in no way am I trying to justify knowing or unknowing late payment of tax disc but since this is what has happened to myself and my husband I am completely shocked to find out that despite it being a genuine mistake, despite us resolving the unpaid fee/new tax disc and wheel clamping fine within days my husband has been sent a court summons more than a year later!!! when I called the DVLA to ask them about it, they had minimal advice to offer on the subject and when I asked to speak to someone in the relevant department I was told that "there is no one you can speak to"??? I really am shocked at this and the lack of external monitoring of the DVLA. How can this be legal? It is such a minor offence in the grand scheme of things, to issue a court summons seems to me not only excessive but a complete waste of time and taxpayers money. I understand that the DVLA issue a court summons to means test the fine amount, fair enough, I don't think its a bad thing to means test such fines but through a court? This is what I can't get over? Being made to feel like petty criminals over a genuine mistake. And I know we are by no means the only people genuine forgetting to update their car tax... However, opinions of this broken system aside, I do need some advice regarding this. Given that it was a difficult time (recent house move, 3yr old twin boys, doing a course OH with full time job, no family near by for support) should we plead "guilty" or "not guilty"? I don't feel guilty about this, mistakes happen, we resolved it with 3 days (over a wk end). having never been in this situation I have absolutely no idea how to proceed and we can't afford to pay for legal advice.... Many many thankyous for any and all advice on this situation...

Hi all, Can anyone shed some light on this please.my sister stupidly signed a speeding summons which said she was driving her boyfriends car at the time.the bugger duped her and now shes faced with losing her licence for sure in court.can she change her plea as ive now pointed out that the date in question she was in a cast with her ankle pinned!!!so its clearly obvious she wasn't driving at the time!!any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Many thanx in advance.

I got stopped for no road tax last November and received the court summons on may 19th and had since forgotten about it. I received a letter from the Court today with a fine, I had missed the court date on the 11th and as a result my fine has exploded to £548 (£400 fine, £58.34 back duty and £90 costs) for no road tax from June til November last year. I was told by a friend that if I complete a statutory declaration that I did not receive the summons, the court date would be rescheduled (as it is within 21 days of the court date) to another date in which i will plead guilty and pay the fine as it was initially intended. I want to reset the court date and pay the fine immediately, and have since booked in to my local magistrates for the coming Friday. I understand there are large consequences with lying while making a statutory declaration. How likely is it and how strongly are they going to question whether or not i received the summons, given that in any case I simply cannot prove something that I did not receive. Appreciate all the feedback. Cheers

Today, I've received a count summons from the council... Background... I get paid on the 6th of the month, I have over the years called the council and asked to setup a direct debit for the 6th (i.e. pay day). They have refused and said the payment due date is the 1st of the month. Each month (for years now), I make a manual electronic payment on or after the 6th of the month. In this case (last month) I got the amount slightly wrong and was £20 in arrears. I did receive a notification letter from them, but thought I'll just add the £20 owed onto the amount next month. I made the full payment on Monday (yesterday), so no outstanding balance on the account. The summons was also dated yesterday. The Council has caused this problem by being really inflexible and not accepting my direct debit payment on the 6th of the month. I'm a little stressed by this all to be honest. Just wanted a view point on what I should do ? any advise ? Where do I stand with it ? I cannot afford to pay the full amount due, but have no problem paying the monthly dues. Thanks.

I have been trying to manage the debts of my Brother-in-law for close on a year. One such debt is Council Tax Arrears and I have been communicating with the Council since May 2013. In fact a letter was forwarded to the Council in June 2013 making an offer of £50 per month, which I estimated, and proposed, would clear the arrears within two years. This allowed the Council to postpone an extortionate Attachment of Earnings Order and accept the monthly payments. However, the Council had split the arrears over two separate accounts and have been wanting repayment proposals for this other account. It would seem reasonable that once the £50 payments had cleared the debt on one account, it should be applied to this secondary debt. Since that time, matters have been confused by the Council, resulting in them imposing an arbitrary £70 per month payment. I have done my best to resolve this confusion. An e-mail was sent to various Council officials on 2nd March repeating the £50 per month offer. There has not been a response to this offer even though a further e-mail has been sent. In view of this, I have exhausted the Council's complaints procedure and now have a complaint being progressed with the Local Government Ombudsman. Notwithstanding that an open communication channel is open, the Council have seen fit to issue a Payment Reminder for 2 x £70 payments dated 20th May and giving 7 days to pay. 3 days later, a summons has been issued! Now, I'm concerned that this Court process is nothing more than a rubber-stamping exercise. The arrears is acknowledged. The current year's tax is being paid regularly and £50 per month towards the arrears is being paid regularly, via Rossendales. So, is it worth going to Court to plead:- - lack of notice between Payment Reminder and Summons; and - Council's liability for ignoring payment offers and confusing issues ; and - the outstanding complaint with the Ombudsman; and - choice of Court location (25 miles away) when a Council Magistrates Court is available within the Council area 5 miles away? I would like to think there is justice in this country and that the Court would acknowledge the incompetence of the Council in this matter. I'm just not sure. Legal Justice appears to be handed out by the rich for the benefit of the rich! Thanks for any comments.

