7 year old council tax bill

AliceBanned

Angry_Bear wrote: »

Debts become Statute Barred if they haven't been acknowledged in 6 years. So if the date was 2009, then it will be statue barred - unless you mean the year ending 2010, in which case they have until April next year to claim for the last year.

Note that if they have applied to the court and been given a liability order then it will never become statute barred, you should be able to see if they have a liability order from your credit report.

The statute barred rule excludes local authorities.


I am repaying a housing benefit overpayment that I can't prove I didn't owe, as the DWP contacted me about it 13 years later.

CIS

Housing benefit recovery is a 'special case' as they have various methods available without needing a court order - if they apply for a court order they have 6 years from the date the decision on the overpayment was made.

artangels

Liability orders do not show on a credit record.

What you need to do first of all is to establish what period the charge is for, when demand notices, reminder and summons were issued and when the liability order was granted.

The 6 year period for obtaining a liability order is from the date the amount became due - it doesn't become due until a council tax demand notice is issued so this could be later than the actual period the charge was from.

Flying straight in with a complaint is not always the way to go - just because a person is living in the same area does not always mean that they can be linked together to be same person. Legally the onus is in the tax payer to identify themselves, not the council to try and make any connection,

Thank you. The dates on the letter from the council match the dates that we lived there so I assume that he didn't pay any of it. I caught him hiding post further along the relationship so imagine any warnings etc went this way (I dread that something else is going to come out of the woodwork now).

Does my initial response need to be "is there a liability order for this?"? I'm so scared of messing this up.

National_Debtline

Hi artangels


I'm sorry you feel that the advice you were given by us was vague. I'm not sure that I would personally have focused on complaints so much as the adviser you dealt with, but it just goes to show the value of getting a second opinion.


As you have now been contacted by what appears to be an enforcement agency, I'm assuming that the council have obtained liability orders in order to be able to instruct them. As CIS says, the first step should be to establish the key facts and dates to see whether this was all done within the appropriate timescales. You could send the council a "subject data access request" in order to get this info:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Personal-information-under-the-Data-Protection-Act-%28sole-name%29-.aspx


If any bailiff visits look likely at this stage, please ensure that you do not let anyone in. And please don't worry about "messing up" - you won't.


Dennis
@natdebtline

CIS

Does my initial response need to be "is there a liability order for this?"? I'm so scared of messing this up.

That needs to be one of the questions - if they haven't got a liability order then enforcement cannot happen under council tax legislation - the next question would be to ask when the last demand notice was issued. You can do this under a subject access request but most councils will give the information without having to resort to this.

An enforcement agent can only be instructed after a liability order but some enforcement agencies also act a debt collectors for council debts that aren't under a liability order (obviously without the same powers of enforcement as they would under the court order) so it's worse double checking.

It's very rare that liability orders aren't obtained in time as the council tax systems are specifically written to ensure that action moves on as quickly as possible under legislation if payment isn't made. I've probably seem only a dozen or so cases in the last 10 years where the order hasn't been obtained in time.

artangels

Thank you again.

What would you say my best chances are in all of this? It's looking increasingly as though despite all the circumstances I'm still liable to pay it all.

Eager_Elephant

artangels wrote: »

Thank you again.

What would you say my best chances are in all of this? It's looking increasingly as though despite all the circumstances I'm still liable to pay it all.

I think you need to urgently seek debt advice with either National Debtline, CAB or Stepchange.


You mention large credit card debts also so there may be other options (such as Insolvency) which might be best for you but this would depend on your current situation etc


Alternatively you could post on here a bit about your situation in terms of renting or owning a property and a financial statement and people may be able to offer advice.

National_Debtline

It may well turn out that you are liable, but under the circumstances you'd be entitled to ask to deal with the council directly and not debt collectors/bailiffs. You paid the money in good faith at the time, and even if it's impossible to prove that to the council now, it costs them nothing to accept that and let you negotiate with them directly.


Of course, if you end up stuck with this bill in addition to your "very large" credit card debts, you'll need to consider your options for dealing with them - whether that is some sort of debt management plan, or bankruptcy, or something else altogether. You'd benefit from working out a statement of affairs - you can do this with an advice agency or use a link such as http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php which allows you to post the results here.


First things first, though - get that information from the council.


Dennis
@natdebtline

artangels

I am self employed. My self assessment for January will be just over the income tax threshold. I have about 6k in credit card debt, this is currently at 0 interest until April 2017. I also have a 1k overpayment to pay back in tax creditswhich I'm paying back at 50 a month. If I hadn't had the tax credits at the time I would have defaulted on my cards. I pay the minimum and whatever else is spare on to my cards each month. I live in a rented house. The prospect of messing up my credit score petrifies me - would cause lots of problems in the future. I am earning slightly more this year than last but do need to invest in some business items that I've been trying to put off as long as possible.

I know that the council tax would need classed as a "priority debt" at possible cost to paying off my cards. I recently got the 0% deal and was SO relieved by it and now this. I work really hard and just want to get on with my life.

artangels

I am self employed. My self assessment for January will be just over the income tax threshold. I have about 6k in credit card debt, this is currently at 0 interest until April 2017. I also have a 1k overpayment to pay back in tax creditswhich I'm paying back at 50 a month. If I hadn't had the tax credits at the time I would have defaulted on my cards. I pay the minimum and whatever else is spare on to my cards each month. I live in a rented house. The prospect of messing up my credit score petrifies me - would cause lots of problems in the future. I am earning slightly more this year than last but do need to invest in some business items that I've been trying to put off as long as possible.

I know that the council tax would need classed as a "priority debt" at possible cost to paying off my cards. I recently got the 0% deal and was SO relieved by it and now this. I work really hard and just want to get on with my life.