If you don't pay your Council Tax

Problems paying your Council Tax

You must either

  • pay your council tax in full at the start of the financial year, or
  • by instalments.

If you choose to pay by instalments and fall behind with your payment we will send you a reminder. This will give you seven days to pay.

If you fail to make payment within the seven days you will lose the right to pay by instalments and you will have to pay the full amount on your account immediately.

We only send you two reminders a year

  • If you do not pay the amount on the reminder the next stage is to issue you with a court summons, this will incur costs of £47.50 (revised to £65.00 from 17/04/24).
  • If we still don't receive a payment, a liability order will be granted and a further £50.00 (revised to £45.00 from 17/05/24) added to your balance.
  • If you have received a summons or liability order, to avoid further recovery action and fees please contact us to make a payment arrangement or you can complete the Statement of means form
  • Do not ignore the summons or liability order as we will send an enforcement agent to collect the debt
  • The enforcement agent will come to your property to collect the amount you owe or take your goods to sell at auction. Fees will be added to the amount you owe.
  • We may apply to the magistrates' court for you to be committed to prison.