I will try and keep this brief, a bit complicated. I received an offer of a speed awareness course for a speeding offence on 2nd december 2013. Course was booked for 18th february 2014. i couldn't make it so rang TTC and re-arranged for 20th march and paid an admin fee to re-book. On the day of the course my car broke down and I couldn't attend. i rang TTC and they said they would contact the police and request an extension and try and re-book me on another course. They rang me back and offered me another course on 23rd April and asked me send in proof of my breakdown to avoid paying another admin fee which i did. I received confirmation of the new course by e-mail. They rang a week later to say they had not received the proof and wanted me to re-send it or pay another fee. i said I would contact insurance company to see if I could get proof but with no luck. in the meantime i received a conditional offer of fixed penalty from the police. I rang TTC and told them i had received this and he said to ignore it as he had requested my file back from them. I was still getting nowhere with getting the proof and they were asking for another payment. i was being passed from pillar to post and in the end i said i was sick of all the messing about and said I would rather just pay the fine. he said he would send my file back to the police and refund the fees I had paid. I asked what i should do about paying the fine and he said to just wait for the police to contact me again. i have now received a summons to go to court and don't know what to do. i feel i was given bad advice by TTC in telling me to ignore the letter from the police and I am now wondering if they did actually get my file back from the police at all. Has anyone got any advice on what i can do. Can I avoid going to court. I will no doubt have to pay a bigger fine than first offered which i can not afford. I have rang TTc and they say there is nothing they can do even though they admitted it was all in the notes.

Back in December I had a knock on my door from TV Licensing - after reading these threads I realise now I should have told him to go away but quite honestly I don't really care about the tv license and have no problem paying it except I forgot to respond to the demands. Anyway I set up payments there and then, singed his paperwork after we had been talking about fish for half an hour and he went on his way saying no action would be taken. True enough I received a letter some weeks alter saying thank you for payment no further action will be taken following the field officers visit. yesterday I got a court summons for not having a license between November 2013 and December 2013! I phoned them and they said after speaking to the courts administrator that I should reply to the summons but on the day of the hearing they will apply for an order that stays the prosecution until the next hearing date y which time if I have maintained payments they will withdraw the prosecution. I asked for that in writing but was refused. So what the hell should I do - I assume that the license payments are worked out to cover the period I didn't have a licence so surely I had license, albeit retrospective - does this matter/count/make any difference? Secondly, does the fact that they wrote saying no further action have any bearing - I threw the letter out so have no proof of it! And if it goes to court and they do request a stay or adjournment or whatever am I going to get stuck with costs?

Hi - I wonder if anyone of you could help. I relocated to the UK about two years ago and my brother moved back to Italy from UK leaving me his van and my details on that small green DVLA paper. I did not transfer that van into my name and a year and half later sold it to someone. Now i received summon from DVLA that I failed to notify them of change of name with potential £1000 + £90 fine. What to do?????? please help.

Hello all, I'm new here, I have read through some of the blogs and other threads to find advice, but it's quite overwhelming so I thought best to post here my query, apologies if the information is readily found somewhere else I haven't noticed. My father has had a court summons delivered today. The debt is for just under £2000. The original debt was Vanquis credit card, it was then sold to Lowell. Yuill and Kyle are now dealing with it. He had the credit card in 2008 and defaulted in 2010 and hasn't paid anything since. He has had all the phonecalls and letters as usual but he has ignored them all (buried his head in the sand), he hasn't ever requested anything from them. Obviously now he realises he has has to deal with this now, but he has no idea what to do and will struggle to pay this money, and is very worried about the prospect of court. Can anyone advise me on what he can do? My mum used this site for info regarding a PPI claim and it helped her immensely, hoping someone can help with this issue...... Thanks,

I have received a Summons, having overstayed approx. 20 mins in B & Q car park, Sutton on 12/12/13. I ignored the initial correspondence, having looked at advice which I think was out of date. Can someone help me to deal with this. The time limit was 2hrs and 45 mins. The summons is for £85 amount claimed, court fee £15, solicitor's costs £50 - total £150.

