Difficulties in making Council Tax payment

If you are having difficulty paying your bill please contact us on 03456 081201 or at income.recovery@aberdeenshire.gov.uk before missing an instalment.

In certain circumstances you might be eligible for a reduction, discount or exemption of your Council Tax:

Alternative payment arrangement

You can discuss an alternative instalment plan by calling our customer support team 03456 081201 or by emailing income.recovery@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.

Support and advice

If you don’t have the funds to pay, or if you have a number of debts, you may wish to contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you are experiencing financial hardship, you might be eligible for:

If you do not pay your instalments

The Billing and Recovery of Council Tax is governed by Scottish Government legislation. If you don't pay in line with your Council Tax bill the following automatic recovery action will commence:

Stage 1 - overdue account notice

If you have not paid your Council Tax as requested on the front of your bill we will send you an overdue account notice.

This letter will state that you must bring your account up to date within 7 days of the date of issue. If you fail to pay the amount due in full, you will lose the right to pay by instalments and the total outstanding balance on your account will become payable within a further 14-day period.

If the total outstanding balance is not paid within the set 14-day period, we will apply to the Sheriff Court to grant a summary warrant against you.

Stage 2 - second overdue account notice

If you do pay as requested following the issue of an overdue account notice but fall behind again, we will issue you with a second notice. The same process will then apply as for the first overdue account notice.

Stage 3 - final notice

If, following the issue of a second overdue account notice, you fall behind for a third time, you will no longer have the right to pay your account by instalments.

We will now send you a final notice stating you have 14 days to pay the full amount outstanding.

Stage 4 - summary warrant

If you have not paid the amount requested on your final notice, nor made an acceptable payment arrangement with us, we will take legal proceedings for recovery of the total amount due. In such circumstances, we will apply to the Sheriff Court to grant a summary warrant against you.

When the Sheriff Court grants the summary warrant, a 10% penalty will be added to the outstanding balance for that financial year. At that time the debt will be passed directly to our Sheriff Officer to recover it and you will be contacted by them directly.

Allowing the debt to get to this stage could also result in additional charges being raised by the Sheriff Officers.

Failure to make full payment, or to contact your Council Tax office will ultimately result in us instructing Sheriff Officers to recover your Council Tax arrears.

When a debt is passed to the Sheriff Officer, they can collect the debt in a number of different ways, for example:

  • Earnings arrestment
  • Bank arrestment
  • Payment arrangement