To just ignore this court summons now? Terrified

[wateringhole3]

Basically I had a small amount outstanding on my council tax £29.00 and stupidly forgot after receiving reminder letter.
Today I received a "court summons for non payment of council tax " letter saying I have to attend court to say why I haven't paid.
I rushed straight into town and paid the £29.00
My balance is now £0.00
Do I still have to go to court ?
Will I get in trouble ?

I had one of these letters once for a smaller amount, think I owed just short of £20 but had no idea. It was because I’d been paying too little every month without realising and no one had informed me . Anyway I paid it as soon as I got the letter and called them to let them know, they wiped the court summons immediately.

It’s a COURT summons. Only the COURT can cancel it. Phone then and explain. They may still ask you to attend or they may contact the council and agree you don’t need to

Phone the council and speak to the council tax team about it.

Ive had this happen twice from two different councils, where i moved but they didn't properly update the system, or change over the new address despite telling them.
Ive had two court summons, one was stopped in time one they "forgot"
and it went to court even though i had phoned to sort it out
Get an email address and do it in writing and or ask something to be sent confirming it.
if they do "forget" you then have something to back it up.

@Karigan195

That’s not true.

The same thing happened to me. I just phoned the council, paid and they cancelled the court summons.

I had this happen to me (only in my case I had paid, they were just slow crediting it to my account).

Ring the council. They won't bite you, people forget to pay their council tax all the time, and since your council is very quick to issue summonses, it'll be a very common issue. No-one will think any less of you for it.

To be honest, they will be happy you’re not phoning to yell at them.

*works for a council

The account will be updated as paid and the summons will be cancelled, (the council wont want to embarrass themselves going to court for notbing) but call council to check just in case. The council will cancel it with the court.

The court doesn't cancel they have no access and won't know you've paid so won't take it at your say so, if you see what I mean. If the date goes ahead you'll have to pay court costs so definitely call the council as pp have said.

It is true. The council will have contacted the court for you 🙄

@Howdoyoudoit31 is right @Karigan195

The Council issues the summons. The Court is essentially just doing as it's told by an organisation with the authority to tell it what to do! Unless the person who issued the summons withdraws it, the Court has to do its job and hear the case against you. Contact the Council asap. The Court isn't going to do this for you; you have to do it.

Do contact the court or the department in charge of issuing the summons.
Try get it a strike out, usually the body won't give evidence and it will be a strike out but you must get in contact with them. You do want an arrest warrant.

I have been in this position. Just ring the council and tell them you have paid it. When I ring up the automated voice on the phone says that if you have allready paid the outstanding amount you do not need to attend court.

Probably not but you might have a CCJ

So we the tax payers pay all those court issue fees and the council tax payers don't have to pay the court feel already spent? That is pretty unfair on tax payers who pay council tax on time.

@Xenia oh shut up
What fees have been spent ?

Just rang and they said no further action will be taken
Phew

@xenia it doesn't cost anything extra (well, I suppose a minimal amount for paperwork).

The council pretty much just have a slot booked and turn up with a list of names. Very few people turn up to explain themselves so it's all very quick and efficient.

That's good news! No need to worry now. We've all done it! I forgot to pay an outstanding bill to e-on once! As soon as they "threatened" me, I quickly called paid the bill. It was only £7.25

This happened to me. I had to get my council tax adjusted. Council had a backlog and had to wait 10 days for it to be looked at. I automatically got a summons anyway. I called and they said ignore it. Don’t worry too much, I would just call or email to confirm it has been paid. It may be a different department dealing with it now such as Collections as Summons issued.

Sorry I missed second page. Glad all ok.

Glad you sorted it OP!
In these scenarios its always best to just tackle head on and put your mind at rest.

@xenia
I’ve had two court cases where it was the councils fault. One I mentioned above they said they dropped but never did and a third that appeared by the historic debt agency as it was over 10 years old (again I had paperwork proof it was their error) but that’s three unnecessary hearings I had (one to reopen the old case and one to hear it). They had barristers and council representatives at two of those three, plus all the courts time for the three cases.
I complained about the tax payer cost (and cost to me) but it was shrugged off.
I wonder how much is spent on their errors.

Call the court or the ctax Department to check court costs out