Council Tax arrears help please.

[Deleted User]

Hi I am £435 in arrears with the council tax they say if they dont get it by 31 march, they will be taking me to court, I am really stressed they gave me 6 weeks to pay this but I can only pay about a third now, do you think they will take me to court, I am so stressed, I am gonna ring this morning and say I have taken legal advice and would like to have the payment split between 3 months, as I also have to start the new years payments also in April, do you think this is reasonable, I am like everyone else, really struggling I do want to pay but dont have all the money now, I really dont want to get into trouble, can any one please advice asap before I ring,they are not a pleasant lot to deal with:(

I am just so fed up with life , if it wasnt for all my debts I wouldnt be in this s**t , I know this is all my fault, I am having one of those days when I feel like life would be better on the other side, :A

Please advice, thanks

Red_dog_Sam

Your offer is reasonable but is unlikely to stop them going to court to seek a liability order. Unfortunately, that means additional summons costs on top to pay as well. Most council's would accept your offer to pay by instalments but they will still go to court for the liability order to protect their interest in the debt. With a liability order they can choose to do an attachment to earnings or benefit or refer to bailiffs if you fail to pay. But if they accept your offer to pay in instalments on top of the current year (which is reasonable) and you keep to that agreement they would have no cause to use the liability order to enforce payment. Some council's will drop the case and the summons costs if you sign up to pay your charge and your arrears instalments by Direct Debit so you can consider asking about that.
You might also ask about stretching your new year over 12 instead of 10 instalments so that the payments are a bit lower.

RAS

Hi

The problem is that they will go to court even for £200 and then with court costs and bailiff fees you will have another £120 added to the bill. So it is worth trying to pay this off sooner.

Whaty do you have that could go on a car-boot, amazon or e-bay/ Can you do a storecupboard challenge?

If you think you can pay off 2/3rds, speak to your local councillor who may be able to delay the LO for a month or so.

[Deleted User]

Hi thanks for your replies I have spoken to someone and they said, try to pay as much as I can, they said on April 17th the summons would go out, and I would occur a £55 charge for this, but to ring up when this happens and then I can set up a repayment plan for the remainder, and it wont even get to court. The man I spoke to assured me this is what would definately happen and no court action would happen, I would just be repaying them, does this sound correct ? Thankyou.

pauletruth

no. it does not.

[Deleted User]

Hi can anyone verify this, I am really worried, thankyou

Red_dog_Sam

Doesn't sound quite right - if they are prepared to drop the court case then why wait until the summons is posted before accepting your arrangement? If they are really saying the case won't go to court at all then they could take the arrangement now, hold off sending the summons and save you the £55.

The more likely scenario is that they send the summons, you agree instalments then they still go to court but just don't enforce the liability order they obtain because you have an arrangement. That way they stick an extra £55 costs on top but will then just sit back and let you pay your instalments- unless you default when they could use the liability order to bring in bailiffs.


You will get at least 14 days notice between the summons and the court date in which to make your arrangement and clarify if the case is going to be withdrawn or not. But unless you pay in full it is almost certain that the case will go through the court and they will get a liability order to use if you don't keep your arrangement.

[Deleted User]

Hi not sure if I explained right, they are sending me a summons on the 17th April if the arrears are not paid, and then they said to ring them up and to arrange a payment plan, and then it will not go to court? They say I do not have to appear in court in person? Sorry to babble on but I am really worried.

cally6008

You could be me posting.

Two months ago, we rang the council and agreed to pay £110 for 2 months and then to ring them back up after two months.

The 2012/2013 bill came through (payable on 10months) so OH rang them up, got put through to the payment plan section. They agreed to combine the £400 debt and the 2012/2013 bill and spread the payments over the 12 months

Ring them up and talk to them, yes it is scary but you have to do it

Red_dog_Sam

There is a difference between the case going to court and you going to court.

Based on your posts it still think that the case will go to court and they will get a liability order. But if you make an arrangement before the court date you will not need to attend. The council will just let you carry on paying your instalments.

The key thing is that by going to court, they get a liability order and can enforce action against you if you don't pay.

CIS

I would agree with the above - there's no reason for the council to withdraw the summons at this stage.

I suspect the message has been somewhat garbled and they're still intending to proceed with the Liability Order but have just advised that there's no need for you to physically attend, this is the normal course of action.

The reason you don't need to attend is because you don't appear to have a valid defence against the issuing of the order nor can the court make any ruling on payments - in this sort of case its a Yes or No issue when granting the order.

At the simplest level the court will, unless presented with evidence otherwise, grant the order based on you being billed correctly and being the correct person named on the summons etc. If these are correct then the order will be granted and the council can then take what ever action is appropriate.