Problems with council tax

Murphybear

We’re having problems with council tax

Sorry if this is long but I am screaming point.

We moved to our current address 18 months ago. We applied for council tax benefit as we are on low income. We were awarded this and it reduced our liability to about £480 pa.

I have paid some of it but we are now getting letters saying we owe £1600 which includes a sum from last year. I emailed the council to explain this, sent all our details and this was automatically sent to something called “Resolver”

I got a response after 4 weeks which wasn’t helpful and they said our council tax benefit had been stopped as they had further information from HMRC about our income. They didn’t go unto detail.

I went through our copies of the paperwork from the original claim and every penny of both our incomes was declared.

I contacted them again using the Resolver service and told them this and that we were entitled to the CTB and used 2 different calculators to work out roughly what our benefit should be and dent them copies. I have paid them about half of what our liability should be for this financial year which means according to my calculations we are up to date.

The last email to Resolver was sent about a week ago. It seems I can’t contact them directly.

This morning we received court summons for the full amount. Court date is 26th October. What to do?

I could pay the full amount which will be a struggle and don’t see why I should

I could ignore it but I am not that stupid

I could try and phone them but it’s difficult to get through and any contact would be better in writing

I could contact them again using Resolver but I need a response before the Court date


I could go to Court with my half ton of paperwork but this wouldn’t be my first choice

Thanks for reading

Kentish_Dave

Stop using resolver and speak to the council directly. Why have you not phoned or visited already?

Murphybear

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

Stop using resolver and speak to the council directly. Why have you not phoned or visited already?

Last time I phoned I couldn’t get through. The problem with phoning is we can’t show them the mountains of paperwork

If we go in person they won’t speak to us in person, they say we have to make an appointment which can be weeks away.

It’s all very well saying stop using Resolver, I didn’t ask to use them, I had never heard of them. With the 2 previous councils where we lived we emailed them directly and a couple of days later got a response. Our current council does t do this.

When we moved here they were in the middle of merging with another council and everything was a complete shambles. You couldn’t do anything online. We had to start from scratch with old fashioned paper forms.

From what we can see they are still in a complete shambles.

tacpot12

I think you have a problem in understanding that you are being taken to court for non-payment of your council tax. If you are liable for council tax, you have to pay in full.

If you have claimed Council Tax Support and somehting has gone wrong with your claim, you are still liable to pay the full council tax for your property. You can complain abount the council's administration of the benefit, but while you do so, you remain liable for your council tax.

The court will not look at whether or not you should have received Council Tax Support. It is not a Social Services tribunal, it is a Magistrates court. They can only look at your liability to pay council tax.

Make an appointment to go to see the council benefits service. You only need to take the details you have previously provided to the benefits service.

Whatever you do, don't take half a ton of paperwork to court. The Magistrates will take against you if you haven't condensed the paperwork and organised it for their consumption. You need to condense the issue to the points of law under consideration. How are you going to argue that you are not liable for your council tax? Are you exempt for some reason? Have you paid and the council lost the record of your payment?

If you go to court, I don't see how (based on the information you have given to date) that you can defend your non-payment, so you are incurring court costs and wasting the courts time for no reason.

[Deleted User]

All these weeks have passed though and you could have had an appointment by now.

KatrinaWaves

Murphybear wrote: »

We moved to our current address 18 months ago. We applied for council tax benefit as we are on low income. We were awarded this and it reduced our liability to about £480 pa. Did you apply immediately? You have lived there 18 months and we are about 6 months into the new financial year, so was the amount £480 last year? What was your new amount this year? Did it have a balance brought forward?

I have paid some of it but we are now getting letters saying we owe £1600 which includes a sum from last year. I emailed the council to explain this, sent all our details and this was automatically sent to something called “Resolver” You say you have paid 'some of it' you should have been paying around £48 a month based on a typical 10 month payment plan. Have you been keeping up with this? Did you clear your balance last year?

I got a response after 4 weeks which wasn’t helpful and they said our council tax benefit had been stopped as they had further information from HMRC about our income. They didn’t go unto detail.

I went through our copies of the paperwork from the original claim and every penny of both our incomes was declared.

I contacted them again using the Resolver service and told them this and that we were entitled to the CTB and used 2 different calculators to work out roughly what our benefit should be and dent them copies. I have paid them about half of what our liability should be for this financial year which means according to my calculations we are up to date. Are you up to date for last year? If there is a balance owing from last year you are not up to date, even if 'this year' is up to date.

The last email to Resolver was sent about a week ago. It seems I can’t contact them directly.

This morning we received court summons for the full amount. Court date is 26th October. What to do?

I could pay the full amount which will be a struggle and don’t see why I should

I could ignore it but I am not that stupid

I could try and phone them but it’s difficult to get through and any contact would be better in writing

I could contact them again using Resolver but I need a response before the Court date


I could go to Court with my half ton of paperwork but this wouldn’t be my first choice I dont understand why you have a mountain of paperwork. No one needs that. You mention HMRC so I assume you are maybe on tax credits or have a job? So you need payslips and/or your tax credit award, bank statements (for eligibility, not for court) and your coucil tax bills. That should not be a mountain, its a small pile. Each time your claim changes you will get a new council tax bill and it is always advisable to keep up to date on the most recent payments even if you need to dispute them with the council.

Thanks for reading

Comments in red.

CIS

The advice above is pretty much spot on - many people confuse the action that the magistrates can take with that of a tribunal. Council Tax is a split jurisdiction - the technical arguments that apply to liability/discounts/exemptions/CTR etc are a tribunal function whereas the issues regarding the granting or not of a liability are that of the court (the 'judicial function').


However, most importantly, the fact that you are disputing it does not prevent council tax recovery continuing - the determination made by the council is deemed to be correct until it is revised by the council or changed by the tribunal. The magistrates have no say in the matter and cannot refuse a liability order on this basis. The magistrates are actually specifically barred in legislation from stepping in to tribunal matters. In real terms the magistrates can look at whether the administrative process was correct as per legislation- i.e. was a demand notice issued, was a reminder issued etc. - they have no remit whatsoever to consider further disputes over the actual calculations.


To challenge a Council Tax Reduction calculation there is a specific process which needs to be carried out in order for it to be taken to a valuation tribunal - failure to follow the process will mean that the tribunal action cannot be taken.