Council tax enforcement
If you do not pay your council tax we are required by law to recover the debt.
Reminder and final notices
Reminder notice
We will send a reminder notice if you miss an instalment, requesting full payment of the missed instalment within seven days. If you only pay part of the outstanding amount we will not stop further recovery action and your instalment plan may be cancelled and a summons for non-payment issued.
Second reminder notice
We will send a second reminder notice if you miss an instalment for the second time in a financial year period, requesting full payment of the missed instalment within seven days. If you only pay part of the outstanding amount we will not stop further recovery action and and your instalment plan may be cancelled and a summons for non-payment issued.
Final notice
We will send a final notice if you miss an instalment for the third time in a financial year period. If you fail to pay the amount outstanding by the date shown, your instalment plan will be cancelled and a summons for non-payment issued.
Court action - Liability orders
If court action is required each accountable person on your account will receive a summons at least 14 days before the court hearing. The cost of a summons is currently £60.
If you pay the full the amount and the costs on the summons before the court hearing, no further action will be taken and proceedings will be withdrawn.
If you cannot pay the full amount immediately, you can contact us to arrange payment on the basis that the application for a liability order and additional costs will still continue. In these cases we will not take any further action if you continue to pay strictly as agreed by your payment arrangement.
If a liability order is approved, we will recover the debt.
Deductions from earnings and benefits
If you are working, we can instruct your employer to deduct the debt from your net earnings. The amount we are able to deduct is set by legislation.
If you are claiming any of the following we can apply to the Department for Work and Pensions to deduct the debt from your benefits:
- Income Support (IS)
- Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA)
- Employment and support allowance
- Pension Credits
- Universal Credit
Civil enforcement agents
We can instruct civil enforcement agents to take control of goods so that we can recover council tax debt. This will add further costs onto the existing debt. Any payment made to the council after the amount has been sent to the enforcement agents will be subject to the enforcement agent costs being deducted in line with the legislation.
Bankruptcy order
For debt over £5,000 we can apply to bankrupt an individual. If the insolvency action is successful the debts outstanding are frozen at the date of the court hearing. Once you have been declared bankrupt no further recovery action can be taken against the debt.
Normal council tax charges will still apply from 1 April after the bankruptcy is declared and if any new debts are not paid then recovery action will be taken.
Charging order
If the debt is more than £1,000 we can apply for a charging order. A charging order can be applied for if you are the owner or part-owner of a property. The charging order means that once the property is sold and any mortgage paid off, the council tax debt can be claimed from remaining equity. We may be able to insist on the sale of the property through a sale order if you do not make suitable arrangements to pay the outstanding council tax debt.
Even when we take action to enforce payment of the debt, we will still try to help you if we think that there are some benefits you can claim.