Council tax arrears

jimm24

My local council are taking me to court to petition for bnkruptcy over my council tax arrears,I spoke to the solicitor dealing with this and she said the most time I could get to pay off the arrears is 3 months,if the council accepts!!!!!
Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation,the arrears are supposedly 3k????And some of them are on a house I owned but no one ever lived in,which I thought made it exempt from council tax?

jak

You have to apply to be exempt form council tax, they should let you do this now and backdate it. So ask. Different councils ave different rules re: arrears. Go to them with a SOA and show them how much you can affod to pay each month and try to arrange a payment plan. Also go to cit. advice!
Good luck
X

Cleosmum

You would have had to notify the council that the property was empty for it to be exempt, if you didnt do that then you will be liable Im afraid.

Have you previously tried to come to an arrangement with them to pay? Seems to be quite far along if they are petitioning for bankruptcy.

**Amy**

I have council tax arrears, but not quite as much as you, however i phoned my council up and they said it had to be paid over 3 months.

When i said i couldnt afford it, and that could i spread it out over the 10 months for this years council tax, they agreed.

You need to phone them up/go and see them and explain the situation.

Also explain the situation with the house that no-one lived in as they may be able to help.

xx

jimm24

I did inform them that it was empty.I'll ring them tomorrow see if I can pay it over this year.When I rng them originally they said I had to speak to the solicitors so might have to go to them.
I have since been rebanded and was due a refund etc,but have received nothing from the council until this?

Cleosmum

Check and see if they have applied the refund to the outstanding amount.

**Amy**

Cleosmum wrote: »

Check and see if they have applied the refund to the outstanding amount.

Agreed... councils arent renowned for wanting to wipe debt out/give money back!!

Go through all your documents and check that they have taken the refund fof etc.

x

rog2

jimm24 wrote: »

I'll ring them tomorrow see if I can pay it over this year.

To be honest, jimm, I think that a personal visit would be better than a phone call. I had business rate arrears, a couple of years ago, and received a notification of a 'bailiff visit' - I did phone, but was 'fobbed off' so I went into the Council Office and asked to see someone from the ratings office. It turned out that I was eligible for 'small business rate relief' and was able to pay the balance over three months.
The threat of 'Bankruptcy', for £3,000, would, normally, be just that, if it were a 'normal' creditor - a threat in order to frighten you into making payments - as they are reticent to petition for a debtor's bankruptcy because they need to pay the Court Costs (£590) and solicitor's fees up front, with no guarantee of getting anything back. Public and Civil organisations are, however, not so reticent, since they are less concerned about the cost to risk ratio - after all it's only public money they are spending :mad: :mad: so, please, treat their 'threat' seriously.

jimm24

Will do Rog,I'll get up there tomorrow see if I can get something sorted???????????

cfnc

reported above poster, just ignore them

Burlesque_Babe

it's a troll who is now on ID number 3. It's favourite word is 'scum'......last time said it owned and drove a Bentley and was a stockbroker.......