Council Tax arrears demanding payment

[dgs]

In a nutshell my daughter received a final notice for 2016/2017 today for full amount no £157.82 (reminder sent 5th Sept) and saying if full payment is not received by this Friday (which she wont be able to)
the magistrates court will be asked to issue a summons and will result in additional costs of £85 on top, ending by saying I hope this will not be necessary and look forward to receiving your payment.
Yours faithfully. Taxation section.

My daughter on receiving this letter emailed the council tax office and received this reply.
Thank you for your email
The only circumstances under which we could remove the final notice would be if you were to pay all the missing instalments by the end of this week.
The missing payments add up to £92.82 and payment would restore your instalments for the remainder of the financial year.
If you are unable to do this you will be issued with a court summons in due course Not affecting your credit rating and you need not attend.
If you contact us at that point we would be able to set up a payment arrangement for you to spread the balance over the rest of the financial year but it would include £85 costs.
I will keep an eye on your account over the next few days and if you do pay the £92.82 by the end of the week I will withdraw the final notice.

Question ............................ She has asked for the £92.82 to be spread with the normal payments until the end of march 2017 but they are not playing ball.

Nothing we can do ?

[Kati]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

@Crazy council [MENTION=62334]Snoopy1948[/MENTION] ... any ideas

[Indebt]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

In a nutshell my daughter received a final notice for 2016/2017 today for full amount no £157.82 (reminder sent 5th Sept) and saying if full payment is not received by this Friday (which she wont be able to)
the magistrates court will be asked to issue a summons and will result in additional costs of £85 on top, ending by saying I hope this will not be necessary and look forward to receiving your payment.
Yours faithfully. Taxation section.

My daughter on receiving this letter emailed the council tax office and received this reply.
Thank you for your email
The only circumstances under which we could remove the final notice would be if you were to pay all the missing instalments by the end of this week.
The missing payments add up to £92.82 and payment would restore your instalments for the remainder of the financial year.
If you are unable to do this you will be issued with a court summons in due course Not affecting your credit rating and you need not attend.
If you contact us at that point we would be able to set up a payment arrangement for you to spread the balance over the rest of the financial year but it would include £85 costs.
I will keep an eye on your account over the next few days and if you do pay the £92.82 by the end of the week I will withdraw the final notice.

Question ............................ She has asked for the £92.82 to be spread with the normal payments until the end of march 2017 but they are not playing ball.

Nothing we can do ?

Once a final notice is issued, the whole years tax is due within 7 days. The council are not even required to give you the option of bringing the repayments up to date. The fact that they are is a good thing. Your daughter needs to somehow borrow the £92 and pay it before Friday, in order to avoid the additional £85 being added.

You will not succeed in getting the £92 spread out in payments until March.

[dgs]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Ok thanks for your prompt reply.
She has obviously ignored reminder letters.

[Indebt]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Yes- She will have had defaulted twice previously. On the 3rd occasion, she loses the right to pay by instalments.

I'm sorry it's not the news you wanted but it will still be in her interests to borrow the £92 in order to avoid the summons costs being added. She is lucky to have this option-Not all councils are as accommodating and will push through with the summons, unless the entire year is paid in full.

[dgs]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Ok.
I have asked her to attend the hearing and make her case that she did make representations to pay with it all spread but they said no and it would have to go to court and pay the extra and then spread it.

[Indebt]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

They are backed by statute

It is all within the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1.../contents/made

Paying until March is not an option. Your daughter will be wasting her time going to court-There is no case that she can make sadly.

As I said, the only way to avoid the £85 is to pay the money by Friday.

[Snoopy1948]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

In a nutshell my daughter received a final notice for 2016/2017 today for full amount no £157.82 (reminder sent 5th Sept) and saying if full payment is not received by this Friday (which she wont be able to)
the magistrates court will be asked to issue a summons and will result in additional costs of £85 on top, ending by saying I hope this will not be necessary and look forward to receiving your payment.
Yours faithfully. Taxation section.

