Bristow & Sutor charged me a £75 compliance fee

ultimatim · 13 March 2018 at 5:11PM

Hi all,

I got into arrears with my council tax and it was passed to Bristow & Sutor.I set up an arrangement with them to pay the outstanding amount at £52 a week with an initial payment of £66.My wife had left the marital home a couple of months previously so i rang the council and asked for a single persons discount.They backdated the discount and got in touch with Bristow & Sutor to amend the balance outstanding.Bristow & Sutor claimed they sent me an email stating the payments should change(i didn't receive it or didn't see it) so i kept on paying the original agreement by standing order.Then because of the mix up i owed £14.27 at the end of the agreement to which they have added a £75 compliance fee.I argued my case on the phone but to no avail.I have struggled to make the payments every week but have not missed a single payment.This seems unfair in the extreme to me.They did agree to knock £23 from the final balance so in effect i have paid 1 extra payment of £52.

Does anyone think i have a case to claim that extra payment back ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks Tim.

National_Debtline · 13 March 2018 at 5:28PM

Hi Tim

Council tax bailiffs can add a £75 compliance fee, and this should be done as soon as the debt is passed to them by the council. This is regardless of whether you set up a payment plan with them. Defaulting on the payment plan should also have no bearing on whether the compliance fee is charged.

It sounds like your only argument here is that they should have added the charge as soon as they received the debt, not when you had nearly paid it off. It's good news you have got them to reduce the fee but the only thing you can try and do about the remaining amount is to complain.

If Bristow & Sutor won't reduce it further you can try complaining to the council and the bailiff trade association CIVEA, but unfortunately there is no guarantee of success.

Susie
@natdebtline

Herbie21 · 14 March 2018 at 10:06PM

ultimatim wrote: »

Hi all,

I got into arrears with my council tax and it was passed to Bristow & Sutor. I set up an arrangement with them to pay the outstanding amount at £52 a week with an initial payment of £66.

Then because of the mix up i owed £14.27 at the end of the agreement to which they have added a £75 compliance fee.

I think that there may be some confusion here. When the debt was passed to Bristow & Sutor, you should have received a letter entitled Notice of Enforcement. The amount requested on that letter would include a £75 Compliance Fee with is a statutory fee.

Bristow & Sutor charged me a £75 compliance fee

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