ok , I know it's naughty of me but I haven't paid my council tax in quite a while, now I have been summoned to court.
The hearing is on 11th October, unless I can magically find £862.21 to pay them by then.

Has anybody been in this situation before??
I'm thinking if I ring them and offer to pay what I can afford (about £200) and regular monthly payments from then on they will let me off??
I REALLY don't wnat to go to court or have nasty baillifs turn up on my doorstep.

goddamn council tax

Give them a call to discuss it and offer to pay in instalments no higher than what you can genuinely afford (you may have to give up some luxuries for a while, however). Provided you get a good outcome over the phone, follow it up with a letter confirming your proposal and enclose a cheque to the amount of your first agreed instalment.

If that doesn't meet with their approval, I guess you'll just have to go to court. Unfortunately, that likely will mean that you have to pay their legal costs, which will probably run into a couple hundred quid at the very least.

I can't believe you let the shit pile up to that extent.

The scary thing is: that's probably just her council tax for the past 6 months. It's that expensive.

errrm, you don't know what has been going on with my life, so whatever...

thanks for the advice black mambo