Looking for advice to overturn council tax hearing
Discussion
Ok I'm putting myself at the mercy of the PH collective (on a Friday night too!!), but hopefully there's someone out there with appropriate knowledge!
So.....I received a letter from Greenwich Council tax dept today, dated 17th March regarding unpaid council tax for 2014/15. The letter states that a magistrates hearing took place on 1st Sept 2014, where a liability order was made against me for £503.12 for non-payment of council tax. With the amount outstanding on today's letter as being £73.12.
Now, a little bit of history,
I received a summons in late July 2014 as I had made one late payment (April 2014) and missed another (July 2014). Both completely my fault for being an idiot.
I called the council tax dept when I received the summons, admitted it was my fault for missing the payment and agreed a new payment schedule, which the council confirmed in a letter of 4th August 2014. I can prove with bank records, I have complied exactly with this payment schedule. On that call I was also told the court summons would be rescinded and there was no mention on the letter of the 4th August that any further court action was being taken, unless I screwed up again....which I didn't.
I have heard nothing since the letter of the 4th August 2014 and there was no mention of any arrears or outstanding amount on my 2015/16 bill dated 13th March 2015, generated 4 days before the letter received today.
So firstly....I'm annoyed. I have complied with the agreed payment schedule and was under the impression the court summons would be rescinded in light of the phone call 6 weeks before the court hearing, which it appears didn't wasn't rescinded after all.
Secondly, and my main objective, what are my chances of being able to remove/overturn/annul/strike out, etc, the magistrates judgement in light of the the above chain of events?
Handily I work for a financial service company so I should be able to pull the phone-call from our archives where their rep said the court summons would be rescinded.
So.....I received a letter from Greenwich Council tax dept today, dated 17th March regarding unpaid council tax for 2014/15. The letter states that a magistrates hearing took place on 1st Sept 2014, where a liability order was made against me for £503.12 for non-payment of council tax. With the amount outstanding on today's letter as being £73.12.
Now, a little bit of history,
I received a summons in late July 2014 as I had made one late payment (April 2014) and missed another (July 2014). Both completely my fault for being an idiot.
I called the council tax dept when I received the summons, admitted it was my fault for missing the payment and agreed a new payment schedule, which the council confirmed in a letter of 4th August 2014. I can prove with bank records, I have complied exactly with this payment schedule. On that call I was also told the court summons would be rescinded and there was no mention on the letter of the 4th August that any further court action was being taken, unless I screwed up again....which I didn't.
I have heard nothing since the letter of the 4th August 2014 and there was no mention of any arrears or outstanding amount on my 2015/16 bill dated 13th March 2015, generated 4 days before the letter received today.
So firstly....I'm annoyed. I have complied with the agreed payment schedule and was under the impression the court summons would be rescinded in light of the phone call 6 weeks before the court hearing, which it appears didn't wasn't rescinded after all.
Secondly, and my main objective, what are my chances of being able to remove/overturn/annul/strike out, etc, the magistrates judgement in light of the the above chain of events?
Handily I work for a financial service company so I should be able to pull the phone-call from our archives where their rep said the court summons would be rescinded.
Well if you can prove that the staff member said the hearing would be cancelled you have a good chance, although usually they want the Liability Order because then if necessary they can send the bailiff in.
So other than the costs which I assume is the £73 you owe why are you worried about it? They usually dont refund the costs if the hearing is cancelled any way if they make a payment arrangement.
The Liability Order does not appear in your credit history or anything so unless its a point of principle no point doing anything about it.
So other than the costs which I assume is the £73 you owe why are you worried about it? They usually dont refund the costs if the hearing is cancelled any way if they make a payment arrangement.
The Liability Order does not appear in your credit history or anything so unless its a point of principle no point doing anything about it.
I don't think this is easy to do - although your recording may help.
It's a wheeze of theirs - they ask the judge to 'approve' the agreement, which means if it defaults they can go straight to enforicement.
The only good news is I don't think they are tracked by the credit registers so once this years account is settled you will have no need to ever have any reference to it.
A formal complaint is probably the way to start with a referral to the Local Government Ombudsman when they don't respond....
It's a wheeze of theirs - they ask the judge to 'approve' the agreement, which means if it defaults they can go straight to enforicement.
