Unpaid or Overpaid Council Tax

If any changes occur which may affect your Council Tax liability, you are required by law to inform the Council within 21 days of the changes occurring.  If, for any reason, you are going to experience problems in paying your Council Tax you should contact us immediately.

If you cannot pay

Tell us as soon as you think you're going to have a problem paying your bill. We can offer you advice on any Discounts or Benefits you may not know about or may be able to agree a different timetable for making payments.  If you do not advise us of payment problems we may take legal action to recover the money, and you could end up having to pay a lot more.

If you are having trouble with your finances and you need more free help and advice, contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

If your payment is late

Receiving payments on time is important - it allows more time/money to be spent on services and less on administration. We provide many different payment methods to make it as easy as possible.

If your payment is late, you may receive a reminder notice shortly after your payment is due. If you receive 2 or more reminders during the financial year and you fail to make payment of any further instalment by the due date, you may be issued with a final notice. This will result in immediate loss of your right to pay by instalments. To avoid this you must ensure that ALL future instalments are paid by the due dates.

If payment is not received

If payment is not received in accordance with the instructions on the reminder or final notice then you may be Summonsed to the Magistrates Court. At this stage, Courts Costs of over £50 will be added to your account. If a Summons is issued against you, guidance is given on the reverse of the document and can be downloaded in the form of Summons Guidance leaflet (PDF, 25KB).

The Council Tax Section then has a number of alternative options to enforce payment, including deductions direct from the customer's salary/wages or the sale of a customer's goods at auction - both of these enforcement options will involve additional costs to the customer.

If you are in receipt of Income Support or income based Jobseekers Allowance or contribution-based Jobseekers Allowance or Pension Credit, deductions can be made to achieve settlement of your debt.

New debt recovery procedures available to Cheshire East Council means Council debtors could find themselves Bankrupt. These measures enable the authority to tackle the small number of people in the area who are defaulting on paying Council Tax. We can now instigate insolvency proceedings. For an individual this could mean bankruptcy and for a company it means we have the authority to wind up a business. All the costs will be met by the debtor.

If you are having, or are likely to have, any difficulty in paying your Council Tax it is the Council's advice to contact the Council Tax Section as soon as possible - waiting for the Council to chase you for money is only likely to increase the size of the debt.

What happens if I have overpaid?

Any overpayment occurring on Council Tax accounts for whatever reason, will be credited against future liability unless a refund is specifically requested.