Council Tax Summons Pending

salesman1979

My friend is behind on his council tax and has asked me to help him out. Financially he is in a mess, so lending him any money is the last thing I am planing on doing.


He has arrears with Shropshire Council, he has made 2 arrangements to pay but hasnt given them a penny so he got a reminder in the post threatening legal action next. He called them to be told that he can pay them £350ish by 26th Nov or they will issue a Summons.


He can't pay and they won't agree to a payment plan. What can he expect to happen once the summons is issued? His biggest worry is that he will end up with a CCJ due to missing it during this rough patch he is going through.

Suseka97

Unless things have changed since I worked in a Council Tax recovery team - he won't need to worry about a CCJ. It looks like a summons is imminent and whilst that will come with additional charges - he has two choices. He could go along to the Magistrates Court and defend his case (which might be a good idea if he is in extremely dire financial straits - I've known the Magistrate to reduce or write off a debt completely) or if he doesn't want to do that a liability order will be issued against him (which is not a CCJ) and he will then be able to make another arrangement to pay. What he must not do is ignore it (the summons), or set up a payment plan and then default on that plan - because the Council will then be able to pass the debt over to enforcement agents or set up an attachment of earnings (assuming he is working). So best he acts and sticks to the plan this time.

CIS

He can't pay and they won't agree to a payment plan. What can he expect to happen once the summons is issued? His biggest worry is that he will end up with a CCJ due to missing it during this rough patch he is going through.

There is no CCJ - it is dealt with by a Liability Order through the magistrates' court. This is an order which gives the council the legal powers to chase the monies using a range of enforcement options.

He could go along to the Magistrates Court and defend his case (which might be a good idea if he is in extremely dire financial straits - I've known the Magistrate to reduce or write off a debt completely)

Magistrates have no power to remit at a liability order hearing, only at a committal hearing.

Suseka97

CIS wrote: »

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Magistrates have no power to remit at a liability order hearing, only at a committal hearing.

Ah yes, now I recall it was at the committal hearings.

So my advice still stands and that is to respond to the summons and set up an arrangement to pay once a liability order has been granted, or if the arrears are due to an inability to pay then it might be worth attending the hearing to explain the circumstances to the magistrate. Above all the OP needs to avoid it being moved into enforcement action (bailiffs, attachment of earnings or benefits) which by the sounds of it he could well do without.

Also it might be worth you encouraging him to seek some advice from one of the debt charities (StepChange, Payplan) or the CAB about his current financial difficulties.

CIS

Hopefully the council will agree to a payment arrangement but it should always be remembered that they don't have to given an arrangement, they can go straight in to a statutory enforcement option if they wish. That being said, it is more common than it used to be for councils to proactively offer payment arrangements as part of their standard enforcement process.

salesman1979

Thanks all.

I don’t think he needs Stepchange or anything like that at the moment. He’s a self employed private hire taxi driver and business has been really slow for months. By the time he covers radio settle, car, fuel etc he’s hardly got anything left to pay his bills which only consist of rent, council tax, child maintenance, mobile phone and food. His rent includes has, electric and water bills. He just needs more money coming in as he’s falling behind on everything apart from the work stuff as they won’t allow him to work if he’s behind with them.