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Council Tax Enforcement

Information Request

Once a liability order has been granted by the Magistrates Court for non payment of Council Tax, the Council are entitled to request information regarding your income and expenditure. This is sent to you within 5 days of the liability order being granted and is enclosed with a notice advising what will happen if you do not comply.

If requested, you are required by law to provide this information and failure to provide, or providing false information is a criminal offence and if found guilty carries a substantial fine and will result in a criminal record.

Once your fully completed form has been received the Council will be able to consider it's options regarding enforcing payment of the debt. We have even put in a box for you to make a reasonable offer of payment.

Download Council Tax Information.

Payment Arrangements

At all stages of debt recovery we encourage our customers to contact the Debt Recovery unit and make an offer of payment.

If an Information Request form is fully completed and returned to the Council, we may consider accepting an offer of payment which clears the debt by the end of the financial year.

We can be flexible in our arrangements, in that they can be paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly and we offer the same choices of payment method as are offered with your bill. As always our prefered method of payment is direct debit.

If an arrangement is made but not maintained we will quickly, and without further warning escalate our action to recover the debt.

Attachment of Earnings Order

Once a liability order has been granted by the Magistrates Court, the authority is entitled to demand money from your wages or salary via an Attachment of Earnings Order. This will be used if acceptable arrangements to pay have not been made or if you have not paid the outstanding balance in full.

If you are employed, we can instruct your employer to take deductions from your salary or wages and pay it directly to us in settlement of your Council Tax debt. Your employer will also be able to make a small deduction from your salary for their own administration costs.

The amounts we take will depend on how much you earn based on a percentage of your net pay every month or week, see our deductions from earnings for more information. Your employer will continue to take payments until you have paid what you owe. By law, your employer must follow the Attachment of Earnings Order guidance and regulations and can be prosecuted and fined if they do not.

Once we issue the Attachment of Earnings Order, we will only stop proceedings once you have paid us all the council tax you owe.

Deductions from Benefits

The Council can request that the Department for Work and Pensions (the Benefits Agency)deduct a sum from certain benefits including Job Seekers Allowance, Income Support and Pension Credits. This deduction will then be paid over to the Council. The current level of deduction is £3.00 per week.

Bailiff Action

After a liability order has been granted the Council can instruct bailiffs to collect the debt. Before doing this the Council must send a final warning letter advising that it is going to refer the matter to the bailiff and advising of the possible costs involved in this action.

Once an account has been passed to the bailiff, all dealings must be done directly with them.

The bailiffs will visit and try to obtain full payment, if payment in full is made on the first visit a fee of £24.50 will be charged. If the bailiffs have to visit a second time an additional fee of £18.00 will also be payable.

If you are unable to pay the debt in full and require further time to make the payment, the bailiff will normally enter into a walking possession agreement with you. He will make an inventory of your goods up to the sale value of the debt and any costs. You will be required to sign this agreement and there will be more costs added to the debt. Provided you keep to the agreement to pay the bailiff, there will be no further costs. If you refuse to sign a walking possession agreement the bailiff may decide to remove your goods immediately.

When goods are subject to a walking possession agreement they cannot be disposed of without the bailiffs permission. If you break the agreement made with the bailiff he may, if you have a signed the agreement, re-enter your property by force, if necessary, to take the goods.

If the bailiff believes that the goods may be disposed of he may take close possession of them, which means he stays on the premises until the debt is paid, or he may remove goods to the value of the debt immediately. You will have to pay any costs of removal and sale of the goods as well as any storage fees.

In addition to employing it's own bailiff, the Council also works in partnership with two private bailiff companies, Rossendales and Dukes Limited.

All bailiffs, whether employed directly or through a partnership agreement with the Council must adhere to the Council's bailiff code of practice.

Insolvency Action

At any point after you have missed payment of an instalment for your Council Tax and providing you owe £750 or more, the Council can make an application to the County Court to have you made bankrupt. This action could mean you lose your assets, income or even your home. It will also severly affect your ability to obtain credit.

This action is started by the serving of a statutory demand giving you either 18 days to apply to have the demand set aside or 21 days to pay the debt in full. If you do neither of these the Council is then able to petition for your bankruptcy.