What happens if you don't pay your Council Tax

You must pay your Council Tax when it is due. If you do not pay your Council Tax, we will take action to get the money that is owed.

If you are unable to pay your Council Tax, you must contact us as soon as possible on 0207 974 6470. You can also visit our support if you can't pay page for information on help available.

When is your Council Tax due?

Council Tax is normally payable in 10 monthly instalments between April and January. Payments are due to be received on your account by the 1st of each month if paying by cash, cheque or standing order.

If you choose to pay your Council Tax by Direct Debit then there is a choice of four dates that we can debit your account, 7th, 15th, 21st or the end of each month.

If you wish to request instalments until March, please contact us within seven days of receiving your new bill. If your account is in arrears, we may not be able to offer this facility immediately.

Paying your Council Tax on time ensures arrears are kept to a minimum and that Council Tax is kept as low as possible for everyone.

Recovery of Council Tax

if you miss paying a Council Tax instalment, a reminder will be sent to you
if you bring your payments up to date but a further instalment is missed, a second reminder will be sent
if this is paid but a third instalment is missed, you will have lost the right to pay by instalments, a final notice will be sent and the whole year's bill will be due

You should contact us immediately on 0207 974 6470 if you are unable to make repayment. We may consider making a special arrangement for repayment of arrears at this stage.

If you fail to make a payment after the issue of a reminder or final notice, or if you fail to maintain a payment arrangement, we will request the Magistrates Court to issue a summons. At this stage court costs of £80.00 will be added to your account.

At the court hearing we will ask the Magistrates to award us a liability order in our favour at which point a further £15.00 costs will be added to your account.

A liability order enables us to use one of the following options to collect the Council Tax:

Summons

A summons is a document issued by the Magistrates Court, it asks you to appear before Magistrates at a time and place given on the document.

The summons will include:

details of the person considered to be liable for the charge
the amount of the charge
date of the charge
the amount of costs that will be requested at the hearing

A summons can be delivered by posting it to the last known address of the debtor. We do not have to prove that the summons or reminder has been received but only that it has been posted.

If you receive a summons, details on what to do next will be included with the summons notice.

If you receive a summons and wish to attend the court hearing you must contact the Council first to arrange an appointment on 0207 974 6414.

Liability orders

A liability order is issued to us by the Magistrates Court following a court hearing and will detail:

who is responsible for the debt
how much it is
what costs have been awarded
date and place of the hearing

A liability order gives us the following powers:

To request information regarding your work, income, expenditure, and family circumstances. Failure to provide this can lead to a further court appearance and a fine being issued.
Make a request to your employer to make deductions from your earnings.
Make deductions of money from certain types of benefits including Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance, Universal Credit and Pension Credit.
Refer your debt to our external Enforcement Agents for them to collect payment or take and sell your goods to pay the Council Tax and their costs.
To commence insolvency proceedings if the debt is more than £750.
If all of the above fail, we may also place a charging order on your house. This means that if you try to sell your house the debt will be repaid before the sale can take place.

Enforcement agents

If you still have not paid your Council Tax debts after receiving a liability order, an enforcement agent will visit your property.

We employ two enforcement agent firms to collect Council Tax debt on our behalf:

Any enforcement agent visiting your property on our behalf will:

carry official identification at all times
carry written authorisation to act on behalf of the council
issue an official receipt for cash payments, and for other payments on request

Fees

The Government has now laid the Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026, which will come into force on 1 May 2026. These changes will apply only to cases received by Enforcement Agents on or after this date.

This new regulation will continue to deal with public concerns over unregulated fees that debtors incurred once their unpaid debts were passed to a Bailiff firm for collection.

How will this affect you if your Council Tax account is referred to an Enforcement Agent for collection?

Enforcement Agents (EA) were previously known as Bailiffs. The term Bailiff is obsolete and will no longer be referred to in any communication with you.
Extending the minimum notice period that enforcement agents must give to debtors before visiting them to take control of goods from 7 to 14 days.
Once your account is referred to the EA, this will be known as the Compliance stage and you will automatically incur a £79.00 fee. You now have 16 clear days in which you must contact the EA and make a payment arrangement with them. Regardless of the size of the debt, provided you make contact and stick to the payment arrangement agreed with them, no additional fees can be incurred by you. The EA will use several methods to instigate contact with you at this stage, including e-mailing, writing & telephoning. They cannot add any additional fees at this stage, and it is a £79.00 fee per liability order that they have been issued with, regardless of how many are held by the Council against you.
If you fail to make contact or agree to a payment arrangement during this period, then the next stage is Enforcement. This results in an additional £247.00 (plus 7.5% on balances of £1,900 or over) fee being added to your account and is only triggered by the EA’s attendance at your home. The EA will be entitled to enforce on the liability order and remove your possessions. The EA can only levy one £247.00 fee against you, regardless of the numbers of liability orders held against you. Provided the debt does not exceed £1900 (exclusive of fees) there are no additional charges raised against you. If it does, the EA can levy an additional 7.5% charge on anything over £1900.
If you fail to make an arrangement to pay the EA or settle the debt in full and the removal of your possessions takes place the next stage is Sale or Disposal. This comprises of all activities from their first attendance at the property for the purpose of transporting your possessions to a place of sale or disposal. The fee for this is £116.00, plus 7.5% of the aggregated balance of the debt, again exceeding £1900.00 (excluding fees). This action must have first been authorised by the Council.

If you have any concerns about fees that you have incurred as a result of a visit by a Council EA, please don’t hesitate to contact the Council Tax Section on 020 7974 6470.

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a declaration to your creditors that you cannot afford to repay your debt.

If you owe more than £5,000 in Council Tax, and you have been summoned, we may start bankruptcy or proceedings against you.

If we take this action, we will pass your account to our solicitors who will send you a statutory demand. A statutory demand gives you 21 days to pay us the full amount.

If you receive a statutory demand, you should contact our solicitors immediately. Details on how to do this will be on the statutory demand.

If you do not settle the statutory demand, we will present a petition for bankruptcy to the County Court.

Local agencies that can help

There are many local organisations that can offer support and guidance if you are struggling financially. Our Camden Advice Network can give advice on money, benefits and debt.