Undefended/Bulk Liability Orders = Extortionate Costs

The request was partially successful.

Dear Billing Authority

Complaints to Magistrates for Council Tax (CT) Liability Orders.

Going as far back as is reasonable (eg 5 years), up to the most recent data available, Please could you provide me with a table of information under the following headings:-

1. Date Of hearing
2. Number of CT Accounts Listed on a Complaint
3. Total Court fee paid
4. length of hearing defended/undefended
5. Number of CT accounts Liability Order made against
6. Total costs awarded to Billing authority
7. Actual cost of preparing for and attending the hearing.

Yours faithfully,

Lady Fleming

foi, Fenland District Council

I acknowledge your request for information received, which is being
investigated.

The Act allows the Council 20 working days to comply with your request. 
During this time, the Council will assess the information to establish if
any exemptions apply.  If it is felt that any information may be exempt
from disclosure, this will be given careful consideration and the Public
Interest Test will be applied if appropriate.  If it is determined that
any material is exempt, you will be notified of which information is not
going to be released and the reasons why.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Freedom of
Information Officer at Fenland District Council, or email [1][Fenland
District Council request email].  It would help us to help you if you
could quote the Information Request No, quoted above, on any
correspondence.

Yours sincerely

FOI Officer

Fenland District Council

01354 654321

[Fenland District Council request email]

Fenland District Council Legal Disclaimer

 

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References

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1. mailto:[fenland%20district%20council%20request%20email]

foi, Fenland District Council

1 Attachment

Dear Lady Fleming

Thank you for your request for information received on 05/02/19. The
response is detailed in the below and attached;

The number of accounts complaint was laid - This is the number of cases
where a summons was issued in respect of the listed hearing date
(excluding any set as withdrawn before issue)

The number of cases for each hearing where a liability order was obtained
- These are the number of cases where a Liability Order was set as granted
in the system.

Justice costs - This is the total of the justice costs transactions
initially raised in the system. We cannot take into account any costs
subsequently withdrawn or written off by hearing date as these
transactions cannot be broken down by hearing date. It’s also not possible
to confirm the amount of these justice costs that have actually been paid
as payment allocation does not account for these separately to the main
summons costs

Total amount - This is the total amount of cost transactions raised in the
system by hearing date. It does not take into account any costs that have
subsequently been withdrawn or written off.

Please note we do not hold information on Q4 and Q7

If you require any further information regarding your request or are
unhappy with the response, you should contact the Member Services Officers
at Fenland District Council or e-mail [1][Fenland District Council request
email] in the first instance. 

If after this, you are still dissatisfied with this decision, you may
request the Information Commissioner to investigate.  The contact details
are:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

WILMSLOW

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

[2]www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely

FOI Officer

Fenland District Council

01354 654321

[Fenland District Council request email]

Fenland District Council Legal Disclaimer

 

E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.

It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and the addressee or any third party.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically stated.

Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility for loss or damage caused by software viruses.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response to a request.

To provide you with our services we will need to record personal information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like more details about how we protect personal information then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[fenland%20district%20council%20request%20email]
2. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/