Overdue Council Tax

Council Tax instalments must be paid by the dates shown on your bill. If you do not pay on time, we will take recovery action.

To see the different ways you can pay your Council Tax, visit our Making payments page.

If you are struggling to pay your Council Tax, visit our Help paying your council tax page.

If you miss an instalment, we will send you a reminder and you have seven days to bring your account up to date.

If you do not pay, you lose the right to pay by instalments, and the full balance becomes due.

If you fall behind again, you will receive a second reminder and have seven days to pay.

If you do not pay, your instalments are cancelled and the full remaining balance becomes payable.

If you fall behind a third time, you will receive a final notice and must pay the full balance within 14 days.

If you do not pay, we will apply to the Magistrates’ Court for a summons.

The balance must be paid in full including the summons costs prior to the court date.

You do not need to attend court.

The hearing will go ahead without you, and we will ask the magistrates to grant us a liability order. 

Only contact us if:

• you believe you are not liable
• you plan to attend court to dispute the case
• you can pay in full and set up a Direct Debit

The court cannot:

• cancel or reduce your bill
• apply discounts or Council Tax Reduction
• change your Council Tax band

For Council Tax banding issues, please visit the .gov website.

A liability order allows us to use other means to recover the debt, such as deductions from earnings or benefits, use of enforcement agents, charging orders against your property.

After a liability order is granted, we will write to you asking you to provide details of your income and expenditure and invite you to make an offer of repayment.

Any arrangement offered must be acceptable to the council and based on your ability to pay within a reasonable timeframe.

If your debt is passed to enforcement agents, additional fees will be added and the amount you owe will increase.

Once your case has been passed to them, you must contact the enforcement agents directly to make payment or discuss your account. The council will not normally be able to agree payment arrangements at this stage.

Our approach to collecting Council Tax and other debts is set out in our Corporate Debt Policy, which you can read on our website.

If you are worried about debts or have missed payments, the government's MoneyHelper website offers free independent advice.