Help needed just had a visit from the Bailiff!

kazziemikey

Hia we are just in the process of the start of bankrupcy weve filled forms in regarding income/expenditure with the CAB and they are trawlling through it. The only option for us is bankrupcy as my hubby only works 16 hours and we have 5 kids in the house so we are on benefits.

When my hubby was working full time we had some council tax we owed of which we did start paying off but then when we went onto housing benefit/council tax benefit I was told to wait regarding making a payment as the amount may change with it being through the year already etc so I waited and the benefit got sorted so we dont pay any council tax at all now and the new bill came as a zero amount with nothing owing either so I just assumed we didnt owe a penny (bit of a relief as you can imagine).

Recently we got married so I rang the council to change my name then 2 days later the council sent a council tax bill with my new name on and I noticed this one showed up the previous amount I owed and the very same day we got a letter from Bristow & Sutor debt collection agency working on the councils behalf! I called Bristow & Sutor explained the situation etc and they stated we could not make a payment as it was down for a Bailiff visit and we had to make arrangements direct with the Bailiff. CAB advised us to not let any Bailiffs in the house so today the Bailiff turned up and we did as advised and would not let her in, when we offered to make some kind of payment she wanted to come in and fill in the forms but we said no she could not come as we were advised not to let her in (she told us that was crap in her words and we do have to let her in). We offered to do it on the doorstep or in the garage but she stated she could not do this as it is against the Law to do paperwork on the doorstep etc, so instead she told us our 2 cars (which are old cars not worth much at all) will be seized!

She went off to her car so we just closed the door on her and now shes put a notice of seizure of goods through our door which states we have 5 days to make a £628 payment or the cars will be seized we dont have that kind of money so unable to make the payment so really dont know what to do regarding the cars, payment etc.

Any advise would really be greatfully appreciated as were getting really stressed with all this and just dont know which way to turn.

Thanks x

fatbelly

I take it that the council debt is £628 and that the two cars are worth that!

It may be a valid levy. CAB advice should have been to not let the bailiff in and hide the cars.

There are some bailiff experts on these boards - Herbie21, Roberto_Moir and hallowitch come to mind.

'Seize' and 'levy' mean the same thing in bailiff law. The question is whether they would 'remove'. In most cases they do not.

In the absence of more learned advice, I would say to push ahead with bankruptcy and let the Official Receiver and the bailiff argue about the cars.

kazziemikey

The council tax debt is now £628 it was £568.06 now its got a £43 levy fee and £24.50 Redemtion of goods fee added to it. Can we hide the cars now or is it against the law to do this? We have not signed anything with the bailiff all weve had is the notice of seizure of goods put through the door.

1 car is an old vectra worth about £300 the other is a kia sedona worth £900 it has very high mileage so not worth too much!

The only other option we can think of is sell the Kia within the next 3 days if we could and pay the debt off with the money as its council tax i know we have to get this paid.

Thanks

Dave101t

doesnt the bailiff have to get the court order (meaning a ccj) before they can take anything. even then they can only take it if the ccj is awarded, if you have a case, it cant be awarded and they cant remove anything.
im no expert but no one else has posted yet.

fatbelly

kazziemikey wrote: »

The council tax debt is now £628 it was £568.06 now its got a £43 levy fee and £24.50 Redemtion of goods fee added to it. Can we hide the cars now or is it against the law to do this?

Hide the cars.

kazziemikey wrote: »

The only other option we can think of is sell the Kia within the next 3 days if we could and pay the debt off with the money as its council tax i know we have to get this paid.

You don't have to pay it if you're going bankrupt. However, you have to get £450 x 2 from somewhere for the bankruptcy fees if you're both going bankrupt, so selling the cars might be the right move.

kazziemikey

Thanks Dave thats what I thought with removing vehicles the court order this to happen but when researching the internet although confusing to read I think the bailiffs can take them but like I say im confused by what im reading regarding the laws etc I think I will go back to the CAB tomorrow with the paperwork and see what they advise. Thanks once again

kazziemikey

fatbelly wrote: »

Hide the cars.



You don't have to pay it if you're going bankrupt. However, you have to get £450 x 2 from somewhere for the bankruptcy fees if you're both going bankrupt, so selling the cars might be the right move.

Hiding the cars seems a good option but we do actually need to use one of them as my hubby needs to get to work and we live quite away out from town and buses are not great service.

fatbelly

Dave101t wrote: »

doesnt the bailiff have to get the court order (meaning a ccj) before they can take anything. even then they can only take it if the ccj is awarded, if you have a case, it cant be awarded and they cant remove anything.
im no expert but no one else has posted yet.

Dave, there will be a liability order from the magistrates court. Councils do this all the time - it's a pain in the a**e but it's legal.

fatbelly

kazziemikey wrote: »

Hiding the cars seems a good option but we do actually need to use one of them as my hubby needs to get to work and we live quite away out from town and buses are not great service.

It's about where you park them when you arrive home (mate's garage?)

debtinfo

Hi, im no expert on baliff law but i dont think that it is legal for the OP to remove the goods (ie the cars) now that they have been levied on only before they have been levied on

kazziemikey

How long does the bankrupcy take as we have only just filled in the first forms from Cab which is the forms with all our income and all the debts etc were waiting for the Cab to call us back and make appt to go further weve not filled the bankrupcy forms yet, if it takes a while them surely we will have to try and make some payment or they will just keep onto us.