Council Tax - Court Summons

Mr_Meggo

Thanks for your comments. I suppose my point is: Do the Council have the power to withdraw a summons and cancel the charges if they deem that appropriate.

Update: Just spoke to the Council very politely and they immediately agreed to cancel the summons and charges.

Mr_Meggo

CIS wrote: »

But technically I haven't kept to the instalment plan since August last year when I paid most of the bill.

Which was your choice - technically the moment you went off paying the correct instalment plan they could have summonsed you but common sense meant they just offset the payments against your instalments until you reached the point where the council tax due exceeded the payments made to date and you went behind in your payments.

QUOTE]

This is the sort of cockeyed council logic that I find totally incomprehensible.

CIS

This is the sort of cockeyed council logic that I find totally incomprehensible.

Which is why the council didn't issue a summons straight away - the literal wording of the legislation is that you pay as shown on the demand notice and failure to do so is effectively a default (the legislation isn't written by the councils). They instead waited and offset the amount you had paid against the instalments which were due and only took action once you were behind in payments against what should have been paid to that date.

daveyjp

Council Tax has to be paid in full by end Jan and the default position is for 10 equal payments to be made. If all is not paid by 30 Jan you will be in default. It is done this way to give two months before year end to chase debts prior to closure of accounts.

f1r31c3r

I had to post to this thread because when one searches for anything to do with there council tax and summons this tread is number one.

I see allot of posts on this thread that are very defeatist never i mean never think you have lost ever.

Council TAX is a must payment, it pays for fire, police and the needed clean up after all the dumb founded puke !!!!ing !!!! artists of a night around the towns not to mention keeping the rats, plague, filth and so on clean and free from nasty killer disease that we would be suffering from without it.

PAY your council TAX, That said this stupid Summons crap is beyond a joke and scandalous at the least. It is better described as criminal and really after 20 years since Thatcher brought it in during 1992 its time to put a stop to it.

Well not to council TAX but to the way the local authorities handle it. People incorrectly state in this thread that the local bodies handle it the way they do because it is the way government set it that way. No its not.

Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, particularly Regulations 33 to 35

legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/613/contents/made

That is the real deal. Put simply you fail to pay your council TAX twice you are to be summoned to a court to answer why you failed to pay your Council TAX. Bit different to the bull crap your local council give out now aye.

Without any question of a doubt the original legislation was set out to be a guideline with no compromise and not a guide as to how they actually do it. The date January 30th now that makes me laugh. The actual date set out in the regulation is the 1st of march. It is the local authority that sets the 30th because there a lazy bunch on a high wage that just want to sort it sooner so they can get there bonuses. Yes they get rewarded for sorting it before the alleged date of 1st march.

Perverted criminal practice for there own gain and its the TAX payer once again to pay the cost and suffering.

How can they summon you prior to the the 1st march, simple two defaults(failed payment attempts) that means you either failed to pay weather through hardship or you refused to pay. Both are fair but the practice is wrong, see if your paying it but your employer was late on your wages or something went wrong its inevitable that you could not pay that month. To be penalized for that is immoral clearly. Thats where it fails and no where does it say that you should be punished in anyway for missing the first payment or should it be classed as a default. That is the local authorities decision can you see how this becomes corrupted.

The local office could say ok pay double in this month, thats last months payment and this months payment and your back on track but they dont. There too quick to jump on the default slamming the hammer on you.

Fight and you will win, but dont think anyone will show you any justice at all if your in council TAX arrears around the date of 1st of march.

There is an old trick but it dont always work in court, that is you would say " i could not pay the council TAX as that would mean i would agree to pay all the amount" being as your disputing the summons cost thats the inaccurate amount. Problem is those rules apply only to corporations or corporate law. NOT council tax so you can pay your council TAX and leave the remaining summons to be disputed. Of course you would not know that is the case and you thought it was the same rules as any other debt. You have to have a undeniable case that the council were to hasty and you must have all receipts proof that you paid and took paying your council TAX seriously.

Disputing summons costs, you always i mean must 100% always turn up to court charge for expenses but always turn up. How can you defend any further action on the summons costs if you did not turn up at court. Judge might say well why did you not come when you were summoned the first time? get the point. So do not think you can stroll by with the upper hand you need every bit of proof evidence and effort in your defense.

Just remember there criminal scandalous tactics(if we can call them that) carried out by the local councils are subject to the judge just as much as you are thats what justice means, unbiased judgment. Tell the council you will see the hearing as a day out that drives them mad :rotfl:. Never the less build your case and take it to them hard direct and prove you were paying your council TAX if you cant prove you were paying your council TAX then i guess you were not paying it . in that case the summons is a fair price. your summoned for one reason and one reason only, you failed to pay your council TAX.

Scaremongering is another nasty tactic and virtually impossible not to fall for it. If you paid your council TAX though you should be able to handle this disgusting bellow the belt action.

The system is failing and the council need to solve it and fast read my blog post as to there tactics and things that you can do. If you honestly have been paying it then you can fight it and WIN.

distance_rq

This is a new question:

I have basically read through the whole thread and has gained a lot of knowledge about council tax, but still, it seems my question has not been answered yet.

