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Failing to pay your Business Rates

You must pay the amount of Business Rates shown on your bill. The deadline to pay will also be shown on your bill. If you do not pay, we'll start the recovery process.

Reminder notice

If you miss a payment, we'll send you a reminder notice.

To avoid any further action - pay the amount you owe us within 7 days of the date on the reminder notice.

If you still do not pay the amount you owe us, we may send you a summons for a hearing at the Magistrates' Court. If this happens, you may have to pay legal costs, which can be substantial.

Final notice

If you've already missed two payments during the financial year, and you miss a third, we'll stop you being able to make payments in instalments. We'll do this even if you've brought your account up to date (by paying the outstanding amount) in the past.

If this happens, you'll need to pay the full amount of your Business Rates liability for the year. If you do not pay it, we may send you a summons for a hearing at the Magistrates' Court.

To avoid any further action - pay your balance in full within 7 days of the date on the final notice. Your balance will be the total amount of Business Rates you still owe for the financial year (up to 31 March).

Court summons

If we've sent you a summons and you still have not paid (both the outstanding amount and any costs) by the date of the hearing, the court will grant us a Liability Order. They may also award us additional costs, which will increase the amount you need to pay.

You only need to attend the hearing if you have a dispute which cannot be resolved by speaking to us.

Liability order

If the court decides that you must pay the amount shown on the summons, and you have not paid it, the court will grant us a liability order.

If you contact us after the liability order is granted, we may offer you the chance to pay the outstanding amount in instalments. This is called a 'special arrangement'.

If you do not contact us, or you fail to pay one of the instalments on your special arrangement, we then have the power to recover the amount you owe by other means, including:

  • passing your debt to an enforcement agent (bailiff)
  • starting bankruptcy / winding up proceedings against you
  • committal to prison