Non-payment of Business Rates
Your Business Rates bill shows how much you need to pay and when
your payments are due.
You must pay in accordance with the bill and if you pay by post
you should allow extra time for your payment to reach the
Council.
Full details of
Harlow Council's recovery policy can be found by following this
link.
Reminder
If you do not pay your instalments when they fall due, you will
receive a reminder telling you to bring your account up to
date.
If you are having genuine difficulty in making your payments you
should contact the Revenues office straight away.
If you pay the amount requested on the reminder within seven
days no further action will be taken against you. If you fail to
keep up your payments once again you will receive a further
reminder.
If you don’t pay the amount requested on the reminder within
seven days you will receive a summons.
Further Reminder
If you pay the amount requested on the further reminder within
seven days no further action will be taken against you. If you fail
to keep up your payments once again you will receive a final
notice.
If you don’t pay the amount requested on the second reminder
within seven days you will receive a summons.
Final notice
You should be aware that once a final notice has been issued you
will lose the right to pay by instalments and you will have to pay
the full outstanding balance on your account.
If you do not pay the amount outstanding or make an acceptable
payment arrangement, usually by direct debit, to clear the
balance of your account, you will receive a summons.
Summons
A magistrates’ court summons incurs costs of £50.00 for the
issue of the summons, and this will be added to your account.
If you do not pay the balance in full by the court hearing date,
which will be stated on the summons, the magistrates will normally
issue a liability order against you. A further £45.00 will then be
added to your account for the issue of this order.
You have the right to appear at the hearing and explain to the
magistrates why a liability order should not be issued against
you.
Receipt of this liability order will then allow the Council to
recover the debt from by passing your account to the Council's
bailiff.
Even at this stage of recovery an acceptable arrangement for you
to pay is possible, preferably by direct debit.
Liability order
Once the magistrates have granted a liability order, you will be
notified in writing of the situation. You will again be asked to
get in contact with the Business Rates office to discuss your
account when every effort will be made to reach an acceptable
payment arrangement to pay the outstanding liability. If this is
not possible, or you fail to keep a previously agreed payment
arrangement recovery action will continue.
A liability order, as stated earlier, gives the right to recover
the debt from you in a number of ways, including:
- passing your account to the Council's appointed bailiff
- commencing liquidation/bankruptcy proceedings against you
Bailiff action
If a suitable payment arrangement has not been made, the
collection of your account may pass to an appointed bailiff. Once
this action is taken you will have to contact the bailiff direct to
discuss payment of your account.
As well as the outstanding Business Rates you owe and court
costs that will have been incurred, the bailiff will add his
statutory fees to your account, further increasing your debt.
If you do not pay the amount you owe in full to the bailiff,
they may remove your goods and sell them at public auction to clear
your debt.