If you don't pay your business rates

If you miss a payment

Your bill shows the dates your payments are due by.   
If you miss your payments, we will start the following Business Rates recovery process.

A reminder letter is sent 

If you are more than 7 days late with your payment, you will get a reminder letter advising how much you should pay to bring your account up to date. 

After receiving the reminder 

If you bring your account up to date within 7 days of receiving the reminder, you will go back to the regular monthly instalments as stated in your latest bill. We will take no further action. 

My Account

If you receive a reminder

If you receive a reminder and still can't make a payment, you should contact us as soon as possible.

If you don't bring your account up to date, or if you bring your account up to date and then fall into arrears again, you won't receive another reminder.

Instead you'll lose the right to pay by instalment and we will be legally obliged to ask Croydon Magistrates to issue a summons. This action will incur substantial costs for you.

If you receive a summons

If you are unable to pay the amount shown on the summons you should contact us immediately to discuss your account.

We will advise you on the best course of action and we may be able to make a payment arrangement with you.

The court hearing

You may attend the hearing to present your defence for non-payment. We will ask the magistrate to grant a liability order, whether you attend or not, and this will incur further costs.

The purpose of the court hearing is to determine liability. If the magistrate decides that you are liable and that we have issued your bill correctly, it is likely that a liability order will be issued.

At this stage, we will still be able to make a payment arrangement with you, which will include any costs that have been incurred. However, if further default occurs after this, enforcement agents (bailiffs) can be employed to obtain payment, incurring further costs to your account.

Don't hesitate to get in touch 

If you receive any notice from the us regarding non-payment of your business rates, do not ignore it. Doing so may mean that further action will be taken and additional costs incurred.

If you are unable to pay your business rates, contact our business rates section to discuss the situation and make a suitable payment arrangement.

Debts passed to an enforcement agency service

We use several enforcement agencies. Read about what to do if you have received a notice from Croydon Enforcement Agent Service. You need to contact all other enforcement agencies directly.