AQW 1327/17-22 Written question to the Minister of Finance
To ask the Minister of Finance what action was taken by Land and Property Services to recover unpaid rates between the 2015/16 and 2018/19 financial years.
Asked by Paula Bradshaw MLA on 31 January 2020
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 31 January 2020
- Answer due by
- 17 February 2020
- Answered
- 12 February 202012 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Finance
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Debt arises because ratepayers have not paid their rate bills. I recognise that we are in a challenging economic environment and many people are struggling to pay their bills.
Land & Property Services will work with ratepayers facing financial difficulty to try and set up mutually agreeable payment arrangements. In 2018/19 alone, Land & Property Services set up almost 55,000 payment arrangements with ratepayers.
However, where ratepayers fail to make an arrangement to pay, or subsequently default on an arrangement to pay, LPS will pursue that debt through legal action. Legal action begins after Land & Property Services issues a final rate demand. Land & Property Services will then begin to issue Court processes, proceeding to the award of Decrees in Debt by the Courts if the debt remains unpaid. At this point if non-payment continues, Land & Property Services can proceed to bankruptcy action if the debt is more than £5,000. For debts less than this, LPS can lodge the debt with the Enforcement of Judgements Office (EJO). This work has been ongoing over the past three years. Figures for 2018/19 show that LPS took the following legal recovery actions:
| Type of Action | 2018/19 |
| Final Demand | 95,065 |
| Court Processes | 24,105 |
| Decrees | 12,853 |
| Notice of Intention (debt lodged with EJO) | 1,488 |
| Active Cases Enforced with EJO | 4,994 |
| Bankruptcy/liquidation * | 450 |
*Number of occupancies where LPS made the ratepayer bankrupt. Ratepayers may have more than one occupancy, so actual number of ratepayers will be less than 450
In addition to legal enforcement through the Courts, LPS undertakes other activities to recover unpaid rates. This includes:
Targeted telephone contact with accounts in arrears.
Text message reminders for ratepayers who have defaulted on repayment arrangements.
Targeted use of external debt collection services to pursue difficult debt such as outside jurisdiction debtors. To date 428 cases have been referred and £395,000 has been collected or secured via payment arrangements.
Advising ratepayers on reliefs, benefits and exclusions to which they may be entitled, to help meet their rate liability.