council tax

mspig

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CIS

To get to a Liability Order a bill, at least 1 reminder and a summons must have been issued. A Council will get very reluctant to believe that none of the reminders or summons have been received, its a common excuse we get as people are try to avoid paying, therefore even legitimate cases are treated with scepticism at least at first.

The only people who can remove the costs are the Council.

Paparika

Ask them to send proof of postage, no seriously, been thru that last year, not exact to your case but, i had court costs when i believed i shouldn't.

tax credits failed a lot of people in October 2006 and lots of us didn't get money for 2 months, so i rang ct who didn't want to know when i asked for help, moving along a few months i was taken to court and had £95 court costs, when i rang ct and asked them to explain it they said i had missed 1 months ct. i told them i rang at the time and they called me a liar, i asked if they recorded their phone calls, they said at that time no, so it was my word against the person i spoke to, i proved to them via a telephone bill that i did ring, i also got in contact with tc and told them that i needed proof that i had no money (they happily supplied letter) i also got hold of my local mp, and even with these people on my side it took 6 months of several letters from us all, and no letter back until i got this years bill with no court costs to get the matter solved, yet they couldn't be bothered to write to me to tell me that they had removed the court costs.

be aware that whilst your are trying to sort this out, they will send bailiffs and they will be nasty, don't talk to them or acknowledge them as eventually they will send the bill back to ct.

I fought ct and i won. if you truely believe that you shouldn't of been treated like that then fight, but be prepared for a hard battle. Good luck

CIS

Ask them to send proof of postage, no seriously, been thru that last year, not exact to your case but, i had court costs when i believed i shouldn't.

The dept will be able to provide evidence that it was posted - that alone is sufficient as proof of receipt.

be aware that whilst your are trying to sort this out, they will send bailiffs and they will be nasty, don't talk to them or acknowledge them as eventually they will send the bill back to ct.

Under good practice guidelines most of the councils will not send to a bailiff whilst an acct is under dispute. Before an account is issued to bailiff most councils will allow either a payment arrangement or an attachment of earnings/benefits.

Ignoring a bailiff is not a good idea - once the acct is returned from a bailiff then the council gain extra recovery powers - they can then issue the acct for a bankruptcy or even committal.