If we have not been able to collect your council tax debt in any other way, our last resort is to ask the Magistrates court to issue a summons for you to attend a Committal Hearing.
This means that the Council will be asking the Magistrates to send you to prison for not paying your Council Tax.
At the hearing, the Magistrates have to decide whether you have deliberately refused to pay or have overlooked paying. Their final decision is based on this.
You may be asked questions by the Magistrates directly and by our representative. You will also have the chance to ask questions.
The Magistrates then make their decision. There are several decisions they can make which are listed below.
Court Order with a suspended sentence
You will be ordered to pay a set amount, for example £50 a month, and told that if you do not keep up with the payments you will go to prison for a set amount of time for a period of up to 3 months.
Court Order without a suspended sentence
You will be ordered to pay a set amount. If you do not keep up with the payments, you will be ordered to come to court again to explain why you haven’t paid. The Magistrates will then decide what to do next.
Write off all or some of the debt
The Magistrates can write off all or some of the Council Tax you owe, if they feel your situation deserves this. If only some of the debt is written off, the Magistrates may make a Court Order for the remainder of the debt.
Take no action
The Magistrates may decide that no further action is appropriate. Cases are sometimes dismissed for an attachment of earnings or benefits to be set up.
Committal to prison
The magistrates can decide to send you to prison immediately for up to 3 months.
If you do not appear in Court, we will ask the Magistrates to issue a warrant for your arrest, without bail. This means that an enforcement agent will come and arrest you and take you straight to the Court to appear in front of the Magistrates. Any warrant issued will incur further costs.
We only start committal action to collect Council Tax when we have to as a last resort.
If you are having difficulty paying, please call us straight away on 0300 1234 171.
We can discuss your situation, and try to stop any more action being taken against you.
If you have received a committal summons we can still help you, this will tell you how to get in touch with us.
