Council Tax - Court Summons

John_Pierpoint

A colleague of mine managed to get his liability thrown out in court, because the lawyer the council had sent was not on top of her brief, probably because she thought it was just a rubber stamp job.

It was a slightly complicated case in that this colleague had bought a wreck and turned it into 2 flats while living in it. He does have the gift of the gab. However in my humble opinion he owed the money but the Council had not prepared for the hearing and marshalled the evidence correctly.

If you have obstructed the council in its attempts to settle the matter don't expect any sympathy but like wise if a council seeks to drag a citizen into a court of law before gathering all the evidence and telling you what it is, that is intimidation and we don't live in a police state yet.

I cannot comment on your situation as I only have your side of the story, but I too have been summonsed by my local council over a payment that turned out to have been simply miss-posted onto some one else's account. I wrote 4 letters, got proof from my bank that the money had been sent correctly and wasted a some considerable time on the 'phone and had to take a morning off work to deliver my defence,.

I completed the defence paperwork, having established that the council had fiddled the date of service to try and put me out of time and the council backed off.

I never got any sort of apology, though I did get a certain satisfaction when the finance director was sacked a few months later - but with a big payout of the tax payer's money.

fluffymovie

teabag29 wrote: »

Hi there,

Am emailing on behalf of a family memeber to get some advice. Basically him and his partner are being investigated for benefit fraud dating from 2007-2010. Although it has not been to court yet it very much looks like its heading that way as the total debts amount to around 20k (they have denied it).

They have received the council tax arrears bill totalling 2k and was paying back £50 a month but stopped paying it a few months back on the advice of a solicitor. The solicitor said it looked like an admission of guilt if they pay it ( tbh i think she was an idiot or trainee or something because she didnt seem to know what she was saying). Anyway fast forward a few months and they've received the reminders but not paid anything. They got a final reminder about 6 weeks ago and I rang up on their behalf to explain the advice they'd been given and that they hadnt actually been found guilty yet so how could they be liable until proven guilty.

The council said that they must pay and if they were to get found not guilty they would be refunded anything owed to them. They said they dont normally accept anything less than £80 a month in payment plans for arrears of that amount but because of his low wage (12000 per year) and all their other bills they were willing to accept £50 a month but a payment must be made within 3 days and then every month after. I explained this to them and they werent happy but knew they had to pay.

Fast forward 6 weeks and they have recieved a summons to appear at court in 3 weeks for liability order. Why? because they still havent made payment!! He says he will ring them 1st thing monday and offer £50 there and then and then each month.

My question is will this stop him having to go to court...im thinking no as they will want to make sure this wont happen again. Also will they even accept installments now after all the delays? theres no way he can afford to pay the whole amount in one, £50 a month is max they can pay. They dont have much the baliffs could take, certainly not enough to clear the debt so what is the likely outcome?

I also wrote out a statement of affairs thing for them for the housing benefit arrears they owe (£8600) as they are unwilling to accept £50 a month. This was over a week ago and has still not been posted off!!!! They are worried and keep prolonging things but its not going to go away.

Are your family appealing against the decision of the council to withdraw council tax benefit? If so, then the overpaid Council Tax benefit should be put on hold until the appeal is decided. They would then need to pay their ongoing Ctax

CIS

There is no requirement to hold any recovery on Council Tax Benefit in respect of a Council Tax Benefit appeal. Many councils will hold action at their discretion but only once a Liability Order has been granted.

browneyedbazzi

Hi all, hope someone can help with this query as I'm so stressed out I can't think straight at the moment!

From mid-september until the end of February I lived in a shared house. I had an agreement to rent a room as a lodger for £400 pcm all inclusive and was supposed to be sharing with the landlady. Just before I moved in she accepted a job in London and moved out, at which point she got in another tenant for her room. Each of us paid £400 per month for the rooms with access to shared kitchen/bathroom/lounge and the landlady paid all the bills.

