Council tax dilemma

momer79

Last week i went online on Wokingham council website to order a copy of my council tax bill. It normally comes in April but somehow i didn’t receive my council bill.


Yesterday i got a court summon letter from council, asking me to appear in court because i missed two payments. According to their record they sent me two reminders, one in April and one in May but i didn’t receive any of those reminders.


I complained council about it yesterday and today they came back to me saying that council has followed the proper procedure.


To avoid court attendance, they have given me two options;


Option 1:
Pay the whole year council tax with £50 summons fees before 17th June (court appearing date).


Option 2:
Pay the council tax in 10 installments with £100 fine (£50 summons fees + £50 Liability charges)


My entire fault is that i didn’t receive the council tax bill and the reminders. There is nothing wrong with postal delivery in my area and all the other post is coming on time.


I have emailed everything to MP and she is looking into that but i don’t know how soon she is going to get any answer on my query.



I don’t know what I should do. £50 or £100 fine is not fair at all.

[Deleted User]

Last week i went online on Wokingham council website to order a copy of my council tax bill.

Do you mean that you sent an email to them via their contact form explaining the problem you were having, or did you find a specific page explaining what to do in this situation? If you can demonstrate that you are not at fault and demonstrate that you tried to rectify the issue before they contacted you then you may have some luck.

However council tax is a reoccurring thing, even if you do not get a bill through the post you still know that you have to pay it and waiting almost 2 months probably won't be justifiable. Have you previously paid a year up front or paid in monthly instalments?

Brassedoff

Tbh, you are hitting a brick wall. It takes a special type of person to work in those depts. don't forget it's the same people who lock granny up for missing a few months.

Pay it (if you can) and get on with your life. You are lucky that they still will accept monthly payments. Usually when you miss them they want the lot up front.

CIS

Yesterday i got a court summon letter from council, asking me to appear in court because i missed two payments. According to their record they sent me two reminders, one in April and one in May but i didn’t receive any of those reminders.

Legislation for service of documents means that they have to be stamped and addressed to the correct person, after that it is deemed to be outside of the council's control ad you would have to prove that royal mail failed to deliver.

I don’t know what I should do. £50 or £100 fine is not fair at all.

It's not a fine, its the cost of the court process which you are charged for.

don't forget it's the same people who lock granny up for missing a few months.

That would be the courts the who make the decision to commit someone to prison.

CIS

It normally comes in April but somehow i didn’t receive my council bill.

It would be sent out in March for payments to begin in April - if you knew it was due then whey did not ask for a copy back in March/April ?

System

CIS wrote: »

It would be sent out in March for payments to begin in April

Not necessarily. A few years ago our council were still arguing about the rate into April. But I pay by direct debit so they can just dip their hands into my bank account and take anything they want.
It's better than being taken to court.

CIS

Not necessarily. A few years ago our council were still arguing about the rate into Apri

Its exceedingly rare that rates aren't set in time for bills to be sent in time for 01 April however in this case as the OP has already had missed payments its pretty safe to to say that the bill would have been issued in time for April.

Savvy_Sue

To be fair, I managed to miss a couple of payments at the start of one year: they sent an E-bill, but the person who received it didn't forward it to me. Yes, I should have twigged that it was April therefore time to start paying Council Tax, but I didn't, until the threat of court action arrived in the post.

I promptly set up a DD so that this couldn't happen again, AND made sure that the email notifications were coming to me ...