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  • Council Tax Billing Information 2013-14
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  • Discounts and Exemptions
  • Can someone contact the council on my behalf?
  • Council Tax Appeals
  • Council Tax Reduction
  • Changes in Your Address or Circumstances
  • Recovery of Council Tax
    • Bailiffs
    • Recovery questions answered
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Recovery of Council Tax

Recovery Process

If you pay late we will send you a reminder or final notice. If you do not pay you lose your right to pay by instalments, and this could result in you being summonsed to appear in a Magistrate's Court and charged court costs.

You need to attend court if you have a legally valid reason for not paying. The only valid reasons are that: we have not billed you properly, or that you can prove that the bill has already been paid. Not having any money is not a valid defence. If you make a payment arrangement with the us before the Court date you will not have to go to the court hearing.

The council must still attend court to get a Liability Order (an order that says you are liable to the tax) but, as long as the arrangement is kept, no further recovery action will be taken. The cost of the Liability Order will be included in the payment arrangement. We do not tell credit reference agencies about Liability Orders so your credit rating is not affected.

If the court decides that you are responsible for paying and you have not paid in full, they can issue a Liability Order. Once the Council has a Liability Order you should contact us to make an arrangement to pay. If you do not contact us, or we cannot agree how you will pay, we will usually try to collect the money in one of the following ways:

• Making deductions from your Employment Support Allowance, Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance or from your wages.
• Asking bailiffs to collect the debt by removing and selling some of your possessions. You will also have to pay their fees.
• Commencing insolvency proceedings through the High Court.
• Applying to the County Court for a charging order on your property that enables us to force its sale or repay your Council Tax out of the proceeds of any future sale. This will also result in you paying additional fees.

If you do not pay we can return to court. The court may decide to send you to prison, order you to pay, or tell us to write off part or all of the debt.