Visit from the Bailiff (Rossendales) - But we don't owe any money

dotstar24

i've had problems in the past with Rossendales and their very unprofessional bailiffs. Good luck, do not have the cars anywhere near the house, and don't let them in!

CIS

i've had problems in the past with Rossendales and their very unprofessional bailiffs. Good luck, do not have the cars anywhere near the house, and don't let them in!

TBH , compared to some other bailiff companies I've dealt with Rossendales are very professional.

I rang this morning and spoke to someone (name recorded). At the bottom of this appears to be, as suggested, the fact that we are paying on 15th not 1st of the month and are therefore classed as being one month in arrears.

Having said that the Council claims that it sent a Reminder on 12th May, Summons on 2nd June and further letter on 29th June.

That time line would be pretty much what my authority uses (I work in council tax recovery). The Reminder can be issued as soon as payment is late, most authorities wait a week or so for payments in the system to clear. The reminder gives 7 days to pay the instalment or a further 7 days to pay the full balance if neither of these conditions are met then a Summons issued which will be followed by a regulation 36/Request For Information form once the Liability Order is granted.

I asked the Council if any of the letters had been signed for. (Silence). I asked if they had any proof of posting any of the letters. No they haven’t. Their response is that it is for me to take up with the Royal Mail if we are not receiving mail from them, not for them to prove they have sent it.

They don't need signed for- they aren't and don't need to be sent recorded. Reminders/Summons etc are batch printed and posted, if needed the authority can provide lists of which batch the documents were printed in and when the batch was posted.

I offered to pay the one month outstanding, and so bring the matter up to date – the response was that this was not now possible as they had passed the matter on. I suggested that this was possible – but we reached an empasse with their response being that it was not. Can anyone tell me which one of us is correct?

Legally you lose the right to instalments if the amount shown on the Reminder is not paid within 7 days.

It is weird that the post has not been delivered but the council will have heard thousands of excuses in their time and unfortunately for you - I never received anything is pretty convient so even if it is true they are unlikely to believe you - as they said you do really need to take that up with the royal mail.

You do hear every excuse (even heard of a duck eating the Summmons as an excuse) so it tends to make you very cynical.

Lexxi

Our council had a new computer system and every single one of the debt letters that went out went to just one household, the next day the same guy was back in the office with the next lot of every single debt letter, different names on all of them but the same address.
Also council tax should be able to get into your council tax account and find out who/when the letters where issued

Mrs_B

Sorry I wasn't able to give a full update earlier - I decided that a quick post to say that things appeared to be resolved, was better than leaving everyone wondering.

To continue -

My Councillor rang this afternoon as promised, having spoken to the Finance Director, who in turn had discussed my case with the Debt Recovery Officer. The Councillor said that she was now fully aware of all the facts and was waiting for my call in order to discuss the matter.

(Wibble)

So, I rang, and spoke to an extremely nice, pleasant lady, who had quite obviously looked at my payment record, was quite satisfied that we were regular payers - to the extent that we paid at exactly the same time each month - asked why we paid on a different date, was fine with the reply, we discussed the missing mail, I said I had made an extra payment to cover the missing one - in fact we covered everything.

At the end of the conversation she said that she was completely satisfied that we were paying, that we paid regularly, that the instalment payments could continue as they were, and that the Bailiffs would be called off.

Where I think I have achieved 110% result is that we are being allowed to continue with the instalments (which I didn't think would be permitted), no mention has been made of adding any Court costs, or Bailiff costs - and she has actually offered of her own accord to make a note on the file that we can continue to pay on the 15th in future years (whether I actually take up that offer I have several reservations about!)

In effect I am now in exactly the same position that I was last week, just with a few more grey hairs!

I have said that I will put all this in writing - and she has said that she will write in response to that letter to confirm agreement.

Meanwhile, a couple of other strange things have occurred to me re missing mail. I have now realised that a letter from my opticians never arrived - I think at the end of last year (I'm ringing them tomorrow to get a date), and I have also realised that my gas and electricity bills, which I telephoned meter readings through for, seem to have taken an extraordinarily long time to come - so I've sent an e-mail to my supplier to ask if they have sent them. So there needs to be a letter to the Royal Mail as well.

Random comment, I don't like Direct Debits - I'm sure they suit some folks, but they're not for me - I do everything I can to pay by any means but Direct Debit.

And finally.

I have been on MSE for a while - although I visit regularly, I am nearly always on a quiet search for information and advice which I just find by browsing around - and it's such a busy site that it can be quite daunting - and as will be obvious, I have posted very infrequently.

I have been quite overwhelmed by the time people have given here on this post to write at length offering me advice based on their knowledge and experience - OK, at times there have been contradictions, but I accept that's what personal opinion is about. At the end of the day, you all helped to advise me on what to do, what not to do, how to do it, who to talk to ............... and I couldn't have asked for any better result at the end of the day - so I would just like to express my real appreciation for what you folks obviously spend a great deal of time doing - maybe one day I will have enough knowledge about something myself to be able to help someone else in turn.

RobertoMoir

Glad to hear that things are being sorted out. And thanks for taking the time to let us know how you got on, it's nice to know when things are going well.

Fire_Fox

:j:j:j:j:j

GeorgeUK

Well done Mrs B. Just make sure that you get written confirmation that you are fully paid up so that if any bailiff does come around again, you have a letter to show them.