Below is the sequence to work through and the routes still open. Our guide to what happens if you do not pay your council tax covers how the account got here.

Work through five things in order: check the document and the years it covers, ask for a breakdown by year, work out what a deduction would take from your pay, decide between an arrangement and a statutory route, and get free advice booked.

The five steps, in order

Our guide to how quickly a council can take action sets out the pace the account has been moving at.

Step one: check the years and who was liable

If you have moved, separated or believe you were not the liable person for part of the period, note the dates before you ring. Our council tax liability guide sets out the hierarchy.

Step three: what a deduction would take

Deductions come off net pay under Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, on tables in force since 6 April 2025. Net monthly pay of £1,400.00 gives £97.50 and £2,400.00 gives £292.50.

Those amounts are fixed by statute rather than open to negotiation. Our wage arrestment calculator runs your own figure.

Step five: who to book with

Free help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, Money Advice Scotland and National Debtline, and your council may have its own money advice team. Our guide on where to go for help lists what each service does.

It adds a 10% statutory surcharge to the outstanding council tax on grant, and it lets the council instruct sheriff officers to recover the balance by diligence. For an earnings arrestment the council can move without first serving a charge for payment.

What can follow, and how quickly

The procedure sits in the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 1992, particularly regulation 30, and in s.106 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975.

The 10% surcharge

The 10% statutory surcharge is added to the outstanding council tax when the warrant is granted. On £900.00 of arrears it adds £90.00, taking the balance to £990.00, and on £1,400.00 it adds £140.00.

It is fixed by regulation rather than chosen by the council. The same 10% applies to unpaid non-domestic rates.

Why no charge for payment arrives first

A charge for payment is the formal demand served under s.90 of the 1987 Act before diligence on an ordinary court decree, giving 14 days to pay if you are in the UK and 28 days if you are abroad or your whereabouts are unknown. Summary warrant debt does not work that way.

The council can move to an earnings arrestment without serving one.

Who the sheriff officers are

The council instructs a sheriff officer firm, and the firms working for Scottish councils include Scott & Co, Stirling Park, Walker Love and Alex M Adamson.

They are officers of the court appointed by and accountable to the sheriff, and they are not bailiffs. Complaints go to the firm, then the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers, then the sheriff principal.

Two things. There was no hearing, so there was nothing to attend and nothing was missed, and the warrant does not appear on your credit file because council tax is not reported to credit reference agencies.

You did not miss a court date

A summary warrant is granted on the council’s paperwork alone, under Schedule 8 paragraph 2 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. There is no hearing, you are not summoned, and liability is not argued at that point.

So there is no default judgment against you and nothing you failed to turn up to. Liability is not argued at that stage, which is not the same as having no way to dispute it.

It does not touch your credit file

Council tax arrears are not reported to credit reference agencies, so a summary warrant does not appear on your credit file or affect your credit score.

Ordinary consumer debt behaves differently, because a court decree is recorded for six years unless set aside or cancelled.

And it cannot lead to prison

Non-payment of council tax cannot lead to imprisonment in Scotland. It is a civil debt, the committal power in England and Wales does not apply in Scots law, and there is no criminal record.

Raise it with the council in writing, and keep paying something while it is checked. If the dispute is about liability rather than the amount, there is an onward appeal to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland.

What to check before you agree to pay

Our council tax billing guide explains how the annual charge and its instalments are put together.

Single person discount is 25% where one adult lives there, and there are further discounts and disregards for students, apprentices, care leavers under 26 and live-in carers. A disabled band reduction charges the bill one band lower where a disabled resident needs an extra room or wheelchair space indoors.

Council Tax Reduction can cover up to 100% of your liability, and working-age awards can be backdated up to six months where there was continuous good cause.

If you dispute that you are the liable person

Put it to the council first, in writing, with the dates you were and were not the liable person for the property. Ask for the decision in writing rather than over the phone.

Liability appeals moved to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland on 1 April 2023. The deadline for liability and water charge appeals there is 4 months.