Hi all, I'm a Dutchman living in Reading for the moment to finish my MA. A week ago I was surprised to receive a summons for non-payment of council tax. In February, three months after I applied for it, I received an exemption for the payment of council tax because I am a student. I hadn't paid anything until that point, because I knew that I would get the exemption. I did not receive any mail from the council after receiving the exemption. I moved into my apartment before the start of the academic year however, and now I received a summons for not paying my council tax for this period of c. 25 days. The council tax charge amounts to £52.44, but to it have now been added Summons Costs of £68.00. This increase of 130% (!) means that my total charge is now £120.44. I have been in contact with three people so far, and they all say that two letters were supposedly sent to remind me to pay this fee. I did not receive these letters, but this is of course my fault as their system and Royal Mail are infallible. I've tried to explain that there would be no advantage for me to ignore these letters, yet act on the Summons, but of course they don't (want to) understand this. When I offer to pay the normal tax charge, but not the costs they all tell me that they don't have the authority to waive the costs. I am willing to head to court in May, but the letter states that another £40.00 charge (for application of a Liability Order) will be added to my balance five days before the court date if I haven't paid or made an arrangement by then. It amazes me that this bullying tactic is legal. What do you think should be my next step? Thanks! Stephan

Hi All Last November I was stopped by a traffic officer and told that I had no Insurance which took me completely by surprise as I pay monthly, I phoned my insurance company from the side of the road while the officer waited!! only to be told that my insurance had been cancelled due to non payment! they explained that they sent a letter to me to get payment - but did not get an answer so they cancelled my insurance in SEPTEMBER!!!. . Obviously I was horrified and demanded to know why they did not let me know, to which they said they sent a letter etc etc etc. I understand that I'm partly to blame as I should have been checking my account to ensure that the money was being paid (it wasn't my main account which everything else goes from, hence why I never checked much).. What really got my goat is the fact that the insurance company have both my contact numbers and email address, surely if you send someone three letters as they claim and you do not get a reply a telephone call should follow, so I was driving for almost 7 weeks with no insurance. after the usual pain of getting car towed away, queuing up to get it, paying the fine etc, I have now received a court summons, to which I was going to plead guilty via post, (because like I said earlier, I do take the responsibility somewhat for not checking payments, as much as It kills me ) I have checked the summons and they have my car registration wrong!!.. All I want to know (If there is a tiny bit of justice in the world!) can the case be kicked out due to the fact that it is not my registration! any help greatly appreciated

I had a final warning to pay council tax by the 26/3 I tried to call, but number 31 in the queue and couldn't wait. The total I had to pay was 171.25 I paid 100 on the 27/03 and the rest 100 on the 30/03 but now letter states charge of £82. I. Really can't afford this. Any ideas? Thank you.

I am posting this on behalf of my mother. Story so far; My mother (aged 74 & still working) lives with her partner (below aged 65) and they have always paid the CT by DD. In May of 2011 her partner was made redundant and subsequently suffered a serious burst ulcerand was hospitalised. During his stay in hospital and for some time after he received disability benefit. When the DA finished he started on job seekers and at that time the LA sent through forms for CT Benefit which were never filled in or sent back. A short time after that my mother (only name on the CT) received a letter stating that she was entitled to CT Benefit. I did tell her to put the money aside in case this was a mistake. The CT benefit was continued into the next tax year (12/13). Around September last year my mum received a letter to ask for confirmation of her income. This was duly sent back and the next letter received effectively said that she should not have had the benefit and asked for payment of the outstanding amount. At this point we wrote to the LA pointing out that the figures they had given for her partners job seekers allowance were wrong as it was no longer being paid. they then sent revised amounts that required payment. We then wrote asking how this error could have occurred as no claim for CT benefit had ever been made. We have made several requests for a copy of the completed form that shows where the claim was made but have not received anything. The last letter was received around 3 weeks ago in reply to a letter sent to them in November. their letter was a copy of one sent on 23rd December that was not received. Their letter stated that the form for job seekers included an application for CT benefit as this made the claim easier as it is 2 departments that deal with it. One of our questions to them had been why the letters relating to the payment of benefit were made to mums partner but the letters relating the repayment of the CT were made to my mum. Their letter stated that anything relating to CT was always sent to the lead name (mums is the only name) - the envelope was handwritten and addressed to Mr R***** and Mrs T***** whilst the letter was addressed to Mr R****. In the body of the letter it refers to Mr & Mrs R*******. It also stated that the letters were computer generated. We replied to this letter on monday and asked,, once again, for a copy of the signed application form, ans also pointed out the issue with the names, stating that either the computer system is not fir for purpose or there has been an administrative error. During this time my mum has had several phone conversations with the LA, the last of which was the beginning of January (this is when she found out they had sent a letter on 23/12) where she was told that this will be put on hold until the end of Feb. Today she received the Court Summons. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Hello I have just received a county court summons from Parking Eye who are claiming £165 from me. I parked in a private car park in Newquay last year and paid for a ticket. the signs were very busy and it was dark so I must have read it wrong and not paid enough. The ticket itself does show an expiry time but it was not labelled as such. In fact it is under a title of 'issue time'. Anyway a few weeks later I got a letter through the post for a £100 fine. I marked it 'NO CONTRACT' and sent it back. I then ignored future correspondence. I have now completed an 'acknowledgement of service' online disputing the whole claim and need to prepare my defence. I dispute the ticket on 3 key grounds: 1. I do not believe the ticket prices were clearly marked and illuminated. 2. I do not think the ticket itself was clear with the expiry time. 3. And this is the main one, I do not see how Parking Eye can charge £100 for overstaying in a car park by 45 mins. Do you have any advice on what I should put in my defence before responding?

I haven't been able to pay any of last years council tax and am being taken to court for this next week. Bearing in mind we are nearly into this years council tax, if I ring the council before the hearing, are they likely to give me time to pay? It's about £1.550. Thanks for any advice. Tom

Hi I have received a court summons today for the 11 march for a court hearing for benefit fraud. I really am petrified Nd don't know what to do I cannot afford a solicitor I'm really struggling to live and already paying back the overpayment .... I owe 5000 income support I'm paying 20 a week bAbk and 5600 housing benefit and council tax I'm paying 18 a week back ... It offers A early plea of guilty but I don't know what to do can someone help me fill in the form? It also says the fine will need paying on the day but I have no money!!! Will I go to prison I have four children and did commit this commence but the circumstances were the reasoning know this is no excise and I am truly sorry I don't know what to do please help me I'm going out of my mind

Hi there, Can anyone help me please? I've had a summons issued in my name for a credit card debt where summons says the last payment made was made nearly 5 years ago. It's been sent to a different address. Is it too late to send a CCA request for my address, address of summons? I hope someone can help! Many thanks !

Hello, Had a visit from the TV License goons a few months ago (when I accidentally opened the door thinking it was a parcel deliveryI had been waiting for) and was caught on the spot. Didn't let the guy inside and just stood at the door giving details while he filled in a form, the details I gave to the TVL guy were a mix of correct and false, first name was correct but gave a completely different fake/false surname, I should also mention that I never asked me to sign anything so they have nothing with my signature on it. This morning got a letter from the court saying has been summoned for none payment of TV License but the letter is addressed in the fake name, what do I do and is it my problem as its not addressed to me? I did "open" the letter but only because the side of the envelope had already been (very neatly) sliced open, must have got stuck in the machine at the sorting office or something. I don't know what to do now, its a court summons but not in my name.

Dear all, I could do with some advice on how to respond to this. My council tax payments run until the end of March due to moving to the area mid way through the year. I have paid regularly on the 27th of every month with no missed payments. Today I received a summons with £60 additional charges for non-payment, I phoned the council and explained to them (as I did in January) that my payments are made on the 27th of the month and they confirmed that this is what they can see on their system also. So I asked why have you sent me a summons....reply because you haven't paid !!!... Again I asked them if they could see the payments on their system and they confirmed that they could it's just a different date that they have for payment. Anyway ended up with them just giving me an email address to complain to them saying that they couldn't do anything and I would have to appeal the summons at court, what a waste of time. The council offer different payment dates if it's by direct debit but apparently not if you pay manually and as I pointed out to them, there isn;t time to even set a DD up for the last two payments of the year. Rather than just send a complaint I wanted to send them something more official in terms of them wasting their time with this court summons so I can get it withdrawn... if they don't withdraw it and I attend court with proof of the payments will they still grant a liability order and make me pay costs simply because of a difference in the monthly date of payment ? Thanks in advance, Esh

