Council Tax and Baliffs

hallowitch

jayjay2910 wrote: »

have check the dates with the council 2009/2010, only had a hand delivered letter from the bailiffs saying about how they where coming to collect my goods etc, no mention of amount outstanding or any fees charged.

send this to the bailiff firm and the revenues department of your council by e-mail and/or recorded delivery letter

your hand delivered letter should have had the amount outstanding and the fees charged for the visit and the bailiffs name



http://certificatedbailiffs.justice.gov.uk/CertificatedBailiffs/

Is the bailiff certificated to the firm he is collecting for the list is not always 100% you may need to phone Ministry of Justice Public Register of Bailiffs on 020 3334 6355

Is the bailiff firm Equita does Capita administrate council tax for your council

did you live in the property for the full tax year 09/10


Name
Address
Bailiff Ref: Account No: 123456
Council Ref No: 435672
Date
Dear Sir,
With reference to the above account please provide me with a breakdown of all fees charged and payments made for the above account
This includes:
a - the time & date of any Bailiff action that incurred a Fee.
b - The reason for the fee.
c - The name(s) of the Bailiff(s) that attended on each occasion a Fee was charged.
d - The name(s) of the Court(s) the Bailiff(s) was/were certificated at.
e - The date of the Certification.
This is not a Subject access request under the Data Protection Act S7 1998 so does not incur a fee of £10.
The National Standards for Enforcement Agents state that if a written request is made an itemised account of fees will be provided.
Please provide the information requested within 14 days of this E-mail /recorded delivery letter
Yours faithfully
Ripped off customer"

jayjay2910

will send that today, many thanks again for all your help :-)

RAS

jayjay2910 wrote: »

will send that today, many thanks again for all your help :-)

Can you also answer hallowitch's specific questions, as these matter?

Capita do back room CT collection for councils and own Equita who collect CT debts.

if the bailiff is not registered to the company, he may not be allowed to even collect the debt.

And it is usual for bailiffs to add illegal fees to accounts expecting people to cough up without checking.

jayjay2910

The Bailif firm are called rundle & co, havent actually got the letter on me today, left it at home, just check the link provided and they don't appear on it at all. and yes i did live in the property for the full year 09/10. not disputing the fact i owe council tax at all.

jayjay2910

update - this is the response i have recd from the council

Dear Mr Jones
The bailiffs will allow customers to pay without further visits, if it is paid quickly, hence the 8 weeks.
The Council has a policy that any orders they hold should be paid in full within 6 months, if possible. However, the bailiff company is a business and are by legislation allowed to charge certain fees. If they didn’t, they would be unable to keep the business running and I must point out, are not a charity.
The CAB or any such concern can make suggestions, but they also know, once we send an order to bailiffs, we do not get it returned.
The Council has given quite a long time for people to make payment before taking any further recovery action. The bailiff cannot then allow another several months for debts to be collected, otherwise it would be pointless in instructing them in the first place.
Unfortunately, you did not pay when you should have, the Council charged you £85 for a summons and Liability order and because it was still unpaid, you now have to pay bailiff fees.

I would ask you again to contact the bailiff today and make a payment arrangement with them, otherwise they will visit and more costs will be incurred.

Yours faithfully

Dorothy Hooper
Recovery Officer

RAS

jayjay2910 wrote: »

Dear Mr Jones
The bailiffs will allow customers to pay without further visits, if it is paid quickly, hence the 8 weeks.

This is the bailiffs rules - there is no legal basis for this decision.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

The Council has a policy that any orders they hold should be paid in full within 6 months, if possible. However, the bailiff company is a business and are by legislation allowed to charge certain fees. If they didn’t, they would be unable to keep the business running and I must point out, are not a charity.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

The second sentence is correct but inadequate. Having visited once, they can now only make an additional charge for one more visit. If you refuse to let them in, they cannot charge any more, however many times they visit.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

The CAB or any such concern can make suggestions, but they also know, once we send an order to bailiffs, we do not get it returned.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

This means that "we do not want to call it back, even though we have every right to call it back if we want to." There is nothing to stop them calling it back at all, as CAB knows.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

The Council has given quite a long time for people to make payment before taking any further recovery action. The bailiff cannot then allow another several months for debts to be collected, otherwise it would be pointless in instructing them in the first place.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

They can indeed be allowed to take several months to collect the debt, just the Debt recovery people do not want to let them.

jayjay2910 wrote: »

Unfortunately, you did not pay when you should have, the Council charged you £85 for a summons and Liability order and because it was still unpaid, you now have to pay bailiff fees.

Correct

jayjay2910 wrote: »

I would ask you again to contact the bailiff today and make a payment arrangement with them, otherwise they will visit and more costs will be incurred.

Correct but wholly inadequate. The bailiff will have charged £24.50 for the first visit. They can charge £19 more if they make a second visit but fail to levy.

They cannot make any additional charges unless they get into the house.

hallowitch

send the council another letter/email informing them that you understand council tax is a priority debt you are not refusing to pay it all you want is a repayment plan that you can reasonably afford without defaulting on make them an offer of xx amount to paid on xx day of each


its important you put on the letter you are not refusing to pay the debt
also your payment date there is a big difference between to be paid on , to be paid by make sure you you put to be paid on or by tell them you have no problem paying rundle & co however this must be by standing order only

if you get no joy send a copy of all correspondence to your local councillor and ask him to intervene on your behalf

bailiff firms don't like standing orders because they know you wont default (unless there is no money in your account) and they will charge a fee for payment by card

under no circumstances allow the bailiff into your home legally you don't have to this will keep your bailiffs fees at £42.50 without a levy they cant charge more


for rundle &co you have to put Rundle & Co Ltd

jayjay2910

just got another email from the council ,after i emailed them back with the information suggest by hallowitch and here is the response i got

Under the circumstances the bailiff will have no problem with allowing you longer to pay, however you must allow them to attend your property and pay the levy fees.
No one has a problem allowing you to do this and providing you pay as arranged with the bailiff, they will not visit the property again.
I am not prepared to keep going over the same ground, the bailiff will attend your property and the arrangement can be sorted without any further problems.
Dorothy Hooper

RAS

jayjay2910 wrote: »

just got another email from the council ,after i emailed them back with the information suggest by hallowitch and here is the response i got

Under the circumstances the bailiff will have no problem with allowing you longer to pay, however you must allow them to attend your property and pay the levy fees.
No one has a problem allowing you to do this and providing you pay as arranged with the bailiff, they will not visit the property again.
I am not prepared to keep going over the same ground, the bailiff will attend your property and the arrangement can be sorted without any further problems.
Dorothy Hooper

that is blackmail.

The bailiff has no right to enter the property and is quite able to agree a longer term arrangment without doing a levy.

Just he wants the extra fees (not least because if you are one day late he will decide to make a visit with a van withall the attendent fees that incurs).

Are you able to make a payment against this account on-line on the Council web-site? if so, do so.

And in the mean-time find out when your local councillor and local MP have their next surgeries and bend their ears, right off.
You need

jayjay2910

i personally found that final email very rude, and im in a good mind to complain about it to the council as they are contridicting the advise of the national debt line, direct gov.co.uk and along with everyone on this site who i assume are very knowledgeable people

well you all could monkeys tapping away at a keyboard trying to write shakespear for i know :rotfl:

going to follow the advice of you guys, make a payment via the council website when i get paid, which wont be untill the end of the month anyways. and i will inform the baliffs that i will be making payment via the council and that i will not be letting them into my property at any time.