Council Tax Debt Paid but Bailiffs turned up!

dave0922

Hi,

I am new to this forum but would really appreciate some advice!

I arrived home from london yesterday lunchtime (saturday) to find my wife and 8 year old daughter very distressed.

A bailiff had been round the house demanding payments of an old council tax debt that was paid off ages ago to the council themselves. The liability orders that he produced were over 18 months old!

As my wife had no idea what to do, she let him in. But he had faulsely told her that he was from the magistrates court. It actually turned out that he was from a company called Rossendales. So he lied!

When my wife questioned what these two debts were for he replied "they all bloody say that" my wife replied "I have no idea what these are as any debts we have had with the council have been paid in full a long time ago", he then got very nasty and said "we can do this the nice way or the nasty way" whilst waving his pen in her face! Then saying "I will have a van and the police here within the hour"

My wife told him to leave as there was no debt outstanding with the council or the court. He the said that he was going nowhere until she signed the paperwork he had prepared with a list of our property on it.

My wife was very worried and concerned for the safety of herself and our little girl so she signed it and he then said "you have got 14 days" and left.

We contacted the police to report this incident and the police aggreed that he had acted unlawfully by impersonating a court bailiff and also stated that they do not attend to provide assistance to company bailiffs. They took all of the details including a description of his looks and have set up a case file.

The police advised us to get to the council offices first thing monday morning and get written confirmation of the debts that have been paid, demand that they contact this terrible collection agency and get us off of their records and refuse to leave until we are satisfied that they have done so.

Then we are to go around to the magistrates court where these old liability orders were issued and report the bailiff for falsely gaining access to our property by lying.

After that has been done, I intend to take this further by writing a formal complaint to the council and see it through to the end of the pyramid. Then I will complain to our local M.P about the incident.
Finally after about 12 weeks I will take it further to the ombudsman.

I am absolutely disgusted at what has happened and that the council has been so incompetent at updating their records.

If anybody has any extra advice or knowledge they can pass on to me I would be very gratefull.

Kind Regards
Dave

FireWyrm

Good luck. There have been people on here with equally horrendous stories to tell. For my own ten cents worth, I really think it is worthwhie teaching children in school about their rights. If your wife had known them, this !!!! wouldn't have stepped past the threshold.

As a point of interest, I would write to the company revoking their right to step foot on your land under common law and make it abundantly clear that any further infraction will result in a criminal complaint of trespass and harrassment which WILL you can assure them, most definitely involve the police.

nottoolate

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8787141/How-bailiffs-reap-the-fraudulent-rewards-of-their-phantom-visits.html

vax2002

SHE SIGNED IT OMG !!!!!!
You are joking right ?

dave0922

vax2002 wrote: »

SHE SIGNED IT OMG !!!!!!
You are joking right ?

Yes she did sign it, she was confused and scared as was my 8 year old daughter. She has never had dealings with bailiffs before.

Now would you care to explain why you mock my wife for doing that?

hallowitch

As a point of interest, I would write to the company revoking their right to step foot on your land under common law and make it abundantly clear that any further infraction will result in a criminal complaint of trespass and harrassment which WILL you can assure them, most definitely involve the police.

not going to happen there is no trespass if a bailiff has a liability order in debtors name (regardless of whether the council have gained a liability order by mistake or not)

Is the bailiff certificated to the firm he is collecting for (is the bailiff firm Equita)
www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/CertificatedBailiffs
can you list the goods and charges the bailiff has put on the notice of seizure including the outstanding balance (want to see if he has done anything wrong there)
Is this debt for a previous address
were you in council tax arrears and paid the council direct after a liability order was granted
don't worry to much about your wife signing the notice of seizure/distress she wont be the first (or the last) to hear sign or I'm removing your goods now

hallowitch

Irregular Distress (Levy) by Bailiffs
MRS AMBROSE v NOTTINHGAM CITY COUNCIL

Nottingham City Council had argued that there could not be any irregularity as Mrs Ambrose had signed the Walking Possession. This was rejected by Judge Cooper who agreed that Mrs Ambrose was faced with the prospect of having her goods removed unless she signed the Walking Possession

FireWyrm

hallowitch wrote: »

As a point of interest, I would write to the company revoking their right to step foot on your land under common law and make it abundantly clear that any further infraction will result in a criminal complaint of trespass and harrassment which WILL you can assure them, most definitely involve the police.

not going to happen there is no trespass if a bailiff has a liability order in debtors name (regardless of whether the council have gained a liability order by mistake

Didn't I read somewhere that in 1998 it became law that a council intending to proceed against someone should provide notice not less than 14 days in advance of that visit?

FireWyrm

dave0922 wrote: »

Yes she did sign it, she was confused and scared as was my 8 year old daughter. She has never had dealings with bailiffs before.

Now would you care to explain why you mock my wife for doing that?

I think what Vax meant to say was that he was shocked at this intrusion into your lives and that your wife was frightened into signing something. However, as this experience has no doubt demonstrated, all members of the family should be advised NOT to sign any paper presented to them in this way. If she had simply refused to sign and better yet, refused him entry, it never would have gotten this out of hand. That is not mocking, it's a fact. I've had a similar conversation with my ageing father who was duped into signing an authorisation to swap energy suppliers. All people should be advised of their rights as school children but sadly they are not. Unfortunately, disreputable companies such as Rossendales take advantage of this.

dave0922

Thanks for all of your replies, it is appreciated.

I cannot see that we have anything here to worry about as the debt is paid and now none exsistent.

I am more angry at the fact that this has been allowed to happen in the first place.

I am not the type of person that takes this sort of thing likely and if he had have been there when I returned home I would most likely threw the scummy rodent out by his ears with my foot up his backside to follow.

He can rest assured that I WILL make him pay for this one way or another.

hallowitch

FireWyrm wrote: »

Didn't I read somewhere that in 1998 it became law that a council intending to proceed against someone should provide notice not less than 14 days in advance of that visit?

yes you did



“Information preliminary to distress

45A.—(1) No distress shall be made under these regulations unless, no less than 14 days before a visit in connection with the distress is first made to the premises where it is to be levied, the authority have sent to the debtor written notice of the matters specified in paragraph (2) below.
(2) The matters are—
(a)the fact that a liability order has been made against the debtor;
(b)the amount in respect of which the liability order was made and, where this is a different amount, the amount which remains outstanding;
(c)a warning that unless the amount specified has been paid before the expiry of 14 days beginning on the date of the sending of the notice, distress may be levied;
(d)notice that if distress is levied further costs will be incurred by the debtor;
(e)the fees prescribed in Schedule 5 to these Regulations;
(f)the address and telephone number at which the debtor can communicate with the authority.”