The Summons
Your account will be passed to the Recovery Section for collection if you have failed to pay on a reminder or final reminder notice already issued. At this stage the Recovery Section will issue a summons to appear at North East Derbyshire and Dales Magistrates Court.
As a result, you will lose the right to pay by instalments. The summons will request payment of the full outstanding balance for the rest of the year, including an additional amount for court costs. If two or more names appear on the Council Tax bill, you will all receive a copy of the summons, but only one amount of costs will be charged.
What Happens Next?
If you pay the full outstanding amount shown on the summons, including the costs, no further action will be taken and your name will not appear on the list presented at the Court. The fact that you had been issued with a summons would not be held against you for future years.
You do not have to attend the magistrates court if you agree that you owe the outstanding amount. If you decide to attend court, we will not pay for your expenses.
If you can’t afford to pay the full amount you should contact the Recovery Section to make an arrangement to pay off the debt. See our page on Arrangements.
The Court Hearing
At the hearing, the magistrates grant a Liability Order in respect of your outstanding account. The Liability Order allows us to take further recovery action without prior notice. See our page on Further Action.
The court hearing is held to check that the proper steps have been taken to recover your Council Tax or Business Rates and that the balance is still owing. The magistrates cannot generally look into whether or not you are liable to pay the charge. The magistrates cannot decide how much you should pay or agree payment arrangements, and cannot consider any Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit related matters.
If you think you are not liable to pay the charge, please contact the Revenues Section straight away so that we can investigate the matter.
You will be sent a copy of the Liability Order, which also includes a request for details of your income and expenditure. You must complete and return this request to avoid your account being passed to a bailiff company for collection.
| ||||||
