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Hi, looking for some advice here,
I received a council tax summons for a property I used to own, but sold in July 2021. The bills were sent to my previous address and I didn't receive them. Finally I got a summons at the start of December. On phoning the council, they said the bills related to the period November 2021 to March 2022. I didn't own the property and didn't live there, so as far as I can see I have no liability. I phoned the council and told them this, they took down the details and suggested I emailed them too, which I did.
The court date is 12 January. What I'm worried about is what to do if I don't get a response or the council don't cancel the summons. I had initially thought, worst case I show up to court with evidence I don't own the property and that would be it. But reading useful threads in this forum like this one:
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...-which-defence
suggests to me that this defence won't be accepted. According to replies on that thread, the only defence is either I already paid (I haven't) or there was something wrong with the procedures of the council (who knows?). Seems bizarre to me but apparently there is no defence that I don't actually owe the tax.
So what are my options?
Best case is council withdraws prior to court hearing but whether they do this is out of my hands. So assuming the worst, and they refuse to withdraw / ignore:
* If I pay them to prevent to court judgement do I have any chance of recovering the money once they accept I did not owe the tax in the first place? It is £700 so not a small amount.
* If I ignore the summons and get a judgement against me what are the implications of that - will I have Bailiffs coming round?
Any help really appreciated. The property is in England. The letter I have states "SUMMONS FOR NON-PAYMENT OF COUNCIL TAX". I still don't have copies of the actual bills which were sent to my previous address.
I received a council tax summons for a property I used to own, but sold in July 2021. The bills were sent to my previous address and I didn't receive them. Finally I got a summons at the start of December. On phoning the council, they said the bills related to the period November 2021 to March 2022. I didn't own the property and didn't live there, so as far as I can see I have no liability. I phoned the council and told them this, they took down the details and suggested I emailed them too, which I did.
The court date is 12 January. What I'm worried about is what to do if I don't get a response or the council don't cancel the summons. I had initially thought, worst case I show up to court with evidence I don't own the property and that would be it. But reading useful threads in this forum like this one:
https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...-which-defence
suggests to me that this defence won't be accepted. According to replies on that thread, the only defence is either I already paid (I haven't) or there was something wrong with the procedures of the council (who knows?). Seems bizarre to me but apparently there is no defence that I don't actually owe the tax.
So what are my options?
Best case is council withdraws prior to court hearing but whether they do this is out of my hands. So assuming the worst, and they refuse to withdraw / ignore:
* If I pay them to prevent to court judgement do I have any chance of recovering the money once they accept I did not owe the tax in the first place? It is £700 so not a small amount.
* If I ignore the summons and get a judgement against me what are the implications of that - will I have Bailiffs coming round?
Any help really appreciated. The property is in England. The letter I have states "SUMMONS FOR NON-PAYMENT OF COUNCIL TAX". I still don't have copies of the actual bills which were sent to my previous address.
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