Bankruptcy Rulings for Non-Payment of Council Tax

Council tax defaulters in North Norfolk have received a stark warning: pay up or face bankruptcy.

The warning comes after four residents were declared bankrupt yesterday (Thursday, 17 February, 2005) for not paying bills totalling £23,500. A further case was adjourned for 14 days after the resident promised to pay an outstanding £4500.

Councillor Peter Moore, NNDC's Cabinet Member for Resources, said: "Whilst the Council is always prepared to listen in all cases of genuine hardship, it is important that for the benefit of the vast majority of council taxpayers, persistent non-payers are properly dealt with.

"We now have in place a range of policies which address the problem of debt management and recovery, as well as counter-fraud and prosecution where this proves to be necessary."

In partnership with Hansells Solicitors of Norwich, the Council's enforcement of council tax payment has now seen a total of 10 debtors being declared bankrupt in the last 12 months. The initiative has also resulted in many more debtors settling their bills to avoid bankruptcy, to the tune of £85,000.

All four residents declared bankrupt yesterday will have their affairs investigated by the Official Receiver, who will control their spending to recover the amount owed. A further debtor paid nearly £3000 to avoid having her case go before yesterday's hearing.

People declared bankrupt face many sanctions, most notably being blacklisted from obtaining credit and running the risk of having their homes sold to pay creditors.

It also means money can be recouped by orders attached to a person's income, whereby money is taken off wages before they are paid. This is difficult to enforce without bankruptcy orders as people are not required to divulge where they are employed.

Head of Litigation at Hansells, Tim Eagle, said: "This is proving to be a highly successful initiative. Money owed to our local councils is money owed to all of us.

"Hansells has great experience in national debt collection and we are pleased to be able to be of service to NNDC and other local authorities," added Mr Eagle.

NOTES FOR EDITOR

• Hansells Solicitors and Financial Advisers have 130 partners and staff. Their primary debt collection centre is based at its Norwich head office. The firm has three offices in North Norfolk - Cromer, Sheringham and North Walsham - plus an office in Aylsham.
• Hansells has acted for two of Europe's leading credit control and debt collection agencies processing tens of thousands of debt collection cases every year.

ENDS