Hi I wonder if anyone could give me a bit of advice. I received a parking charge notice last June from Parking Eye and from looking online I took the advice given at the time to ignore it. But in January I received a County Court Summons from Northampton. I have sent in a defence to the Court but also sent a copy to Parking Eye. Parking Eye have written back with a letter headed "Without Prejudice Save as to Costs" saying that they require me to pay £50 for the Court costs. I am unsure what to do now. Does this mean that if I pay the £50 the case will be dropped? Can anyone help with advice as to what to do next? Thanks

I was claiming DLA for bipolar disorder. i have been working for DWP too. I got interviewed under caution by fraud department in the summer. I have now been summons to appear at the magistrates court. they say I failed to report changes of circumstance. Looking at it now I can see things changed, but I didn't complete the form, I just signed it, my mum filled it in. So I had no idea what was on it. I am appealing the DLA decision, trying to get at least lower. I suffer with depression and mania, and am suicidal. does anyone have any idea what will happen, what kind of punishment I will get. If I get a criminal record, I will never get my life back on track. I about to be sack from DWP too, losing my house because I'm bankrupt, and we can't afford to stay on one wage. I am so frightened and need some advice. I'm seeing a solicitor on Thursday. Its for about £7500, overpayment from Jan 2012 to July 2013, I started paying back this month.

I ordered a Hoover from Littlewoods costing around £244 in July 2007. Within the first few weeks it developed faults and became unusable. After numerous complaints, I received a letter from Littlewoods acknowledging the fault with the Hoover. They quoted me around £180 for a callout to fix it, which I was unable to afford, a nd so was left with a broken Hoover having paid £200 already. Left with £44 to pay I phoned Littlewoods and explained the issue. I was pressured into agreeing to two Direct Debits to clear the balance over two months. I had a lot of personal problems around that time and was unable to deal with my finances for some time. When I did, I realized the DDs had not been taken and Littlewoods had added loads of charges/interest, defaulted me and sold it onto Lowells. I have always maintained that they owe me a Hoover or I owe them £44 but nobody has listened to me. I got a Claim Form from Northampton County Court on Tuesday giving me 14 days to reply. The amount has gone from £44 to become £387! Please can someone help me as I am on benefits and don’t have any real money coming in to pay this. I never even got a Hoover, am stuck with a massively inflated bill and have no idea what my next step is. Thanks in advance.

If anyone has experience of this I would love your thoughts. I received a ECN from Excel Parking with a mistake in the car reg. I have ignored the first Notice to Owner to pay (I don't know how they found me with the wrong reg number written down). I now have a 'copy' of a court summons for a Magistrates' court (it's a photocopy or a scan or something and looks suspiciously similar to the other correspondence I've had from Excel, rather than from a court). How should I proceed? Do i have a case due to their mistake on the original ticket?

Hey people, hoping I can be helped again. I've done some reading here but can't find the exact information I need so let me bullet this to make it easier. 1) We owe council tax, quite a few months worth. We hit hard times. 2) Its now with the baliffs. 3) They say they have a liability order as its been to court but we received no summons. 4) The baliff told me on the phone that we should be able to offer £25 a month and he will recommend it, he originally said we could offer less but this turns out to be an offer for people on benefits, which I am not on. 5) I contacted them as soon as we received any information back in November, I contacted the bailiff when he'd delivered a letter but when I rang he didnt have any paper work to deal with my case so I had to ring him a week later and we've always been prompt with getting in touch. Though we were a bit slow sending the financial statement for technical reasons. 6) Once I followed it up to find out if they received the statement, which on the advice of the National Debt Line offered them £25 a month. The NDL said that we should just continue to pay them £25 a month so if it goes any further then we are showing we are not refusing to pay, this advice was quite a while ago now though and they mentioned something about it going to court again, I'm unsure if they meant if the bailiffs pass it back to the council themselves or if they mean the initial court summons, I imagine its to do with it going back to court to force a payment agreement? 7) They have declined this and are asking for £93 a month. We simply cannot afford this. I'm not working but my partner is and I do not receive any benefits because apparently we earn too much, however our total income to outgoings including paying £25 a month to the baliffs would leave us with very little, I quote from the email I just received after asking them to reconsider my offer. What is my best course of action here?