to think this council tax reminder is overly aggressive.

[TheoriginalLEM]

We are often late paying our council tax as dp is self employed with an erratic wage.

The reason i ask this is because i remember the hmrc getting into deep shit for sending overly aggressive letters to folk who were late paying their tax.
so the letter says

f you haven't paid your latest installment please do so within seven days.if you do not do this we will send you a court summons whoch will add £100 to your account.

we will only send you up to two reminders in any one year. if you pay late a third time you will hsve to pay the rest of this years council tax in one go

it is the last paragraph i take issue with as surely if someone is struggling with their monthly repayments then how do they find all of it I believe that is quite intimidating.

we were a week late in paying.

to be fair it doesn't bother me anymore but less robust folk might be quite worried by this.

Please don't answer with "well pay it on time like everyone else" because i am sure i am not the only person with an erratic and tight budget and sometimes it really isn't that simple.

Hi OP, I've also had a letter that resembles that one. However my county only give one warning, so the next time I forgot they automatically asked for the payment in full. As I couldn't pay it in full I had to make a monthly repayment plan with a debt collection agency.
I agree the tactics they use are very heavy handed, especially as council tax is so high and so many families do struggle to pay it on top of a high rent/mortgage.

I rather fear that paying one's council tax on time has to be that simple whether one likes it or not.

Sorry.

Well if these are the facts, the council have to give payees advance notice. It wouldn't be fair to demand full payment without giving notice of that.

Basically, if people can't pay, then the council will probably come to some agreement with them re: a schedule of payments. But the purpose of that paragraph is to encourage engagement and for the recipients to be concerned enough to call the council and make arrangements to pay. Not just stuff the letter in a drawer and forget about it - particularly as only a limited number of reminders will be sent

yes i agree but nowhere on that letter is the sentence "please get in touch if you are having difficulties". yes they will generally help out but it shoud state as much on their letter.

Saucy - sonetimes it is is as simple as that that folk simply cannot make the payment. sorry.

I've been having threats of court summons and bailiffs from my energy provider. Annoyingly I haven't even missed a payment. I think it's overly aggressive and rude

you need to sort it out chelle. they are actually breaking the law if you are on time with payment.

Folk have to commit to priority debts its as simple as that.
You cant just say to the mortage company I simply cannot make the payment- sorry and expect no come back. People at the moment in a plethora of threads on here seem to have a very bizzare attitude to paying money they are obliged to.

YANBU OP, I think the Council Tax collection system is an unaccountable mess and needs revised. I cannot believe their system of enforcing payment has not been challenged under EU law, under the right to a hearing by an impartial court or tribunal, before a penalty is imposed by a public authority.

The system by which they collect 12 months payment in 10 months for their own administrative convenience is ridiculous as well.

Added to the fact that the equivalent local tax to Council tax in most other European countries is about £300 a year!

No need to apologise to me- it's not me that's going to send the bailiffs round.

Look dude, there are some bills in life that you can get away with paying late if you're having a short month, and some that you can't. Council tax is one that you definitely can't, and if you keep paying it late then they will write you shitty letters, and you may well end up in court.

Call me a smug arsehole if you like, but I'm just telling it the way it is. Ranting on an Internet forum isn't going to change anything.

That's nothing compared to the TV licence people. They send a calendar with a date circled for your court appearance and threaten jail. I'm enjoying ignoring their requests, I tell them once evey two years I don't have one and the just back off for two years before coming threatening again.

i don't think you are smug saucy.

There are folk who simply cannot afford these payments. They don't CHOOSE to not pay them.

ive just paid my ct albeit it 7 DAYS late. What about people who just DON'T HAVE THE MONEY?

The hmrc got their knuckles severely whacked over sending similar letters and their debt trumps council taxby a country mile

Surely -you haven't paid. please do so. if you are unable to pay please contact asap to discuss how we can help you pay" is more appropriate?

having been in mortgage arrears i can tell you that whilst insistent that payment is made the bank have always bent over backwards to accommodate us. They are aware of dps employment status and generally leave us alone if we are a week or two late. only if you go a month into arrears do they start getting twitchy. if they ever send a reminder they are nice about it. include details of how to help etc. They have to do this by law.

so why do the council get to act like the kray twins?

im on benefits and i pay council tax because its monthly rather than weekly i forgot to pay usually i overpay so i thought i was ok unfortunately i owed them a quid so i got a shitty letter too

unfortunately they believe they are a priority debt and should be paid first before food housing costs etc in real life folks will pay for food and a roof over their head before they pay council tax

TV Licence are indeed out of control, but Council Tax? It's a priority debt, and you've got to treat it as one.

