Received a reminder, final notice or summons?
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About council tax recovery
Council tax is payable over 10 monthly instalments if the demand is issued before 30 April.
The number of instalments will be reduced if the demand is issued after 30 April. The instalments required are shown on your bill and payment for each instalment must reach us on or before the dates shown on the bill. Late payment or failure to pay the instalments will result in recovery action being taken.
The Government has allowed home owners, if they choose, to spread their annual payments over 12 months instead of over 10 months. The national rule change has been brought in to make it easier for people to budget their monthly outgoings. For more information please contact us at Tewkesbury Borough Council.
First reminder
If an instalment is not received by the due date, a reminder notice will be issued for the overdue instalments. If the instalments remain unpaid after seven days, the remainder of the year’s charge becomes due (this amount is detailed on the reminder notice) and must be paid in full. Failure to pay the whole amount due will result in the issue of a summons.
Second reminder
If the instalment on the first reminder is paid within the seven day limit, you may continue to pay under the original payment scheme. If a further instalment is not received by the due date, a further reminder notice will be sent. If the instalments remain unpaid after seven days, the remainder of the year’s charge becomes due (this amount is detailed on the reminder notice) and must be paid in full. Failure to pay the whole amount due will result in the issue of a summons.
Final notice
If the instalment on the second reminder is paid within the seven day limit, you may again continue to pay under the original payment scheme. If a further instalment is not received by the due date you will lose the right to pay by instalments and a final notice for the remainder of the year’s charge will be sent. Failure to pay the whole amount due will result in the issue of a summons.
Issue of a summons
Failure to comply with the above recovery notices will result in the issue of a summons for the balance outstanding for the remainder of the year plus costs. If these amounts are not paid in full before the hearing date, we will apply to the magistrates for a Liability Order, which will again result in further costs being added to your account.
The Liability Order gives us the power to request details of your income and obtain payment of the outstanding debt and costs in several ways including:
Attachment of earnings
Deductions from your wage/salary vary from 3% to 17% depending on your take-home pay and are made in accordance with a scale set by the government. Your employer is entitled to make an additional deduction for administering this order.
Deductions from benefits
If you are in receipt of Universal Credit, Employment Support Allowance, Pension Credit Guarantee, Income Support or Job Seeker’s Allowance, and you do not already have an attachment of benefit order, we will advise the Department for Work and Pensions and deductions will be made directly from your benefit.
Removal of goods or property
Your debt may be passed to our civil enforcement agents who are authorised to either make a suitable payment arrangement with you or to seize goods or possessions up to the value of the amount owed and sell them to settle the debt. This will incur additional costs which may be substantial.
Committal to prison
After all other applicable recovery options have been tried and full payment of the outstanding arrears has not been paid, we will apply to the court for the debtor to be sent to prison for a period of up to 90 days. This action will result in substantial costs being added to your outstanding charge.
Bankruptcy
If your outstanding debt totals £750 or more and you own your property, we may petition the court to make you bankrupt. This action will affect your ability to obtain credit and may result in the loss of your home.
It is therefore in your best interests to contact us immediately if you are unable to pay an amount that is due or you are experiencing financial difficulties. Please contact our council tax team immediately for advice and to discuss an alternative arrangement.
FAQs
Reminders
A reminder notice has been issued as our records show you have not made your monthly payments as shown on your Council Tax bill, this may include late payments or payments you have made below the required amount.
Royal Mail delivery is two to three working days including Saturday’s, however, we’re aware letters are sometimes taking longer to be delivered. Although your reminder requests payment within seven days, if you make your payment straight away there will be no further recovery action. To view ways to pay, please visit our Pay your council tax bill.
We cannot set up a payment plan on a reminder notice, the notice must be paid in full. If you’re unable to pay the reminder amount in full, please continue to pay what you can. If your account is not fully up to date, you may receive a summons notice.
If you’ve made your payment in between the date the reminder was issued and todays date, it is likely the reminder and your payment have crossed, therefore please disregard the reminder. Please ensure future payments are made in accordance with your bill to avoid any further reminder notices being issued.
You will need to pay the outstanding amount on the reminder notice first. Please visit Pay your council tax bill for information on ways you can pay. Once your account is up to date, you can arrange to pay by Direct Debit.
