy back payment? If so surely you can use all of it for your council tax as this is the bill you failed to pay. Council tax is a priority debt, you know. Have you completely ignore them or did you wrote and advise of the problems you were having? It has gone a long way down the road to get to court.

You could offer them the £360 you have, and then make the rest of the arrears up over the remainder of the financial year (so your normal monthly payment plus £2,093 divided by 8 months). Your payment will be £261.63 a month plus your normal monthly payments.

torque15

my partner was bringing in a wage of 271, with this we had to pay£130 rent and pay gas electric and gas plus water , food, and clothing for the kids.I dont smoke ,drink or take any kind of drugs, ive never been in trouble with the police.We had nothing left to pay them and was borrowing of my parents and family of which the back payment was given to them, the money that we owed them.so we couldnt pay the C.T.
We was unable to fill in the form they sent us because we didnt have the total income due to t/c not processing and they wanted the total income of the house hold which we explained that we couldnt give them that and if they could base it on the wage which they actually declined to do because they needed the total income.

scheming_gypsy

phone them up on the number that's on the slip that comes with the letter, explain what happened and then they'll tell you that they'll restart the monthly payments over the remaining months but it'll include the court cost that was on the letter. They'll then tell you how much it'll be each month, which looks like it'll be £408 a month and a few days later you'll receive a letter confirming your new monthly payment plan.


Although where do you live for your council tax to be that high???

inspirespirit

£2.453 for 16 weeks Council Tax? do you live in a mansion? That cannot be correct, surely. That is getting on 600 quid a month. :eek:

scheming_gypsy

they ask for all the council tax till January and not just what you haven't paid to that date.

CIS

Its far too soon for the council to try committal to prison and TBH I cant see why they would UNLESS you are given further options to pay and didn't. A magistrate wouldn't grant a committal order unless he was convinced that you could pay and didn't either through a direct refusal to pay or through neglect of your obligations to pay.

You don't need to attend court unless your disputing the issuing of the liability order on the basis of its been paid, issued incorrectly or your not the person who is liable. I can't see how any of these would apply so you don't need to attend court and contact the council directly to discuss payments.

Many council's wont use committal as an option these days as the costs are far too high in most cases for them to justify when they aren't certain to get any sort of return on it.

Unless your in a high council tax band £2500 sounds high for 1 years charge- do you have anything from last year still outstanding ?.

Based on your details I would be looking for the £360 payment and then the rest of the balance over August 11 to February 12 in the first instance with payments at the end of the month to maximise the number of instalments. If you could demonstrate hardship I would probably extend the period to 12 months - £360 up front then about £175 p/m.

Any arrangement would be on the basis that the Liability Order would be obtained unless you can clear the balance before the court date.

viktory

torque15 wrote: »

my partner was bringing in a wage of 271, with this we had to pay£130 rent and pay gas electric and gas plus water , food, and clothing for the kids.I dont smoke ,drink or take any kind of drugs, ive never been in trouble with the police.We had nothing left to pay them and was borrowing of my parents and family of which the back payment was given to them, the money that we owed them.so we couldnt pay the C.T.
We was unable to fill in the form they sent us because we didnt have the total income due to t/c not processing and they wanted the total income of the house hold which we explained that we couldnt give them that and if they could base it on the wage which they actually declined to do because they needed the total income.

What's done is done, but personally, working in income recovery, I wouldn't be impressed with this. Buying clothes could have waited, they are hardly priority. Paying back family members should not have taken priority over your council tax. Finally, you could have completed the form based on your best estimate of tax credits.

Anyway, as I am others have already said, call the CT department and make an offer to pay what you owe plus the remainder of the year over the rest of the financial year. For future reference, rent and council tax should always be at the very top of the list.

Oldernotwiser

torque15 wrote: »

my partner was bringing in a wage of 271, with this we had to pay£130 rent and pay gas electric and gas plus water , food, and clothing for the kids.I dont smoke ,drink or take any kind of drugs, ive never been in trouble with the police.We had nothing left to pay them and was borrowing of my parents and family of which the back payment was given to them, the money that we owed them.so we couldnt pay the C.T.
.

Council tax is a priority debt which repayment of loans to family is not. Apart from anything else, the council can send in bailiffs for this which family don't usually do!

Offer them the money you have and try to arrange a payment plan for the rest.

Hammyman

torque15 wrote: »

Hi i wonder if anyone could help.Ive had a letter for council tax the summons and to appear in the magistrates court of non payment,i havent been able to pay because i was waiting 16 weeks for the tax credits to process, im so scared that they will send me to prison the amount is for £2453 which i dont have , they have said if i pay the full amount i will not have to appear i only have £360 which i will pay to them .Do you think if they have at least seen that im willing to pay that i will go to prison,very worried mother.

You shouldn't go to prison however as it was a priority debt you should have been paying it instead of the internet, your mobile phone and Sky TV and going out on a weekend.

And you cannot say you've not been paying for internet....