Scremersford In many European countries education is in the hands of central government so the "equivalent local tax" is not equivalent at all. It may be set and collected locally rather than nationally but unless it covers more or less the same range of services you cannot sensibly compare it to Council Tax.

sorry clicked too fast what i do is i overpay by a few quid a month so if it's £97 i pay the £100 they tend not to send out letters for partial payment demands till the end of the year

Just keep in mind it is a machine and not a person sending you the letter. It doesn't have feelings and as long as it gives you the facts it has done its job.

I once got billed twice by the same council erroneously. I was more upset by the lack of a polite acknowledgement of the mistake than I was by the initial computer generated bills. So while I agree council tax is one of those things to add to the direct debit list rather than dealing with bills and reminders it is worth keeping in mind that they do sometimes make mistakes.

added to the fact that the equivalent local tax to Council tax in most other European countries is about £300 a year!

but in other countries you pay separate for bin collection, street repairs and other things that are included in the council tax here...

so it's not comparable.

op yabu this is a first class priority debt and needs to be paid on time every time.

The mortgage or rent is my top priority, followed by food in the cupboard and nappies.

Gas/elec/council tax/water all kind of get lumped together in my mind as 2nd class status bills.

When i was with XH we got into debt and i was always switching around who got payed on time in that 'second class' bill section each month. All the ranty letters in the world never magiced X no. of £ into my bank. If it had i would have handed it over ... but not before the roof over our heads was paid for and the kids fed.

The system by which they collect 12 months payment in 10 months for their own administrative convenience is ridiculous as well.

Legally, your Council Tax is due on the 1st April. They do you a favour in letting you pay over 10 months, interest free. To then take even more credit is asking a bit much.

Someone told me that the council can get a court order to repossess and sell your house if you don't pay the council tax, so they can get the money owed. Assuming you own the house you live in, of course.

Anyone know if that's actually true or not? It sounded very heavy handed.

They do you a favour????

people have misunderstood my op.

i wasn't asking if reminders should be sent , rather i was questioning the tone of the letter. The wording. The lack of offers to help/discuss.

Priority debt or not . Money does not grow on trees. if you don't have it you don't have it.

i would be far more likely to engage with a friendly heres what we can offer to help - please get in touch letter.

Some months there is NO MONEY on the due day and it has to be paid late. Thankfully its usually no more than a week so they get their money by the end of the year.

bond that is totally untrue. they can and do send bailiffs and threaten jail. however ive never heard of that.

i would be far more likely to engage with a friendly here's what we can offer to help - please get in touch letter.

So you owe a debt but think it's up to them to be friendly and offer help?

absolutely yes. you can let your pearls go now.

purist Legally, your Council Tax is due on the 1st April. They do you a favour in letting you pay over 10 months, interest free. To then take even more credit is asking a bit much

There is no such thing as a statutory "favour". Its a method of collection which has a dubious statutory basis, insisted upon by councils for their own convenience.

Statutes can be revised, of course. There is no reason why Council Tax or any equivalent tax should be collected monthly, annually or on any other basis other than government's demands put into statute. It clearly requires clarifying. What is important is accountability and transparency. Clearly, an annual system of collection would not work for councils either, since people cannot afford it. Its practicality, nothing to do with "favours".

Personally speaking, I don't want or ask for any "favours" or credit, so I'm unsure where your confusion arises. I would far rather pay the whole lot in one go along with everything else to HMRC, but appreciate the majority would be inconvenienced by this.

I do think councils in Britain provide remarkably bad value for money and are badly run, however. I am sure they could provide the dire services they do for far less money in council tax, but obviously some people depend on them for jobs and there is a lot of wastage and inefficiency built in. But in other countries, councils actually do positive things to improve their residents' quality of life.

TheoriginalLEM
Just because you haven't heard of something doesn't mean it can't happen. A council can get a charging order, like any other creditor, to force the sale of a home if the debt is high enough and once they have obtained a CCJ. In practice they usually get what they are owed using other less drastic means.