Council Tax Court Summons for late last payment of year?

Bridge-Burner

I went to the council office earlier this month (7th) to inform them that I wouldn't be able to pay this month's council tax until the 20th which is when I get paid and have had two reminders for other months already so knew the next letter would demand the whole year's payment so I went in to explain and the man said seeing as it's your last payment anyway there shouldn't be a problem with payment date. He said I'll probably get a letter that demands the whole year's payment within 7 days but he said they don't take any action until 7 days after that and as long as I pay within the14 day window there won't be any issues. So by my reasoning I thought this would've given me until the 25th of the month as the demand for full payment was issued on the 11th?
I paid on the early hours of the 21st as in 1am but today have received a letter dated 20th issuing a court summons for non payment with the addition of £50 court costs.
Is it worth disputing this as I was told incorrect information? I literally visited them so there should be a record at least on CCTV but I suppose it's their word against mine? Should have asked for some sort of confirmation suppose.

sourcrates

Hi,

Ring the council and ask them to quash it on the basis no debt now exists.

They can't take you to court for a non existent debt can they.

CIS

Hi,

Ring the council and ask them to quash it on the basis no debt now exists.

They can't take you to court for a non existent debt can they.

The costs shown on the summons are an amount which can be recovered by way of the court summons and liability order, even if the council tax charge itself has been discharged.

Craig

CIS

For Council Tax purposes the recovery process is set out in legislation.

Where a 3rd payment is late, and 2 Reminder Notes have already been issue, the council need to issue a Final Notice before taking further enforcement action. This notice will require full payment within 7 days - failure to do that allows the Local Authority to issue a Court Summons.

This means the Local Authority, if they issued the Final Notice on the 11th, can issue the Court Summons from 7 days later - when the Final Notice legally expires.

The Court Summons was legal when it was issued on the 20th - this was issued before you made payment on the 21st. When the Court Summons is issued the Local Authority is legally allowed to add costs to the value. The costs become part of the full balance which is outstanding.

Although you paid the Council Tax balance you had not paid the costs. The costs can be pursued via way of the Court Summons, even where that is the only balance which is outstanding.

The only argument you have is to persuade the Local Authority that you were wrongly advised as to what action would be taken and when - from the process of Council Tax recovery they've followed everything correctly.

Craig

datlex

OP what I don't get is if you get paid on the 20th of each month why you didn't just ask for your monthly payment date to be moved?

CIS

datlex wrote: »

OP what I don't get is if you get paid on the 20th of each month why you didn't just ask for your monthly payment date to be moved?

it is possible that the Local Authority in question may not offer different dates, there's no requirement to do so (Most Local Authorities do though)

Craig

sourcrates

CIS wrote: »

it is possible that the Local Authority in question may not offer different dates, there's no requirement to do so (Most Local Authorities do though)

Craig

Mine offer 4 dates in the month, 5th, 9th, 15th, 25th.

CIS

sourcrates wrote: »

Mine offer 4 dates in the month, 5th, 9th, 15th, 25th.

A good council should do - it makes collection much easier for them if nothing else.

When I left my local authority they had over 50 different payment options - payment could be made on 1st or 28th, but they then also introduced Monday & Friday for DD, weekly cash payments on Monday etc etc. It did eventually get to the point where there were far too many options.

Craig