Citizenship Application - unaware of Liability order

[earlsvegas]

Hi,

Looking for some advise on the below as I have submitted my application for citizenship but now I am a nervous wreck.

I applied last week for my citizenship - absolutely everything in order. This week I just did some background checks to see that all my past council taxes were in order and was surprised to see that my address from 2 years ago had an outstanding balance including a fee for: summons cost council, summons cost justice & liability cost council (the arrears & costs were written off earlier this year from the records). I must not have closed my account properly when I left and obviously never received these summons or liability order. I immediately called up the council, and after they told me how much was outstanding in my name, I paid it immediately, now their is a zero balance on my account.

Can anyone tell me if this might have an affect on my application? I checked for ccjs and don't have any records of anything against my name. I obviously never input any of this on my application from as I was unaware of it.

Any response would be greatly appreciated.

[alterhase58]

Not familiar with council tax arrears but if you have cleared down the arrears this should be ok. Perhaps a review of your credit reference files is in order, just in case.

[earlsvegas]

Not familiar with council tax arrears but if you have cleared down the arrears this should be ok. Perhaps a review of your credit reference files is in order, just in case.

Thanks for your response - credit records are in order. My main worry is that because I was not present to receive the summons and respond to it, then this was passed through county court to issue liability order which I was not there for - really hoping this will not count against me. I agree that because I have cleared the full arrears that should be ok - still nervous about it all regardless.

[Tea_Rocket]

I don't know how it will affect your citizenship application, but I suspect you'll be fine. Here's why:

When I was living in Oxford, I had the misfortune of experiencing the council's incompetence first-hand.* I won't go into the full details of what happened (except to say that it was all their fault, and I eventually got them to admit as much in writing), but it resulted in a spurious liability order being taken out against me for council tax arrears. While trying to get to the bottom of how this could have happened, I learned that these orders tend to be approved at the magistrate's court in batches. I also learned that while the council keeps a record of the individuals' names, the courts do not—the court only records the name of the council.

Assuming things work the same way with your council, I don't believe there will be any record of this that will be held against you now that you've paid the fees and closed the account.

Like I said, I don't know for sure that your application will be unaffected, but based on my own understanding of how these things work, I would guess that you'll be fine.

*I hate them so much that I'm not going to obscure the identity of the council, even though it gives potentially identifying information about me.

[earlsvegas]

Thank you tea rocket. That gives a slight peace of mind that the courts don't record the name and does not count as a ccj. I am just unsure on why the council has my arrears and costs written off on my account online (and when I called them they said i still owed the amount so I paid it) and wandering if they might have filed anything else against me for not responding or getting in touch with them after the liability order was issued (as I was not aware). I heard the next step if they don't hear from you is they normally send bailiffs to recover the money - but my old landlord never mentioned anything to me. They did however have my telephone number and email address but i never received any communication regarding the matter.

[Tea_Rocket]

I have lived in three council areas in my time in the UK and the only one that I never had a problem with was the one where I spent my undergrad years. I had no trouble because I moved in after my student status began and moved out before it ended. It seems to me that most councils are understaffed and as a result, anyone whose council tax account needs the attention of an actual human, instead of an automated system, has a very high chance of getting screwed somewhere along the line.

My guess is that your arrears amount was small enough that the projected costs of recovering it (via bailiffs or a collections agency) were higher than the amount they could hope to get back, so no one made an effort to find you.

[rhaegar18]

Would you mind sharing the outcome of your application? I'm in a similar position!