Council tax

I have thought for years about not paying this and have all the important information I think I need the reason I have yet to do it is I work away from home sometimes months at a time so this has worries me but no one can break entry in to your home
So what to people think should I go for it
Many thanks

Of course its your decision ,personally i would hang off ,as the Peace Keepers
have an important case either in the past couple of days or the next couple
of days. If you have not already i would suggest you study their work,to me
it looks very promising.
It may also be a good idea to put aside what you would have paid ,in order it
all goes wrong you can pay it off,and try again next year perhaps with different
tactics.

Thanks for your reply

Is something changing to make it harder not to pay?

(Moved to ‘General’)

I know of two means to challenge the Council Tax, which is really still the Community Charge re-branded, well actually three, but the first two are easier to access:

1) The Magistrates Court (as per the NOC Challenge process) - This requires both a thorough working knowledge of the Magistrates Court Rules, a sure and certain gut for it and the ability to have a number of witnesses at your side, this may well be best put on hold in light of recent events (Westminster Magistrates and the PK appeal). In any case the Not so independent Courts are compromised, so expecting to win in the Mags is not realistic, we are playing a much longer game of chess here). The advantage with the Magistrates Court is lower entry cost

2) The Valuation Office Agency (who place your dwelling on the valuation list for Rating) - The Listing Officer as an Agent of HMRC Commissioners has the legal power (you might argue the duty) to delete a dwelling from the list that does not fall under the rating category, this is provided for in the Legislation. However they will not do this, even when presented with clear evidence a Hereditament is by Statutory definition not a chargeable dwelling. The route that Statute offers for that is the VTE Tribunal, which is not independent and offers no record of proceedings to establish if the Issues of Fact and/or Law have been properly disposed of, which gives them the ability to set up a fail on appeal to the High Court ...ie the Court will only hear what the Tribunal Clerk has decided is in issue or common ground (which may or may not be accurate, rational or logical). Judicial Review is another option but that is a costly option unless you have fee exemption, and no assets the BAR Flies can steal, because they will claim costs that can reach into the tens of thousands within a hearing or two.

3) The Third option and this is just a maybe that i have not tested yet, is taking the Commissioners of HMRC to court to explain how a Hereditament is subject to their Interest, because their agents in the VOA cannot answer this question (they actually do not know to be fair their training is if it looks like a duck, it must be a duck), and i had one Listing Officer admit that in the VTE) ..

All three options are of course balanced against the fact that we now have a Judiciary that works in partnership with the Executive and has decided that no public precedent will be given on certain things, i know this to be true because i have had the VTE Senior Members tell me that if they found in my favour that the Revenues for CTAX would be under threat, if that Tribunal was independent that would be no concern of theirs, only the facts and law of the case would be), i have HJ Fordham on transcript saying effectively the same thing in the High Court..

The way i see this now is that the Judiciary are in a bit of pickle, because they need to keep alive the notion in the public eye that the Courts are independent (PR) while at the same time not be so blatant in their disregard for the rule of law and bias for the Executive ... make no mistake they are measuring this.

Thanks for this information