The only good news is I don't think they are tracked by the credit registers so once this years account is settled you will have no need to ever have any reference to it.
A formal complaint is probably the way to start with a referral to the Local Government Ombudsman when they don't respond....
stuart313 said:
Its the latest ruse to get and extra £100 or near as damn it off you, they are just praying someone will miss a couple of payments and forfeit. Best to pay it off early and laugh when they flush it down the toilet knowing they will get nothing more from you until next April.
Well for Council Tax there is nothing to forfeit, however the Council might want the income the costs from Summons, Liability Orders etc generate.stuart313 said:
Its the latest ruse to get and extra £100 or near as damn it off you, they are just praying someone will miss a couple of payments and forfeit. Best to pay it off early and laugh when they flush it down the toilet knowing they will get nothing more from you until next April.
It's been like this for at least the best part of 20 years (which was when I first heard of it - I worked at the next reception desk to Council Tax Enquiries at a local authority outreach office). Back in '97 it was £52 "for the summons" (from memory) after making two late payments in the same financial year, the next year it was £54 and so on...pork911 said:
How much do you still owe?
According to the letter, £73.12, but as I followed there payment scedule which the exact amounts, Im a litle lost as to why. I can only assume there were costs with the mag hearing? The problem with that, is that I was told the summons would be rescinded, no costs additional were mentioned at any point, otherwise I would have paid it. Will pull the call tapes at work on Tuesday and see what was said. I made notes on the summons letter of the call, but cant find them...typical...so also probably at work.apologies for some piss poor speelling.
Edited by djstevec on Sunday 22 March 11:29
djstevec said:
pork911 said:
How much do you still owe?
According to the letter, £73.12, but as I followed there payment scedule which the exact amounts, Im a litle lost as to why. I can only assume there were costs with the mag hearing? The problem with that, is that I was told the summons would be rescinded, no costs additional were mentioned at any point. Will pull the call tapes at work on Tuesday and see what was said. I made notes on the summons letter of the call, but cant find them...typical...also probably at work.Complain to your mayor.
It's worked for us. TWICE in six months of regularly calling the council and emailing to register for council tax they summoned us for non-payment. I found it brilliant they want to go to court for a bill we haven't paid as they never registered us to pay it.
Had both lots of costs dropped & the hearings cancelled, oddly enough though the useless tossf
ks who can't do their job haven't been disciplined at all...
It's worked for us. TWICE in six months of regularly calling the council and emailing to register for council tax they summoned us for non-payment. I found it brilliant they want to go to court for a bill we haven't paid as they never registered us to pay it.
Had both lots of costs dropped & the hearings cancelled, oddly enough though the useless tossf
ks who can't do their job haven't been disciplined at all...Thanks to all for helpful replies.
Another 25 minute long call today and it transpires the £73.12 outstanding was mis-allocated to my 2015/16 bill, so that's been put on the 2014/15 bill and the account is now at zero...although its surprising they didn't find that out for themselves before sending me a letter threatening bailiffs. You'd think one account being down £73.12 and the other up £73.12 (as I haven paid the first payment for 2015/16 yet) would be easy to spot....anyway.
I also went through my call records this morning and found the call I made to them on 4th August last year where the council rep confirms the summons would be cancelled/rescinded, which clearly didn't actually happen. This is the main thing that's pissed me off. So now I have had to email the CT dept to ask why that happened, I've also attached a copy of the recorded call, although I cant see anything other than a derogatory "Yeah, sorry about that" from them.
Another 25 minute long call today and it transpires the £73.12 outstanding was mis-allocated to my 2015/16 bill, so that's been put on the 2014/15 bill and the account is now at zero...although its surprising they didn't find that out for themselves before sending me a letter threatening bailiffs. You'd think one account being down £73.12 and the other up £73.12 (as I haven paid the first payment for 2015/16 yet) would be easy to spot....anyway.
I also went through my call records this morning and found the call I made to them on 4th August last year where the council rep confirms the summons would be cancelled/rescinded, which clearly didn't actually happen. This is the main thing that's pissed me off. So now I have had to email the CT dept to ask why that happened, I've also attached a copy of the recorded call, although I cant see anything other than a derogatory "Yeah, sorry about that" from them.
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