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Mmmm, long story-ish, but here's the outline (and I would appreciate any advice)..

A while ago (6 months) I rang up Bristol city council to arrange to pay my council tax by direct debit as kept forgetting to pay the bills when they came through the door. I was told "no problem". A week later I recieved a reminder letter asking me to pay, but saying "if you have arranged payment in the last 7 days please ignore this letter". So, I did.

Anyway, about a month later I recieved a court summons asking me to pay the outstanding amount and £100 costs. I rang up and argued that I shouldn't have to pay the amount, but the council not only refused to play back the tape of me calling (I'm sure they must record all calls, and I was even able to give date and time), but they also refused to refund £100 of costs saying "see you in court".

I (thinking I am calling their bluff) said "okay, see you in court". However, a day before I'm due in court, I thought "feck it.. I can't be arsed, in case it does actually go against me". So I paid them £100 and the outstanding amount.

Ever since I have waited until I receive a "Final Reminder" bill to pay the bill, as this gave me some sort of satisfaction, thinking that I am wasting their time and money when it's their fault in the first place.

I think this began to piss them off a bit too much though, so I recently recieved another court summons asking for full payment of everything up until April 2008. I planned to leave it until 1 day before I was due in court then settle up in full. However, with the Christmas festivities, this completely slipped my mind...

This meant I was supposed to be in court today, but didnt' show up... Does this mean I have a CCJ? Or can I pay the outstanding amount in full and get away without one? My own fault I guess, but incredibly annoying if I end up with a CCJ just trying to prove a point. Would suck to get a bad credit rating, when it's so important to keep a clean record these days.

If anyone has any experience of these type of court summons, I'd be grateful to hear what they say.

enjoy yer sleep mate as the old bill will bash your door in at 6am cart u off 2 court........... 6 months minimum i reckon!    rotflmfao

From not paying during the Poll Tax days, I believe case goes to magistrates (summons you got will say which court it goes to). If it did you don,t have a CCJ. Your credit rating will be affected already by missing instalments in the past. Most Councils log each missed month with the main credit agencies unfortunately.

If you had offered to pay up by direct debit and it was recorded you should have turned up at court . A high % of magistrates would have deferred judgement and possibly rejected Council's claim. Sadly, most of the council applications go through unchallenged unlike the Poll Tax days when we could grind it out for years.

Thanks :) That's not as bad as I thought then (will check the letter for which court when I get to work). Though the missed installments affecting my credit rating isn't great news I guess...

(http://www.visitingdc.com/images/alcatraz-prison-picture.jpg)

councils dont go thru standard small debt recovery process for council tax (unless it is a very old debt), they go to magistrates court for "summary warrant" - it doesnt affect your credit rating, but you will receive notifcation that they have received summary warrant and the debt is now enforceable by bailiffs.

Most likely what happens is that you still have a chance to come to arrangement to pay, and as long as it is to stump up what you owe before the end of the current financial year, they will agree to it - although they dont need to agree to anything.

note that council tax is still considered a crown debt, and punishment for willfull non payment can still include being sent to jail.

Hooray, all sorted now :) Rang up and paid until the end of March.

The court was a magistrates court, so it hasn't adversely effected my credit rating according to the council. Though, of course, the delays in me paying them on time might have.

Thanks for the info everyone. Lesson learned and all that. Don't f*ck with the council. Pay your bills and shut up!

Is it just me or do the council forget that they work for us the public?

I keep forgetting to pay mine, here's what happens:

Various reminders (ignored)
Letter threatening bailiffs (call bailiffs, arrange payments)
Meanwhile billed for ongoing payments (ignored)
Letter threatening bailiffs (call bailiffs, arrange payments)
Rinse , repeat.
Never on time but never in court, never charged for late payments.
Labour council though..........

Not exactly on the same lines but I have been battling with the council/housing benefit people for months and had court threatning letters and ended up having to find the money to pay in the end.

