CT Durham Council and court appearance

[Hagar]

Somewhat annoyed as I have received a summons to appear for non payment of Council Tax of which I knew nothing and had assumed that all was hunky-dory.

In Birmingham the Council issues letters to inform you of a late or failed payment giving you time to organise the payment, here, in this misbegotten County, they seem only to wait until they can send out an A4 sheet of (about 7p worth) printed paper, which costs you £50, with a facsimile and no actual name of the Clerk to the Justices (Magistrates Court?)

I find this reprehensible and rather disgusting. They also threaten a £40 fee IF you're imposed with a Liability Order.

My Lord, these people are greed ridden. I don't have to pay CT as the payment is not in my name, but they wish to enforce an action upon me of which I have no knowledge and no recourse to data.

Now the finest item is I should appear at this court (via bus and train) on my 61st birthday for which I have a previously planned outing, so I will not be going as the outing cannot be cancelled without financial loss.

I'm not asking for advice per se, just making my displeasure known.

Durham County Council thanks for your ineffectual performance and obtuseness, you really need all the CT you can get, to perhaps educate your officials in the basics of humanity and decency.

[Kati]

tagging lgfa92 Crazy council outlawlgo ??

[lgfa92]

Somewhat annoyed as I have received a summons to appear for non payment of Council Tax of which I knew nothing and had assumed that all was hunky-dory.

In Birmingham the Council issues letters to inform you of a late or failed payment giving you time to organise the payment, here, in this misbegotten County, they seem only to wait until they can send out an A4 sheet of (about 7p worth) printed paper, which costs you £50, with a facsimile and no actual name of the Clerk to the Justices (Magistrates Court?)

I find this reprehensible and rather disgusting. They also threaten a £40 fee IF you're imposed with a Liability Order.

My Lord, these people are greed ridden. I don't have to pay CT as the payment is not in my name, but they wish to enforce an action upon me of which I have no knowledge and no recourse to data.

Now the finest item is I should appear at this court (via bus and train) on my 61st birthday for which I have a previously planned outing, so I will not be going as the outing cannot be cancelled without financial loss.

I'm not asking for advice per se, just making my displeasure known.

Durham County Council thanks for your ineffectual performance and obtuseness, you really need all the CT you can get, to perhaps educate your officials in the basics of humanity and decency.

The aspects of council tax billing - demand notice, at least one reminder/final notice - before the summons can be issued are the same across England, there is no difference in the legislation from council to council. This means that the council have to have sent out at least one reminder/final notice prior to the summons. If you did not receive the documents then you need to check with the council as to where they were sent however providing they can show that it was posted to the last known address then you would need to show that you did not received it.

You can turn up at court but unless you can show a procedural error in the process the court cannot refuse to grant the liability order to the council. The costs are at the discretion of the court when they providing they have satisfied the court that the costs are reasonable then it is very unlikely that they will decline to allow the council's costs.

I don't have to pay CT as the payment is not in my name, but they wish to enforce an action upon me of which I have no knowledge and no recourse to data.

The council must think you are otherwise there would not be a summons in your name.

[Kati]

lgfa92 ... out of interest, is there a maximum that a council can charge for producing the summons PRIOR to the liability order being granted?? Hagar has said they're being charged £50, while I've read differing amounts elsewhere (mostly around £20-£30). Any ideas what the max cost would be??

[lgfa92]

lgfa92 ... out of interest, is there a maximum that a council can charge for producing the summons PRIOR to the liability order being granted?? Hagar has said they're being charged £50, while I've read differing amounts elsewhere (mostly around £20-£30). Any ideas what the max cost would be??

There is no legal limit on what they can charge as long as they can demonstrate to the court that the costs are appropriate and cover their incurred costs. Prior to 2015 it wasn't a major issue but the Nicholson case made it clear that councils have to be able to demonstrate why they have set the costs at the level they have - a wise council will already have run the figures past the court anyway to make sure they are happy (saves on a lot of later arguments).

[outlawlgo]

There is no legal limit on what they can charge as long as they can demonstrate to the court that the costs are appropriate and cover their incurred costs. Prior to 2015 it wasn't a major issue but the Nicholson case made it clear that councils have to be able to demonstrate why they have set the costs at the level they have - a wise council will already have run the figures past the court anyway to make sure they are happy (saves on a lot of later arguments).

The problem for the council tax payer is that the Magistrates' court and local authority are on the same side so there is little chance that the court would question the council's calculation. The council could just as easily wave a £90 Electricity bill in front of the Magistrates eyes and have them approved by the court as reasonably incurred.

In respect of the authority in the Nicolson v Tottenham Magistrates' court High Court judgment, most councils do not have regard to any of the criteria laid down determining what costs are permissible and consider their costs are lawful because they have produced a spreadsheet with a series of arbitrary numbers on it.

Durham County Council is a perfect example of a local authority that includes expenditure in its court costs which are not permissible neither in accordance with the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 nor the High Court judgment and the Magistrates' court accepts them.

Durham County Council clearly considers the costs should cover the expenditure incurred in the recovery of Council Tax and the Magistrates' court agrees, however, the law restricts the costs to those reasonably incurred in the process of seeking permission to enforce the outstanding council tax.

19 April 2017

The court costs are incurred and charged in accordance with Regulation [34(7)] of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992.

They currently stand at £90.00 and have not increased over the last two years.

The costs/fees are incurred in two stages £50.00 for the preparation and issue of the summons and a further £40.00 in obtaining the Liability Order.

The Council fully complies with the regulations, which has been demonstrated to the Magistrates Court, and, our costs are comparable with the levels charged by other authorities.

The income generated by these fees does not underpin other services – they are set to recover the costs incurred in the recovery of Council Tax and Business Rates owed to the Council.

The fees are set based on the budgeted costs for the resources required for the recovery process and the assumed volumes of cases that the service will deal with on an annual basis.

[lgfa92]

The main issue is that Nicholson did not fully consider what costs were reasonable, that was not part of the issue which they were considering and the Judge therefore did not go there, in depth. The judge made it clear he was avoiding looking in-depth at the level of costs and so gave comments on them but it was not a full verdict, only obiter dicta.

Until there is a full case on the matter it will be open to interpretation although Justice Andrews comments should be taken in mind by the local authority.

[outlawlgo]

Though there is no reference in the Nicolson judgment to the specific expenditure which can or can not be included, there is enough information to know, particularly in the case of Durham County Council, that expenditure is being recharged to its customers in respect of court costs which the law does not permit. It is clear from the judgment that a billing authority can not lawfully recover the costs incurred which is attributable to the recovery of Council Tax, but this is what Durham admits to.

Even though there is no specific reference it can be deduced for example that no administration cost could be recharged in respect of allocating cases to bailiffs, liaising with the contractor, agreeing payment plans, dealing with customer queries, arranging attachments to earnings/benefits, because these are all elements of work carried out which are attributable to the costs of executing the order after it is has been obtained.