The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2025 (WSI 2025/1109) introduce a Wales‑specific process for reminders, final notices and liability orders. Made on 20 October and laid on 22 October 2025, the instrument comes into force on 1 April 2026.
Welsh Government has confirmed a longer, clearer path from a missed instalment to potential court action. In outline: a final notice may be issued no sooner than 41 days after the missed payment; it must give 21 days to pay; if still unpaid, councils may apply to the magistrates’ court on the following day. In practice that creates a minimum 63‑day window before enforcement action can begin.
The Regulations amend regulation 23 of the 1992 framework so that in Wales a billing authority may serve a reminder notice rather than being under a duty to do so. Where a Welsh authority issues a reminder, it must set out: the total of missed instalments to date; instalments falling due within seven days of issue; that the former are overdue and the latter are due within that seven‑day period; and any other information the authority considers necessary. This preserves operational discretion while standardising the minimum content for any reminder that is sent.
Final notices are placed on a statutory footing for Wales. A Welsh billing authority must serve a final notice not less than 14 days after any reminder it has issued and not less than 41 days after the missed instalment. The notice must state the unpaid amount, require payment within 21 days, and explain that if payment is not made the unpaid balance of the annual charge becomes payable the day after that 21‑day period.
Regulation 34 is updated to create a Wales‑specific route to a liability order. Where a Welsh final notice has been served and remains unpaid after the 21‑day period, the authority may apply to a magistrates’ court no earlier than the day after the chargeable amount becomes payable, aligning the application point with the 63‑day minimum. The core court process under regulation 34 remains unchanged.
For joint and several liability, regulation 27 is adjusted so regulation 33’s preliminary steps operate by reference to those joint taxpayers who were served the demand notice. In practice, authorities should review how demand and subsequent notices are addressed where there are multiple liable persons on an account, ensuring evidential trails link notices to each addressee.
Payments and adjustments are also tidied. Regulation 24 is cross‑referenced to the new Welsh trigger in regulation 33(6), making clear that the point at which the full chargeable amount becomes due in Wales is now tied to the expiry of the Welsh final‑notice period rather than the earlier reminder‑notice mechanism.
The instrument codifies a clear divergence from England. In England, the existing 1992 rules continue to require a reminder notice and operate on the familiar “7 days to pay, then a further 7 days before the annual balance becomes due” model that can lead quickly to a liability order application. Wales now runs a longer timetable with mandatory final notices and a defined waiting period.
What councils need to do before 1 April 2026 is straightforward but operationally significant. Revenues teams should update reminder and final‑notice templates to meet the new Welsh content rules, reconfigure case‑management systems to enforce the 41‑ and 21‑day statutory periods, and retrain staff on the earliest lawful dates for issuing final notices and lodging liability‑order complaints. Authorities should also refresh signposting to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme and debt‑advice support in all notices, mirroring Welsh Government guidance.
For households, the obligation to pay council tax is unchanged, but the extended timetable is designed to create space for early engagement and realistic repayment plans, while preserving the ability to act against deliberate non‑payment. Welsh Government’s consultation outcome and announcement confirm commencement on 1 April 2026.