Unpaid Council Tax

Liability order

If you do not pay the full amount due on your summons, we will request a liability order at the court hearing. This will incur a further £35 in costs which will be added to your bill.

The liability order gives us powers to recover the outstanding debt using the methods listed below:

We can order your employer to make deductions from your earnings towards your Council Tax arrears.

An attachment of earnings order letter is sent to your employer to take money directly from your wages or salary. You will receive a copy of this letter confirming the liability order details and the total arrears to be repaid, once the order is in place. On our request, your employer’s payroll department will set up payments to be made to Runnymede on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in accordance with how you are paid, until the debt is settled.

Once set up, an attachment will not be cancelled until the debt is paid in full or you cease employment.

We may be able to apply for deductions if you are receiving income support, jobseeker's allowance, employment and support allowance, or universal credit.

We can instruct an enforcement agent to collect an outstanding Council Tax debt from you if a liability order has been granted. An enforcement agent will visit your home to take control of goods to sell. The purpose of this is to raise money which will go towards paying your council tax arrears including the recovery costs.

Before visiting you, the enforcement agent will send you a letter which will state how much you owe. You can contact the enforcement agent to agree a payment arrangement and it is important to do this once you receive your letter to minimise further enforcement agent fees.

Runnymede Borough Council employs the following enforcement agents:

Additional fees payable when the debt is passed to an enforcement agent are:

  • Compliance stage (from date of receipt of instruction by enforcement agent until before first visit) - £75
  • Enforcement stage (from date of first visit) - £235 (plus 7.5% of amount above £1,500, if the debt is above £1,500)
  • Sale stage - £110 (plus 7.5% of amount above £1,500, if the debt is above £1,500)

We could begin legal proceedings if you don’t pay the money you owe. You can be sent to prison for up to 90 days if a further court hearing finds you have not paid the Council Tax due to wilful refusal or culpable neglect.

Where more than £1,000 is outstanding under liability order(s) and the Council Tax payer has a legal interest in the property, we may apply to the County Court for a charging order on the property.

The effect of a charging order is that if the property or other legal interest is sold the amount of the charging order is paid out of the proceeds.

After the court hearing, we will send you a 14-day arrangement letter offering you instalments to clear the balance outstanding. After 14 days the debt will be passed to one of our enforcement agents for collection. The notice will also advise of the additional costs that will be incurred if this happens.

Get in touch about Council Tax arrears

If you are struggling to keep on top of your Council Tax payments please contact us as we could offer options that can help your circumstances.

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Houses

Council Tax related pages