Council tax arrears - missed final notice

schmuel

Hello all,

I have a small amount of council tax outstanding from 2020/21. The amount owed is £26.70 and I received a final notice today (30/12/22). 

Annoyingly, the date of issue is 20/12/22 so I have now missed Tower Hamlets' 7 day deadline to pay the bill (presumably the letter got held up by the Christmas post/Royal Mail strikes etc). I have just tried to pay online via their website but it says the debt is now 'closed' since it's been passed to a debt agency. The TH final notice letter states that an additional £110 legal costs is added to the bill when this happens.

I just tried calling the TH council tax team but they're closed from 23rd Dec to 3rd Jan.

Is there anything I can do to avoid the £110 getting added to my bill..? Seems very unfair that they would send a final notice on 20th Dec, when they know their offices are closing a couple of days later and also that there's a big risk of the letter not arriving until after the 7-day deadline. 

Thanks in advance

poppy12345

All you can do is ring them when they open on 3rd January.

peteuk

Speak to speak to the DC agent, they may be willing to wave the fees.

Gold_Shogun

I don't know the procedure for England/Wales, but in Scotland, Council Tax Bill & Arrears Payments can be paid at a Post Office Counter using the Bill/Notice "Reference or Account" Number.

Could that work for you if you paid the £26.70 first thing tomorrow morning ...... I know it MAY technically be a day late, but it would show as already paid on your account before any "Manual Action" could take place when the offices re-open in 2023, AND it would probably be fairly easily arguable against any extra charges (due to strike & xmas postal delays of the council's 20th December 2022 letter).

Hope this helps, and have a good new year.
Bob

schmuel

Thanks so much for the advice everyone, it's really appreciated.

Bob, I checked the demand letter and there is an option to pay via bank transfer so I have done that. I've missed the deadline obviously but the council offices are closed so fingers crossed it won't get progressed - let's see...!

Cheers and happy new year all

HillStreetBlues

I think you are safe. If you look at the reverent law.
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-arrears
Your council will send you a reminder notice giving you 7 days to pay if you miss a payment. If you don’t pay within 7 days, you’ll have to pay the whole year’s Council Tax instead.
If you don’t pay your whole year’s Council Tax within 7 days, the council may take legal action to get the Council Tax you owe.

You can argue that TH interpretation is flawed. Giving the date of letter as the first day it would be impossible (unless delivered same day) for you to have the 7 days to pay. And in fact you paid within 2 days of being notified you had arrears.

I expect they have done this deliberately to try to get the extra fees. Why else would they make it harder for someone to pay.