Council tax.

CIS

ScarlettTiger wrote: »

So there’s not a lot I can do now, until after the court date and any subsequent correspondence from them?
If I did go to court, would the outcome be any different?

You can contact the council to discuss a payment arrangement - any arrangement is separate to the liability order being obtained. The council can still agree a payment arrangement with you on the basis that the case will still proceed to the liability order being granted (so that the council have the order in case you cease paying) - the only agreement which would stop the process for certain is full payment before the court date.

Turning up at court won't affect the court's process at all - it would give you the option to speak to the council face to face but it's unlikely they would ask for the liability order application to be halted or withdrawn. You can however always contact the council anyway any time without waiting until the court date.

The council can, if they so decide, issue the case to an enforcement agent the moment the liability order is granted, and the only notice you would receive is a notification from the enforcement agent. The best thing you can do is to contact the council and discuss the issues ASAP - in a decade of dealing with council tax recovery the most common, recurring, issue I saw was people delaying contact the council and then losing out as the enforcement action had moved on.

ScarlettTiger

Thank you. I’m cross with myself for thinking that when he said we’d sort something out, I’d hear from them again about it, but never a court summons. Bit of naivety on my part I guess.

ScarlettTiger

Hi, I just wanted to update on this. I sorted out a weekly payment with the council, all fine, they told me a final demand had been sent in November, which I told them I never received.
I then get a letter telling me the council had a system error, and a final demand letter hadn’t actually been sent out, so they have withdrawn the summons and reversed the court charges.
Thank you all again for your help.

CIS

ScarlettTiger wrote: »

Hi, I just wanted to update on this. I sorted out a weekly payment with the council, all fine, they told me a final demand had been sent in November, which I told them I never received.
I then get a letter telling me the council had a system error, and a final demand letter hadn’t actually been sent out, so they have withdrawn the summons and reversed the court charges.
Thank you all again for your help.

Good result - and that would be procedural errors I mentioned in the earlier post. It's not often they come up and can be used to cease the action.

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow

So he told me he would cancel the direct debit, I should pay what I could afford, and then go from there.


Phone calls to the council tax office are recorded. Remind them of what the officer agreed and refer them back to the phone call which they will have recorded.

CIS

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow wrote: »

So he told me he would cancel the direct debit, I should pay what I could afford, and then go from there.


Phone calls to the council tax office are recorded. Remind them of what the officer agreed and refer them back to the phone call which they will have recorded.

Depends on the council - in some councils only some calls are recorded.

The content of the call doesn't make much difference now anyway as the summons has been withdrawn.