Debt Collectors

felix299

Firstly please accept my apologies if this is in the wrong area.

I bought a property in July 2006 and sold it in August 2007. Apart from the last month the property was uninhabitable as it had no kitchen or bathroom fitted. I got an exemption from council tax from my local council because of this.

Today I have received a letter from a debt collecting agency saying I am owe over £800 in back council tax and that they can freeze my bank accounts. This is the first I have heard in over 18 months since I sold it. Paying out £800 just now is not possible. I can't phone the company or the council until Tuesday because of the holiday. Does anybody know what my rights or options are over this?

Since it was so long ago and I moved without a hitch I don't have any of teh paperwork relating to the exemption that I had.

cabbage

Debt collectors have no powers at all.

Some bailiffs do but the matter has to go to court first and you would have known about it as the council would have written to you several times and then give you a date for the court hearing.

When there are arrears on the account the local authority usually go to court to get a liability order. Once this has been granted, they can go back to court without notifiying you and instruct bailiffs. If this is the case, you do not have to allow bailiffs into your house. After several unsuccesful attempts by the bailiffs the matter is referred back to the local authority and you can try to sort it out with them.

Ring your local authority on Tuesday or better still go to see them and try to get to the bottom of this. They may have instructed the debt collectors in error. They should have your paperwork.

If there is still a problem and you think the local authority has not followed their own policies you can refer this to the local government ombudsman. Usually when this happens the council cease recovery whilst the LGO investigate.

Hopefully it will not come to this and it will all be sorted on Tuesday. Try not to worry all over the bank holiday weekend.

felix299

Thanks mate. Part of the problem is I don't live in the same council area as the old property so if they have sent letters I won't have received them. This letter came via the solicitor who sold the property. It says they have been instructed to execute a charge of payment and that they can prevent me accessing bank accounts.

Is this something they can do before they go to court

CIS

You need to query why the Class A exemption was awarded and then removed, the computer records will show why. (are you in scotland ?).

felix299

CIS wrote: »

You need to query why the Class A exemption was awarded and then removed, the computer records will show why. (are you in scotland ?).

Yes I am in Scotland. If the class A exemption was removed should they have written to me to tell me?

CIS

It should have generated a new Council Tax Demand as it's a change in the amount due.

moo_cow

This actually happened to me too a few years ago. It turned out that the property was still being shown on the system as owned by me when I had in fact sold it the year before. So they were actually billing me for a period when I didn't own the property and then chasing me for the debt. You need to check with them that they haven't done the same thing. I'm happy to say though that once I showed them proof of the sale they ammended their records and scrubbed it.

Good Luck. hopefully it's just a mistake.