If you received a summons
If you fail to make Council Tax payments as detailed on your bill, we will send you a reminder with the overdue amount.
The reminder tells you that you will lose your right to pay by instalments, if:
- you have not made a payment towards the overdue amount within seven days, or
- you are late with any further instalments
If we issue a final notice, this means the full year of Council Tax is due.
If we don't receive full payment or you don't contact us to discuss a payment arrangement, we will issue a summons to court.
When we issue a summons, this will result in a minimum cost of £60.
Once we have issued a summons, we can only stop proceedings if you pay the Council Tax and costs in full.
If you are unable to pay the balance and summons costs in full before the court date, we can consider a payment arrangement.
Once you have submitted the request, a member of the recovery team will review it and contact you as necessary.
We will still attend the court hearing to obtain a liability order, which will incur costs of £35, but you do not need to attend the hearing.
A liability order gives us further powers to recover unpaid Council Tax.
If you receive the summons and you disagree with the outstanding amount, you must contact us immediately. We can then try to resolve the matter before the court hearing.
It is your right to attend the court hearing, but you don't have to attend court if you accept that you owe the money. The court will then deal with the matter in accordance with the law in your absence.
The court does not have the power to make payment arrangements.
If you received a summons and did not clear the balance or make an arrangement before the court date, we will get a liability order.
This gives us further powers of recovery, including the ability to request deductions from your benefits or earnings, or to issue the liability order to an Enforcement Agent for collection.
The only legal reasons why the court would not grant a liability order are:
- if the amount has not been demanded legally, or
- if you have paid the amount in full
It is still possible to set a payment arrangement at the liability order stage.
Once you have submitted the request, a member of the recovery team will review it and contact you as necessary.
You can contact the Recovery Team or call us on 01245 606805.
If you don't contact the Recovery Team or fail to keep to any arrangement that you have made with us, we can take further action to recover the outstanding balance.