Council Tax In Sheffield Looks Set To Rise By 4.99%

[HeHasRisen]

5 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Hour and half on phone , whilst watching Peppa Pig and fighting a 3 year old , then gave up without speaking to anyone . 
Another reason for me hate the bunch of amateurs that run this council.

Monday maybe not the best day. Try again midweek. 

 

If you still can't get through then and you are 500% sure you weren't in arrears on the date the summons were issued, take screenshot of the call lengths as proof you have tried to resolve it and see them in court. Continue making the normal monthly payments in the interim. 

 

It could be your continual late payment (not by much, admittidly) means they want you to pay the whole thing. You really need to get on an even keel with it. 

Edited September 18, 2023 by HeHasRisen

[hackey lad]

4 minutes ago, HeHasRisen said:

Monday maybe not the best day. Try again midweek. 

 

If you still can't get through then and you are 500% sure you weren't in arrears on the date the summons were issued, take screenshot of the call lengths as proof you have tried to resolve it and see them in court. Continue making the normal monthly payments in the interim. 

Phone call starts with mornings are our busiest time. I phoned in the afternoon . 😡 

 

[HeHasRisen]

You probably just need to ring first thing, get in the queue, put phone on speaker and just crack on with other things. 

 

During Covid it took me 4 hours to get through to TUI doing this. 

[Resident]

8 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

Seems odd to go straight to court summons for one payment being ten days late.

 

Did you bring the account up to date before the date on the summons, or afterwards?

Council only go after those they know will pay.... 

[hackey lad]

11 minutes ago, Resident said:

Council only go after those they know will pay.... 

Its already been paid 

[HeHasRisen]

9 hours ago, hackey lad said:

Its already been paid 

I suspect the issue is that you have been late, multiple times, and they have had enough. Paying monthly is seen as a "concession", in an ideal world local authorities will want the whole thing up front.

 

Of course we are only guessing here until you ring up and actually speak to a human.

[dave_the_m]

As HHR says, if you miss any payments then legally they can demand the rest of the year's payments up front. It may be stupid and unfair, but it's legal. So if you turn up at court and say "some payments were late, but I'm now paid up to date till September", that means nothing if the council have already told you to pay the rest of the year's payments. Magistrates have to the follow the law, even if unfair.

So under those circumstances you'd be far better off negotiating something with the the council beforehand rather than looking forward to a certain loss + costs at court.

 

(NB: I am not a lawyer, nor an expert in the laws and procedures around council tax arrears.)

[HeHasRisen]

You would also be better putting it on a direct debit, this can be done over 10 months or 12. It will stop it being late constantly.

[Resident]

1 hour ago, HeHasRisen said:

You would also be better putting it on a direct debit, this can be done over 10 months or 12. It will stop it being late constantly.

Even that's not a guarantee. 

With a different council, I had a DD set up and on occasion their system would fail to request the transfer for upto 3 days and I got a text saying it was late.

Eventually I got a letter stating that if it wasn't paid on time in the future they'd cancel my DD and expect payment in full. I contacted them and told them it's DD and shouldn't be late at all they backed down. 

 

[HeHasRisen]

Never had an issue with paying council tax by DD in nigh on 20 years, I accept not everyone has the same experience.