Rossendales Bailiffs - Unpaid Council Tax

adrian3221

Hi all, need a little advice.

I have an unpaid council tax bill of £1800.00 which has been referred to Rossendales bailiffs. They have sent me a letter stating that they want payment in full otherwise they will "proceed with the execution of the liability order".

I am not in a position to pay this amount in a lump sum and I could realistically pay £150.00 per month absolute maximum.

What are my options? Im presuming that the bailiffs would laugh at me if I offered £150.00 a month so could I negotiate with the council? What action can the bailiffs take against me for not settling even though there is no way I can get my hands on that sort of money? I have no assets that they could remove for sale either.

I just want to have a clear strategy in my head before I start making some calls.

Thanks in advance.

dancingfairy

o.k so presumably they have a liability order against you? is this for this year? I would think that as it has been passed to the bailiffs the council will not be amenable- some councils however are easier to deal with than others - however it is definitely worth a try.
Have you spoken to the court officer/recovery officer/senior revenue official? you need to speak to someone with the authority to accept a payment plan from you. If you can speak to the council and agree a payment plan you might find this conditional upon giving your employer details so they can attach your earnings if you fail to keep to the agreement.
You can also try to negotiate with the bailiffs although some again are easier to deal with than others.
If you haven't got anything worth taking then they will be wasting their time trying to take your goods.
However I would point out that
1) you should pay what you are able to even if you can't pay everything as in theory you could go to court and end up getting sent to jail for either deliberately or just not having the means to pay. This is very unlikely but you do need to pay what you can in case you need to prove anything later on.

It would also help to know what year's arrears they are and whether you had any contact with the council regarding payment plans before this.
df

prettypaula

We have had dealings with rossendales and thankfully have nearly paid them off now.

We actually welcomed the bailiff into our house, he basically made a list of some things we owned and then discussed what we could realistically pay per month to clear it, he then advised the payments office of the amount and weve never had an issue since, We had around £450 to pay and did it at £35 a month.

dancingfairy

I'm not sure I would let them in to be honest as once they are in they can take a levy on your goods etc I believe. I would probably phone National Debtline for advice. I am glad things worked out for pretty Paula and hope things work out for you too but I would not let a bailiff in.
dfh

tinker_bell_2

Firstly, are you happy that the bill is correct, if so should the bailiff turn up - ensure you don't allow entry or sign anything. I'd suggest you look up bailiff powers of entry to know your rights. The bailiff can only force entry if he has previously been given peaceful entry.
Secondly, ring Rossendales with your highest offer - they won't laugh. They may not accept, they may say you have to negotiate with the bailiff direct (this depends on whether the account is already with the van bailiff).
I don't think your offer seems unreasonable in comparision to the debt amount, just make sure you offer as much as you are able.
Whatever you do don't ignore it, as costs will now start to be added if the bailiff attends. if the bailiff fails to collect and passes the account back to the council they will look at further enforcement methods - they will not give up!
If you are concerned you can contact your local CAB who will help and ring the bailiff after completing an income and expenditure with you.
Good luck!

RAS

prettypaula wrote: »

We have had dealings with rossendales and thankfully have nearly paid them off now.

We actually welcomed the bailiff into our house, he basically made a list of some things we owned and then discussed what we could realistically pay per month to clear it, he then advised the payments office of the amount and weve never had an issue since, We had around £450 to pay and did it at £35 a month.

tinkerbell

As a starting point, do not invite bailiffs into your house. If you do, they can add hundreds of pounds to the bill in charges (literally).

have you rung the council to check how much the liability order is actaully for?

Insomniac666

I'm in process of dealing with bailiffs/council over c.tax arrears. Follow advice of don't let them in, visits will be £42.50, at most then they'll try and start charges for vans etc..

Try and get the council to take the case back first.

prettypaula

perhaps i had a good experience then, he explained to us that if we didnt let him come in and gake a levy he would have to apply a charge, if we did, he wasnt going to take anything as its not worth it as we had means to pay by installments.

obviously i wouldnt want anyone to do anything that may incur more charges but in all honesty taking goods is the last thing a bailiff wants to do as its not worth their time.

RAS

Paula

if you refuesed to let him in he could only charge £42.50 for a maximum of two visits.

The moment you let him in he is allowed to charge for a levy or walking possession order in addition. You may have been lucky but most bailiffs then also add a van fee as well, even if they have not used a van.

prettypaula

RAS wrote: »

Paula

if you refuesed to let him in he could only charge £42.50 for a maximum of two visits.

The moment you let him in he is allowed to charge for a levy or walking possession order in addition. You may have been lucky but most bailiffs then also add a van fee as well, even if they have not used a van.

Crumbs! either i got the only nice bailiff in england or the stupidest one eh? :rotfl:

RAS

I learned because I got a sharp one - insisted on doing a levy and charged me an extra £150 for the privelege even though I was paying in full (has given the DD document to the bank instead of the council because they had not allowed us to do SOs that year).