Help needed - council tax bailiffs

hitchin

Hello all

I received a letter on the 29th from penham excel ltd (notice of liability order) stating that I have 14 days before a visit from the bailiffs the amount is for £1352.00.

This morning I called my local council stating that I didn't want to deal with the bailiffs and wanted to deal with them directly because most of the arrears is for this years council tax 12-13 and that I am already in debt and the bailiffs would only course further debt and didn't want the distress caused upon my wife and 10 month old twins, she said its in penham excel ltd hands now and I must talk to them and there is nothing she can do about it!

So I rang penham excel ltd and they said for an affordable payment plan they would have to come round and see what goods I have in the house, I said no I am going too seek advice first, even if I did have the money too pay in full I don't feel like I can trust penham excel ltd to give the money to the council anyway.

Oh and the woman on the phone said even if I do pay in full to the council they would still deduct penham excels fees out of the £1352.00 I owe.

Help would be much appreciated thank you

hitchin

Well this site is useless

hallowitch

Is the outstanding amount £1352.00 confirmed by the council
how many liability order are they enforcing

you can cut out the bailiff altogether by paying the council on-line

legally you don't have to allow the bailiff into your home to levy goods before they will set up a payment plan

if you own a car keep it well away from your house
if the bailiff cant get a levy they will have no other option but to return the debt back to the council
with no levy on goods your bailiffs fees will be £42.50 total

hallowitch

hitchin wrote: »

Well this site is useless

no not useless just very few people on here who can help you with this particular problem

hallowitch

you should start by getting in touch with council and asking the following questions this will conform that there has been nothing added to the liability order by the bailiff firm to date


1 - how many Liability Orders they have against you
2 - the dates they were obtained
3 - the addresses they were for
4 - the period of time each covers
5 - how much each one was for
6 - how much is still outstanding
7 - the dates they were passed on for enforcement

poppasmurf_bewdley

hitchin wrote: »

Hello all

I received a letter on the 29th from penham excel ltd (notice of liability order) stating that I have 14 days before a visit from the bailiffs the amount is for £1352.00.

This morning I called my local council stating that I didn't want to deal with the bailiffs and wanted to deal with them directly because most of the arrears is for this years council tax 12-13 and that I am already in debt and the bailiffs would only course further debt and didn't want the distress caused upon my wife and 10 month old twins, she said its in penham excel ltd hands now and I must talk to them and there is nothing she can do about it!

So I rang penham excel ltd and they said for an affordable payment plan they would have to come round and see what goods I have in the house, I said no I am going too seek advice first, even if I did have the money too pay in full I don't feel like I can trust penham excel ltd to give the money to the council anyway.

Oh and the woman on the phone said even if I do pay in full to the council they would still deduct penham excels fees out of the £1352.00 I owe.

Help would be much appreciated thank you

Unfortunately for you, once you stop paying your council tax payments on time, you lose the option of paying direct to the council once they put it in bailiffs hands. The fact you don't want to deal with bailiffs doesn't come into it. You only have that option when you pay your council tax bills on time.

The only way you have now of avoiding the bailiffs is by asking the council to take the account back from them. If they refuse, there is nothing you can do and you will have to deal with the bailiffs whether you like it or not.

hitchin

Thank you guys I know £1352 was the amount I owe the council and the baylifs haven't added on the charges yet as 14 days haven't elapsed, and the council have said even if I do pay them direct they will pay the bayliffs charges before they credit my council tax arrears!

Thing is I don't even trust the bayliffs as they are not even coming up on that they are certificated bayliffs.

hallowitch

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Unfortunately for you, once you stop paying your council tax payments on time, you lose the option of paying direct to the council once they put it in bailiffs hands. The fact you don't want to deal with bailiffs doesn't come into it. You only have that option when you pay your council tax bills on time.

The only way you have now of avoiding the bailiffs is by asking the council to take the account back from them. If they refuse, there is nothing you can do and you will have to deal with the bailiffs whether you like it or not.

not quite true your right to pay in instalments is lost if you miss payments and liability order is granted

however there is nothing in law that says once a debt has been past to a bailiff you have to deal with them in fact the council should not refuse your payment (what they do with the payment is up the council and they may transfer over to the bailiff )

hallowitch

hitchin wrote: »

Thank you guys I know £1352 was the amount I owe the council and the bailiffs haven't added on the charges yet as 14 days haven't elapsed, and the council have said even if I do pay them direct they will pay the bailiffs charges before they credit my council tax arrears!

Thing is I don't even trust the bailiffs as they are not even coming up on that they are certificated bailiffs.

if you put Penham Excel into the search you will see they have 14 certificated bailiffs

get yourself on the CAG site(its free) they have a sub-forum that only deals with bailiff problems you will receive all the advice you need with this there are several experts over there
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?168-Bailiffs-and-High-Court-Enforcement-Officers

HeadInTheSand

I have posted this a few times in other council debt related threads. IT WORKS! its worked for me and for many others! (providing you are offering a reasonable amount that will clear your arrears by March/April next year)

Go to the council with a witness (ie partner, friend), with a document/letter you have typed/written yourself, which basically shows your council ref #, and some text along the lines of:

A:

I__________________ (representative of [city]council) have refused to accept payment from [your name here] in regards to due council tax

print name____________________________
signed_______________________________

---

B:

I [your name here] have today [date here] attempted to pay x amount towards my council tax ref [ref # here]. The council representative has REFUSED to accept my payment for my council tax I currently owe.

print name ________________________
signed _________________________

witness print name ________________________
signed _____________________________

---

Go there and say:

1) I am here to pay SOME off my council tax arrears.

They will refuse.

2) I am here to pay ALL of my council tax arrears.

Again, they will refuse
(if for wehatever magical reason they say OK, then say, OK, ill just go to the bank to withdraw money (you dont have to go back...)

Ask him to then sign youer document stating they resuse your payment.... again ,they will refuse to sign it.

SO, you sign it, with your witness, in front of the council rep, and then send this letter to your LGO (local Government osbusdman)

with a covering letter stating you offered a more than reasonable amount to settle these arrears.

Also send copies of these letters to the council AND to the bailiff.
The bailiff will then back off (A little) and give the council something to think about before the LGO contact them.


They will contact the council in due course and reccomend that they accept your offer and revoke the bailff order.

This is a successful method that WORKS most of the time.

Its sole purpose is to overcome the council saying "YOU MUST DEAL WITH THE BAILIFF"


hope this helps. Seems more effort sending these letters and going to the council, but it will certainly be less of a burden that the stress of dealing with intimidating bailiffs!

Hope this helps.

counciltaxadvice

You can get it brought back in house as i do this all the time for my clients with a 100% success rate. From my experience trying to get it back in house with the council without professional help is a mission. It does happen but not very often. It also depends very much on your circumstances. Steve Adams