You must pay your business rates in instalments and your bill tells you when your payments are due.
- If you have problems paying your instalment on time, you should contact us immediately.
- If you do not pay your instalment when it is due, we will send you a reminder which says you must pay all the instalments you owe within seven days.
- If you do not, you will lose the right to pay by instalments and you will have to pay the full amount on your account immediately.
We will only send you two reminders a year
- If you do not pay the amount on the reminder, we will start legal proceedings to get back the money you owe us.
- If we do this, you will have to pay extra costs. You will then receive a summons. We will apply to the Magistrates' Court for a summons to be issued against you for the full amount of business rates you owe. Costs of £100.00 will be added to the amount you owe.
- If we still don't receive payment, a liability order will be granted against you.
Please do not ignore this as recovery action will continue to be taken by the Council. This includes:
- Referring the debt to the bailiff
- Obtaining court orders
- Requesting the court to make a charge on your property
- Bankruptcy or insolvency action against the debtor
- Committing the debtor to prison
We would prefer not to do any of these things to get back the money you owe because they will only increase the amount you already owe.
It is vitally important that if you fall into arrears with your business rates that you contact us as soon as you start to experience financial difficulties so that arrangements for an agreeable payment arrangement can discussed
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