Council Tax Liability Order (Duration question)

moneysavingchicken

If a Council succeeds to obtain a Liability Order from the Magistrates Court, in relation to a Council Tax for a domestic property :
a. Is the laibility order effective only for the current financial year (billing period), or does it remain effective and actionable forever after?
b. If the Council Debt is paid off in full and no debts further debt exists, how can the residents go about having the Liability Order cancelled or revoked for peace of mind?

CIS

A) The Liability Order is only for the debt which relates to the Court Summons the Liability Order was obtained on - the L/O remains in force until the debt is paid.

The Liability Order automatically ceases when the debt is paid - it cannot legally be used against any other debt - a separate Liability Order would be needed on any other debt,

moneysavingchicken

Considering the not insignificant quantity of situations involving misunderstandings or faulty communiications with Bailiffs, is there a way other than relying on 'automatic' cessation of the Liability Order when the debt is satisfied to gain an order or written confirmation from anyone outside of the Council that the Liability Order is no longer in effect?

CIS

If you contact the Council they will be able to confirm the balance outstanding, no one else holds the records of the current balance (except a bailiff if they hold the account) - TBH in nearly 2 years of dealing with Council Tax bailiffs on a daily basis I've never came across a single case of L/O's being pursued for zero balance . Its certainly not a common occurrences in my experience.

moneysavingchicken

The Council admitted that after the balance is cleared they cannot absolutely guarantee that the records will remain accurately displayed nor that it is absolotely certain something unforseen will not trigger the enforcement. As such, it remains unexplained why a Council needs to have a liability order uncancelled once the debt has been paid in full. If they can go to the magistrates to ask for thousands of Liability Orders at a time and have it virtually rubber-stamped in one go, why shouldn't the Council be compelled to cancell the Liability Orders for accounts that have been fully satisfied?

elmer

Perhaps because of the costs involved, that would need to be met in the main by the majority of Council tax payers who pay their council tax on time, and therefore never incur liability orders.

Elmer

chappers

Its not a problem once it's paid it's gone.If anyone trys to charge you for anything relating to that order once it has been paid they are breaking the law.
However if bailiffs try to enforce an order, by visiting you and then subsequently you pay the order but not their charges they can still enforce their charges under the same liability order.

moneysavingchicken

elmer wrote: »

Perhaps because of the costs involved, that would need to be met in the main by the majority of Council tax payers who pay their council tax on time, and therefore never incur liability orders.

Elmer

Not much cost in printing out a follow-up summary letter confirming that the debt is satisfied and the particular liability order from the specific date is no longer going to be enforced, so that you have that on record to show the bailiffs if they show up inadvertently, rather than rely on the system to function properly and have to argue your own case when something goes wrong. A confirmation letter should at least be an option available for a fiver or so, for those who deserve and want peace of mind on the subject.

moneysavingchicken

CIS wrote: »

If you contact the Council they will be able to confirm the balance outstanding, no one else holds the records of the current balance (except a bailiff if they hold the account) - TBH in nearly 2 years of dealing with Council Tax bailiffs on a daily basis I've never came across a single case of L/O's being pursued for zero balance . Its certainly not a common occurrences in my experience.

Must be a particularly efficient council with extraordinarily careful bailiffs. Of course nobody would be pursued for a zero balance, but there can be many cases where correction of an account and/or the updating of the bailiff's does not take place in time before they show up on an undeserving person's doorstep.

In any event, if a liability order is taken out, then if the debt is satisfied some confirmation that the liability order will not be used should be provided to the resident rather than asking an otherwise powerful household to now pretend the liability order never existed and rely on the council and the bailiffs to do the same. If it goes wrong for one family, that can be very distressing and it can so easily be avoided if integrated into the overall process.

Liability orders are instigated to recover debt and notice of the orders are sent to the account holder. Satisfaction of debt should trigger express confirmation that the liability order will not be used, and notice should be sent to the account holder. The fact that logic might require a little bit of extra effort for some council employees does not mean households do not deserve the protection of such service.

hodgester

once a liability order is granted it can only be 'cancelled' or quashed by the magistrates themselves. To quash a liability order would be to state that it should not have been granted in the first instance so the only process available therefore is to send notice that a liability order balance has been cleared. I am sure that any local authority would happily send notification, upon request, when a liability order balance has been satisfied. Automatic notification is not included within the software provided by capita, northgate etc for the administration of council tax so the process would have to be manual against every payment received by the authority, a logistical and financial nightmare both for the authority and the law-abiding council tax payer.

And I'm sure all MSEr's will keep their receipts and have their own proof that the order has been satisfied rather than relying on the creditor providing them with the proof. No need for spoon-feeding.