student council tax question

CIS

Anyway the Council is threatening to go for a Liability Order and ask for costs to add to the Council Tax Bill. If the student reaches the Magistrate Court stage and the Magistrate finds that the Council did not consider the issue properly or make a decision on proper grounds, can the student ask for costs including expenses and preparation costs?

The Liability Order hearing has very few defined points on which a Liability order will be refused - usually the court grants it under the assumption that the councils will withdraw it if it later turns out to be unfounded.

There are a few reasons in law why the magistrates may decide not to issue a liability order. The most common of these are :

• The council has not asked you to pay in the correct way, as the law sets down (has not billed or reminded correctly for example).
• The total amount on the summons has been paid (and a receipt is available and shown).
• You are not the person who is liable to pay the tax that you have been summonsed for.
• A joint and several liability did not exist for the period of time and the council has sent a bill in two or more names.

It is reasonable to expect that if any of these situations applied, or you thought they might apply, you would have contacted the council before this point.
However, if you think the magistrates should refuse to issue a liability order for any reason, please talk to us first.
It may be possible to resolve your enquiry and avoid the need for you to attend court.
If you are not satisfied with our response you can attend the court hearing and make your case to the magistrates.
It is not a defence against the issue of a liability order if :

• You cannot afford to pay.
• You have applied for Council Tax Benefit and not yet heard anything.
• You have appealed to the council or the Valuation Office Agency about the amount of your Council Tax or your banding.

I would try and speak specifically for a member of the recovery section, failing that ask to speak to a senior or principal officer.

For all I'm for recovery and have been known to be unforgiving at times when undertaking recovery I'm always willing to withdraw/cease recovery if the necessary evidence is given and I would deffinetly accept that a course can extended and as a whole anyone in the dept I work in would do the same.

I think its a case of the dept being awkward and if speaking to senior or principal doesn't work I would recommend speaking to a local councillor.

monkeysavers

CIS wrote: »

The Liability Order hearing has very few defined points on which a Liability order will be refused ...

CIS, Thanks very much for your reply. In fact, the student in question did undertake many of the approaches you mentioned and in fact a very senior person in the Council case aknowledged the logic of a number of her points and contentions; however, the Council official indicated that her case is so non-standard in comparison to the usual cases handled by the team involved that they do not feel they have sufficient discretion to avoid it being flagged by auditors if they recognized her request. Basically this means the system and its guidelines in her case are fundamentally flawed but they have no provisions defined as to how to accomodate her circumstance so they feel they have to act as though her special case never arose at all. Why bother to modify and enhance procedures if "just one girl" will fall between the cracks? The Council wants money as badly as that student needs justice, and the Council is more powerful. To this extent, at this point my neighbour would feel vastly more comfortable letting the Magistrate determine the outcome than the Council, although either way she is already preparing a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.
CMS, let's talk law and legality for a moment. In regard to the Magistrates, you stated a few "reasons in law why the magistrates may decide not to issue a liability order". That was helpful, but for full disclosure:
a) what are the other reasons and are these reasons enumerated in statute or anywhere else that you can refer us to? ; and,
b) can she claim costs at a Liability Order hearing?
I predict that nobody associated with a council will answer those two questions as they will not want to give students any such ideas. Prove me wrong, if you can.

[Deleted User]

http://www.local.odpm.gov.uk/finance/ctax/ctil/ctil5.pdf

This is one of the Council Tax Information letters sent to councils to clarify the government's interpretation of the regs/ inform them of changes.

In this is says

INTERCALATING STUDENTS
Full time students are entitled to council tax discounts and exemptions to take account of the fact that most students are not entitled to council tax benefit. Last August the Department of Social Security amended council tax benefit regulations to ensure that students who are intercalating continue to be classified as students for benefit purposes. There has been some concern that such students may not currently fall within the definition of student for council tax purposes. In our view a period of intercalation will remain within the period of a course (the amendment in Statutory Instrument 1996/636 described above helps to clarify this) and therefore, provided that the person remains enroled at the educational establishment, they will continue to fall within the definition of a full-time student.


Now this doesn't specifically address the issue of a student extending a course for resits (or not quite resits in this case), but I think that is addressed in the definition of student in the regs I put in my last post. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=6594588&postcount=38 )

What I do think that this Information Letter makes clear is the intention of the government not to allow students to 'fall through the cracks', either you can claim CT Benefit, or you get a student disregard.

All CTax Information letters can be found here http://www.local.odpm.gov.uk/finance/ctax/ctil.htm

1992 Local government Finance Act here http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1992/Ukpga_19920014_en_1.htm

The Council Tax (Discount Disregards) Order 1992
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1992/Uksi_19920548_en_2.htm

Hope this helps