header-logo header-logo

Harsh repayment terms

02 March 2018 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7783 / Categories: Features , Public
printer mail-detail
nlj_7783_dobson

Nicholas Dobson examines the scenario of unlawful prison for council tax default

  • The regime for enforcement of non-payment of council tax was not systemically unfair and unlawful.

  • However, magistrates and authorities need to have careful regard to material statutory requirements.

Local authorities provide local governance, functions and services by statute. Many aim to be customer-friendly bodies in the manner of various private providers. However, there is a significant difference between local authority and private services. For with commercial firms, consumers can choose what and whether to buy and from whom. However, local authorities as monopoly providers of core functions, demand payment of council tax whether or not anyone liable for it uses or benefits from any of their services. Furthermore, failure to pay can result in statutory recovery options including (in the case of wilful refusal or culpable neglect) commitment to prison for up to three months.

Prison is of course a harsh recovery sanction and a January 2017 judicial review decision illustrated where magistrates’ courts and authorities can go wrong in imposing

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll