Council tax summons cost unreasonable expenditure

[wales01man]

[QUOTE=Cyrus16;n1676835]

Deleted text somewhere Wrote its your right to challenge any decision whether you win is another question you may be liable for other sides costs if you lose though.

[Wylderose]

Good evening Cyrus

I hear your frustration.

If you have received a summons for an outstanding council tax bill, you are within your rights to attend court to defend your case. The local authority will not stop you from doing this.

The level of court costs that are applied after a case has been to court for a liability order have been pre-agreed with the magistrate court and are a fixed fee

If you have read Nicolson v Tottenham Magistrates Court & Anor [2015] you will note that this case was lost at the magistrates court but then went on to a Judicial Review at the High Court.

The Nicholson case was a success at Judicial Review and set a case precedent. The High Court determined that the Magistrates court did not have enough information on which to make a determination on the court costs in the Nicholson case. If the authority had not withdrawn the costs, then the Judicial review would have quashed them, thus making them null and void.

What does this mean for you. If your case has not already been heard at court then go to court and argue your case using Nicholson as your defence and ask the magistrate to assess the reasonableness of the costs under Regulation 34 in light of the High Court decision on Nicholson v Tottenham.

If your case has already been to court and a liability order has been obtained then you have 21 days to lodge an appeal under section 111 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980.

Alternatively you can make a formal complaint to the authority with a request for a breakdown of the reasonable costs incurred and ask that the liability order is removed. You can also ask the authority to apply to the magistrates court to have the liability order quashed. If you fail to get satisfaction this way, then you have the option of taking your complaint to the Ombudsman. There is no guarantee of success but there is also no cost to yourself

Good luck

[Cyrus16]

you may be liable for other sides costs if you lose though.

Thanks, I don’t think there will be extra costs should I lose because the cost of obtaining a liability order has been included into the summons fee. So I don’t think there’s anything to lose in that respect.

[Cyrus16]

If your case has already been to court and a liability order has been obtained then you have 21 days to lodge an appeal under section 111 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980.

This is very helpful thanks. It hasn’t yet been to court but there is a date set for this Tuesday and I will attend.

The council has already sent a breakdown of costs (I have attached this in bold on original post), but there are some costs I disagree with, such as allowances for advertising, staff pensions and other general unrelated council departments.

I will provide an update based on how the hearing goes.