Council Tax - Judgement and Costs for OVERPAYMENT!

makeitfolky

Here's an odd one: I recently moved house and informed the council, and they sent me a final bill. Because of the move things got overlooked slightly and I received a summons. I immediately rang them and I was told if i could make a payment by 3rd of February (4 days before the court case), the case would be dropped.

This I did. In fact, I accidentally overpaid by £5.

Today I have received a letter from Uttlesford District Council informing me that the complaint had been made against me for the a debt of -£5 and this had been heard in court. Costs of £95 had been levied against me and now I had 14 days to pay £90!

There are the two points here:
1) First, I don't feel morally obliged to pay the £90 for a council tax overpayment. I should be confident they will say it was a mistake, but I'm not.
2) I don't believe this was actually heard in a Court by a Magistrate because a Magistrate would surely ask the council what on earth they are doing trying to claim a debt of minus money. In otherwords, I believe I have been fined by Computer. This does not sound like due process to me.

How do people think I should deal with this?

CIS

Today I have received a letter from Uttlesford District Council informing me that the complaint had been made against me for the a debt of -£5 and this had been heard in court. Costs of £95 had been levied against me and now I had 14 days to pay £90!

I have a feeling that the council charge the costs at the summons stage and you cleared the council tax balance but not the summons costs - a Liability Order can be obtained for the costs only.

makeitfolky

Thanks for the reply - actually the costs on the original Summons was listed as £60. But can they really get a court order against me - and charge me costs - when I was already in credit?

CIS

Thanks for the reply - actually the costs on the original Summons was listed as £60. But can they really get a court order against me - and charge me costs - when I was already in credit?

I think its more down to then showing costs / outstanding council tax in a funny way.

At a guess you had X amount to pay - when this when to summons they added the costs. You paid X + £5.00 but didn't clear the costs so they applied for a Liability Order - this would be the sum of the Summons + Liability Order costs less the £5.00 extra you had paid.

CIS

I've looked at the council's website
http://www.uttlesford.gov.uk/main.cfm?Type=RPE&MenuId=724

£65.00 Summons Costs + £30.00 liability Order Costs.

Seeing this makes me 99% sure what I posted above is what has happened.

makeitfolky

You are correct - what actually happened was I contacted them with my new address. The continued to send letters to my old address which were eventually forwarded on, including the summons. I rang them and was told if I paid the outstanding balance by the 3rd Feb they would cancel the summons and waive the summons charge. This is what I did - and accidentally slightly overpaid. So I kept my side of the bargain. They didn't keep theirs.

CIS

I paid the outstanding balance by the 3rd Feb they would cancel the summons and waive the summons charge. This is what I did - and accidentally slightly overpaid. So I kept my side of the bargain. They didn't keep theirs.

It sounds like their has been 1 of 2 things that happened:
1) There has been a misunderstanding and they wanted the balance + summons costs paid (which would be the case if they weren't going to cancel the summons)
or
2) Someone as forgotten to remove the summons once the payment has been cleared.

It sounds most likely that its 2) - the only way around this is to contact the council and discuss the matter with them. Genuine mistakes happen , unless someone monitored your account to check for the payment coming in then it would show a balance and progress automatically through the system. Staffing levels have been cut the point in most authorities where they just dont have the staff to do the job required.

makeitfolky

Thanks for the comments CIS. A friend who used to work for a council has said the same thing. Now my anger levels are subsiding I hope to be able to have a decent conversation with them tomorrow and hopefully it will be resolved sensibly.

A few years ago I had a car stolen - it was recovered nearly five years later, at which point I was landed with an £85 fine for not informing of change of keeper. It took several letters to resolve that which is why I am not alway confident reason and fair play will prevail.

vax2002

Ask them for a "case number"