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.

They have to make it so harsh because otherwise people won't pay.

It's standard, it hasn't been dictated by the Mayor for a secretary to write directly to you.

I get unpleasant letters if I've not paid on time (I'm self employed and if I haven't got the money it's because I'm waiting on someone paying me), fair enough the letters are machine generated but I ALWAYS call or email to explain and say it will be paid by 'x' date and always pay by then but I still get threatening letters. What's the point of saying on there letters to contact them if you're having difficulty when contacting them makes no difference at all?!

I would LOVE to be able to pay it all off in one go but I don't have a hope in hell!

I agree firey.

These days we are rarely more than a week or two late paying any of the bills if ever late at all. We'd both love to get the council tax out of the way in one go if we could in April. (we almost could last year. tax rebate. but the work van broke down and ate the money ...)

A couple of years ago we rang our council to say that we couldn't pay the upcoming monthly payment of £120 council tax as we haven't the money, but we would pay it in 2 weeks time plus the next £120 as well in one lump. Person on phone has said ''great, super, very good, thanks for letting us know, i'll put a note on the system'' ... only for us to get a letter about 10 days later saying we've got to pay it all now, the chance for installments has gone and now also owe £70 on top for arranging a court hearing! Where's the sense in this?! By the time phone calls and letters had gone back and forth the 2 weeks were up and we paid what we said we would, when we said we'd pay it. Plus the bloody £70!

I pay ours by standing order and always pay for the two months you get free. That way we are never behind.

Years ago my parents missed a payment. My mum telephoned to explain and the lady said not to worry just pay as soon as you can. When my dad got his pay at the end of the month they had took the whole years council tax from his pay. They had had no letters at all and it was just one months payment missing.

I think that is pretty standard wording for Council Tax demands. It's a massive cost for councils clawing back payments, which we all bloody well pay for in our bills.

Why don't you pay over in the not so lean months to try to avoid this?

We do now Katherine, because we are in a position to do so.

Not everyone is, however, and there was a time when we weren't.

it really is best to get in touch with them and let them know you can't pay than to just not pay though - they may be able to help then - they can't if they don't know you are struggling

just ignoring and not paying bills is the worst thing to do

Tbh if you've missed two payments (or been late with them) already then I'm not surprised you've had a shitty letter.

They are entitled to demand the full year in one go if you don't stick to the repayment plan they've set out.

And if you don't have the money, you get in touch ahead of your payment being due and see if there's anything that can be done to help (like splitting the payments over 12 months rather than 10).

I don't think the wording is harsh at all! It sets out the position, tells you what will happen if you don't make the payments as required, and uses the word "please".

It's an official letter, that's all.

the world does not write nicey-nicey letters about debt. This not-at-all aggressive letter, stating the facts, is aimed at those who prioritise beepy beepy toys, clothes, holidays and so on above the essential debts, not you. So it is written to make it bloody clear that paying is not an option.

Debt chasing costs money and no-one writes personalised letters. It should not be too difficult to work out that if you have problems paying a bill on time, you get in touch and ask for help.

debt chasing costs, so up goes the tax for all of us.

if you don't have enough money to live on, please get in touch with one of the agencies there to help you.

I've had those letters, they aren't aggressive but if you are someone that hates to know that you owe money then it does freak you out to read.

If they said 'if you can pay' you would get some people who could pay taking the piss and not arranging anything else and some people-like my ex neighbour- do take the piss purely because it's not important to them.

So people who do struggle and take it seriously and the piss takers get lumped into one and sent the same automated letter.

Call them up to negotiate, they will change the dates or spread the payments.

What has to be said on a reminder is laid out in statute. Usually there's a lot of information that needs to go on a bill (or reminder) and there's no room for a load of airy fairy shite about how the council know that you try really hard but sometimes it's difficult blah blah....

They don't write these reminders out by hand, they are generated via a program which just picks up all cases that meet the parameters (e.g. outstanding instalment of more than £30 for more than 14 days) and these get moved to the next recovery stage. If you've had two reminders in the year already the next process step is a summons for non-payment and this involves adding court costs to the balance. They don't consider your circumstances or your past record when sending these out - they can't. They don't have the time or resources to do this.

If you can't pay an instalment contact the council as soon as possible. Yes some council workers are evil gits but most are human and even understand the info you give them.

What yogadrone said.

Councils sent out hundreds if not thousands of reminders every month and don't have the manpower to phone everyone to ask if they'd be so kind as to pay. I am a bit surprised there's not a sentence about getting in touch if you're struggling to pay though.

For the pp who asked, methods of recovery for non-payment of council tax are;
Issue to an enforcement agent for collection
attachment of benefits
attachment of earnings
charging order and forced sale of property
bankruptcy
imprisonment upto 3 months

Can I give you a tip, if you are not able to pay this on time regularly when you pay your next Council Tax over pay, even if it is just a small amount, say about £10, then you are always in credit.

but as everyone else has said I would really put council tax high up in the payment priority list.

BondJayneBond Like any other creditor the Council can get a judgement of the High Court or the county court then if the debtor is a homeowner get a charging order over the house. If the debt is high enough that can lead to an order for sale. More probably the council will sit right until the house is sold and then it will have to be paid off (with interest if the debt exceeds £5,000) out of the proceeds of sale.

• sit tight not sit right

Here's an idea: when you can't pay them on time, why don't you do them the courtesy of letting them know that's the case?

Council tax really needs to be a priority payment after rent and food. The chap in the flat below us was months behind on his council tax and got letters, threatening letters, two court summons' and a bailiff's letter threatening to seize property. They knocked on our flat looking for him when he moved out. So far as I know he rang them and now has a debt repayment scheme going but if he misses even one payment now they'll send him another court letter. The council really aren't the right people to get into debt with.

The amount of people who seem to not prioritise paying their council tax shocks me a bit, tbh.

I thought the same when I got one. How on earth is demanding the full amount going to help? I have paid on time for years, forgot one payment for 3 weeks and got that letter.. I then paid but had missed the deadline of 7 days, but they didn't do anything thankfully. Sometime it's just a threat.. but yes it's aggressive.

I forgot to increase the standing order for mine, didn't notice for the first month and then ended up in arrears to the tune of...£5.56. They sent me a letter saying I had to pay the whole lot or else. I rang them up and they said if I just paid the arrears and set up the SO correctly then that would be fine and they would cancel the "pay the whole lot" notice.

But yes, I think the tone is unnecessarily aggressive and disproportionate. I commented at the time to DH that if I had been an elderly or otherwise less robust person the message to pay the whole lot or face court action might have had more serious consequences. It made me quite shouty as it was.