Council Tax 2025 to 2026
Find out how your money is spent in Haringey, including a breakdown of total council funding in our 2025 to 26 Council Tax mini guide (pdf, 2 page(s), 3.38 MB).
The final stage of the process to recover unpaid Council Tax is recovering your debt, including passing your debt to an enforcement agency.
We will take action to recover Council Tax debts. This can include deductions from your wages, passing your debt to an enforcement agency and even the loss of your home.
If we are granted a liability order, we will take action to recover your debt. This may include:
We may pass your debt to an enforcement agency. Further costs will then be added to your debt.
To avoid a visit to your property by a bailiff (enforcement agent), with the intention of removing your belongings for sale at auction, contact the agency directly. You can then arrange a payment plan with them to clear your outstanding Council Tax.
Find out more about bailiff powers when they visit your home on GOV.UK.
We may send an order to your employer to make deductions directly from your wages to pay your Council Tax.
The amount deducted from your wages is a percentage of your daily, weekly or monthly wages and will be different depending on the amount you earn. The percentages are set by central government.
We may issue an attachment of benefit order to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This will ask them to make deductions from your benefit to clear your outstanding Council Tax. This could apply if you receive:
If you owe Council Tax of £5,000 or more (or £750 in the case of a limited company), we may start insolvency proceedings against you in accordance with the Insolvency Act 1986 as amended. These proceedings may be either bankruptcy proceedings against an individual or winding up proceedings against a limited company.
If you owe Council Tax of £1,000 or more and own a property, we may apply to the county court for a charging order. Once the order is granted we will be able to enforce the sale of the property in order to clear your outstanding Council Tax.
If your Council Tax remains outstanding after enforcement agents have tried to recover the debt, we may apply to the magistrates' court for a warrant committing you to prison. If the court determines the outstanding debt is due to wilful refusal or culpable neglect, they may commit you to prison for a maximum of 3 months.
The court may decide to postpone the period of imprisonment on certain conditions, normally relating to payment of your debt over a period of time.