I am a single parent with 3 kids, my oldest left school and enrolled in a college course which he didnt attend enough to earn the £30 a week so I was supporting him for that year. He got fed up with the course/lack off money and found a job woohoo. It worked out after discounts etc he was paying between 25/30% of the total tax/rent of my council house which didnt leave him with much spending money so again I was paying for his food/living expenses.
After 18 months of a job he hated he left and of course was not entitled to benefits, I informed the housing/council tax office of the situation and they sent out a renewed assessment saying he only needed to pay £10ish a week rent and £3ish council tax.
I phoned them back saying he had no income whatsoever and that I was supporting him by feeding/sheltering him till he found another job. "How much money are you giving him" I was asked. "Im not giving him money, I am feeding him and he lives under my roof..he is my son" I said. I was then told that by sheltering him I was giving him at least £20 a week so he had been assessed on an income of £20.

So basically they assessed him as having an income of £20 and £13 went on rent and council tax!!!!

I spent so many hours on the phone but I gave up in the end.

They work for themselves. It's all about power. They will NEVER EVER admit they are wrong on ANYTHING. Best not to argue imo. Pay the idiots their money - right or wrong (as long as it isn't insane amounts) and feel righteous in your decision.

Thats okay if you can afford it Matt, there are loads out there that cant.

Aye, I see what you are saying. I was replying to the previous post about the council tax - not your post which is about something else.

I don't know all your circumstances from this (age of child or if you work) but this sounds wrong to me. Did you go to CAB in your area or appeal? It sounds like the CT Benefit person is being a bit creative here to say the least. There are rules on how to treat what they call non-dependents, which includes adult children in education or work/unemployed. Certain amounts are deducted from benefit but I don't believe they can assign arbitrary amounts to this!

Edit: THis link might be of use

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/council_tax_benefit.asp#howmuch

I read this that a non dependent with no income is a £2.30 deduction. Might be worth double checking Benefit officers do make mistakes.

You can't just jack your job in because you don't like it and expect other people to foot the bill! what's the world coming to to.
Tell him to get up off his lazy arse and get a job by this time next month or else he's out on his ear, you'll not do him any favours by mollycoddling him.

Just my opinion

The public who pay their council tax, surely?

He is young with no dependants and did well to stick it out for 18 months I think...he started another job 2 months ago and again is over qualified but hasnt been successful in finding a job he enjoys or finds a challenge.

I hope he will soon.

Thanks for the advice Redsimon but I am so tired of trying to fight the system that at the moment I am all washed out..I know it cant be right but he is working again so I have to let it go.

So all thats happened through firstly not paying by direct debit and then trying to annoy them is that X amount of pounds has been wasted on taking the case to court and sending out loads of letters. Ah well done, great stuff.  It should, and I hope it has, gone on your credit rating score.

You won't have annoyed them at all by delaying payments either. You've simply given a member of the credit control a nice little project which they have now won.

Thanks :)

I'm a bit surprised by this entire thread.

You didn't pay the bills in time and then you complain that "the council works for you"?..No it doesn't..the council works for people who pay their bills and sort their stuff out. Well done on getting it sorted and you learned the right lesson. "pay your bills and shuttit"..if you think the bill is unjust you can fight it but don't moan when you haven't paid the bills properly and they come after you for it.


The "jacked the job after 18 months and people still want him to pay the bills" thing is beyond me..It's beyond belief that someone who chucks their job voluntarily expects to be cut some slack when it comes to paying bills. Suonds to me like the system told him to go F himself and they were right to do so and the system therefore works. That actually gives me faith in the system rather than anything else.

Not moaning in the slightest. I realise by trying to prove a point I'd made a mistake (see my posts above) and was simply hoping that my stupidity in trying to prove this point didn't result in me being given a CCJ or adversely effect my credit rating.

As I say above, and you also say, just pay your bills and shut up.

