Tower Hamlets Council Tax Bailiffs: The Four Firms, and What Happens Next

What happens if you don't pay Tower Hamlets council tax

Tower Hamlets allows at most two reminders in a year. A reminder asks you to pay within seven days, and a third missed payment after that brings a final notice instead, cancelling the right to instalments so the whole year's balance becomes due. If it stays unpaid the council seeks a summons and then a liability order, which opens the door to enforcement agents, deductions from wages or benefits, a charging order where you owe more than £1,000, and in the most serious cases committal. How agent fees and entry work is dealt with in our council tax bailiffs guide instead of here.

Tower Hamlets uses a panel of four firms

Tower Hamlets instructs a panel of four enforcement companies for council tax: CDER Group, Rundles, Newlyn and Equita. A useful detail the council publishes is that each of the four runs a welfare team for residents in difficulty, so there can be a route to raise hardship with the firm as well as with the council. Any of the four might hold your account, so match the name on your letter against our profiles for CDER Group, Rundles, Newlyn and Equita.

The court costs Tower Hamlets adds

Tower Hamlets is specific about the price of letting a case reach court. Its page states that a summons adds £105, and a liability order a further £25, so up to £130 in costs can sit on top of the tax itself once both stages are passed. That is a concrete reason to answer a summons rather than ignore it, since settling or arranging the debt before the hearing can avoid part of the charge.

How to pay Tower Hamlets directly

Tower Hamlets takes payments and arrangements through its own online council tax account, where you can also report a change in circumstances. If money is tight, its Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme can lower the bill for residents on a low income, and the council can also make a discretionary reduction in exceptional hardship under its section 13A powers. Where a firm already holds your account, a plan agreed with the council does not automatically halt the agent, so it usually helps to tell both.

Complaints about Tower Hamlets, and help if you're struggling

A complaint about how Tower Hamlets handled your case goes through the council's own corporate complaints procedure, after which the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can review it. A complaint about the conduct of one of the four firms, rather than the council's decision to refer, can instead go to the Enforcement Conduct Board, which oversees the enforcement industry, or to that firm's own welfare team in the first instance. Raising money worries early, before a case is referred, usually leaves more options open.