Council Tax arrears

If you are struggling to pay your Council Tax bill, get in contact with us as soon as you can, and we will try to help.

If you fall behind with your Council Tax payments, we will send you a reminder letter or text.

Your first reminder will give you seven days to bring your payments up to date. If you don’t bring them up to date, you will no longer be able to pay your bill by instalments and we can demand full payment of the rest of your Council Tax.

If you have previously received a reminder and brought your account up to date but are late paying again, we will send you another reminder. We will give you a further seven days to bring your Council Tax payments up to date.

If you bring your account up to date and pay all future instalments as detailed on your bill, we won't take any further action.

If you don’t bring your payments up to date, we will issue a summons through the magistrates’ court. This will increase the amount you owe us.

If you do not pay the summons, including costs, we will ask the magistrates’ court to grant a liability order. This allows us to recover the amount owed using recovery actions, including:

• deductions from your benefits: Income Support, Job Seeker's Allowance, Employment Support Allowance or Pension Credit
• deductions direct from your salary, or your employer
• appointing enforcement agents to remove and sell your possessions (you will be liable to pay any additional fees)
• making you bankrupt in the county court (you will be liable to pay any additional fees which can be substantial)
• applying for a charging order at the county court so we can force the sale of your home (you will be liable to pay any additional fees)
• applying for a warrant of commitment to send you to prison for up to 90 days