The only thing that really hacked me off in the whole situation was that once the council said they had set up a direct debit on my bank account they proceeded to send me an unjust court summons the first time round. I should, of course, have gone to court to fight this, as they were 100% in the wrong in this case. I couldn't be bothered though and paid the £100. Then I got arsey about it and decided to pay all my bills as late as possible.

Again, as I say, that wasn't a good idea and one that I've learned a lesson from.

to be honest the main thing that pissed me off was suzanne's post..that sort of thing just really gets my goat.

The direct debit thing is a bit of a pain but best thing to do is give them a ring as soon as you get sent the other reminder..would have solved you a lot of stress. I used to be the same and think "I sorted it last week it'll be fine"..that never works..doesn't work with any company..just give them a call and say "did't I sort this out last week?"..and you're done :)

Yeah, I should have called them to double check for sure. Would have solved all the hassle, and stopped me from being a dick trying to prove a pointless point also lol.

It was just the wording that said "If you have paid, or arranged to pay, this bill in the last 7 days, then please ignore this letter". Words to those effect anyway. So, when I did ignore the letter (having been told that direct debit had already been setup) I was pissed off massively to get a court summons. If this happens again I'll ignore the blurb on the letter and call to double check anyway. It was probably more laziness than me actually believing the "7 days" blurb, that made me not make the call.

Ah well, all's well that ends well. No council tax bills until April 2008 for me now :)

Eh!
I should hope he has no dependents, if he can't afford to feed or clothe them how can they depend on him. And how did he become overqualified? a school leaver who dropped out of college then quit his job.He hasn't had enough experience to be overqualified
What it boils down to is neither you or him can see anything wrong with expecting other people to pay his rent, council tax etc. and even now he has a job you still seem to believe that the council owe you/him something more.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

crickey..as Daily Mail as that sounds I actually agree with Wader...this is exactly what I consider to be wrong with todays youth.

I think your being a little harsh here, without knowing the full facts your making sweeping assumptions and in a negative manner that reflects poorly on Suzanne. Judging from Suzanne's previous post regarding her kids and family situation I would be the last to condemn her.

Very easy to be over qualified for any job these days, a bit of previous experience perhaps or his old job might have been of a similar nature.

Also lots of people drop out of college and change jobs, not always a bad thing to find your feet and move to something you are good at or enjoy. Education is not for everyone.

Expecting help from the government to promote people working in low or semi skills jobs is called incentives to work. If you didn't have them there would be no point in millions of  people working when they would be better off on the dole. What would you prefer? I don't see anything wrong with anyone (or Suzanne in this case) wanting to get what is rightfully there's in law. 

The youth of today is how our society has shaped them, no point in blaming them.

This thread is confusing, I mean people let slide someone bragging that they pay stuff late deliberately, wait for summons etc (not the original poster), yet act in a negative manner to someone who wants what they are entitled to...

Maybe I read it wrong but I don't even think Suzanne wanted anything for her son, it was a case that she thought it a bit ridiculous that she had to pay extra to have him live in her house...

I read it as saying that he still needed to pay the bills although he didn't have a job "After 18 months of a job he hated he left and of course was not entitled to benefits, I informed the housing/council tax office of the situation and they sent out a renewed assessment saying he only needed to pay £10ish a
week rent and £3ish council tax"

that's why I would have a problem with it. He quit the job and HE still ows money. If Suzanne herself had had to pay extra because her son quit his job and the council wanted her to pay up that would have been wrong.

What I object to is that council tax keeps going up every year even for me living on a crummy council estate and what good does it get spent on?

Police? Well I dont want the police. Its rich people who want police to stop me robbing from thier homes.
Cleaning up graffiti? Well if I didn't want graffiti then I wouldn't put it up there.
Fire Brigade? Look if I set a building on fire then I say let it burn.
Council houses? If you knocked my estate down and kicked me out of town then you wouldn't need any police, cleaners or firemen.

Its a catch 22 situation which is why I am voting for the Monster Raving Looney Party to abolish taxis and raise the age of consent to 75.

lmao