The landlady lost her job in February and found herself in trouble financially. She wanted to change the terms of us staying on in the house - she wanted us to rent the whole property and take on the bills from March 1st or move out. I couldn't afford to do this and wasn't happy with the house anyway so I agreed to move out before the end of Feb and the other tenant did the same, although she stayed in the house for a few days longer than me. (I moved out on 26 February and she left on 1st March). I was quite pleased to have the opportunity to move out ahead of the end of my agreement because the landlady had be a nightmare, failing to make repairs etc and left us without heating or hot water during the winter and had quite nasty mood swings so she was very difficult to deal with.

Just before I moved out a letter came from the council saying that myself and the other lodger owed council tax from 1st September to 31 March. The other lodger emailed the council explaining that we rented rooms in the house and that the rent was all-inclusive and we believed the landlady was liable for the council tax. She didn't get any reply to her email and now we've received a summons each to appear at court in a couple of weeks time.

I can't quite understand what's happened here because I know that the landlady had been paying the council tax at least until January - best I can make out is that she has informed the council that she moved out in early september and failed to mention that she let the house out as rooms like an HMO and got them to rebate the council tax she had paid and then gave the names of myself and the other lodger to the council saying that we were liable for the tax.

Any advice on what to do or where we stand?

The whole reason I went from renting my own place to sharing houses was to save money so that I could be debt free in a couple of years and get into a good financial position...felt like I was well on my way until this summons appeared and now I'm properly stressed out!!

CIS

IF you rented only a room in the property and you were only responsible for the rent on that room then the landlord remains liable by law (Council Tax (Liability for owners) regulations 1992).

IF you became joint tenants (e.g a whole property rent and you chose amongst yourselves to split it between you) then you would be liable for the Council Tax due UNLESS you can argue that it remained the landlords 'sole or main residence'. It would usually remain your landlords 'sole or main residence' if she left only for work purposes and could return to the property as her home if she needed to. IF this is the case the your landlord would remain liable for the Council Tax due (section 6 of the local government finance act 1992 - the 'hierarchy of liability'.)

browneyedbazzi

Thank you CIS...We didn't become joint tenants, each of us had a separate agreement for the rent of each room and paid separately.

Do you think it's best to call/write to the council again before the hearing date to try to sort it out or just go and explain on the day?

Your advice is really appreciated!

CIS

Try and do it in advance as its much easier and less hassle all round - the magistrate is quite tied on liability issues and really all he can do is to either grant the Liability Order on the basis of the council's info or he can adjourn (its very unlikely to be thrown out).

Your advice is really appreciated!

I'm always willing to help. Although I work in a council tax department I always try to advise people based on the actual legislation.

andyuk101_2

Quick Question

Ive just received a court date for unpaid council tax

Moved out of a shared flat at the end of Nov, agency updated the council with an old work address and i assume all requests / reminders went to this work address

If they had been sent to the flat i would have actually got them as i had a redirection set up :mad:

Im not disputing the owed council tax (although the £100 fee is a little steep) but would like time to try and contact the other people who shared the flat - they were sent summons as well but to my old work address? and are unaware of this

What are the chances of the council cancelling or delaying the summons in light of this?

My guess is fairly minimal in which case ill pay everything myself before the court date but just wanted check

I only found out about this when i bumped into an old work friend and they mentioned the letters

Thanks

CIS

TBH the council can argue that they issued the documents to the last known contact address - its the tax payers responsibility to ensure that they advise the council of the correct address to use.

The council may decide not to pursue the summons against the other occupiers but if they have sent the documents in good faith to that address they could argue service was legally made to the last known contact address.

You need to speak with the council regarding the summons and see what they say.

andyuk101_2

CIS

Thanks for the quick response

I assumed bills would go to the old address and by virtue of the redirection service i had setup come to me - i wasnt expecting the agency to give the council my work address from 3 years previously as a forwarding address

Seems easier to just pay up and try to recover a portion back from the other flatmates

I assume that if i log onto the council website and make a payment in the usual manner to clear everything down the summons will be cancelled? or do i need to follow up on the payment in any way? - The letter was a little unclear on this

Thanks