Bristow & Sutor Council Tax Liability Order

antonic

sunnsea wrote: »

No I haven't had a notice of enforcement letter. I have had an "issue of liability" and an "enforcement visit warning" but I have had a £75 charge which says it is an enforcement charge that was added onto my account a while ago. I have paid that.

Do you think t should call the council or keep trying to get a hold of someone from Bristow and Sutor ?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for clarifying this for me.

The Enforcement visit warning letter is a warning that they intended to visit.

Did they wait the minimum of 7 days between issuing the letter and visiting you ?

More importantly when you paid the £75 Fee Bristow & Sutor, did you also include a separate £75 to pay your normal instalment amount ? - if you didnt this would lead to the arrangement failing and them making the visit.

This is because ALL Ministry of Justice fees get paid BEFORE your debts do - so in your case its possible you paid £75 to Bristow & Sutor.

They then used it to pay the Enforcement Fee (as they have to by law) and unless you made a separate payment of £75 (which is your instalment amount) you are £75 short on the arrangement which means its failed and hence the £235 fee.

Is this what has happened ?.

sunnsea

No they didn't wait 7 days to call. They called with the letter which said it was an enforcement visit warning in my post box. It was there when I arrived home this afternoon and it is dated for yesterday.
The £945 was never paid by £75 a week instalments.... Some weeks I would pay £100 other weeks I would pay £25 - dependant on what wages I had got.
I worked out that the debt should be paid by the 27th June but as I was away - it didn't get paid until the 28th June. But even if I had paid it last night - they would already have put an extra £235 charge on.

thewhiteavenger

antonic wrote: »

As I said in my previous post, the fees charged by the Ministry of Justice are the MINIMUM fees that can be charged, bailiffs can charge more if they want.

They appear to be referred to as 'fixed fees' in the legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1/made

Can you give us a link to legislation which would allow them to charge more if they want.

I am still getting my head around the new rules.

antonic

You are correct to say that they are "Fixed Fees", but the Legislation doesnt say that more can`t be charged.

(And most probably will !).

dancingfairy

At the moment you don't appear to know exactly what the £945.81 includes so you could be paying the fees twice for all we know. I would write to the bailiffs and ask them for a breakdown of all fees on the account.

See here (post 13): https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/65831932#Comment_65831932
It sounds like it is likely you have to pay the fees but I would be arguing strongly to the bailiffs and the council that it is unfair as they stated the amount you had to pay and didn't tell you about extra fees but send the above letter first and see what they come back with as there may be other fees hidden in the £945.81 or they may trip themselves up somewhere else.
df

sunnsea

Hi thanks for your advice.

I'm really not arguing any of the charges and fees that were added to the total of £945.81 as I have had a breakdown and understood what it was all for.

My grievance is that I was informed I had to make the first payment before the 7th April which I did and then I had 12 weeks to pay off the remaining balance.

I've worked it out and 12 weeks from the 7th April takes us to 30th June.
I paid the whole amount outstanding by the 28th June (2days before the payment date was up) but they have left a letter in my post box stating that I now owe them an extra £235 as they have visited me on the 27th June.

I've no idea why they decided to visit on the 27th June when payment hadn't to be made in full until the 30th June - It just feels like I had nearly paid it off so they have visited in order to be able to bang on another £235.

antonic

Can you check the paperwork to verify if the arrangement was as follows :

1) £75/week starting 7th April , then 11 payments of £75 (making 12 payments in total) OR

2) £75/week staring 7th April , then 12 payments of £75 (making 13 payments in total).

If its 1) then you have failed the arrangement because the 12th payment would have been due on 23rd June, if its 2) the £235 should not have been charged.

chanz4

raise a formal complaint to the finance director at the council, then take it to the council ombudsman, they will back down about the fees