Council tax SMS text messaging, email and telephone contact

The Council Tax Service will send SMS text messages, emails and recorded voice messages to you if your Council Tax account falls in to arrears. Whilst this service is offered to prevent customers falling further into arrears, it should not be relied upon and may not always be available. It is your responsibility to maintain the instalments due on your account, failure to do so will result in further action being taken.

How to tell that a text message/email claiming to be from the London Borough Of Barnet is legitimate

Text messages from the Council Tax Service will show as coming from LBBarnet and the emails from LondonBoroughofBarnet@sdbt-mail.com.  For Data Security reasons these messages will never contain any of your Council Tax information.  The text messages will contain a verification link. The link will be to a page at gsys.io.

This message is from Barnet Council Tax and is safe to follow. Once you follow the link you will be asked to provide your postcode to confirm your identity before details of your Council Tax are provided.

If you are concerned please complete the general council tax enquiry form and we will address any concerns you have.

Why we send these messages

These messages are sent prior to the Council Tax Service starting proceedings to collect an outstanding sum. This may be prior to sending a reminder notice or something more serious such as instructing enforcement agents to collect your debt. This service can prevent statutory recover documents being issued and may help customers avoid paying expensive costs by prompting you for payment.

You will need to follow the instructions within the text message, as the council is unable to accept responses via text message.

Make sure your information is accurate

The council uses the information you have provided to us when sending out reminders. It is therefore important that you ensure we are kept up to date with your current contact details.

You can inform us of changes to your contact details here by completing the general council tax enquiry form.

You will not receive marketing information

The council has implemented this service to help with the assessment and collection of outstanding tax. We will not be sending you marketing information or pass your details onto 3rd party marketing organisations.

However, the council is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and may use the information you provide for the prevention and detection of fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies as legally allowed to do for auditing or administering public funds for these purposes. For more information on your privacy and rights