Liability Orders

[trlnurse]

I wonder if someone can explain to me how liability orders work. I received a liability order in November for my 2010/11 council tax. I completed the income and expenditure sheet and return it. In December I received a phone call regarding my I&E we discussed and agreed to make payment of £200 per month from January. Last week I received another Liability order for a different amount of the same year.

My confusion comes as to why they would split my council tax for 2010/2011. After I spoke with them in December and put an arrangement in place, why did they then take me to court for another liaibility order? This has obviously now cost me another £150, which in total is £300 charges for the liability orders.

Any advice on this would be appreciated.

[Amy]

Re: Liability Orders

I would imagine this is an error and you will need to ask them to confirm which figure is correct.

[Swingletree]

Re: Liability Orders

This has just happens to a case that I have been dealing with. It turned out that the person 'lost' some of DWP benefits which in turn loss them Council Tax Benefit.

An additional amount of CT owing is not allowed to be piggy backed unto an existing Liability Order, it is a separate amount and will need to be dealt with in a separate way, hence a new round of charging.

However what you have to note is that the second LO has to be set up after the Council goes through a new set of protocol, ie reminder letter, final notice, magistrates summons, liability order.

I mention more of this here;-

The Collection Enforcement Recovery of Council Tax - Legal Beagles Consumer Forum

You need to go back to the Council, preferably in writing, and ask for a breakdown on each Liability Year, going back to whatever year there was first arrears.

The councils are looking for money and they are going back over past years accounts. In my experience they do not seem to be giving much explanation as their argument that they seem to be using is along the lines of "The CT Bill that we send contains information that the law requires us to include". In reality this usually means a set of figures that make little sense at all, particularly when there are problems such as yours.

Hope this helps and does not confuse the situation