What Happens If You Don't Pay Your Council Tax?

If an instalment is not paid then a reminder will be sent. The reminder provides you with seven days in which to bring the account up to date by paying the overdue instalment.

Only one reminder is issued for Business Rates.

For Council Tax, a maximum of two reminders will be issued in any one financial year in accordance with legislation. A second reminder will only be issued if you comply fully with the terms of payment contained in the first reminder and subsequently fail to pay a further instalment by the due date. 

If the terms of the reminder are not complied with, the balance remaining for the full year will become due and recovery action will proceed.

For council tax, a final notice will be issued where two reminder notices have been issued for that financial year and you fall into arrears on a third occasion and the terms of the previous reminders have been complied with. In these circumstances, a final notice confirms that you have lost the right to pay by instalments and that the full balance due to the end of the year has become payable.

A final notice will also be issued where there is no right to instalments, or all instalments are due, for example previous years' debts.

If you do not pay the full amount on the final notice, you’ll be sent a court summons and additional costs will be added to your account immediately. 

The summons will tell you when your case will be listed at court. 

If you wish to attend court, there are two valid defences. They are if we have not billed you correctly, or you've already paid the amount on the summons.

It is not a valid defence if you: 

• Cannot afford to pay
• Have applied for council tax benefits
• Have appealed to the Valuation Office against your council tax band
• Have appealed against our decision to hold you liable 

To avoid your case going to court, you must pay in full (including any costs incurred as a result of non-payment). 

If you do not have a valid defence to attend court and are unable to pay in full, you can make a payment arrangement with us before the court hearing.  

Your case will still be listed at the court hearing where the magistrates will be asked to grant a liability order against you to secure the debt and award additional costs. You do not need to attend court. 

The payment arrangement will include the summons costs and liability order costs. As long as you keep up with your payment arrangement, we will not take any further recovery action against you. 

After the court hearing, once the liability order has been granted, if you have not made a payment arrangement the council is no longer obliged to send any further notification before taking recovery action.

The liability order gives us the power to recover your outstanding council tax in these ways: 

• Taking money directly from your benefits (attachment of benefit order)
• Taking money directly from your wage (attachment of earnings order)
• Asking enforcement agents (formerly known as bailiffs) to collect the amount 
• Placing a charging order on your property if you own it
• Making you bankrupt/insolvent
• Starting proceedings to send you to prison

We can ask the Department for Works and Pensions to deduct the outstanding balance on your account from your Job Seeker's Allowance, Income Support, Employment Support Allowance, Pension Credit Guaranteed Credit or Universal Credit.

If you receive Universal Credit the amount deducted will depend on how much benefit you receive, other benefits are taken at a fixed rate until the debt is clear. 

If you are employed, we can send an attachment of earnings to your employer asking them to take money from your wage to pay your outstanding council tax bill. The amount taken will be a percentage of your take home pay. Your employer will pay a percentage straight to us until your debt is cleared. They can also take an administration fee of £1 for each deduction if they choose to.

If we pass your case to our enforcement agents (formerly known as bailiffs), a £75 compliance fee will be added to your account immediately. 

You should contact the enforcement agency straight away to discuss repayment to avoid further fees being added to your account.

If you do not, an enforcement agent will visit you and upwards of £235 enforcement fee will be added to your account, in addition to the £75 fees already incurred. You can make a payment arrangement with the enforcement agent at any stage, but you may need to sign a controlled goods agreement.  

Fees, charges and disbursements you may incur are as set out in the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 and are summarised below:

• Compliance Stage - £75 Fixed Fee
• Enforcement Stage - £235 Fixed Fee (in addition 7.5% - percentage of the sum to be recovered if exceeding £1500)
• Sale of Disposal Stage - £110 Fixed Fee (in addition 7.5% - percentage of the sum to be recovered if exceeding £1500)

If you do not keep up your payments, they can remove goods from your home. 

If you do make payments to us after your case has been passed to the enforcement agency, your case will remain open with them and they’ll proceed as normal for the remaining balance, including their fees. 

Once your case has been passed to the enforcement agent, it will remain with them until the full debt is cleared. 

You may also incur additional costs for storage of goods, locksmiths, court fees in relation to any applications made by the enforcement agent, exceptional disbursements such as using a specialist removal contractors and the cost of selling your goods.

Enforcement agent contact details:

Marstons (previously Rossendales)

Online payments

To pay online, please go to Marston Holdings website that can be found at the bottom of the page.

Automated payment line

To pay through the 24-hour automated payment line, phone 0333 320 1100.

Customer app

To download the Marston App, please follow the links at the bottom of the page.

Contact Marstons by phone

To speak to one of the team to make a payment, or to discuss your circumstances, phone 0333 320 1822.

Opening hours are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm on Saturdays.

Contact Marstons by email

If you haven't found the answer you are looking for on their website, please email them at generalenquiries@marstonholdings.co.uk.

Contact Marstons by post

It is always quicker and easier to contact them by phone or email.  If you do need to send them anything in the post, please send it to:

Marston
PO Box 12019
Epping
CM16 9EB   

To pay by post, send a postal order, cheque or banker’s draft, made payable to ‘Marston’ to the address above.  Make sure that you write your name and their reference number on anything you send to them and if sending a payment, write this on the back of the postal order, cheque or banker’s draft so that they know what the payment is for.

Bristow & Sutor

Online payments

To pay online, please go to their web page listed below. 

Contact Bristow & Sutor by phone

To speak to one of the team to make a payment, or to discuss your circumstances, phone 0330 390 2010.

Opening hours are 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 8am to 1pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Contact Bristow & Sutor by email

If you haven't found the answer you are looking for on their website, please contact them via their contact form.

WhatsApp Messaging/Texting

Please note that where they are contacted by this method, they will respond by this method:  07860 078 251.  Alternatively you can text them on:  07781 488270

Contact Bristow & Sutor by post

It is always quicker and easier to contact them by phone or text/contact form.  If you do need to send anything in the post, please send it to:

Bristow & Sutor
Bartleet Road
Washford, Redditch
B98 0LF 

To pay by post, send a postal order, cheque or banker’s draft, made payable to ‘Bristow & Sutor’ and crossed Account Payee to the address above.  Make sure that you write your name and their reference number on anything you send to them and if sending a payment, write this on the back of the postal order, cheque or banker’s draft so that they know what the payment is for.

If other recovery methods have been unsuccessful and you owe £5,000 or more in unpaid council tax or business rates we may decide to take bankruptcy/insolvency action against you.

If we decide to take this action, it will severely impact your ability to get credit and you may lose your home and possessions to pay your council tax debt.

If you own your property and your debt is £1,000 or more we may decide to apply for a charging order to be placed on the property. 

That means we could force you to sell so that we can recover the outstanding balance on your account. Alternatively, if you decide to sell your property, your debt will be cleared from the proceeds of sale. 

If we have exhausted all our methods of recovery, we can ask the court to issue you a summons to attend a committal hearing. 

At the hearing, we will tell the magistrates that a liability order has been granted against you and provide a history of your debt. 

You will get a chance to explain why you have failed to pay your council tax and the magistrates will then decide whether you've deliberately refused to pay. This is known as ‘wilful refusal’ or ‘culpable neglect’. 

You will be asked questions about your income and expenditure. This is called a ‘means enquiry’. It helps the court come to a conclusion as to whether you are able to pay and, if so, what is affordable for you to pay. 

If they decide that you’ve been financially able to pay your council tax, but failed to do so, you may be found in ‘culpable neglect’. 

The court will decide whether you should go to prison for not paying your council tax, you may be sent to prison for up to 90 days.