Remember that paying by direct debit ensures your payments are made on time every month. To set up direct debit click here - South Kesteven (necsws.com)
If you pay late we will send you a reminder or final notice. We normally send only one reminder before taking further action.
Please contact us as soon as you realise that you cannot pay your council tax. If we can help or advise you at this stage it may prevent the situation becoming more serious.
We want to work to help you by:
- Discussing your circumstances before your arrears become too serious
- Giving advice on any welfare or benefits that you might be entitled to
- Putting you in touch with other agencies that can offer you support, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau , National Debtline and the Step Change Debt Charity
- Setting arrangement for you to pay off regular amounts of your arrears
If you do not contact us and you do not pay, you may lose your right to pay by instalments and then be required to pay the full balance outstanding. If you do not pay, you will receive a summons to appear in the Magistrates Court and incur additional court costs.
If you receive a summons
If you are unable to pay the amount due by the court date we will discuss a manageable payment arrangement with you. This will not stop the court proceedings. Providing you make the payments as arranged, however, we will not enforce the liability order obtained at court. The court proceedings can only be stopped if the amount due is paid in full, including court costs.
If the court decides you are responsible for paying and you have not paid in full, they can issue a liability order. This enables the council to take various steps to recover unpaid council tax, including passing it to an Enforcement Agent to recover.