Council Tax - Court Summons

le88

Hi everyone - i'm hoping for some advice please!

My housemates and I missed a court summons for a missed council tax payment back in July, summoning us to court on the 23rd August. We received no letters until after the court date - the building that we live in has a terrible post box and we never receive any letters which is a valid excuse but very hard to prove. We've asked the council to contact us via email or phone as a result but they never do, hence the situation we're in now. I was not in the country for the court date but seeing as they say a letter was sent weeks before the court date i'm not sure if that means anything or not.

We were visited by the bailiffs a couple of weeks ago as this payment went undetected (again, no letters received and no message from the council to say this was still outstanding, they continued to take our council tax payments) and ordered to pay the full amount of remaining council tax, which we did, and now we have ironed out all of the problems with payments, finally.

I'm basically asking what kind of repercussions this will have for us - I've spoken to various people and they have all said things along the lines of it ruining your credit rating, or we'll now not be able to get a mortgage for 10 years. Are these true? And are there any others? And is there a way of clearing our names from the court summons now that all the money has been paid?

Any help gratefully received!

Voyager2002

le88 wrote: »

Hi everyone - i'm hoping for some advice please!

My housemates and I missed a court summons for a missed council tax payment back in July, summoning us to court on the 23rd August. We received no letters until after the court date - the building that we live in has a terrible post box and we never receive any letters which is a valid excuse but very hard to prove. We've asked the council to contact us via email or phone as a result but they never do, hence the situation we're in now. I was not in the country for the court date but seeing as they say a letter was sent weeks before the court date i'm not sure if that means anything or not.

We were visited by the bailiffs a couple of weeks ago as this payment went undetected (again, no letters received and no message from the council to say this was still outstanding, they continued to take our council tax payments) and ordered to pay the full amount of remaining council tax, which we did, and now we have ironed out all of the problems with payments, finally.

I'm basically asking what kind of repercussions this will have for us - I've spoken to various people and they have all said things along the lines of it ruining your credit rating, or we'll now not be able to get a mortgage for 10 years. Are these true? And are there any others? And is there a way of clearing our names from the court summons now that all the money has been paid?

Any help gratefully received!

I suggest that you contact the clerk of the Magistrate's court to get answers to most of your questions. Note that all the stuff about ruining your credit record applies to CCJs (County Court Judgments): Council Tax is dealt with through the criminal system, so the consequences are different.

hallowitch

the Magistrate's court wont have any answers all they do is issue liability orders in bulk everything comes from your council


your credit rating is not effected


your council would have sent you letters before the summons was issued and you should have received a letter before bailiffs were instructed to enforce the debt


did you pay the full amount outstanding including bailiff fees ?
who did you pay this to ?
what fees were charged by the bailiff ?

fed_up_and_stressed

NoNoDrama wrote: »

"Fed up and stressed", that comes across very well in your posts i will say.

I didn't say it was the only way to pay, the point was that it's draconian for them not to have it in place. Surely you can't be that dumb that you could not decipher that.

Can someone with actual knowledge of the situation tell me how on earth they come up with £75 costs for a summons?

You are very good and throwing insults calling me dumb, referring to council tax workers as "numpties" but you are the one that couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone and check they had set it up or checked the dd was coming out of the bank or responding to the 1st,2nd or final reminders before it gets to summons stage !!

By the way if you want to know -
The costs raised (by the summons) are to cover the cost of Council Tax collection and recovery. This includes the technological systems in place and employment of staff. Costs collected also cover monies paid to Her Majesty’s Court Service for the use of their facilities.

Ps if you want help i suggest you stop being so rude to people trying to help.

CIS

We've asked the council to contact us via email or phone as a result but they never do, hence the situation we're in now.

There is no requirement for the council to do - they are required to serve all documents by post (unless an ebilling system is in pace and you have registered for it). It would be too difficult for an average sized council to contact people by email or telephone every time a payment is due.

