What happens if you do not pay your Council Tax

If you receive a summons to court for Council Tax, it will include the date and time of your court hearing.  

When a summons is issued, £100.50 in costs will be added to your unpaid Council Tax.  

At the court hearing, the magistrates will issue a liability order against you. This means that the court agrees that you're liable to pay Council Tax at the property in question. A liability order gives us extra powers to collect the money that you owe. The magistrate will also add a further £20. This is added to the £100.50 summons cost already on your account. This means the total costs you will have to repay will be £120.50, in addition to the unpaid Council Tax.  

You can avoid a court hearing if before the court date you pay your debt in full (including the £100.50 costs). 

If you already have a Council Tax Connect account, you can log in and request an arrangement. 

Register for a Council Tax Connect account. 

Request an arrangement form

You can attend the magistrates’ court on your hearing date. This will be a ‘bulk hearing’, where many cases are listed at the same time.
The court will only hear your case if you have a valid legal defence. The court decides what counts as a valid defence.

Valid defences include:

• the property on your summons is not in the valuation list
• the tax has not been set properly
• the bill has not been issued in line with the law
• you have already paid the full amount
• the debt is more than 6 years old
• bankruptcy or winding-up proceedings have started
• the magistrates cannot consider whether you can afford to pay