Council took me to court illegally

Bulldog63

Looking for advice
My local council took me to court for council tax arrears and successfully got a liability order against me, and then got an attatchment of earnings order for £130 a month for 6 months.
Now here is when it gets interesting!
I knew nothing about it at all.
The period they where charging me for was 22nd April 2014 until 22 October 2014, and the AE was live for 6 months in 2015.
I found out about it because I logged onto my online payslip earlier this month to view my SE60, and the reason I hadn't logged on before was I lost my login details and my employer didn't take notice when I requested new login details until earlier this year.
The period the council claimed for I had moved house and was paying CT for the exact dates on my new house.
I phoned the council and explained the error, at first they still maintained I owed the money, until I pointed out the date I moved into my new house.
And now they agree they should never have taken any of the actions they did.
My question is do I have a legal case against them?
Surely they can't get away with this.

spadoosh

What legal case?

Have they not just said they will refund the money?

Bulldog63

Yes they have,
But they had to follow a procedure to get me to court in the first place,
Letters, bailiffs, and my employers, not including the putting me into hardship for the period of the AE
They have dragged my name through the mud.
And why a legal case? They did this all illegally, if there are no repercussions to them, they can do it to anyone

CIS

Bulldog63 wrote: »

Yes they have,
But they had to follow a procedure to get me to court in the first place,
Letters, bailiffs, and my employers, not including the putting me into hardship for the period of the AE
They have dragged my name through the mud.
And why a legal case? They did this all illegally, if there are no repercussions to them, they can do it to anyone

Providing that they issued the demand notice, reminder(s) / final notice and summons to a last known address for you in respect of the outstanding balance then they have been served legally as far as due process is concerned.

Once the court grant the liability order then the action the council takes is that laid out in the council tax (administration & enforcement) regs 1992 (as amended). This allows an attachment of earnings order to be issued for the balance (or remaining balance, if reduced) of the amount shown on the liability order - there's no requirement to use an enforcement agent.

The action taken by the council was legal if you are shown to be liable for the council tax at a property and they had no evidence to show otherwise. The council have acted to update their records, as they are required to do so, as soon as the information was received.

Can you prove you told them when you moved and that you showed you were no longer liable for the council tax on the property you had vacated ?.

To be illegal you would have to prove that the council acted in bad faith even though they knew the correct situation. To sue someone you'd have to show an actual loss or sue for defamation of character (very expensive).

If you can show they acted against information they already held you could make a complaint to them asking for compensation, This could then be followed by an ombudsman's complaint if not resolved.

Bulldog63

Yes I can and did prove that I wasn't liable.
They tried to say I hadn't told them I had moved house so the accounts weren't linked.
I pointed out that the reason I moved out of my old address was because of a section 21 from my landlords executor had served on me, and I had gone to the council for housing help, In fact they did help more with a deposit for my new home, which I'm still paying off today.
They where fully aware of my new address

CIS

I pointed out that the reason I moved out of my old address was because of a section 21 from my landlords executor had served on me, and I had gone to the council for housing help, In fact they did help more with a deposit for my new home, which I'm still paying off today.

This is a separate issue to council tax - you would have needed to advise them separately. Telling one department does not automatically mean all council departments would be informed.

Bulldog63

CIS wrote: »

This is a separate issue to council tax - you would have needed to advise them separately. Telling one department does not automatically mean all council departments would be informed.

As I said before they agreed that my new address was linked to my old.
They have no excuse.

CIS

Bulldog63 wrote: »

As I said before they agreed that my new address was linked to my old.
They have no excuse.

But, did they say when this was added compared to when the documents were issued ?.

Have they also confirmed with you where the documents were posted to ?.

They may well have made a mistake (I've seen plenty of corkers) but you can't make a statement without the full information and dates. If you wanted to try and push the issue further then that's all information you'd need.

Keep_pedalling

Sounds like as well as failing to notice the whopping deductions from your pay, you also failed to have your mail forwarded when you moved, so perhaps you are at least partially at fault here.

spadoosh

Bulldog63 wrote: »

And why a legal case? They did this all illegally, if there are no repercussions to them, they can do it to anyone

They didnt though did they? They believed you owed the council tax, they tried to get this from you and you were no longer available at the last known address for you.

Im glad your on the look out for everyone else's well being but i would suggest that you be happy with your money refunded. I cant imagine they dragged your name throught the mud. They wouldve just said something along the lines of "we believe person x owes us x amount of money, we haven't received payment to date, we would like to proceed with a direct earning attachment."

Might also be worth remembering that whilst legal action might see some financial compensation (i highly doubt this myself) there will be considerable legal expenses on both sides. If you win obviously your fees will be paid, the problem being is that this would come straight out of the council tax you pay. So potentially increased future tax bills, potentially denial of service to publicly funded groups. All because you dont want them to do it to anyone else? Court action will not prevent this exact same thing happening again. Its an admin error because your details weren't up to date.

CIS

They wouldve just said something along the lines of "we believe person x owes us x amount of money, we haven't received payment to date, we would like to proceed with a direct earning attachment."

The employer gets a letter stating the amount outstanding, date of the court order allowing the deduction, details of the appropriate legislation allowing the order and details of how to pay the order.