I ended up with court summons and debt collection for a 2 day Council tax bill !

Hello Mike,

I would suggest that you pay them.
Council Tax arrears collection is fierce and unforgiving,

If we had a magic formula for your posting, we could sell it.

As Landlords, if I had the tools of debt collection that the councils have, I would be dancing in the street.

Is your credit file now damaged?

The Bailiffs don’t want to visit your home, but they will if you ignore them and slap on some more fees just to ruin your New Year.

Or go online with a Google search for ‘Council Tax Arrears and Bailiffs’ and see the pages and pages of advice, sprinkled with ads for stopping them.

There are outfits offering to negotiate on your behalf a suitable repayment arrangement if you can’t afford the bill.

Other than that I don’t see much hope in your case, especially if the council have obtained legal permission to use the bailiffs.

My local council withdrew a court charge in a similar circumstance as they had sent warnings to the property address and not my address, which they had on file. If I’m honest, I was surprised that they did so. I don’t know what their obligation is in that regard but may be worth a call.

I had something similar with the gas bill for a brief void on one of my properties. The bill and threatening letters had been addressed to me at the tenant’s address. The debt collection agency found me immediately through details the gas company had provided them and I paid straight away. I made a big fuss about paying the debt collection fees and argued that they should never have been involved in the first place since the gas company had the correct details for me on file. I insisted on dealing with the gas company direct and refused to liaise via the debt collectors in any way. I also demanded taht my crdit records should be unaffected. Eventually after a lot of time on the phone the gas company agreed to drop the fees.
Several months later, when I visited the property for an electrical safety check, the tenant politely handed me the mail he’d been keeping aside for me.

Similar thing happened to me when I started out. There were bailiff’s notices to enter the property and all sorts. All sent to the tenant’s address and we knew nothing about it. The tenant didn’t open the mail. Now I inform the council every time there is a new tenant. I paid the council tax and the bailiff’s fees, and put it down to experience.

As the LA sent the demands to the wrong address, how may they argue in court that notice was duly served? I would do as Dr. Monty suggests and give them a ring first. Staff in the LA don’t want hassle any more than we do; try to offer them the easy way out.