Got a problem with my Council Tax, any advice well received.
October 08, my direct debit was cancelled (dont know by who, them or me??) anyway I noticed payment had not been made to them in January 09, so I called them (they had not sent me a reminder) and they said I will have to top up my payments, I accepted this, filled out new direct debit forms and forgot about it. I have just changed jobs, payment dates changed, so I was changing the dates of my DD's, guess what no monies have been taken by the Council. I called them 3 weeks ago to point this out, I told them I cant pay all the arrears in one go so we verbally arranged an over payment. Yesterday I got a summons to appear at magistrates court for non-payment. I spoke to a 'Manager' at the the council he has refused to drop the summons unless I pay in full, I cant afford £1900 so I guess I have to go to court and hopefully the magistrate will see my side. If I had not pointed out that they had not had payment foe 8 months then I wouldn't be going to court. Do much for honesty.
Any help gratefully received, I cant afford abrief BTW!!!
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I've paid up fully but was taken to court as they "had no records of payments".
Had to dig out the last 3 years reciepts........
Finally accepted them, but somehow they "were not in the wrong".
My GF had this issue last year and sad to say they forced her to pay up £1200 in one go.
Sorry fella I know it doesn't sound good i reccomend seeing the CAB.
Isn't it reassuring that some incompetant minion who hates their dull job at the local council, can just mindlessly issue a court summons rather than apply common sense negotiations .....?
I wonder who pays their salary?
Speak to your bank to find out who cancelled the Direct Debit?
Did you send off the new Direct Debit forms in Jan09? - If they've lost the forms then they're being unreasonable
Have you got a name of the person who agreed the payment plan? - They should have made a record on your Council Tax record.
Speak to the local Government Omsudsman - They might be able to help. Councils don't like complaints
http://www.lgo.org.uk/
Failing that, log a Data Protection Act "Subject Access Request" with the Council. (Go to their website and search for Data Protection Act - it should bring up a link telling you the specific person to contact). It'll cost you a tenner, and they've then got a certain amount of time to come back with all the details they hold on you, so you can check and request corrections if necessary. It's also a monumental faff to do, and will probably piss them off immensely, which you may or may not consider a bonus.
Before you get to the ombudsman you have to lodge a complaint with the council itself. Ring them up and ask them for a complaints leaflet and get a name.
Might be worth writing to the court itself seeking a new hearing date if they have failed to provide you with enough time to prepare.
If for any reason your case is not upheld, you will also be liable for court costs and the council's, erm, 'expenses'.
October 08, my direct debit was cancelled (dont know by who, them or me??) anyway I noticed payment had not been made to them in January 09, so I called them (they had not sent me a reminder) and they said I will have to top up my payments, I accepted this, filled out new direct debit forms and forgot about it. I have just changed jobs, payment dates changed, so I was changing the dates of my DD's, guess what no monies have been taken by the Council. I called them 3 weeks ago to point this out, I told them I cant pay all the arrears in one go so we verbally arranged an over payment. Yesterday I got a summons to appear at magistrates court for non-payment. I spoke to a 'Manager' at the the council he has refused to drop the summons unless I pay in full, I cant afford £1900 so I guess I have to go to court and hopefully the magistrate will see my side. If I had not pointed out that they had not had payment foe 8 months then I wouldn't be going to court. Do much for honesty.
Any help gratefully received, I cant afford abrief BTW!!![/quote]
Don't panic too much about the Court Date not being dropped. That is standard practice for Council Tax debts. The way a Council Tax debt is managed is very different to the way rent arrears etc are handled. Council Tax debt is dealt with in much the same way as a debt owed to a finance company or something similar. You also have to consider the legal requirement to pay.
Get clarification of exactly what they mean by not dropping the court case. Because they have said that doesn't mean that they haven't accepted your repayment plan. The chances are they will simply go to court and advise the magistrate that a repayment plan has been agreed and that no further action is required. The magistrate will then adjourn the case. This makes it easier for the Council to reinstigate proceedings if you default. They simply ask for a new hearing and don't have to go through the whole process again.
As long as they advise you that the case is going to be adjourned you will not get hit with any court charges either.
In my experience, "friendly" magistrates are few and far between in these instances. If you get into a tit for tat about who cancelled direct debits and didn't sort it out etc they will always favour the Council. You don't want that as you could end up with a judgement demanding full payment.