A money adviser can help you put the liability point and an affordable offer at the same time.

Yes. A warrant does not close the door on an arrangement, and a realistic monthly offer is still worth putting to the council after one is granted.

Once the right to instalments has gone, ask the council about a special payment arrangement covering the whole remaining balance. Reinstating instalments is at the council’s discretion rather than a right.

What to have ready before you call

Arrive with numbers rather than a promise.

• The council tax account reference from the warrant letter.
• A list of your monthly income, including any benefits.
• Your rent or mortgage, energy, food and travel costs.
• Any deduction already coming off your wages or bank account.
• The monthly figure you can keep to without missing something else.

Put the offer in writing as well as making the call. Our council tax debt advice page covers what to ask a recovery team for.

Which year your payment clears

Payments are normally allocated to the oldest year of arrears first unless you specify otherwise.

Say in writing which year a payment is for when you make it.

An arrangement with the council, a Time to Pay Order, the Debt Arrangement Scheme, a protected trust deed, sequestration and a statutory moratorium are all still available. Which fits depends on what else you owe.

The six routes side by side

What separates them is who decides, and what each does to enforcement already running.

A Time to Pay Order

A Time to Pay Order is competent against a summary warrant, and where the sheriff grants one the sheriff must recall any existing earnings arrestment. For other diligence the sheriff only may recall.

The debt has to be £25,000 or less excluding interest, on a test of what is reasonable in all the circumstances. A Time to Pay Direction is not available here, because a direction responds to a court action.

It is not settled whether an earnings arrestment alone satisfies the s.5(1)(b) conditions, so treat this as a route to check rather than an entitlement. A money adviser or the sheriff clerk at your local sheriff court can confirm competency on your facts.

DAS, a trust deed and sequestration

A Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme repays what you owe in full over an agreed period, with interest, fees and charges frozen. The Accountant in Bankruptcy runs it.

Once approved it stops an existing earnings arrestment and blocks new diligence, which is why it appears in our guide to stopping a wage arrestment.

A protected trust deed ends an earnings arrestment on the date of protection, not the day you sign, under s.173 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016. Sequestration ends one on the date of sequestration, and Minimal Asset Process counts as sequestration.

Money already deducted before either date is credited against the debt rather than refunded.

The statutory moratorium

A statutory moratorium gives six months of protection and you get one per rolling 12 months. It stops service of a charge for payment, stops new diligence and stops creditor petitions for sequestration.

It does not stop a creditor obtaining a decree, and interest and charges keep accruing throughout.

It does not stop an earnings arrestment that was already running. Section 197(5)(d) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets a creditor carry on executing an earnings arrestment, a current maintenance arrestment or a conjoined arrestment order that came into effect before the moratorium began.

There is no expiry. Schedule 8 paragraph 2 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 gives the warrant no time limit and no duration, and council tax runs to twenty years rather than the five covering most consumer debt.

The warrant itself does not run out

Nothing in the power that creates a summary warrant puts a clock on it, so one granted years ago can still support an earnings arrestment today.

A charge for payment is different, staying valid for diligence for 2 years from service. Our guide to how far back a council can chase arrears covers older years.

Why council tax is not a five-year debt

Most consumer debts fall under the 5-year short negative prescription and are extinguished if there is no relevant claim, payment or written acknowledgement. Council tax is excluded by Schedule 1 paragraph 2(fd) of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 and falls under the 20-year long negative prescription, as when council tax debt becomes statute barred explains.

The exclusion covers the surcharges, fees and enforcement expenses too, and the twenty years runs from the date the obligation became enforceable.

Executing any form of diligence is a relevant claim, and since 28 February 2025 that extends the twenty years until the claim is finally disposed of rather than restarting them. A payment or a written acknowledgement has no effect on the twenty-year period at all.

Section 13A of the 1973 Act presumes an obligation extinguished unless the creditor proves otherwise. The five-year rule in section 6 is unchanged.