My daughter on receiving this letter emailed the council tax office and received this reply.
Thank you for your email
The only circumstances under which we could remove the final notice would be if you were to pay all the missing instalments by the end of this week.
The missing payments add up to £92.82 and payment would restore your instalments for the remainder of the financial year.
If you are unable to do this you will be issued with a court summons in due course Not affecting your credit rating and you need not attend.
If you contact us at that point we would be able to set up a payment arrangement for you to spread the balance over the rest of the financial year but it would include £85 costs.
I will keep an eye on your account over the next few days and if you do pay the £92.82 by the end of the week I will withdraw the final notice.

Question ............................ She has asked for the £92.82 to be spread with the normal payments until the end of march 2017 but they are not playing ball.

Nothing we can do ?

I am afraid that the council is right in what they say. It's tough for the council tax payer but alas everyone has to be treated the same otherwise others can quote any other action as 'acceptable to one, acceptable to all'.

The problem with council tax is that is unlike any other utility, if that is the right word, and as such it is enshrined in laws that sometimes don't make sense. Plus I wonder how many people are aware that committal to prison is an option where there is wilful refusal to pay or culpable neglect is shown?

People who receive final demands should take every opportunity to make the missing instalments up to date with speed ( and establish a plan to pay the remaining instalments before the 1st April of the following year ) as, in this case, it saves the £85 summons fees. As for not affecting credit ratings, that is true, even though councils have been talking for years about all liability orders being recorded as such. Frankly, I think that they want to maintain the ultimate penalty of committal to prison and not water that down in any way.

Frankly, your daughter should do everything she can to borrow the £92.82 and agree to maintain instalments from now on. Hard I know but the penalty is much harder.

[dgs]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Thankyou for your thoughts.

[lgfa92]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Ok.
I have asked her to attend the hearing and make her case that she did make representations to pay with it all spread but they said no and it would have to go to court and pay the extra and then spread it.

The court can't order it to be spread out (unless it was a committal to prison hearing), the court can only grant or refuse the liability order application.

Withdrawing a final notice is an unusual step for a council - when I worked for one we tended not to do it as (in most cases) they'd already had plenty of warnings. It's actually good news the council are engaging in this option.

What is the case however is that once they withdraw the Final Notice then she will have her instalments re-instated. At that point she can choose to take her payments over the 12 month instalment plan to March 17 (this means instalments are spread over 12 for a full year, decreasing as the year goes on). It is a statutory option inserted in to the regs under SI3086/2012 and the council have no powers to refuse her option to pay this way (as long as she hasn't lost the right to pay by instalments).

LGFA92

[dgs]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

So £157.82 + £85 divided by 6 months? Is that what you are saying? Thankyou DGS

[lgfa92]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Sort of, There are currently two possible situations

1) Unless the council withdraw the final notice then she has not right to pay by instalments so the full balance is due. She can ask for a payment arrangement but they can say no and proceed on to issue the summons + costs.

2) If they withdraw the final notice then they automatically re-instate the right to pay by instalments. At that point she can then ask to be put on the 12 month stautory instalment plan (or however many months are left to March) and then pay the balance by instalments up to the end of the year (in this situation they cannot refuse to change the istalment plan).

LGFA92

[steffni99]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Challenge the claim for costs, which you haven't agreed to and are definitely not reasonably incurred. The costs are based on a projection-a guess- based, according to Kirklees council, on the ESTIMATED amount of revenue shortfall divided by ESTIMATED number of defaulters. Read the act they try to beat you into submission with- there are provisions in it the council are ignoring. Or more likely hoping nobody knows what they are.

[dgs]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Thankyou for your advice. DGS

[steffni99]

Re: Council Tax arrears demanding payment

Thankyou for your advice. DGS

Read what "outlawgo" had to say in 2012.