Paying back a bailiff

Ten98

I have a debt of around £1600 I owe to a debt recovery specialist bailiff for Council tax I failed to pay a few years ago. It was at about £2100 but I've been paying them back at £100 a month for the last few months.

I've just come into some money and I have £1000 to spare. I've heard of people paying back *most* of what they owe to companies like this and the company just writing off the rest, preferring to have most of the money now than all of the money in a couple of years time.

I want to try and do this. How should I proceed?

Do I write to them first, call them on the phone? Should I offer half what I owe and let them haggle me up? Any advice welcomed...

WEEGIE

Ten98 wrote: »

I have a debt of around £1600 I owe to a debt recovery specialist bailiff for Council tax I failed to pay a few years ago. It was at about £2100 but I've been paying them back at £100 a month for the last few months.

I've just come into some money and I have £1000 to spare. I've heard of people paying back *most* of what they owe to companies like this and the company just writing off the rest, preferring to have most of the money now than all of the money in a couple of years time.

I want to try and do this. How should I proceed?

Do I write to them first, call them on the phone? Should I offer half what I owe and let them haggle me up? Any advice welcomed...

Normally companies like this only offer you that option if you haven't paid any repayments for several months, BTW, are you by any chance in NE Scotland?

Ten98

I live in England now, but the Council tax is owed from when I lived in Dundee... Why is that relevant?

WEEGIE

Ten98 wrote: »

I live in England now, but the Council tax is owed from when I lived in Dundee... Why is that relevant?

It is just that Scott & Co (Aberdeen) are Sheriff Officers and there is no chance of them offering you that option. Companies that offer you that are ones like Aktiv Capital, McKenzie Hall, Merit Force, etc etc the reason they can do this is they have bought the debt from the original company for coppers and there is no way they can lose out. So it looks as though you will not get an offer like that.

Ten98

These guys are definitely not sheriff officers, they're an English company. From the looks of their website they've been sold the debt.

WEEGIE

Ten98 wrote: »

These guys are definitely not sheriff officers, they're an English company. From the looks of their website they've been sold the debt.

Ok then, what is the name of the company, when was your last payment and how old is the debt.

CIS

These guys are definitely not sheriff officers, they're an English company. From the looks of their website they've been sold the debt.

Council Tax debts are not sold on.

Ten98

They're called "Rundle and Co", the debt is about 5 years old and I last paid them in December I think...

Deep_In_Debt

I'm not totally up on CT debts but usually these debts are still owned by the council but they use court appointed bailiffs. Therefore, the debt will not have been "sold on" for a reduced amount and the council are likely to expect the full amount. It's usually non CT debts that are sold on and therefore you can negotiate a reduced amount.

I could be wrong with this though.

hippyadam

Plus it's more likely to be a high court enforcement officer as opposed to a county court bailiff. They make money on the charges they add on top of the debt. Reduced settlement = less profit for them...

It's worth asking but don't bank on them accepting. If they do accept make sure you get it in writing!!

billywhizz88

Rundle and Co are certificated bailiffs

They will have been instructed by the Council

They have no ability to accept a reduced payment as full and final settlemment

You need to clear asap as you are likely to be incurring extra costs the longer it takes to pay the debt off

Even if they returned it to the council you will continue to be purued for this debt whether via an attachemmt from your wages or in seeking to get you sent to prison

My advice accept the responsibility that you owe this money and seek to keep paying the agreed amount to get it cleared ASAP

I work for a council so hope that my advice is taken as normal practice although it is only my view