If you don’t pay your Council Tax on time, we’ll send you a reminder notice. The reminder will ask you to pay within seven days. If you can’t pay the reminder, you’ll be issued a summons. If you make the payment by the date requested, but miss another payment in the same financial year, you’ll be sent a second reminder notice. We only send two reminders within a financial year. If you miss a third payment, you may be issued a summons.
If you don’t pay your Council Tax on time, we’ll send you a reminder notice. It’s important to bring your account up to date as soon as possible and then continue to follow the instalments as per your latest Council Tax bill. We’re unable to defer payments to the end of the year, but we may be able to stretch the bill over the full 12 months on request, reducing your monthly instalments once your account has been brought up to date.
You cannot withhold payment of your Council Tax while an appeal is outstanding, whether it is against the existing Council Tax band or the award of discounts or exemptions. If your appeal is successful, future payments will be reduced, and any overpayments refunded to you.
You should make payment as requested in your latest Council Tax bill, if you are unable to pay the full amount, please pay as much as you can afford, you may still receive a reminder notice. Once your claim is assessed the Benefit department will write to you to confirm how much assistance you are entitled too, any overpayment you have made will be refunded to you.
Summons
If you don’t make a payment following a reminder, a summons is issued, and we add £55 in court costs to the unpaid Council Tax bill. As long as the full summons balance, excluding the costs, is paid in full before the court hearing, no further action will be taken, or costs added to your Council Tax bill.
Every person named on the Council Tax bill will receive a copy of the summons. Only one amount of Council Tax and court costs need to be paid.
No, the summons has been issued because you didn’t bring your Council Tax account up to date following a reminder. You have now lost your right to pay by instalments and the full balance is due, including the costs. The costs have arisen by the council preparing the issue of the summons and need to be paid. As long as the full summons balance, excluding the costs, is paid in full before the court hearing, no further action will be taken, or costs will be added to your Council Tax bill.
Yes, provided the arrangement you make is acceptable to us. We are legally required to ask the court to grant a Liability Order unless the total amount due, excluding costs is paid before the hearing date. If you can’t pay in full, we will apply for a Liability Order at the hearing and hold actions providing payment is made in accordance with your new arrangement, should you default on your arrangement further action may be taken against you.
No, unless you have a legal defence to put to the Magistrates as to why you feel that you’re not liable.
The council is legally required to ask the Magistrates to grant a Liability Order unless the total amount due is paid before the date of the hearing. Even if you have recently made a payment plan to pay the amount shown on the summons, we will still apply for a Liability Order at the hearing, you do not need to attend.
Summons costs are included as part of the payment plan. However, no further action will be taken to collect the debt as long as the payments are made as agreed. Payments must be made on or before the agreed date.
If you don’t pay in full (excluding the costs), make a payment plan or attend Court, a Liability Order will be issued in your absence. We do not need to go back to court to take any further action against you.
Further recovery action, such as Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) or Attachment of Earning Orders can be avoided by either paying in full (excluding the costs) with us before the court date or by making a payment arrangement (including costs) with us before the court date.
You have the right to pay by instalments (usually from April to January), but if you don’t pay the instalments as shown on your Council Tax bill you will be sent a reminder. If the amount due on the notice is not paid within seven days, you lose your right to pay by instalments and the full amount needs to be paid. A summons for non-payment is issued for the full years balance which includes additional costs.
If you haven’t notified us that you’ve moved in or received your own Council Tax bill yet, please provide details of who has moved into the property by completing the council tax change of address form.
If the summons is addressed to more than one person, we must receive payment for the full amount due before the court date. Everyone named on the bill is ‘jointly and severally liable’ for the full amount, this means that we can ask for the full amount owed from anybody named on the Council Tax bill. Although you may want to split the amount owed, it is your responsibility to make sure that everyone pays their “share”. If payment is not received in full, further action can be taken against anyone named on the Council Tax bill whether payments have been made or not and further costs may be added onto the bill.
Applications for a Liability Order are made in the Magistrates Court, not the County Court, so it will not affect your credit rating at this stage. If you do not pay and the council has to resort to an application for a committal to prison, this will result in you having a criminal record and could affect your credit rating.
