Council Tax Mess

Paradise

I need some advice on a family member please. Basically they have not paid their council tax without good reason. They have a well paid full time job and have just not paid. The bailiffs have been involved and they have ignored them and they now have a letter saying something about a committal summons. I was just wondering peoples opinions please has the family member left it too late to arrange a payment plan and is it likely they will now go to prison through their own stupidity. They dont have the money to pay the full amount but could pay it off within say 6 months on a payment plan.

[Deleted User]

they may be able to come to an agreement to pay,they will have to probably supply a summary of their income/outgoings and have to make a realistic offer and stick to it
c.tax is a priority debt and if they have a well paid job they really shouldnt have got into this position

Evil_Olive

The experience I had suggests that it's always worth at least trying to set up a payment plan no matter how late it is.
I have no idea what a 'committal summons' is or if it differs from a run-of-the-mill court summons myself but hopefully someone with more expert/extensive/up-to-date knowledge in this area will be along to help you soon.

In the meantime, the following may be helpful:

I had a summons to court over unpaid Council tax (NOT my fault - council messed up & refused to listen) I ended up having to ignore them back so that they WOULD take me to court (only way to get them to listen - knew I would win - and did But they tried everything to get me to just pay rather than going to court - right up to taking me aside into a room at the court half an hour before the case was due to be heard to offer a payment plan (in my case, obviously, I refused). This room was permanently set up by the council for that purpose - not just for me, they made the same offer to everyone who was there for unpaid council tax. Not all councils will necessarily have this policy or procedure and this was quite a few years ago, but it does suggest that they might be open to a repayment plan even now.

Also, six months sounds like quite a quick pay-off period compared to what I was offered (would've taken years) so that could be a point in his/her favour.

When I got my summons, it came with a form (issued by the court, not the council) giving me a last chance to submit a budget/repayment plan to the court itself before the court date. Take a look at ALL your relative's court summons and council tax paperwork to see if they have received anything similar - if so - fill it in and submit it (instructions should be on the forms somewhere) straight away
The budget has to be one that a court would find 'reasonable' in terms of how much your relative claims his/her essential living expenses are (Sky TV bill, for instance, might not be considered essential ) and therefore what monthly amount they can afford to offer - others in this forum can help with advice on drawing up this budget & working out how much your relative should reasonably be offering to repay.

If your relative hasn't received anything like these forms -
Instead, get them to contact the council immediately offering the maximum monthly amount they can afford and send it in writing to the council at the same time (also enclose a copy of the budget they drew up showing how that amount was arrived at). If the council refuses and he/she still has to go to court, your relative should take a copy of the letter they sent to the council offering a monthly amount AND a copy of the budget with them as evidence as the judge may look more favourably on them if a reasonable offer of repayment has been made, however late. If your relative is really lucky, the court may just order that the council accept the offered repayment plan or one which has a repayment amount set by the judge, based on what the court thinks is a reasonable budget.

There are likely to have been further costs associated with the court summons/bailiffs added to the bill already which can add up to quite a lot and your relative will probably be obliged to pay these on top of the original debt now as well but hey, better than prison right!

Nothing to lose by trying - get them to do it now.

antonic

Or even bankruptcy, which the Council can do as well.