I'm basically asking what kind of repercussions this will have for us - I've spoken to various people and they have all said things along the lines of it ruining your credit rating, or we'll now not be able to get a mortgage for 10 years. Are these true? And are there any others? And is there a way of clearing our names from the court summons now that all the money has been paid?

The only record of the summons is with the court and the council - it's not recorded on your credit rating. The summons record will not be removed as it was issued correctly.

William_Darblay

SalPot wrote: »

Hi
Im not even sure if they have set the DD up come to think of it.. anyways so now I am here. Any advice?

Advise is to ring Council and ask to have summons charge removed (It only costs the Council a few quid because they do it in bulk). If they won't then pay them the whole amount.

Then take them to the small claims court for all the fees and charges plus all your expenses.

The criminal magistrates court is a stitch up where the council rent a room in there and produce fake summonses. However there is no court case unless you refuse to pay Council on the day. The Council is in the court all cosy with the clerk while the magistrates are like rabbits caught in the headlights - doing anything the Council and Clerk tell them. It's like a Putin style stitch up. Makes me wonder why those idiots fought in the 1st and 2nd world wars. The summons will probably even have a fake clerk to the justices signature on it - still no defence in Soviet Britain.

Small claims court is a lot more civil where you sit with a real judge and can present your evidence. Also the judge is not likely to be shagging the Council senior collections officer which is more than can be said for the Magistrates Clerk.

William_Darblay

CIS wrote: »

The only record of the summons is with the court and the council - it's not recorded on your credit rating. The summons record will not be removed as it was issued correctly.

This is nonsense.
The summons is a fake document.
If you contact the Magistrates Court they will not have any record of it.
It is produced purely to lure you to wait in a room at the Magistrates court rented by the council.

Edit: Having said that - they will still probably drop the 'summons' charge if you show good will with a repayment schedule.

lincroft1710

William_Darblay wrote: »

This is nonsense.
.

As is your previous post.

lincroft1710

William_Darblay wrote: »

Makes me wonder why those idiots fought in the 1st and 2nd world wars.

Probably so that we in Britain would be still speaking English rather than German. As most MSErs have/had relatives who fought and possibly were wounded or died in those conflicts, this is an extremely insulting and hurtful comment to make.

LilianaS

Hi everyone

My Husband used to live in a flat 3 months ago. We moved to a new house in the same council. So before moving he called the council to inform we would be moving , asking to charge the same account with the new Direct debit and adding my name to the account. It turns out that they only added our name to the new property but didn't remove his from the previous one. This was in October. In November we've notice that they were charging us for the previous property instead of the new one. I called this time and explained all over again. I was told they would change the address but my husband should call as well since I did not live in the previous property. Before he calls or send an email we have received a letter confirming that the amount paid for the previous property would be refunded. Then I stupidly assumed that everything was ok because they have changed the names/addresses . Then on the second of January we have received a letter informing we should go to court on the 24th of January for non payment for the current address. I panicked! I called them explaining all over again but this time they didn't want to speak to me, only with my husband. After trying to resolve everything over the phone and failing, we sent several emails but haven't received a reply. Then my husband called and made an agreement with them. They transferred the money paid from the old account to the new one, and the rest should be collected by direct debit one day after the hearing (which is the usual payment day) and one month after that they would charge the summons amount, £122. After the agreement we finally got a reply for one of the emails saying that we only changed the direct debit from the old to the new account this January and they would not suspend the summons charges. We did call before, we did ask them to change the direct debit and the address but we have no prove but the phone calls, which are recorded by the council. Now I'm lost and don't know how to proceed. I'm thinking to pay all the debt, even the summons charge which I don't think I deserve, before the summons so it gets canceled but I have bad feeling they are not going to suspend the direct debit for the agreement(direct debits can be hard to cancel unless you do it directly with your bank). And if I pay it all it's going to be a pain to get the summons charge back or they could even decide I'm wrong and I will never get my money back. If I decide to keep the agreement and dispute the charge, I don't really know if we should go to court and explain everything once again or just skip it and pay the agreement(which I was told on the phone by the council I could do it). What should I do? Thanks!