Council Tax - Bailiff

jobaby1

Hi All,

Was hoping someone could advise me, I had some council tax debt passed to a bailiff but the amount passed (£121) was all fees / charges not the original debt, I saw somewher on the net that the council cannot pass a debt to bailiff if it is all charges, is that correct ? Thank you !!

DarkConvict

I am not aware of that rule, as far as i know if they applied to the court but you pay the bill, the court charge would still outstanding.

As to charges, a bailiff can only charge £42.50 so long as they stay outside your house

CIS

The advice is incorrect. The Council Tax (administration and enforcement) regs 1992 allow enforcment action to be taken for costs only. Once incurred these are recovereable as per any outstanding council tax which can include bailiff action.

jobaby1

Thanks for your advice! I have been charged a levy fee & attandance / van charge (£165) plus the 1st & 2nd visit charges as I have a car even though they didn't gain entry & didn't provide the levy. The 1st & 2nd visit were at my previous address so I was unaware of them.

DarkConvict

Those charges are to much.

They can only do a 1st visit and 2 letters, total £42.50.

Van charges and levy are only allowed if they made peaceful entry to the property. Ifs not your fault they went to the wrong address. Get advice from herbie21 - http://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/counciltax_howcani.htm

RAS

Pm Herbie21.

But by the sounds of it they have levied on the car?

yogarocks

Hi all,

i think councils must be tightening up at the moment as i have a flat i rent out and it was vancant for 2 weeks while the tenants changed over, however as the new tenants (who have now left) never signed up for the council tax, the local council kept sending reminders addressed to me at that address even though i dont live there and never have done. To cut a story short they agreed i only owed them £33 but i still had to pay court costs (as i'd been summoned in October 2009 without even knowing about it as it was sent there) and the baliffs had been round twice too. They have my current address and when the baliffs came there was the first i even knew about it. I have ended up paying over £150 to the baliffs acting for the council for what should have only been £33 (plus the council then stopped "dealing" with me as the debt had been passed on). The council say its my fault for not providing them will an aaddress to send to but i feel they have been a bit quick in trying to get me in trouble when really its my previous tenants who are at main fault as i am VERY astute when it comes to bills etc (expcet obviously in this case). God knows what it has done to my credit rating as i didnt attend the court hearing as i never even knew about it.

Thanks!

DarkConvict

You should not have had to pay anything, when the tenants move you, you are liable but isn't it then a band N (unoccupied) so no council tax is due.

As above unless bailiffs gain entry to your home they can only charge £42.50, this is set by law.
If they council claimed for tax that was not due i don't see why you should pay any charges at all council,court or bailiff.

RobertoMoir

DarkConvict wrote: »

Those charges are to much.

They can only do a 1st visit and 2 letters, total £42.50.

Van charges and levy are only allowed if they made peaceful entry to the property. Ifs not your fault they went to the wrong address. Get advice from herbie21 - http://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/counciltax_howcani.htm

They can levy on a car outside the house without being inside the property. Essentially what they have to do is gain peaceful entry to seize goods. If they seize a car in the street or on the front drive then gaining peaceful entry to seize it isn't exactly rocket science.

DarkConvict

Very true, i forgot about the car. Although i believe they stated the visits were at the wrong address making the levy invalid?

RobertoMoir

DarkConvict wrote: »

Very true, i forgot about the car. Although i believe they stated the visits were at the wrong address making the levy invalid?

Depends - if they could have actually taken the car at the time the levy was carried out then I believe its valid. As I've said before, long time ago for me now and my memory's a little ropey on this but here's how I recall it:

There's this old fashioned idea that a bailiff has to physically touch an item before they can levy on it, which is nonsense, but they do have to be able to do so at the time they levy; a levy is a seizure of an item to secure against a debt, and if you can't touch something how can you possibly have seized it.