If you do not pay your Council Tax bill

If you do not pay your instalments on time, you could face court action, leading to additional fees of £132.50.

Get support if you cannot pay

You can always contact us directly, within the timescales given, to discuss your Council Tax account.

Croydon Council Tax team
Telephone: 020 8726 7000 (option 2)
Email: croyctax@croydon.gov.uk

If you are struggling to pay your bill you can apply for Council Tax Support.

If you are worried about debts or have missed payments, there is free, confidential, and independent debt advice available.

If you miss your payments

If you miss your payments, we will start the following Council Tax arrears recovery process:

1. A reminder letter is sent

If you are more than 7 days late with 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.

Pay now

If you do not respond to our reminder

If you do not pay the outstanding amount, or contact us about your bill within 7 days of receiving the reminder you will:

• lose your right to pay by instalments
• be issued with a court summons
• incur an additional cost of £117.50

We will not issue a second reminder regarding this missed instalment.

2. Further missed payments

If your Council Tax falls into arrears again at any point in the current financial year, you will be sent another reminder asking you to bring your account up to date within 7 days.

Failure to do so will result in you being issued with a summons to appear in court, incurring an additional cost of £117.50.

3. Final notice

If you do not bring your account up to date following the second reminder, you will be issued with a final notice and you will lose your right to pay by instalments.

Payment for the full year will be due within 7 days. Alternatively, you can call us within 7 days, to bring your account up to date and set up a Direct Debit, this will allow us to reinstate your instalment plan.

If you do not pay

We will issue a court summons to recover the debt. You will be charged additional costs which will be added to your Council Tax account.

4. Court summons

If you do not pay after receiving your final notice, we will issue you a court summons to recover your arrears. You will then be liable to pay for the full year, plus costs of £117.50.

Summons notice

Failure to pay the total amount, including the summons costs, before the court hearing will result in the issuing of a liability order, which will incur further costs of £15 payable by you; this will be added to your council tax balance.

Court hearing

You do not have to attend the court hearing, but you must complete and return the summons arrangement form, or you can contact us on the number below to help set up the arrangement before your hearing date.

After the hearing

If no payment arrangement has been agreed and you do nothing, we will enforce the liability order. This means we can recover the arrears in the following ways:

• instruct an enforcement agent to collect the money. This will incur additional costs which could be more than £500 and could lead to your belongings being removed
• instruct your employer to deduct payment from your salary or wages through an attachment of earnings order
• instruct the Department for Work and Pensions to take payment from any benefits you receive
• apply for a bankruptcy order
• apply for a charging order on your home

You may be charged additional fees if we need to use an enforcement agency for the collection of your arrears. These are payable directly to the enforcement agency.

Sometimes we may call or text you. Calls will be from 0203 3230 201 and texts will be from from LBCroydon. Within the texts we use the web address (URL) textm.co – this is a genuine communication from Croydon Council.