Bailiff Advice Needed Please...

shell7t8

Hi all,

I'm desperately hoping someone may be able to advise me on this.

My partner and i experienced some financial difficulty right up until a few weeks ago (ie , 1st May) due to loss of job and my wage having to sustain our household and also had already agreed to repay extra on mortgage due to suspended possession order.

We had outstanding council tax from 2009 which was passed to bristow and sutor from tamworth council in August of 2009. I had emailed the council to ask them if we could set up an arrangement when they told me it had already been passed but they sent out a letter in the interim saying they would intervene on this occasion and that we could pay £150 per month off the arrears which were around £1050. We got the details for bristow and suitor and i paid via the website monthly. We made the first 3 payments but this got increasingly difficult and i contacted them in November to say we wern't going to be able to make the payment. Tehy wern't very helpful and told us that we had to wait for someone to visit our premesis before they could make any kind of arrangement. This didn't happen and in January we again rang, this time getting through to smoeone who said they could set up the arrangement, this time for £120 per month. We didn't feel we had an alternative so tried to tighten our belts even more. At this pint the amount outstanding was around £650 or so. I paid again using the website in February (tehy said we could start from end of Feb) and March leaving a balance of around £410. April's payment wasnt paid as normal on the last day of the month but was going to be paid today which in essense is less than 10 working days overdue.

Last night the bailiff turned up demanding £640 and advising he was going to give us 20 minutes to find the money or else take our goods. I didn't think that this was allowed unless they had already been to make an inventory and given that we were only 10 days late with the paymetn it seemed a bit odd considering we had been chasing them for months to try and come to an agreement. We didn't want out goods taken so i managed to ask my mum to put it on her credit card in the end but this was embarassin (I ccan deal with that part) and obviously now ive got to pay that back with interest. When i asked how come the balance was still over £600 he said it was because the ycharge £230 for coming out yesterday to attend with the van. He was very intimidating.

I have dealt with bailiffs before unfortunately, again for council tax a long time ago and thought that they could only seize your goods if they had physically done a walking inventory beforehand and you had then defaulted on the payment.

Does anyone know whether this is the case?? I'd really like to oppose this if possible as i don't deny owing the money but i don't think i should have to deal with their attitude and extortionate fees.

Look forward to hearing from anyone that can help

Shell

GeorgeUK

They should not be attending with a van - did they appear with a van or could he just be saying this? They can charge for 2 visits only and then if they come to remove goods, for which i also believe they require a walking posession order, with a van they can charge for that also.

I would go to https://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk to see if they agree and if there is anything you can do about it. Herbie21 is a member here, though i've not seen her around for a while and this is her or her companies site.

There is a new bailiff advice thread somewhere i've heard. I'll try to see if i can find that and will post a link here.

Edit: Here's the link - may be worth PM'ing Roberto incase there's anything that can be done.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1837507

Herbie21

shell7t8 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm desperately hoping someone may be able to advise me on this.

My partner and i experienced some financial difficulty right up until a few weeks ago (ie , 1st May) due to loss of job and my wage having to sustain our household and also had already agreed to repay extra on mortgage due to suspended possession order.

We had outstanding council tax from 2009 which was passed to bristow and sutor from tamworth council in August of 2009. I had emailed the council to ask them if we could set up an arrangement when they told me it had already been passed but they sent out a letter in the interim saying they would intervene on this occasion and that we could pay £150 per month off the arrears which were around £1050. We got the details for bristow and suitor and i paid via the website monthly. We made the first 3 payments but this got increasingly difficult and i contacted them in November to say we wern't going to be able to make the payment. Tehy wern't very helpful and told us that we had to wait for someone to visit our premesis before they could make any kind of arrangement. This didn't happen and in January we again rang, this time getting through to smoeone who said they could set up the arrangement, this time for £120 per month. We didn't feel we had an alternative so tried to tighten our belts even more. At this pint the amount outstanding was around £650 or so. I paid again using the website in February (tehy said we could start from end of Feb) and March leaving a balance of around £410. April's payment wasnt paid as normal on the last day of the month but was going to be paid today which in essense is less than 10 working days overdue.

Last night the bailiff turned up demanding £640 and advising he was going to give us 20 minutes to find the money or else take our goods. I didn't think that this was allowed unless they had already been to make an inventory and given that we were only 10 days late with the paymetn it seemed a bit odd considering we had been chasing them for months to try and come to an agreement. We didn't want out goods taken so i managed to ask my mum to put it on her credit card in the end but this was embarassin (I ccan deal with that part) and obviously now ive got to pay that back with interest. When i asked how come the balance was still over £600 he said it was because the ycharge £230 for coming out yesterday to attend with the van. He was very intimidating.

I have dealt with bailiffs before unfortunately, again for council tax a long time ago and thought that they could only seize your goods if they had physically done a walking inventory beforehand and you had then defaulted on the payment.

Does anyone know whether this is the case?? I'd really like to oppose this if possible as i don't deny owing the money but i don't think i should have to deal with their attitude and extortionate fees.

Look forward to hearing from anyone that can help

Shell

We have the Bailiff Advice website referred to above and sadly we are constantly receiving enquiries similar to yours.

Since the recession many bailiffs are charging an "enforcement fee" which is really an "attending to remove" fee. This fee CANNOT be applied UNLESS a bailiff has previously been to your property and levied upon goods.

In cases such as this you need to be aware that with council tax enforcement, bailiffs fees are the sole responsibility of the LOCAL COUNCIL and therefore you MUST send a letter to the council and mark it as a FORMAL COMPLAINT and address the letter to the CHIEF EXECUTIVE.