Council Tax Misery... Any Advice?

Karmanaut

I really hope somebody here can help, I've tried searching the web for hours for advice without any luck.

After much struggling I managed to pay off the last £10 my 06/07 council tax bill of £1112 today.

Unfortutely the council still want another £111. This is to pay for a summary warrant they issued in July 06, when I was behind in my council tax payments for that year.

I'm self employed and I don't earn much. July was the first month in 06 I received any pay, so I really didn't have the money to pay the £1112 that the council were demanding I pay in advance (I missed my "right to pay by instalments deadline").

The thing is... the demand letters claim "Council Tax Arrears of £111". How is this £111 council tax, when I've already paid my council tax bill in full?

Also, I've discovered that there's some doubt that the summary warrant procedure is legal, as it appears to contravine article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

And finally, the summary warrant was granted against myself and my partner, But they misspelled her name. Do legal documents need to have the names spelled correctly to be valid?

Has anyone had experience of cancelling warrants or getting rid of debt collectors before?

I really don't want to pay this £111, because it seems so unfair, and its a lot of money to me. But I don't want a bad credit rating or my things seized by bailiffs.

CIS

I very much doubt the Human Rights legislation will help as a summons in not the same as being charged and trialled which is what article 6 refers to.

Article 6 provides a detailed right to a fair trial, including the right to a public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal within reasonable time, the presumption of innocence, and other minimum rights for those charged in a criminal case (adequate time and facilities to prepare their defence, access to legal representation, right to examine witnesses against them or have them examined, right to the free assistance of an interpreter).

If the summons has been issued then the charges for that must be paid to prevent recovery action, we cant attach the self employed , so without a Special Payment Arrangement in place, the next step is bailiffs and (in some areas) committal.

You need to speak to the council and discuss the summons and the period it applies to. IF the £111 is due to an error on the councils part, they may write it off - but you need to speak to the recovery officers in your local council.

hodgester

when a liability order is issued, we collect the costs first, therefore if your local authority does the same then, the remaining £111 is Council Tax charge.

£111 does seem excessive for costs though. I'm not aware of any authorities wh o charge more than £80 for total costs.

The mis-spelling of the name is inconsequential. If they had billed you as 'The Occupier' and you hadn't paid it, then the summons would still be accepted by the courts.

Council Tax liability orders have nil effect on your Credit Rating. So have no fears regarding that.

CIS

£111 does seem excessive for costs though. I'm not aware of any authorities wh o charge more than £80 for total costs.

That's what I was thinking, I suspect that part of the year was summonsed and part un-summonsed, at least as the time the original summons was issued.

We get this query all often, especially when someone's told the person that they owe X from the un-sumonsed figures but forgot to look at the big red writing in the two boxes next to it which show summonsed amounts.

The person pays X and thinks their clear but a bill for the summonsed amount then turns up. Not very happy , but theirs not a lot a lot than can be done, its still outstanding.

In our area, we don't specifically collect costs first, we basically lump the charge + amount due as one figure and collect as such.

Karmanaut

Thanks for your responses. It looks like I'll have to pay this bill. It's very frustrating because I have to pay the council tax for my partner too because she's on an even lower income than me and is completely unable to pay her share.

Plus, I feel that we get very little services back in return. My neighbours and me share the job of cleaning up litter from the street outside our properties, because otherwise it wouldn't get done. If it were possible, I'd bill the council for all the hours we spend doing that.