do i have to do time????

[jules2008]

Hello i have not been on this brilliant site for quite a while and things have improved slightly but i am still having financial issues and at this time i am facing a court case for non payment of council tax.

the reasons for it to come to this have been payment plans set up by the council and myself just have not been kept to on my part due to the fact i have not had the monies. Not because i am refusing to pay.

After living in fear for the last say 12 months dreading answering the door in case i am being invaded by baliffs that i will not be able to cope with, finally i have a letter inviting me to come to court.

I am quite intimidated by the whole thing.


My reasons for unable to pay have ranged from unemployment to lodgers leaving and the council not sorting out rent arrears quick enough, also i have a court case with the employment tribunal for non payment of wages which has very ironically been postponed 3x due to the fact they dont have any judges to hear my case.
( i will do another post for this very issue too)

I am peeved by this as they will have a judge for my court case on the 9th July for non payment of council tax.

what do you make of all this.

can anyone help.

what can i expect from the court case will i be stung with yet more charges that i cant afford to pay ontop of the money i cant pay already,also do they not realise that i was finding it difficult to stick to the payment plan so how will going to court help as in if they do a payment plan that i cant pay what is the point????

[Amy]

Re: do i have to do time????

Have you actually spoken with the council and informed them each time you have been unable to pay and why?

Do you already have a liability order against you?

[jules2008]

Re: do i have to do time????

hello and no i have not spoken to the council about anything as i did not think they would take into account anything i had to say and no i dont have a liability order against me.

[WendyB]

Re: do i have to do time????

well if you don'thave a liability order against you then that is probably what the court date is for, and the liability order will probably be granted, I would think. As to noit contacting the council because you didn't think they'd listen, well sorry but that's not much of an excuse. The court would take the view that you could have sorted it out if you had bothered to contact the council. Sorry if that sounds harsh but I'm just telling it the way it is. If you had contacted the council and arranged an affordable payment plan then you might not have been living in fear of the bailiffs.

You should contact the council, in writing, and expalin everything regarding your situation. If they don't know then they can't help can they? Don't be forced into making payment plans you know you can't afford to keep, becuase that just makes thingsa worse, when you break an arrangment they escalate it to the next step ie the bailiffs etc.

And remember, you can't be sent to jail for not being able to pay, only for refusing to pay.

[jules2008]

Re: do i have to do time????

ok thank you so much i do tend to get myself in a bit of a state about these things
and when i did contact the council to explain things and set up a plan i could not stick to it because they would not except a reasonable amount and things change a bit as my lifestyle is very unpredictable at times with the current financial situation. So in the end i guess i gave up with contacting the council.

But thankyou for explaining.

my next question is what does having a liability order mean and does this affect my credit rating further i am not that bothered about this at the moment as my credit rating is bad at the moment anyway.

[Amy]

Re: do i have to do time????

Local councils are not the easiest of people to deal with or the most understanding when it comes to most things let alone council tax, but like Wendy says, it is not a crime to be unable to pay your council tax.

A liability order is simply a list of debtors owing council tax which is presented to the magistrates' court by the relevant local council and is usually rubber stamped thereby giving the local council the authority to send the debt for enforcement via a bailiff unless the debtor pays what is due.

The only way to avoid a liability order is if you are not the person named or the amount has already been paid.

Once you know you will automatically be given a LO then you absolutely must make an arrangement to pay or the debt will be sent to a bailiff company for enforcement - and you really do not want that.

[WendyB]

Re: do i have to do time????

You need to speak to the council asap, you can do this before the liability order is made, doesn't really make much difference, well it didn't with my council anyway, who i have to say have been quite good. What they will be looking for is for you to pay this current years and an amount on top for any arrears. Once you have made an arrangment as Amy says, you have to keep to it otherwise it might end up with the bailiffs. Another scenario is that the council could do an attachment of earnings, in which case theere would be a set amount deducted from your net wages every month, if this happens the amount is non- negotiable, it varies depending on what your net wages are, but you don't get any say in the matter. They can also do attachments from unemployment befit too, I believe. I know this can seem a pain but tbh I found it much better, no excuses for not paying, no spending it accidentally, it's gone before you get it and that's that.