What to do about council tax arrears

The council will send you a reminder about two weeks after you miss a payment.

If you catch up with your payments within seven days, there’ll be no further action and you can continue paying your council tax as before.

If you don’t pay within seven days, or it’s the third time you’ve fallen behind this year, you’ll get a final notice. This will ask you to pay the rest of the year’s council tax within seven days.

If you don’t pay within seven days of receiving the final notice, your council may apply to the courts for a liability order. A liability order gives the council permission to use enforcement action to collect the debt from you.

Before doing this, your council should consider all other options available to them e.g. trying to agree an affordable repayment plan/checking if you’re eligible for a council tax reduction.

You could be sent to prison for up to three months. This will only happen if the court decides you’ve been deliberately avoiding paying your council tax debt and bailiffs have been unable to recover the debt.

Don’t ignore the letters being sent by the council. If you don’t know how to get your finances back on track, it’s a good idea to get debt advice.

A debt adviser may be able to apply to get you 60 days of breathing space. During breathing space: 

• most interest, fees and charges on your debt are frozen 
• creditors can’t chase you to pay your debts 
• enforcement action is paused 

You’ll be able to use that time to work with your debt adviser to find a long-term solution to your money worries.

We offer debt advice over the phone and online. Find out more.