Council Tax Debt & Bailiffs

Hammerpgh

My partner has long standing council tax debts amounting to £1900 and has recently started receiving letters from a bailiffs acting on behalf of the Local Authority. Although there has been some dispute about the amounts owed I feel that we need to get something in place to clear these debts and have contacted both the bailiffs and Local Authority on her behalf. The bailiffs will not budge on the repayment arrangement that they are prepared to offer saying that the debt has to be repaid in 12 months thereby necessitating a £164 per month payment. We cannot afford this amount and I have offered them £50 per month but they are not willing to enter into any negotiation on this saying that we will still get a visit if we only pay that much to them.

The letters state that they will remove goods to the value of the debt, even if we are not present and even though the debt is not mine and most of the goods in the house were purchased by me. How true is this? Previous advice I have received tells me that they have no power to enter our house and do what they are threatening and the template letter here would seem to echo that but I would be grateful if someone here could confirm that for me.

The Local Authority are claiming that now this matter has gone to the bailiffs that they cannot make any payment arrangements and any negotiations have to be held with the bailiffs concerned. As I am actively making an effort to resolve this can they flatly refuse what I am offering?

Also, would the 'Threat of Doorstep Visits' letter still be useful to send to them incorporated with my written proposals for paying off this debt.

Many thanks for any and all help.

DarkConvict

The council can take the debt back, some do, some don't, some need some pressure to take it back. Get in touch with local MP and local counsillors they are the best means to get the council to take it back.

Keep doors, windows closed and locked, keep the car a good distance away from the house so they cannot think it belong to you, i.e. on another road. The maximum bailiffs can charge for council tax collection is £42.50 for two visit on the strict condition they did not gain access to the property. Bailiffs must get peaceful entry before levying goods, or forcing entry.

End of the day you pay what you can afford. Bailiffs prefer money over goods because goods take time and effort to sell and they have to over collect due to 2nd hand value. They can only take goods which are belonging to the debtor, and only goods of certain types (i.e. not kids toys (except bikes), nothing unhyginetic like clothes). Herbie21 runs this website http://bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/counciltax.htm (read it, its very useful!, you can ring her for advice too)

If a majority of the goods in the house are not the debtors and you are sure you are not liable for the council debt, then inform the bailiffs of this.

fatbelly

Great advice from DC. I would just add that if the bailiffs turn up while you are in, do not talk to them with an open door. Use the letterbox or an upstairs bedroom window.

As DC said, they are not allowed to force entry on a first visit but if you have given peaceful entry and they have levied against your goods, they can force entry (to access 'their' goods) on a subsequent visit.

The more uncooperative you are, the faster the debt goes back to the council!

CIS

The more uncooperative you are, the faster the debt goes back to the council!

The problem with this approach is that once its back from the bailiff the local authority can commence bankruptcy (may will do for £1900 ) or committal proceedings.

DarkConvict

They could commence bankruptcy as the debt is over £1500, but it would cost the council over £1000 to do it, so it reduces the point of it so i cannot see them doing it, especially as they are offering to pay the most they can afford and the actual amount is currently in dispute.

PNPSUKNET

put everything in writting and recorded delievery to all partys, say that you are acting on behalf of them. Would be worth speaking to the council ombudsman

niccatw

I had a similar situation. In the end I went into the council tax ofice to talk it through (I tried on the phone but spoke to a women even more flustered than me!!! Who admitted she didn't care how or who paid the money, or if it was right! I did have to ask whether "calls were being recorded for training purposes" as she probably needed some training!)

Anyway, I digress! On going into the office, they were able to print off exactly what had and had not been paid over the 4 years I had stayed in the flat (I shared with 2 others so we were jointly liable and I needed to work that out with them - harder than dealing with the council!).

They did contact the debt collectors while I was there and took the debt back from them to the council. I did have everything written out that I wanted tro say so I remained calm - this definitely helped - and I was prepared (and able at that point) to set up a repayment schedule.

Not sure if that helps your situation any but thought I'd share just in case.

MyopicMoo

Hi,
Firstly don't panic - the most important thing is that you are facing the issue and getting it sorted. I have written what OH and I did with our CTax arrears in case you find it helpful - if not please feel free to ignore it.
OH and I owed about £6K in council tax :eek:(a long and stupid story!). Ours was spread across 4 different councils so we had 2 councils and 2 sets of bailiffs to deal with. We contacted the councils to find out the full amount owed. The 2 councils who has involved bailiffs refused to take back the accounts.

We worked out a full SOA covering all our outgoings and split the majority of our surplus to the council tax arrears on a pro-rata basis - we allowed token payments to all our other creditors (some were not happy but tough CTax comes first - see I'm learning). We sent a copy of the SOA to the councils and bailiffs - by email to speed things up - as well as sending a hard copy by recorded post. Some of them agreed, some asked for more at first - we set up standing orders, if the bailiffs did not agree our payment or give bank details we paid the council direct. After a month or two of payments, and several letters, all accepted what we offered.

We have maintained the payments and if the payments were going to be late let them know. With a bit of tweaking we will clear the last of the arrears by the end of April.:j

I have done a lot of research on here and the internet to make sure I knew my rights, but the feeling of knowing the CTax is sorted is the best ever! I will not be missing payments ever again.

Good luck.

fatbelly

CIS wrote: »

The problem with this approach is that once its back from the bailiff the local authority can commence bankruptcy (may will do for £1900 ) or committal proceedings.

Yes, that is true but they can also agree a monthly payment.

My experience is that it's easier to negotiate with the council but they won't do that while the debt is with the bailiff.

My local council does not force bankruptcy and committal only applies if the debtor is found guilty of 'wilful refusal or 'culpable neglect'.

ballyclover

i had the same problem, i actually owed over £3000.00 to the local council, my fault totally.It had gone to baliffs who demanded at least £250 a month and a down payment.

I was beside myself with worry, but called my council office, the lady i got was really helpfull.I explained it was my fault, i admitted the money was owed, but told them it ws making me very upset and worried.She asked me to write in to the council.I wrote being very honest about what i could pay,and how i would pay more if i could. They took the debt back, accepted £18.00 a month as long as i kept up the full installements on the current years bill, which for me was a differeant account number.This has continued ever since.

Try the same, be honest, if you try to lie or fob them off they wont believe you.You cannot cheat the system, people who tell you otherwise are liars,you always get caught out

Hammerpgh

Many thanks for all the great advice, it’s been a big help.

I have written a letter outlining everything and setting out a payment proposal which I will send via recorded delivery to both the bailiffs and the council today. Hopefully we will get something resolved as a result and stop receiving these threatening letters soon. I’ll post back when I have had a response to let you know how it all goes.

Many thanks once again.