Council Tax & bailiffs

stressedpete

hi all

apologies if in the wrong forum.

i won a benefits appeals tribunal against my council in july 2007 and the upshot of this is that they then took money from my council tax account in trying to adjust things when i believe that they shouldn't have.

My benefits advisor at my housing association was dealing with this , as he was with the original tribunal and i have just left it to him , in this time i have received summonses for the disputed amount but as it is disputed my council have been putting a hold on any further action for 3 months at a time.

the last 3 months run out on 26th december and i forgot about it and now they have issued bailiffs to recover the debt.

i wrote an appeal letter on 14/01/09 saying that even if my appeal wasn't upheld , that i would be issueing my own legal proceedings against them to recover this money as they owed me , not me them. i asked them to call off the bailiffs until this had been resolved but today received a letter from bailiffs demanding the disputed council tax bill.

it was bad advice that i was told not to worry about the summonses as it would be sorted , however as the summonses have now ben acted upon and it is in the hands of the bailiffs , can they still carry out enforcement on a disputed amount? i know i am legally right with regards to me not oweing them as they had to write off over 14k in mis-paid housing benefit after bthe tribunal, but refuse to write off the council tax even though it was a joint claim, so should the council call off the bailiffs until this is resolved or is it past that stage ?and if i issue court proceedings against them can it then be put on hold by the courts until it is resolved , either way?

thanks in advance for any help/advice received

stressed

dmg24

Could I ask what happened during the three months that the amount was put on hold?

stressedpete

it wasn't just 3 months . since we won the tribunal in july 2007 and the council had to go back and then assess my claim from 2004, they done something wrong recalculating CT benefit and between them and my advisor from the housing association , they were having meetings etc trying to sort things out. this took from sept 07 and still it is unresolved , so the council put summonses on hold for over a year in 3 month blocks every time , on one occasion it was missed and a summons went through (although they did then still put it on hold)the court giving them a liability order, however this was not acted on until i forgot to renew another 3 months in december.

although never resolved fully , they have now acted on the summons that was forgotten to be put on hold and for which a liability order was granted

as my advisor was sorting things out with them , i have until now never put in writing ,an appeal , it was only when i was told on the 14th jan that bailiffs were now involved that i appealed asking them to stop the bailiffs , letting them know that if im unhappy with the outcome , that this is definately in dispute and that i would take my own action to recover it.

CIS

so should the council call off the bailiffs until this is resolved or is it past that stage ?and if i issue court proceedings against them can it then be put on hold by the courts until it is resolved , either way?

A benefits appeal is not a legal block on the council issuing a liability order and attempting recovery of the outstanding balance. A court has no say in the matter, the recovery used is at the council's discretion.

You need to contact the Council ASAP to try and sort the issue out - your best off asking to speak to an SO (senior officer) or the next step up , the PO (Principal Officer).

stressedpete

thanks cis

i will get down there tomorrow , unfortunately all calls are routed to a central call centre 150 miles away , it's like banging your head against a brick wall.

[Deleted User]

This sounds complicated might be worth getting advice from these people:
http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/

CIS

Unfortunately the legal advice (unless its regarding the benefit appeal) wont help as the council are acting within their legal powers.

stressedpete

council still not replied after 3 weeks and despite promises noone is getting back to me on the phone,5 times they said theyd call back and havnt.

i wont let them (bailiffs) into my house and everything is permantly closed and locked, if they did however manage to get in some way, could they take anything in my house that doesnt belong to me or my wife, i.e what would happen if i sold all of my possessions to my sister through a legal auction like ebay and we both had receipts and contracts stating that everything listed is now hers?or is this not possibe?

dont really want to have to get a van and get everything out until this is sorted so just looking for ways to protect myself for now apart from making sure house is totalloy secure.

also i have a camera with sound at my from door, do i have to let them know that they are being recorded?

thanks all

Bobl

Watchdog this week had an article about Bailiffs, and debt recovery firms. Check out www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog They stated that you must inform the Bailiffs/Debt Recovery Firm that you are disputing the claim, they can then no longer harass you until the dispute is resolved, that means not even sending you any further letters. Then you must contact the council to resolve the issue.

alexiawest

stressedpete wrote: »

council still not replied after 3 weeks and despite promises noone is getting back to me on the phone,5 times they said theyd call back and havnt.

i wont let them (bailiffs) into my house and everything is permantly closed and locked, if they did however manage to get in some way, could they take anything in my house that doesnt belong to me or my wife, i.e what would happen if i sold all of my possessions to my sister through a legal auction like ebay and we both had receipts and contracts stating that everything listed is now hers?or is this not possibe?

dont really want to have to get a van and get everything out until this is sorted so just looking for ways to protect myself for now apart from making sure house is totalloy secure.

also i have a camera with sound at my from door, do i have to let them know that they are being recorded?

thanks all

Hi,

Bailiffs can only take things which belong to you, but the onus is on you to prove that something is not yours otherwise they can take it, thats what I was told when I was looking into bailiffs and the laws when my mum with dementia had problems and couldnt sort it out herself.

I wrote a letter to the council stating that the house would be kept secure, the bailiffs would be refused entry and that I was aware of my mothers legal rights regarding bailiffs, I went on to say that I wished to resolve the situation and that I would welcome their contact to come to a resolution, however at no point would access be granted to the bailiffs and it was therfore wasting resources by continueing to send bailiffs to the door.

This helped, mum did get 2 more letters I believe from bailiffs, but I think they must have been sent inbetween my correspondence being recieved and acted upon, because then it all stopped and mum got a letter from the council offering to resolve things between us and saying that bailiffs were nolonger holding the case.

I think its definitley worth letting the council know that you know your rights and stress that you wish to resolve the matter, and it could be resolved with co-operation and communication on both sides.

I hope it all works out okay for you.

stressedpete

thankyou alexia and bobl and to every that has replied to this post , shouldnt have to be dealing with this stress and worry about having to sell everything on ebay just to stop someone taking all my goods because the council dont know their A from their E, oh well ,the country might be going to the dogs but it nice to know there are people out there willing to try and help in some way , great forum , thanks for advice received.