Council tax liability order issued without notice

kaffenback

Last Friday 20.7.18 I received a letter dated 19.7.18 from the council stating that a liability order for a four figure sum of council tax was issued against me at the magistrates court on 18.7.18. I was shocked as I thought my OH was paying it, but turns out she thought I was, duh! No problem I thought, I will ring the council on the number provided and request a payment plan, only when I rang the phone system was choked and the best position on hold I could get to, before being mysteriously cut off twice over 30 minutes, was 8th in the queue. Work and family got in the way for a couple of days then yesterday first thing I emailed them using the email address they gave on the letter requesting a call back to resolve the issue, pointing out my difficulties with the phone system, no response so far.


I will try and phone again today but I am now wondering also whether they have followed correct procedure as I received no notice of this liability order being applied for. My wife did write to them in May requesting a payment plan for a fairly modest amount of arrears from last year, they never responded but unfortunately she did not keep proof of postage.


Finally I am not sure whether the amount on the order is just council tax, so I will request a breakdown of the amount. I am in no way trying to avoid paying our council tax, but the arrears are too much for us to pay in one go and I really do not think there should be additional costs added on when they gave me no opportunity to avoid those costs by informing me of them in advance.

00ec25

the process is explained on this website run by CIS who is a CT expert, a poster on here, and will doubtless add specific comment in due course.

https://lgfa92.co.uk/happens-i-dont-pay-council-tax/

fully read the section: "Note that the defences against the granting of a Liability Order are limited by law."
https://lgfa92.co.uk/disputing-council-tax-liability-magistrates-cannot-consider-it-as-a-defence/

costs have been added since we, the taxpayers, have incurred costs in taking you to court, so those costs need to be covered on top of whatever tax you owe anyway

kaffenback

00ec25 wrote: »

the process is explained on this website run by CIS who is a CT expert, a poster on here, and will doubtless add specific comment in due course.

https://lgfa92.co.uk/happens-i-dont-pay-council-tax/

fully read the section: "Note that the defences against the granting of a Liability Order are limited by law."
https://lgfa92.co.uk/disputing-council-tax-liability-magistrates-cannot-consider-it-as-a-defence/

Thanks for this, will look into in detail

00ec25 wrote: »

costs have been added since we, the taxpayers, have incurred costs in taking you to court, so those costs need to be covered on top of whatever tax you owe anyway

Sure (and I am a tax payer as well, VAT, PAYE, NI, VED, etc., etc.) but the costs would not have been incurred, other than of issuing a summons, if I had received a summons thus being able to take action to resolve the issue. Also how can a case be heard against you without you knowing about it and having the opportunity to answer the case, seek legal advice, etc., etc.?


BIG EDIT: found the summons unopened in a pile of stuff my wife "tidied up" (I make a mess of paperwork, but I always know which untidy pile everything is in, she hates the mess so sometimes shoves it away in a cupboard or drawer) therefore I phoned council and have made a satisfactory payment arrangement, and to be fair they (Cornwall Council) were very reasonable with this. You will be glad to know that this will include the £60 Summons cost and a further £20, presumably court costs, so I am paying what I owe to 'the tax payer', and am happy to do so as the mistake was ours.

CIS

I will try and phone again today but I am now wondering also whether they have followed correct procedure as I received no notice of this liability order being applied for. My wife did write to them in May requesting a payment plan for a fairly modest amount of arrears from last year, they never responded but unfortunately she did not keep proof of postage.

If you'd moved address recently then I'd have said there's a possibility that they were sent to the old address but that looks unlikely here. Sorry to say it but experience has told what has usually happened to the documents in cases like this and it's not usually an error with their issue. Prior to the liability order a demand notice, at least one reminder and a summons has to be issued - they may have just been sent in your wife's name (if the liability order was only against her) or there may be a summons in your name that you didn't see...

CIS

Also how can a case be heard against you without you knowing about it and having the opportunity to answer the case, seek legal advice, etc., etc.?

You'd be very, very lucky to find any solicitor who knows the first thing about council tax, it's a fairly niche area of specialism.



The hearing is basically an administrative hearing, it's not a full trial. The council will present evidence that documents etc have been issued and unless a person can provide to the court's satisfaction that documents have not been received or there has been some other procedural failure then they don't have much option other than to grant the order. The court's powers are fairly limited. In the vast majority of cases where a liability order is disputed it is not for something the court has any power over.

kaffenback

Further info: they said they did reply to my wife's letter, which she sent in may requesting that last year's arrears of about £360 be spread over 12 months, but apparently in the reply they said they would not agree to this and that unless it was paid in full we would get a summons for a liability order, and only then would they look at income, affordability, etc., so the £60 charge is basically inevitable if you get in arrears and can't afford to pay it off as soon as they demand it. This seems to penalise people with low incomes unfairly IMO. I am not talking about ourselves, we just messed up, although the reason we got in arrears for the last part of the last financial year was that we moved into a new property and the council took months to acknowledge its existence and give it a banding. Yes we should have money by to cover this but I was ill and out of work for three months at the time.

kaffenback

Also see my BIG EDIT above admitting it was entirely our fault really...

CIS

kaffenback wrote: »

Also see my BIG EDIT above admitting it was entirely our fault really...

It's good to see it's been resolved to some extent - most people wouldn't admit they had made the mistake and missed the summons.

we moved into a new property and the council took months to acknowledge its existence and give it a banding

To be fair to the council they cannot do anything until the valuation office have banded the property, this can often taken months and until then they cannot send a council tax demand notice.

kaffenback

Yes but even if we had responded to the summons the £60 charge for that would have been added and it seems like if we had not paid the arrears in full they would not have entertained any payment plan until after a summons was issued. However I will request copies of the letters sent just for a better understanding. Fortunately, from what I understand, a liability order does not affect a person's credit record.

CIS

kaffenback wrote: »

Yes but even if we had responded to the summons the £60 charge for that would have been added and it seems like if we had not paid the arrears in full they would not have entertained any payment plan until after a summons was issued.

The process of recovering council tax does not provide for any payment arrangement at all once the payments shown on the original demand notice have been defaulted on. Anything outside of that is at the discretion of the council.

Fortunately, from what I understand, a liability order does not affect a person's credit record

You are correct.

macman

There is no automatic right to a payment plan for CT arrears. Once you have missed a payment, a reminder is issued giving you 7 days to pay. If you fail to pay in that period, then the whole year becomes due at once. A summons will eventually follow. Your LA seems to have followed the correct procedure.
No, a liability order does not show on your credit history, but it does enable the LA to take further measures, including seizure of goods, attachment of earnings order, deduction of benefits order, imprisonment for up to 3 months....so you really do need to treat this as a priority debt to clear.