To ask about council tax bill...

[Lan2020]

Ok, I know it's not really an AIBU post but I was hoping for some help from someone more knowledgeable than me.

I've recently moved into a new property and just received my first council tax bill. It is for the period 31st Aug- 31st March.
The bill states that the yearly council tax is £2624.49.
It is stated that for the period 31st Aug- 31st March I owe £1531.55.
They have calculated my payments as...
Payment on 15th Oct 1x £307.55 and 4 X payments of £306.

I'm so confused! I've always paid over 10 months, which means the payments should be around £260 per month. If they are charging me £1531 for 5 payments then 10 payments (assuming it's done over 10 months) would total £3062 but they are telling me the bill for the year is £2624.

It's only a few hundred more a month than I paid previously and I was paying £230 a month. I calculated I would be paying £260 approx in the new property over 10 months.

Obviously I'm being very thick and have got something wrong, so if anyone can advise me it would be appreciated.

I know it doesn't seem like much much we are renting at the mo and had to move against our will. Due to their being a shortage of properties, rent is extortionate here and obviously all bills have gone up! So evwry bit of money is needed.

You can't pay over ten months because there are not ten months left in the financial year. The amount is correct for the time left this year.

The period is from 31st August but you're only starting making payments in the middle of October so your payments will be slightly larger to make sure you pay the full amount by the end of March. The payments for next year will probably be smaller as you will be paying the full amount over 10 months.

Would it be to cover the 5 months plus the 2 months not included in the 10 months (March and April) which you would normally include in the full bill split by 10 so it is higher as being split in a smaller amount of time?

Their calculation is right - the total you owe (£1531) is correct for the remaining months of the year and they have decided to take that in 5 payments (not sure why in 5 payments and not 7 though)

I would assume from next April it will go back to 10x£260 payments.

So the first 5 payments will be to clear this financial years bill before the end of March. You could probably ask for it to be split over 6 payments so that you also pay in March 22. But they will not arrange payments to run beyond that.

Assuming the bill doesn't go up (it will!) It will be £262.45 over 10 months April 22- Jan 23.

They dont collect during the last two months of the year. So whilst your period of coverage is 7 months, they dont collect for the last two, so the remaining balance is to be paid over the 5 months

September's payment has been incorporated into the payments for the other months outstanding making them larger than they would be if you were paying for a full year over 10 months

What you can do is contact them, say that's more than you can afford in a month and ask them to spread it over this year and next.

They'll send you a recalculation with the new amounts.

If you ask for the curre t years bill to be split over 6 months 15th Oct/nov/dec/jan/feb/Mar then it will be about £255.

It's because you're paying for 7 months council tax (Sept to March inclusive) but only paying it over the next 5 months. The council tax year ends on 31st March.

Divide your total payments amount by 7 then multiply by 12 and that's your annual bill.

You could ask your local council to extend to 7 payments to reduce it to an affordable amount, then you'll go down to the £262 from April onwards.

We had the same issue. Moved into a rented new build mid march and council tax hadnt been sorted yet so instead of paying across 12 months which the council we live in accepts they only sorted the council tax band and payment in May so they charged us upfront for March and then have split aprils payment across May2021- March2022 so our monthly bills are higher this year.

Thank you all. I appreciate it. I knew I was being thick! I don't start paying until Oct, so have missed Sept payment. If I was paying from Sept, it would be around £260.
That's cleared that up!

I work in debt management for Council Tax.
Standard collection is April to January over 10 months. You can request over 12 months or in your case to split over the remaining months of the financial year, this would be no problem in my Council.
Spreading it past March would mean you would have 2 bills so if you can clear before end March, better for you.

You owe £1531.55 from 31st Aug 2021to 31st March 2022, on 1st April you will get a new council tax bill for 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023 which will be for the full year and full amount of £2624.49 .
So you need to pay the £1531.55
before the new bill comes into effect on 1st April.
When you get your new bill for 2021/22, the full amount (£2624.49 notwithstanding any rises) will then be split over 10 months, and be a different amount.

If you pay the £1531.55 over 10 months, you won't have finished paying that until July 2022 and you need to start paying your next council tax bill on 1st April 2022, so you'll be in arrears with this years council tax.

You moved in and became liable for the council tax on 31st August, but your payments aren't starting until October, so effectively that's a 'lost' month in September where you're not paying for your old property, but also not paying for the new one either, so you only have from Oct 15th until 31st March to pay for the bill from 31st August to 31st March, which is why it's so high, but once that's paid, and you get your new bill in April, it should be 10 months divided by £2624.49 (unless you don't pay this years in full, or obviously they implement a rise in council tax)

@SomethingWycked thank you. It now makes complete sense!
I think I'll ask if I can start my payments this month instead of next and spread over 6 payments, as it'll being down the cost and I'll still get my 2 months "free" for Feb and March.

@Maverickess thank you for the detailed explanation. I initially completely missed the fact they haven't included Sept in my payment.

[quote Lan2020]@Maverickess thank you for the detailed explanation. I initially completely missed the fact they haven't included Sept in my payment.[/quote]
It can be quite a shock to be landed with much higher payments and not realise why initially, I had the same where the 'missed' payment bumped up my monthly installments, though it was no one's fault, just when I moved and how long it took for them to calculate my bill and arrange payment installments. So I've been bitten on the arse by this before!
If I was doing it again I'd be paying what I could as soon as I got the bill (before the 1st payment date) and asking if I could spread the remainder over the actual months left between Oct and March to make it more affordable.

@Maverickess that's what I will do. I expected to pay for Sept, so I'll just ask to start my payments this month and it'll bring the payments to what I was expecting.

That's the things with moving to such an expensive house, all of the bills have also increased a lot. Such a nuisance when we wanted to stay in our other (cheaper) property until we bought a house.