Mean Bailiff - Help?

Chico_&_Luna's_Mum

Hi All,

I’m in a bit of an awkward situation, and I wondered if anyone had any advice?

I recently had to move out of my flat, after being made redundant, and have moved in with my Nan for the time being.

When I left the flat, I had about £400 council tax outstanding, which managed to turn in to a debt with a collections agency, as I had no means to pay it.

Anyway, I managed to get a new job, and set up a weekly payment plan with them. Then, I had to switch from weekly to monthly pay – so I rang the company and explained that I would have to miss 2 weekly payments, but would start making a larger monthly payment when my new pay started in December. I had £181.20 still outstanding, so we agreed that I would pay £60.40 a month for Dec, Jan and Feb. I made my December and January payments, as planned. But when I rang to make my February payment, I was told that the account had been passed to a bailiff because of the 2 missed payments in November! I was given a mobile number to call and I rang and left a voicemail saying I would like to make the final payment, and left all my details, including 2 phone numbers.

4 days later, my Nan gets a knock at the door from a bailiff threatening to take goods from the house! He left a letter demanding £180 (because they add on an extra £120 for a call out) this letter had a mobile number on it, which I repeatedly tried to call – but it was a wrong number. Instead, I wrote a letter to the collections agency, explaining what I’ve just explained above, and asking if I could write a cheque out for the £60.40 I still owed. Again, no reply. Then, I get another knock on the door from a bailiff! I had a massive argument with him about it, and I was basically saying, I have made every effort to keep up with my payments, and I just feel like all my attempts to contact anyone have been ignored, so that they can just pile more and more charges on top of me. I said I was happy to pay the £60.40 there and then, but not the extra £120 as I don’t feel it’s my fault a) that my calls weren’t returned and b) why wasn’t it explained to me in the first place that if I missed a payment, I would have action taken against me. He said that I was refusing to pay and that I would be taken to court. He also came out with loads of excuses like, you should have been ringing us – why should we ring you back? And, what if the bailiff had deleted my voicemail by accident – but I don’t see how that’s my fault?

Does this seem fair?

Broken_hearted

Mean bailiff is there ever a nice time to have a bailiff call. Surely some of the paperwork you've had will have had a warning on it, telling you what would happen if you missed a payment. No it's not fair but life isn't, council tax is an important bill and they damn well make sure you pay it.

paintygirl

Seems that you made an agreement with them to pay monthly ...did this agreement get put in writing? I once had a problem making an agreement over the phone and then having it queried so I told them to find a record of the conversation as am always being told that phone calls are recorded 'for training purposes'

Hope someone here can give you a bit more legal advice. What about CAB?

tigerlily

If you have proof that you made the payments you were supposed to and just had the one payment left I can't see that a court would waste time with it. Do you have phone bills to prove that you called them time and time again? This will also help.
It is hard keeping up with payments but it is so important to keep up with council tax....I guess you know that now!!
If it was me I would be tempted to send a cheque for the amount you say you genuinely owe and then let them get on with it. I cant say that it6 would be the legal way to go but based on what you have said it does sound as though the problems were at their end regarding the mix up over the 3 remaining payments and what you had paid.

louB_5

I work in a council tax department and know that bayliffs unfortunatley are a law unto themselves and make there money from the costs you pay.
I know different councils work differently, but you should have recieved letters warning you that you had missed your installment plan and then another one aprox at a later stage warning you that the account may be sent to bayliffs.
They really only geT sent to bayliffs if there is no other waY, so it does seem quite unfair whats happened to you.

Did they change you address to your nans? Have these warning letters gone to your old flat? you should check this out, the office will have dates on system when the adress was changed.

Unfortunatley, I'm not sure how you can get around the charges ( unless you can show that they had the wrong address for you etc) as when the bayliffs have the account, they can generally charge what they want, but be warned, everytime they write to you/come out to you they will put costs on top, so if you do have to pay this one charge pay it asap, so you wont get anymore.

Find out any receipts you have and keep them to hand, and you can always write a letter of complaint to the council manager if you feel that they are still treating you unfairly, they have to investiage.

tee_pee_2

I have been referred to a debt collection agency by 2 separate co in the last month and neither were my fault. I hvae since had an apology from both, but you need proof. Did you ring CT to change your address? Did you get the agrment for £60 mth in writing from CT. Have you got b stateements to show you made the 2 payments. Have you got the name of the person who oked it for you to miss the 2 wkly payments in NOv and change to monthly.

If you can back up your version ring CT ask for head honcho's name get a letter into them with copies of your evidence and demand compensation, I have just got £25 credit off united utiliteis for a similar situation.

If you are in the right NEVER EVER EVER back down, and keep a list of names.dates.times of any conversation you have had.

Good luck
HTH

fatbelly

Slightly concerned that someone who works in a council tax department thinks that bailiffs can charge whatever they want. In fact they are constrained fairly tightly to a fixed scale of charges, as outlined at the end of this factsheet from National Debtline.

grace

Obtaining money through meneces or threats is Blackmail, no matter who they work for, call the Police I did when The Council Tax Office did this to me....(it was all their fault they were charging us for the house we were living in AND the house we had been renting but had moved out of the year before....they had sent all the letters to that house so we hadnt had them).... they may tell you the Police wont be interested but it wasnt my experience at all the Police came round and took all the details they called the Council Tax Office and the Bailiffs...causeing the "Charming" young man we spoke to .... to be dismissed.....

moneymare

I too work for a Council Tax office, and just want to defend what WE do......basically, ALL and I mean ALL avenues of recovery are taken before accounts are passed to Bailiffs.

Apart from the original bill, the customer should have at least had one reminder, and possibly a final notice before a Summons was issued.

Then comes the Liability Order from the Magistrates Court, normally accompanied by a questionnaire requesting details of income.

Now should the customer still fail to get in touch, or make an arrangement and fail to keep to it, only then would we look at sending an account to the Bailiffs, and then only if we had no details of income, benefits etc....

The Bailiffs themselves are tied to tight guidelines as to what they can and can't do to enforce recovery of a debt, including the costs they charge.

I refute completely people who contact my office after having had a call from the Bailiffs to suggest they didn't know anything about it. Unless you've got a corrupt postman, the customer should have received at least 4 or 5 documents regarding their account before the bailiffs get involved - in my experience, at least.

And as the magistrates regularly tell our customers, ignorance is no defence.

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

To Be Honest From What I Know Baliffs Only Get Involved As A Last Resort Most Councils Will Apply For Attachment Of Earnings As I Read In Our Local Papers The Councillors Were Not Happy With Baliffs Being Used When A Cheaper Alternative Could Be Used

fatbelly

Thanks to Moneymare for setting out the process.

My experience is slightly different from the LR's - I find that our local council goes for bailffs as the first option for enforcement of a liability order and only moves to other methods like attachment of earnings or a charging order if that fails.

The key seems to be to convince the council that the bailiffs have either failed to get walking possession or that there are 'insuficient goods', get the debt back with the council and then negotiate affordable repayments.

I've just managed to get £1000 of arrears covered at £10 per month for one of my contacts but there were some special factors on that one.