Process and procedures for recovering Council Tax debt

First Reminder

You will receive a First Reminder the first time you miss a payment. You then have seven days to make the payment.

If you make the payment as instructed, your instalments will continue as normal.

You will lose the right to pay by instalments if you fail to make the payment. Partial payment is not satisfactory.

If you do nothing, you will lose the right to pay by instalments. This means the FULL amount becomes due within a further seven days.

Second Reminder

If you have brought the account up to date but miss another payment, you will receive a Second Reminder.

If we don't receive the requested payment within seven days of the date of the reminder, you will forfeit your right to instalments. A summons will be issued for the entire year's bill without any further notice.

No further reminders will be issued throughout the Council Tax year.

You will only receive a maximum of two reminder notices. We send a Final Notice when you miss a payment for the third time. The Final Notice requires payment of the entire balance for the year.

This is your final opportunity to resolve the matter before further action is taken.

If the entire year's balance is not paid within seven days, a summons will be issued.

A summons is a legal notice to start official debt recovery proceedings against you. This will happen if you have failed to make payments up to date or failed to resolve matters relating to any reminders including a Final Notice.

There is no need to attend court.

Your case will be presented as part of a bulk application. Visit our council tax summons page for more information about what to do if you receive a summons.

If you wish to avoid us obtaining a Liability Order against you, you will need to pay your council tax in full, including the £95 court costs.

A Liability Order is a legal document issued by a Magistrate that allows us to recover unpaid council tax by various means.

Once a Liability Order has been granted and the Magistrates have made an order for costs, the costs will be added to your account and the debt will be enforced.

A Notice of Liability (14 Day Letter) will be sent to you. This must be completed and returned.

Failure to do so is an offence and may result in a fine of up to £500.

You must pay your debt in full, including costs, within 14 days to prevent further recovery action.

If you are unable to pay you should contact our office immediately.

If the debt has not been paid in full or an arrangement been agreed, then we have the right to recover debt.

N.B. If you consider that the Liability Order was not obtained within the law, you have the right to appeal the order by way of judicial review in the High Court. This would be something you would need to arrange independently of the council at your own cost.

It should be noted that the Magistrates are obliged to award ‘reasonable costs’. The level of costs will therefore be linked to the amount of time and effort the council has had to incur in making the application. If this includes large volumes of correspondence and requests for information under the auspices of a Freeman on the Land ‘defence’, then it is likely that this will cause the costs applied for to be higher in these individual cases.

Once a Liability Order has been granted, we will take further action to recovery unpaid council tax from the liable person(s).

Although there are various options available to us, you are not given a choice regarding preference. We will however proceed with the most reasonable action(s). These may include:

Attachment of Benefits

We can request the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to make deductions from your benefits. The DWP will make direct payments to us until the amount on the liability order is fully paid.

The total balance outstanding including all arrears will be considered.

Attachment of Earnings

We can order your employer to deduct the amount you owe from your wages and pay it directly to us. The amount of money we take depends on how much you earn after tax.

This is a specific percentage of your earnings and cannot be changed.

Enforcement Agents (Bailiffs)

The Enforcement Agents will issue a Notice of Enforcement to you giving you a set period of time to make contact.

You must contact them directly to discuss payment and any potential fees / costs incurred in the meantime.

This will include a statutory fee of £75 which is added to the balance that the Enforcement Agent Team have been instructed to collect.

If you ignore the Notice of Enforcement sent to you, an Enforcement Agent will attend your property. The purpose of which is to collect payment in full, set an arrangement or remove goods.

The visit will add a further cost of £235 (plus 7.5% of the sum being recovered which exceeds £1,500). to collect payment in full, set an arrangement or remove goods.

Bankruptcy or liquidation

We can make you bankrupt or have your company wound up if you owe more than £5,000.

You will be issued a Statutory Demand which gives you 21 days to pay in full.

If you do nothing, we will apply to the court to make you bankrupt or liquidate your company.

Charging Order and Order of Sale

To secure the debt a charge will be placed against the property which you own. We are then paid any monies owed from the proceeds of sale before you receive any funds from the sale.

You cannot sell or re-mortgage the property without paying debt in full.

We can force the sale to recover the debt.

Committal

We have a duty to protect the public purse. Billing and collection is covered by legislation set by the Government.

Refusal to pay, avoidance tactics used to avoid payment and / or providing false information to avoid council tax registration / payment will be fully investigated.

Ultimately you can be sent to prison for refusing or knowingly avoiding payment.

We can apply for you to be committed to prison for non-payment of council tax. Upon a finding of Wilful Refusal or Culpable Neglect, the court can imprison you for up to three months for non-payment of a council tax debt.

It is important to note that the council tax debt is not written off if a sentence is imposed.

If you are still unable to pay, please contact our Council Tax Service:

• Council Tax (general enquiries): 01733 452 258
• Recovery: 01733 452651
• Email: recovery@peterborough.gov.uk

The phone lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays).

You can also post a letter to us:

Council Tax
Shared Transactional Services
Peterborough City Council
Town Hall
Bridge Street
Peterborough
PE1 1HQ