Not sure where you are based, but if you are dealing with Greenwich Council get in touch with Greenwich Housing Rights & or Plumstead Law Centre. Both offer free advice and representation in these sort of matters.
As long as the total claim is under 5k and allocated to the small claims track an order for costs will only be given if one side has acted 'unreasonably'
Then email one of your councillors. If you don't know who they are, the council website will be able to tell you. Email just one and say that you have not emailed the other councillors - often people email the three councillors in a ward and everyone thinks someone else is handling it. Explain the problem, attach/include the timeline.
Unfortunately you will have to pay the council tax. The task is to get an affordable series of payments worked out in writing. (Despite your bad experiences with DD they will want them done in that way, so check every month that it has happened). The other task is to get the court case dropped and charges removed from your account. In my experiences councils do this, but if the charges stay on then you will need to look closely at who is at fault for the DDs not happening.
If it turns out that you have rubbish ward councillors who don't act then your MP is not a bad place to go to. CABs etc can also help but can find it harder to get access to the council officers that make decisions on matters like this.
Send a whisper thingy if I can help more.
They wouldn't come to an agreement about payment and went to court.
I ignored that too.
Ignored a few more letters and waited for them to pass it on to collectors who were more than happy to come to an agreement of £5 a week.
Bit of a risk but could work out alright.
The expenses worked out to £75
Jeezuz H Christ.....What sort of 'sound advice' is that dd....you end up with a fecking court order against you ....an absolute nightmare for ones credit rating etc!
Thanks to all once again.
BTW I live near Gravesend!!!
Cheers
You should threaten to take your story to the media and cause them serious embarrassment, I happen to be aware of a blogger from the Standard haha.
By issuing a summons in the Magistrates Court, your Council will be seeking what is called a 'Liability Order'. All this means is that you are liable for the Council Tax. Most Councils will be happy to make an arrangement with you to pay the Council Tax, plus any costs incurred in the granting of the Liability Order by the Magistrates. They will hold that Liabity Order and no further action will be taken provided you adhere to the arrangement.
If you default, the Liability Order gives the Council the right to take further action - this may be the passing of the debt to bailiffs (further costs will then be incurred by you); an Attachment of Earnings Order whereby your employer has to make deductions from your salary at a set down rate; an Attachment of Benefit (if you are in receipt of JSA); placing a charging order on your house (the debt has to be of a certain amount - can't remember what that is as it was a few years ago that I last worked in a Council Tax department and in my expereince was hardly ever used!).
Ultimately you can be sent to prison if you do not pay, however that is a very last resort and is usually only done when bailiffs have been unable to collect the debt and you have been asked to attend a committal hearing at a Magistrates Court and have not adhered to any order they make.
A Liability Order is not like a criminal conviction, so apart from having to pay the extra costs, as long as you stick to any arrangement made, it is not too bad. When I worked in a Council Tax department, we sometimes advised people that we would ask the Magistrates to grant the Liability Order, but as long as they stuck to the arrangement, we would write off the costs involved at the end. You don't even need to attend the court for a Liability Order Hearing. You will probably find that several hundred other people have also been summonsed to the same hearing and the Council and Court would be in big trouble if everyone attended! If you don't attend, then a Liability Order will be granted in your absence.
The only time you would be in trouble by not attending court is if you are summonsed to a Committal hearing - then failure to attend would result in a warrant for your arrest being isssued. As you readily agree that you owe the Counci, Tax, then there should be no problem in the Council accepting an arrangement.
Hope this helps.
They will steadfastly only accept direct debits at 2 different dates in a month. WHY? I pay all my other direct debits at the start of the month without exception and it is no bother for anyone else. I'm trying to give them money at the end of the day (I won't go into how much I despise this grotesque tax).
They won't send binmen back to clear up the mess they make collecting bins but if you forget to pay a months installment they are onto you like a shot. Pigs.
Thanks to all my cyberbuddies for their help and advise.
Cheers
Glad you got it sorted.
So you're paying off £1900 at £20 a month then? A right result for you obviously but surprised they agree to that seeing as it's way less than what you'd pay each month if you'd been paying it normally each month.
So basically the whole thing was a complete waste of time and they could've just accepted what you initially offered to pay them?