Council Tax - Court Summons

Eager_Elephant

Hi

If the debt is paid before the court date then the summons fee is not payable so get it paid asap.

It is not the same as a CCJ and Council Tax does not show on credit reports.

If the court date has passed there would have been no point contacting the court, all the judge cares about when he issues the liability orders at the hearing is whether the debt has been paid or not.
He does not care about anything else unless there has been an error by the council.

I suggest the agency pay the council tax from your account or whatever you do and ask them to stump up the fee for the summons (if the court date has passed) as it is their fault.

voyagerbear

Thank you, that's excellent. They can do it today....absolutely no reason for me not to have paid.

John_Pierpoint

As Council tax is a normally the personal liability of the occupant(s) how come you are paying it anyway?

CIS

As Council tax is a normally the personal liability of the occupant(s) how come you are paying it anyway?

Thats a good question to ask - there are situations where the absent landlord is still liable but its hard to say if this is correct in this case without further information.

f1r31c3r

distance_rq wrote: »

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.

There is a great section on the governments website about who is liable for council TAX. Everyone is. The TAX is to fund public services. Student or not you still are liable for council TAX. The bad part about it is that they never tell you there is help out there for unemployed weather your on benefits or your a student. Put basically your unemployed so you need to fill in the correct forms.
If your working while you study then of course your income must be taken into consideration but you need apply for council TAX benefit if your on low income. The law says you need £67.50 to live on a week so if you earn less than this you can apply for council TAX benefit until your circumstances improve.

Most people earn about £10.00 over this so there screwed(me included lol) but hey what needs paying needs paying. I got my recent breakdown on what council TAX goes to and why it has gone up and the police seem to need more money. 90% of the cost is specifically for the local council woooooot they dont even do anything lol. Anyway get educated in the field and get your correct aplications in ASAP or you would have a long struggle to correct it.

Current legislation states if you default on an outstanding balance weather its calculated inaccurately or not twice in the financial year april to april then you get a summons that is NOT reversible even if you pay the council TAX the summons will still need paying as well, its a very broken system.

The only way to reverse a summons is if you show valid reason why you did not pay your council TAX or if you can prove that it is the council that was in error.
Once a summons is issued to the court it can not be refunded from the court so the council lumber you with the cost weather you pay the council TAX or not.

As i mentioned in my last post you have the right to dispute it and should go to the court hearing and put your case forward to the judge(provided you have a valid case) that is one of the only ways the summons can be removed. Of course the council will have to fork the summons cost(or would that be the public, seen as its public money) Its a broken enforcement system it really is and its been like this for over 20 years.

Second and possibly the only other way to get the summons removed is to prove that the council made a mistake or are in error, something went drastically wrong etc. If this is the case then they would remove it and you wont need to go to court to dispute it. The enforcement officer would review and investigate the case and your claims.

Its a real pain in the !!! lets just put it that way, thats why most people just bend over and let rover take over, pay it and move on.

Guess some people are fighters others are not.

Hope this helps someone, sorry for my spelling its late night.

kunekune22

I don't think this one has been dealt with but confess I haven't read through all the posts.

We moved to Australia in June of last year. In January, the council tax holiday ended and, apparently, we were sent a bill. It never arrived. Nor did the reminder. Other mail has arrived, including a bill for this year's council tax. Hubby emailed to let them know that the property was now tenanted and was told a summons had been issued. We have never received any mail about this - a likely explanation is that the mail from the council that did arrive had been sent to Australia by domestic second class mail!!!!

We don't dispute liability but finding the money in under two weeks is going to be difficult. What are the chances of avoiding judgment and, if possible, the 'costs' part of the final bill?

CIS

We don't dispute liability but finding the money in under two weeks is going to be difficult. What are the chances of avoiding judgment and, if possible, the 'costs' part of the final bill?

Next to none - as long as the council have sent you the documents required (bill, reminder etc) then it counts as good service.

The court will consider if a) you are the liable party and b) the documents have been served correctly. It appears that both of these have been met so the cout would grant the liability order.

kunekune22

But isn't it a bit ridiculous if the documents were sent using an amount of postage that was doomed to be insufficient? Were they returned to the council? We have no way of knowing. The only one that reached us was a single sheet - presumably these others were thicker.

I realise that 'service' has a technical meaning. But the fact remains that we have not received the summons and they now know we haven't (they could say we're lying but our contact with them and updating as to our address would suggest that was unlikely). Without the summons, we don't even have the information needed to respond - all we have right now is an email that claims that we owe money and that letters were sent.

CIS

But isn't it a bit ridiculous if the documents were sent using an amount of postage that was doomed to be insufficient?

Being sent by standard postage wouldn't be insufficent - do you mean it was sent just with a Royal Mail 2nd Class stamp ?

I realise that 'service' has a technical meaning. But the fact remains that we have not received the summons and they now know we haven't

The law is on their side * - proof of postage is of receipt unless the mail is returned to the council.

I'm not saying it is happening with you but (and I'm not exaggerating) a good 80% + of all cases I deal with state they have never received the bill or reminder but the summons always arraives. This is one of the reasosn the law works on the basis of proof of postage is sufficent for delivery.

* IF it was sent with a Royal Mail stamp for UK post only then it gives you an argument that service wasn't correct. On the system I use (and most councils use the same) there is a specific option to identify an address as 'abroad' so they can be indentified for postal reasons.

f1r31c3r

kunekune22 wrote: »

I don't think this one has been dealt with but confess I haven't read through all the posts.

We moved to Australia in June of last year. In January, the council tax holiday ended and, apparently, we were sent a bill. It never arrived. Nor did the reminder. Other mail has arrived, including a bill for this year's council tax. Hubby emailed to let them know that the property was now tenanted and was told a summons had been issued. We have never received any mail about this - a likely explanation is that the mail from the council that did arrive had been sent to Australia by domestic second class mail!!!!

We don't dispute liability but finding the money in under two weeks is going to be difficult. What are the chances of avoiding judgment and, if possible, the 'costs' part of the final bill?

This is very interesting.

I am seeing allot of this on this thread as well as else where. Those that are living abroad and let there property in the UK seem to have a mass delay on the postage and or lack of being informed.

The legislation is set to 14 Days prior to any action to be taken. If the letter takes 14 days to get to you well ouch, another point where the current system is broken.

You have an argument that could well be possible to dispute and have summons cost removed. Your problem begins though with how much is it going to cost you to battle the case from Australia, phone calls and letters etc. Would it cost you more than the summons.

Even after the summons has been issued you are then asked to appear at court to show why you have not paid your council TAX. I think you have valid reasons why it has not been paid on time. So how can you put your case forward from Australia?

Even after a summons and or the hearing has occurred it is then a collection process so you can still arrange a payment plan, you would just have to pay the outstanding amount including a summons cost. They dont charge interest you know lol, its not the dirty bankers.

Place in your complaint as the system has failed to work for you correctly. You have a valid complaint in my opinion so get it sent in. You can do it by email on the local councils website, even raise an e-petition or contact central government direct to express these issues.

Either way in your circumstances it might be better to setup a payment installation option to pay monthly after the hearing if you are unable to complain and get it sorted prior to the date.

During this time i would seriously consider raising the points i mentioned above on how the system does not work in complaints, contacting your local constituent, raise all the problems and express how unfair and broken the system is and how it con be corrected.

When the legislation was written in 1992 the EU was not the way it is today so i guess this was not a big problem back then. Clearly it is now and needs a change to accommodate todays climate.