If you do not pay your business rates

If you're struggling to pay your business rates you should check if your business is eligible for a business rate reduction.

Reasons you have been sent a summons

You have be sent a court summons because:

you have not paid the amounts shown on your bill
we have sent you at least 1 reminder to bring your account up to date and pay on time.

As a result of not paying on time, a final noticed was issued, and your right to pay in instalments was cancelled. The summons has been issued as you did not pay the full amount shown on the final notice.

Attending the court hearing

You should only attend if you have a valid dispute against the liability order. For example if you:

have paid in full
should not be liable
have not been issued the correct documentation.

You do not need to attend court at this stage to tell us why you have paid late or being unable to pay. The court will be asked to grant a liability order and further liability order costs of £25.00.

Payment plan

You do not need to attend court to arrange a payment plan, a payment plan will be enclosed in the summons. It explains what to do if you cannot make the payments suggested.

About liability orders

A liability order is a court order that gives further powers to recover business rates including:

bailiffs (enforcement agents)
bankruptcy or liquidation.

Summons costs

The summons costs are due on the issue of the court summons, and those costs are payable together with the unpaid business rates before the court date. Additional costs will be payable when the liability order is granted.

Disputing the liability order

Before you attend you can dispute our application for a liability order by emailing medwayrecoveryteam@medway.gov.uk. This email should not be used for general enquiries.

General enquiries should be sent to rates@medway.gov.uk. Include your Council Tax number in the email subject.

Support available

We have further support available including:

Business rates