Non-payment of Council Tax
If you receive a letter about unpaid Council Tax, do not ignore it – it will only make matters worse and the amount you owe may increase. Please contact us so we can try and help.
Reminders
You pay your Council Tax in monthly instalments. Your bill shows how much each instalment is and the date it needs to be paid. If the payment is missed, we will send you a gentle reminder to let you know it’s overdue.
If the overdue amount still isn’t paid, we’ll send a final reminder asking you to bring the payments up to date. If we don’t receive the overdue amount, and you haven’t contacted us to resolve the situation, we will need to issue a court summons for the full balance for the year, plus any costs. We really want to avoid this wherever possible.
If you’re finding it difficult to pay or think you might fall behind, please get in touch with us. We’re here to help and will do our best to work with you to find a solution.
If you are experiencing financial difficulties, there are agencies that may be able to help.
Sign up for our text message reminder service
You'll only get a text if we need to send you a reminder for an overdue amount of Council Tax.
The message will show as being from 'NPTCBC' and will give you a link to pay via our secure website.
Please note - although we will endeavour to send a text reminder, this should not be relied upon and you should always ensure that your Council Tax instalment is paid by the due date.
Summonses
If you receive a summons you are required to pay the sum due, plus costs, straight away. If the full balance isn’t paid before the date of the hearing, the Council will ask the Magistrates Court for a liability order and added liability order costs.
Please do not worry if you are unable to pay the balance in full as you will still have the chance to set up a payment arrangement for the outstanding balance, including the costs. Once an arrangement is in place, it’s important to keep up with the agreed payments so that no further recovery action is needed.
Further recovery action
If you don’t contact us to arrange payment or if an arrangement is set up but the payments aren’t kept up to date, we may need to use other ways to collect what is owed. These can include:
- taking payments directly from your wages (attachment of earnings)
- taking payments directly from your benefits (attachment of benefits)
- using enforcement agents (previously known as bailiffs)
If your account is passed to enforcement agents, they may add their own fees, and they also have legal powers to recover the debt. We always try to avoid this wherever possible, which is why staying in touch with us is so important.
In more serious situations, we may also have to consider:
- placing a charging order on your home
- applying to make you bankrupt
