Council tax arrears - what’s the minimum amount to trigger a court summons ?

boneofo

Can forum users post their actual experience recently with councils tax arrears. What is the minimum areas that will trigger the following letters:

a) council tax reminder threatening court summons
b) court summons (or one that looks like one, council generated).

Mine is a) £45, less than 4% of the total in the charging period.

HappyMJ

Computer will say 1p. If a person actually looks at it it'll be a bit more but a different amount at every council.

CIS

There isn't a minimum amount in law for a reminder or summons.

As HappyMJ has advised it varies by local authority but most won't usually issued a summons for less than a sum equivalent to the court costs they charge.

A reminder will generally be issued for any amount outstanding.

boneofo

This is factually incorrect if you are still a resident, it is rolled over into the next period. My question is to determine in practice from people with experience where this threshold is. It is certainly below £10.

CIS you are wrong because googling shows court costs are between £70 and £110 and a summons can be issued for amounts of the aforementioned £45 owed.

CIS wrote: »

There isn't a minimum amount in law for a reminder or summons.

As HappyMJ has advised it varies by local authority but most won't usually issued a summons for less than a sum equivalent to the court costs they charge.

A reminder will generally be issued for any amount outstanding.

paddedjohn

boneofo wrote: »

This is factually incorrect if you are still a resident, it is rolled over into the next period. My question is to determine in practice from people with experience where this threshold is. It is certainly below £10.

CIS you are wrong because googling shows court costs are between £70 and £110 and a summons can be issued for amounts of the aforementioned £45 owed.

Why are you asking people a question and then telling them their answer is wrong. This is not a quiz site you know.

barbarawright

What is the point of this question? Are you planning to claim in court that the council doesn't have the right to get what you owe them?

CIS

CIS you are wrong because googling shows court costs are between £70 and £110 and a summons can be issued for amounts of the aforementioned £45 owed.

Wrong , really ?.

I never said that a summons couldn't be issue for £45.00 - there is no minimum figure set in law - what I said was each council has their own policy and some choose not to summons a balance that is less than what they charge in costs whereas others will issue a summons for any balance.

Can you actually clarify what your point is ? (and , other than googling, what experience you have of council tax procedures and legislation)

CIS

This is factually incorrect if you are still a resident, it is rolled over into the next period.

What exactly do you mean by this ? - there's no facility in legislation for rolling forward any council tax balance to the next year. Some council's will and some won't IF it's not yet reached the stage of a summons but they certainly won't if a summons has been issued.