I'm confused about the council tax letter and how much we owe?

[Nikki2ol6]

In our old house I was paying £27 a week and it said on my bank statement city account so I had assumed it was council tax. Then we got a letter saying we hadn't been paying only one payment was ever made and we owe £513 ..... then at the bottom is says 1 X £21.00 is due
Then under that it says £492 of the total is subject to court proceedings.

So since it says only 1 payment of £21 is due do we not actually have to pay the £492?

I know I should ring and ask but I'll be in the queue 45 mins

Is this for the old or new house? Did you tell the CTax you had moved? Did you receive a final account for the old address and a new bill for the new one?

This is the old house bill and yes we got a bill for the new house which we are set up a direct debit for

Looks like they only received one payment of £21...time to find out what you were paying £27 per week for!

So where was the £27 a week going to?

There's going to be a court case to recover the £400, so you really should be paying the new amount now and working out where you other money went to.

I work in Council Tax. An amount subject to court proceedings means it has already been to court and a Liability Order has been obtained. You need to find out where the money you have been paying is going. Ask for a statement of accounts for that period. It will breakdown everything for you. Most LAs now do online billing or can email bills too so you can trace where the money is owed from. Get onto them quick as they can get nasty after a Liability Order has been obtained.

Also councils have a whopping big suspense account where un referenced payments go so if you have been paying each week but haven't quoted your account number on the payments chances are the money is on the suspense account and just needs moving across. If that is the case and the payments on suspense account covers the outstanding balance then any court costs will be withdrawn / refunded.

I remember trying to trace stuff in suspense...aargh.