Basically, I'm worried about whether I will receive a summons, seems a bit silly as most people came here to ask questions AFTER they receive the summons but I worry so much so might as well ask here.

My situation is quite simple, I am a full-time student, I know I don't need to pay council tax, but because I graduated last July and started my postgraduate studies in October, I was not considered as a student by the council during this period (To be honest, I was really unpleasant to know this when the lady told me over the phone). I rented my flat in July so the council was charging me 39.97 pounds, that wasn't much so I was going to pay the full amount, but later a bill came with only 13.97 pounds, I didn't know how they did the math so I decided to pay this first and wait for the second one. I guess I didn't stick to my original decision to pay the full amount as I was really reluctant to pay because I feel they are a bit unreasonable to charge me as although I graduated I didn't work and had no income so I still considered myself a student even before my postgraduate study began. The second "bill" came in with the amount 26 pounds in late February, I know that usually they would send a reminder later so I wanted to wait till that (Again, I was reluctant to pay, how foolish I was) and ignored it, but I waited for long and it didn't come, until today when I read the letter again, I suddenly realized it was not a bill after all, it was a second reminder, so I suppose the first one must also be a first reminder. I don't understand why they split the payment and make each one a reminder. Please forgive my ignorance as I came from a different country and English is not my mother language I don't really understand a lot of things especially those that concerns laws and government. I made the payment immediately but it has been more than 14 days since the date of the reminder and I've seen someone in this thread getting a summons after making a late payment so I wonder what will happen to me...

Should I make a call to the city council and ask them? I really don't want to pay the costs (it is 103 pounds in my city) just for the 26 pounds! I know it's my fault for assuming things that didn't happen but I'm a student and I don't have much money and I worry so much!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated! Many thanks!

CIS

I guess I didn't stick to my original decision to pay the full amount as I was really reluctant to pay because I feel they are a bit unreasonable to charge me as although I graduated I didn't work and had no income so I still considered myself a student even before my postgraduate study began

They are not being unreasonable, they have to apply the law - its clear your not a student between courses.

The second "bill" came in with the amount 26 pounds in late February, I know that usually they would send a reminder later so I wanted to wait till that (Again, I was reluctant to pay, how foolish I was) and ignored it, but I waited for long and it didn't come, until today when I read the letter again, I suddenly realized it was not a bill after all, it was a second reminder, so I suppose the first one must also be a first reminder.

Sounds right - you paid the 1st reminder in time so no further action was taken however on the 2nd reminder it appears it was sent within 7 days of the date that your final payment would be due so they roll in the £13.00 from your 2nd payment + the £13.00 due from your final payment.

I don't understand why they split the payment and make each one a reminder

Unless a Council Tax demand is issued between 1 January and 31 March then there are a mandated number of instalments they have to give you. The same goes with number of reminders they have to send you.

Should I make a call to the city council and ask them? I really don't want to pay the costs (it is 103 pounds in my city) just for the 26 pounds! I know it's my fault for assuming things that didn't happen but I'm a student and I don't have much money and I worry so much!

I would recommend you call them - some councils are stricter on dates than others and how strict they are can make a difference as to whether you get a summons or not.

distance_rq

Thanks CIS for your explanations. I won't make assumptions in the future to avoid similar problems.

I called them like you suggested and because I made the payment online on late Sunday night they had not received it yet but should have got it by tomorrow. Now it's like a chasing game I guess because the lady told me over the phone that they have not issued a summons yet but intend to do so in the next few days, I can only cross my fingers to hope that they can see the payment before they will issue a summons. Lesson learnt...

John_Pierpoint

For what it is worth, I got similar treatment from the National Insurance people nearly 50 years ago:

"You ceased being a student when you left the university course in June"

[Well actually I got chucked off the course for flunking the maths component, even at the re-sit, in September (and I spent the summer hitching about the place in N.America before returning to the UK and getting a temporary job to get me through this winter)]
Well that was what I thought - but what I actually said was:

"So what does this mean?"

- You are endangering your benefits and your pension.

[To someone who had just celebrated his 18th birthday (not of any significance in those days) a pension was not a priority, and as pay levels in the UK were about a third of those in N.America, the UK unemployment level was probably below current-day percentages in Hong Kong]
"So?"

"(looking over his half moon glasses).....What is more you will not qualify for maternity allowance!"

[We have the technology now]

Well in those days "students" were a bit of a novelty - only 2.5% of us managed to get to university. They gave up trying to extract the back payments from me.

However in the "swinging 60's" the state only needed 25% of the GDP to be extracted from its citizens to govern them - the present figure is more like 50%, so expect no mercy.

voyagerbear

Good morning. I am an overseas landlord and my property is fully managed by an agent. I have received via the agent,( who has been fully authorised to pay all our bills,) a Council Tax summons.

The bill was received in November and I instructed them to pay it. I have the emails confirming this. However it appears they did not.

Obviously I have now instructed them to sort this out but I should contact the court and the council to explain the situation.

Can anyone please advise me, who I should contact, how I should do this.

Also what are the ramifications of receiving this summons, how does this affect us in the future?

Is this considered as a CCJ? I know nothing about this kind of thing because having reached 60 years of age, I have never been in arrears for anything.

Any advise would be appredciated,

Thank you