If you do not pay your Council Tax by the due date, you may be sent a reminder. This is what will usually happen.

Step 1: First reminder

If you miss a payment, we’ll send you a reminder to tell you that your payment is late.

Step 2: Second reminder

If you miss another payment later in the same financial year, you’ll be sent a second reminder.

Step 3: Final notice

If you miss a payment for the third time in the same financial year, we’ll send you a Final Notice. This means you must pay the full balance within 7 days.

You may be able to avoid paying the full amount by contacting us as soon as possible. We may be able to bring your account up to date and set up an arrangement for future payments.

You must bring your account up to date within 7 days to prevent further recovery action.

It’s important to pay your Council Tax on time. This is what will happen if you do not pay after receiving a Reminder or Final Notice.

Step 1: Payment Deadline

Once you receive a Reminder or Final Notice, you have 7 days to pay your account. If you do not pay within this time, we’ll send you a court Summons and add £70 to your bill.

Step 2: Court Summons

The Summons will give you at least 2 weeks’ notice of a court hearing. If you pay the full amount owed, including the Summons cost, before the hearing date, we will not take any further action.

Step 3: Court Hearing

If the debt is not paid in full, we’ll ask the court for permission to recover the money. This is called a liability order. If the court agrees, it means they have decided you are responsible for paying the Council Tax you owe. You do not have to attend the court hearing unless you want to. The case can be dealt with without you being there.

If you receive a Summons, you may be able to agree to a payment plan to pay what you owe.

Step 1: When the Summons arrives

When you get a Summons, we’ll send you a letter explaining what to do. The letter will include a payment plan, also called a Special Arrangement.

Step 2: Keep to the payment plan

We will still ask the court for a liability order.
However, as long as you keep up to date with the payments on your Special Arrangement, we will not take any further action.

If you need help

If you don’t think you can afford the payments on your arrangement, please complete the Special Arrangement Request Form so we can look at other options.

If the court grants a liability order, we’ll decide how to recover the Council Tax you owe. We may write to you to ask for information to help us decide the best option.
These are the most common ways we collect the debt:

Taking money from your wages (Attachment of Earnings)

We may ask your employer to take a set amount from your wages and pay it to us. This will continue until the debt is paid in full.

• You and your employer must tell us if you change jobs
• Your employer can add £1 each time they make a deduction to cover their costs

Taking money from benefits

We may ask the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to take money directly from your benefits to pay the arrears.
This can include benefits such as Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance, and Universal Credit.

Enforcement Agents

We may pass your account to Enforcement Agents to collect the debt. We will always write to you before this happens.

• Enforcement Agents can remove belongings to sell to cover what you owe
• A £75 compliance fee will be added when your case is passed to them

If Enforcement Agents cannot collect the debt, the case will be returned to us.

You may then be asked to attend court to explain your financial situation. In serious cases where the court decides the debt should have been paid, further action could be taken.

In some circumstances, you can be sent to prison for not paying your Council Tax.

Homeowners

If you own your home and the debt cannot be recovered in other ways, we may apply for a charging order or bankruptcy.

This could mean your home is sold to repay the Council Tax you owe.