I have been summons to court!

[monstymunch]

hi, I really scared recieved this letter today summons me to court no where is open to get advice!

I pay my council tax every month but now they want me to pay 613.54 plus 42.00 costs immediatley.

why? a while ago i arranged with someone to pay it over 12 months instead of 10 but i am still paying 5 pound more than i have to even under that scheme.

Im so panicky now where am i going to get that from so close to xmas?

help me please can they do this.

[Sequin]

Go to see your local Citizen's Advice Bureau

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

[louadams6]

this post may help you a little http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Money_and_Finance/Questio n161366.html

[Buenchico]

Don't panic!

I've had one of these before (and I know plenty of other people who've received them as well). All it took, for me, was a quick phone call to the council and everything was resolved. I'd actually defaulted on some payments but I still didn't have to go to court. In your case, it seems that you're in a better position than I was. This summons seems to have been issued simply because they've either lost the record of your payment arrangement or they've lost an actual payment from you. (Such things do happen. The Woolwich Building Society once sent me a repossession notice on my house just because they'd lost a payment. The payment they'd managed to lose was for over �36000!).

Stop worrying. The council's computer generates thousands of these things every month. Their staff should be able to sort everything out very quickly.

Now just forget about it and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Chris

[twiglet4frog]

was on the news today that an old dear had the same problem, turns out that a council coputer was churning them out to the wrong people. I would contact them immediaetly in the morning and dont panic. If u have definately been paying the tax then u have nothing to worry about ok?

[andy hughes]

Don't worry. These are issued by a computer proramme, which may not have been programmed to take into account your changed payments.

As others have said, these summonses are common - it's really just a means of jogging you into getting in touch with the Council - harsh, but true!

[qapmoc]

Can you explain what you meant in your post when you said ''a while ago I arranged with someone to pay it over 12 months instead of ten'' do you mean that you aranged it with the council officially and that you have documents to back this up or do you mean you arranged it privately with someone to do this on your behalf.

Anyway whatever, please let us know the outcome for future reference.

[funnywebsite]

You need to ring them up and sort it out over the phone. I got one once because I was about a week or two late for the second time that year. They have no patience and send these letters out. It's fine when you ring up and talk to them. You just have to be persistent with the phone because the number is always engaged. I had to contact mine through email last week because it was impossible to get through. Somebody did answer my email and it was sorted out.