Magistrates Summons for Council Tax

[mikehiow]

Good morning.

 

It's my own fault really, I fell behind on my council tax (by two payments) and have received a summons for the full amount plus £58 in costs.

 

The full amount is over £1k and not something I'm able to cover in one go.

 

I have no dispute about the costs, it's my fault and I need to pay them, but want I want to avoid is having bailiffs knocking on my door with a liability order, attempting to intimidate my family, adding their own costs etc. etc.

 

I've yet to speak to the council, as I'm unsure what their stance is likely to be. Essentially, I'd just like a little advice on how I should handle it with the council before going any further.

 

Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

[tezza1234]

Now you have the summons it will go to court and a judgement passed, then the council with send you a I & E form and possibly try to get a attachment or earnings on you, are you employed/self employed, do you own your own home. You are a little way of the bailiffs yet so dont worry to much, the council have been known to 'in bulk' summons people just for the added costs and sometimes over petty amounts like £5 owed, councils are a joke.

[mikehiow]

I'm self employed and I don't own my own home.

 

So you're saying that seeing as I accept the liability, there's nothing much I can do until the council get in touch after the court date?

[citizenB]

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/debt_w/debt_action_your_creditor_can_take_e/creditor_takes_money_from_your_wages.htm

 

 

The above link is to the Citizen Advice Bureau fact sheet on Attachment of Earnings.

 

 

 

Your creditor can't apply for an attachment order if you're:

• self-employed
  

[citizenB]

You could also speak to National Debtline - they might be able to offer some advice

[Consumer dude]

You could phone the council to make arrangements before the day. They are likely to still go to court to get the costs and it would be up to you to question those costs if you wanted to.

[tezza1234]

CitB is correct as you are self employed they cant get a attachment of earnings hence why i asked

CD is also right but unless you pay the full amount before the court date then yes it will still go to court.

 

Ive been in a similar situation for the last 5 years, my CT debt was 2.5k at its worst, now its at about 350 and i should be CT debt free by march next year woop woop.

[Lookingforjustice]

Speak to the council straight away. This has happened to me once or twice over the years. If you don't get in touch and tell them what the problem is they can't do anything. On the times is happened to me there was £80 costs on top of the tax owed and on both occasions they dropped the charge and we went onto a payment plan.

 

If they are difficult with you then you can try CAB, debtline and everything else but get in touch they aren't mind readers and everything is done is bulk. Don't wait til the court date because you are just putting them to extra expense and making it harder for yourself to speak either phone up or get yourself down to your local council tax office and speak to them but phone is just so easy.

 

At this stage if you are still in the same tax year tI suspect they will just rearrangement the remainder of your repayments to cover what you owe to the end of the year. If you still can't pay or won't be paying an instalment then get in touch with a debtline charity

[Lookingforjustice]

By the way the court date is normally shown on the summons

[tezza1234]

Speak to the council straight away. This has happened to me once or twice over the years. If you don't get in touch and tell them what the problem is they can't do anything. On the times is happened to me there was £80 costs on top of the tax owed and on both occasions they dropped the charge and we went onto a payment plan.

 

If they are difficult with you then you can try CAB, debtline and everything else but get in touch they aren't mind readers and everything is done is bulk. Don't wait til the court date because you are just putting them to extra expense and making it harder for yourself to speak either phone up or get yourself down to your local council tax office and speak to them but phone is just so easy.

 

At this stage if you are still in the same tax year tI suspect they will just rearrangement the remainder of your repayments to cover what you owe to the end of the year. If you still can't pay or won't be paying an instalment then get in touch with a debtline charity

 

Wow you must have a really decent council, mine are crap and would rather go to court just to add extra charges to inconvenience the individual

[Lookingforjustice]

It may be the case that the people you deal with on the first phone call are disinterested. It helps to ask for the supervisor if you don't get the response you want at first. Note down what is said. If you still don't get any help put a complaint to your local councillor. My council are good at some things and not so good at others but you really do have to contact them to see what their position is. If you do contact them and try to make an arrangement then you could use it if you actually wanted to attend for the liability order hearing. Otherwise it is just a rubber stamping exercise.

 

Actually I also had to contact a different council on behalf of my mother who is elderly and gets confused. The most difficult part of that was getting them to speak to me on the subject because my first contact I was with her and she gave her authority for me to speak on her behalf. When they didn't do what they agreed to and I tried the follow up call when I was not with her they wouldn't said they couldn't speak to me because my mother's authorisation was only for one call. This is despite me having got my mother to write a letter which I posted and paid for signed delivery. Once I got the supervisor it got sorted out but it took me a while to convince my mother she wasn't going to be arrested and prosecuted because that council had sent her a summons and she is exempt but they were still processing her form.

 

I tried to explain to the first guy I spoke to, that the council wouldn't look very good if I turned up to the hearing to explain my mothers condition but he said they would'nt let me speak if I didn't have an authority from my mother! If I could have reached down the phone I would have liked to strangle him because but a quick chat to the supervisor got the matter sorted but I was still left to deal with my mother's distress as it was difficult to convince her she wasn't going to be arrested for money she didn't owe.

 

Like I say if you don't get any sense or sensitivity off the first person you speak to, ask for a supervisor and let's hear what the council have to say first but do take notes, can't be worse than you are already speculating but who knows you might be in for a surprise.

Let's hear what the council have to say.

[Desperate Daniella]

It depends on the Council obviously but my local Council issues the "Summonses" themselves; they are printed off by the Council, not the Magistrates' Court. Therefore if someone receiving one makes an arrangement to pay by monthly direct debit before the Court Hearing the Hearing is cancelled and the charge for the so-called Summons is dropped.

 

I think you should phone the Council today and offer a payment plan. If the first person you get isn't helpful, then ask to speak to a supervisor as Lfj says above.

[Ros1609]

This happened to me when my ex husband ran off leaving a load of debt in his wake. First I knew of the CT debt was a Court Summons but I rang the Council and managed to get it sorted out without it going to Court. I don't remember the specifics but they were quite good to deal with on the phone and at their offices