council tax panic - final reminder? anyone have any experience?

[user1499590110]

Bit of a panicky message...pay council tax manually online each month. was accidentally in arrears about 3 months ago for one month, had a reminder notice and called them to pay what was outstanding (my salary monthy payment date had been moved and so the payment to them was also late). they then changed the payment date. i have logged on today to pay this month as usual, and it says 'final notice' next to the full figure. i have made payment for the monthly amount, but having read what final reminder means on the internet, it says that means i need to go to court if i dont pay the whole amount?! i dont understand this as i have had no correspondence from them, and if i hadnt logged onto my online banking and just paid online by giving my account number (rather than logging into the full account), then i would never have even noticed this. i only logged onto the proper account because i wanted to see when the bins needed to go out!

it is saturday so i cant call them...im panicking that maybe i am behind and havent realised? i dont see how as i have checked email receipts and i have made payments each month. does anyone have any experience of this?

Because you missed a payment the entire bill is now due. You can only pay monthly if you keep up to date with your payments. Call the council do not ignore it. I would post on money-saving expert too as folk will have more knowledge there.

It used to be that if you defaulted, you lost the right to monthly payments and the full balance for the year became due.

i did call when that happened as it was due to my salay being taken out at a different date. when i called they said it was no problem and that they woud update the system. will they definitely go ahead with this?

I am in Scotland so may be different. However in my council (I work in council tax recovery) if you bring the account up to date they will re instate monthly payments. Phone first thing Monday ... I don't think you should panic too much. HTH

Call them on Monday make a new payment plan they should honour this nothing will happen over the weekend try and not panic to much

In the past we were up to our eyeballs in arrears it is really worrying but tbf on the council they did help us sort it all out

It's probably an automated flag on the system. Since you've been in contact and have made payments, they're unlikely to do anything more. So try not to worry over the weekend. Give them a ring on Monday.

The system automatically cancels the payment plan when a payment is late. I've been there and it's scary the way those letters are worded but phone them on Monday and I'm sure they'll help you out, especially soon as you have evidence you've paid monthly and so genuinely believed you were up to date.

thanks all... given that techically i have been in arrears on three occassions (although not consecutive months), do you think this is more of a problem to them? we are only taking around 50 quid at the most, but i guess the amount overdue is irrelevant.

im worried that if they have issued a summons then i will now have that to pay too? how much is that? and at that stage would they definitely pursue it as the summons is issued?

This happened to me about 8 years ago and I was so upset. As soon as they're open on Monday, phone them. I was able to clear the arrears and restart the instalments for the rest of the year - I think I had to effectively pay 2 months in one go to get myself "ahead" if that makes sense. For every year since I've paid by direct debit, because I was mortified it had happened.

They should issue a final reminder before a summons, so if you call as soon as you can then hopefully it can be resolved before a summons is issued.

thank you. what's the situation is a summons has been issued?

This happened to me, I emailed them explaining that we have to pay manually as they messed up the DD their end. We made payment so that everything was up to date and they were fine about it, no court etc

In scotland you get to 'warning' letters saying payment is late (across the whole year, so doesnt need to be consecutive) then its pretty much third strike and youre out. And dont get the luxury of paying monthly.

If you call and explain it will be absolutely fine I'm sure of it.

They will not have issued a summons yet definitely not for this situation.

Padded - do you know what happens when they do? I have looked through my post and seen I had a letter saying 'final reminder' but that was the one where I called and explained my salary payment date had changed. I cant see any other reminders having gone through my post, but equally i canot work out online whether i have been paying the right amounts - i know i have definitely overpaid some months but one month i paid 50 when it should have been 85, for instance.

This happened to myself, they put me on a 'payment plan' and I didn't have to attend court and it doesn't get recorded anywhere.
Ring them on Monday and explain what's happened

My local council will only send one arrears reminder letter. When I got in a bit of a muddle with mine once, I had a reminder letter and paid what I thought was the outstanding amount. But actually without realising I was still a month behind. As payments are pro rata over 10 months, no payment is normally required in Feb and March and as soon as I didn't pay anything in Feb I received a court summons. Bit of a shock and genuine oblivious stupidity on my part. All swiftly sorted though and no repercussions since thankfully.

Don't panic.

We had a summons issued on a not-change-of-address property years ago- there was an issue with the direct debit that was flagged too late.
I called them and they were really helpful.

I managed to sort it all on the phone there and then. Just make sure you get payment reference/name of person you speak to and call back a couple of days later to make sure the system has been updated.

I work in council tax and in my authority if when you get a final notice you bring the account up to date and go on to direct debit then that's fine. It is something you'd need to discuss with them.

Hate the council quick to take cash of you but if they owe you something you can wait ages!

Call them and talk. Talk nicely, don't get stressed and shout. Generally they will try to help, they don't want to go to court unless they have to. You're not far into the tax year so they should be able to restructure it and spread the full amount owing over the remaining months of the year. Many authorities have two months of the year when you don't pay (or did when I worked in this area many years ago) and you can use those to make the monthly payment a little less. Good luck!

I was in deep shiz with my council tax a few years ago. I called them and they just put me on monthly from that date. Each authority will be different but they will want to help.

Have you checked the website for your council? Chances are their policy is on there.
Technically it is now all due and payable but many councils will make a payment arrangement if you bring it up to date.