Hartlepool Borough Council’s Court Costs 'Cash Grab': Local Council Accused of Profiteering on the backs of Residents’ Misery..

Hartlepool Borough Councils faces being embroiled in a Court Costs scandal following allegations its profiteering off the misery of struggling locals, after a HBC Exposed investigation reveals the local council is disproportionately making profits on court costs through summonses they send to struggling locals who are unable to pay their Council Tax...

21st March 2025

In Hartlepool, a town already grappling with economic challenges, the local council appears to be turning residents’ financial struggles into a lucrative revenue stream.

Recent figures HBC Exposed has been able to obtain reveal a stark disparity between the court costs Hartlepool Borough Council charges for council tax summonses and the actual cost of issuing them.

With court fees set at £70 per summons—and set to rise to £80 in April 2025—. Its claimed the actual costs to administer a court summons & to obtain the liability order the council needs from the court actually costs just 50p.

This means the local council, which in 2023 was declared an authority of no Public Confidence & is set to bring in a crippling 4.9% April 2025 Council Tax increase is raking in profits that dwarf any reasonable justification. The 'disproportionate' fees the council is said to be charging already hard pressed locals suggests that this isn’t enforcement; it’s a sick exploitation of the vulnerable & those struggling to pay, with the council’s refusal to provide any clear breakdown of these costs only deepening the scandal.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Middlesbrough 'Kangaroo' Court, where Hartlepool Borough Councils Council Tax Summonses are dealt with !

As of November 2024, Hartlepool Borough Council has reportedly issued 6,474 summonses tied to pending Liability Orders, a step in the enforcement process for unpaid council tax.

At £70 per summons, that works out at a cool £453,180 in revenue from court costs alone. Next month, when the fee jumps to £80, the council stands to pocket £517,920. Meanwhile, the alleged cost to issue each summons? A measly 50 pence—totalling just £3,237 for all 6,474 summonses had they been billed at the 50p cost & not the heavily questionable £70 pounds.

This translates to a potential profit for the disgraced local council of £449,943 at the current rate, soaring to £514,683 in April, with a jaw-dropping margin profit exceeding 99%. Even if we generously assume a more realistic cost of £15 per summons—accounting for staff time, postage, and court admin—the council still clears £356,070 now and £420,810 later, with margins of around 78-81%.

There's simply no justification for these costs.... Its profit over Poverty !

The councils being urged to publish a breakdown of its court costs, which is now risking a scandal over claims they're unfair

Meanwhile, its said that 6,831 residents are now under what's known as an Attachment to Benefits order, with £4.984 million pounds worth of Council Tax debts reportedly still outstanding as of November 2024.

These are people already stretched thin, often heavily reliant on welfare, yet the council piles on fees that bear little relation to the task at hand, with critics claiming this isn’t just about recovering unpaid Council tax; it’s about squeezing every penny from those least able to pay.

A Fee Far Beyond Reason

Its claimed local councils like Hartlepool are using court costs to bolster their ailing finances, using the misery of locals as 'cash cows'...

Under the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, councils can charge what's claimed to be “reasonable costs” for summonses and Liability Orders. But what’s reasonable about a £70 fee—soon £80—when its alleged the actual cost is just 50p?

That’s 140 to 160 times the alleged expense.

Even at £15, it’s 4-5 times higher than plausible.

Compare this to historical benchmarks: in 2011, Hartlepool justified raising costs from £60 to £70 by pointing to neighbouring councils charging £65.50 or £80. If £70 was “reasonable” then, why the hike to £80 now? Inflation? Rising court fees?

The council isn’t saying—because it doesn’t have to, they're 'untouchable' remember !

This opacity is the real kicker. Hartlepool Borough Council is said to be sidestepping accountability by failing to provide residents with a transparent breakdown of these costs. No itemised list of expenses, no justification for the £10 increase—just a vague nod to “reasonableness” rubber-stamped by a sleepy magistrate at Middlesbrough Kangaroo Court.

Residents facing summonses deserve to know just how much HBC is charging locals for court costs actually goes towards court fees, Staff wages, Paper and ink, when its claimed the vast majority of the summonses produced are automated & done electronically in bulk, with sometimes as many as 500 bulk summonses printed out on one sheet of paper like an Excel Spreadsheet...

Without clarity, it seems the council's keeping its cash cow mooing whilst locals are left footing the bill.

Profiteering, Not Public Service

There's calls for council summons court costs to be investigated for their fairness.. & where councils have been profiting, those costs returned to struggling locals.

Let’s call it out for what it is: profiteering.

When a local council charges fees that dwarf the cost of the service—potentially by hundreds of thousands of pounds annually—it’s not just covering expenses; it’s a local council balancing its books on the backs of struggling households. The £4.984 million in arrears from Attachment of Benefits accounts shows the scale of financial distress in Hartlepool. Yet, instead of support, residents are being slapped with disproportionate penalties. The court cost revenue (£453,180 now, £517,920 soon) may be a fraction of that debt, but the profit margins reveal a cynical truth: the council isn’t losing sleep over these enforcement costs—it’s actually making a killing from them !.

And what of the 50p claim? If true, it’s damning—proof of a markup so obscene it borders on predatory. If exaggerated, it still begs the question: why won’t the council disclose the real figure?

Either way, the lack of transparency fuels suspicion that Hartlepool Borough Council is more interested in revenue, rather than fairness.

Its Time to end the Court Costs 'Gravy Train !

Labour MP Jonathan Brash has waded in on the Council Tax debate, however many claim his fight should now be broadened to include claims of local councils absurd court costs being piled onto local residents...

Many locals are likely to be in agreement that the Council Tax summons system should recover tax from those who wont pay, rather than those who cant pay.

The £70 fee—let alone £80—is a disproportionate burden on struggling local households, and the council’s refusal to break down those costs flouts the spirit of regulations that were meant to protect the most vulnerable locals, not punish them, where calls are now being made for Hartlepool Borough Council 'to finally come clean' & publish the true cost of a council tax summons by justifying every penny of those costs they're charging locals for a supposedly 50p summons, and to stop treating court fees as a profit mill to balance their mismanaged failing books !

Until then, this really does look like a textbook case of a local council prioritising its bottom line over its people. In a town where nearly 7,000 households are already under enforcement orders for Council Tax, that’s not just bad policy—it’s complete a betrayal & a breakdown of trust.

What do you think ?

Should Local Councils Be Investigated over their 'misuse' of Court Costs on Council Tax summonses ?