Council Tax Arrears

Tiahanya

Herbie21 wrote: »

Tiahanya,

Thank you for your query which I will answer here.

Can you post back to let us know how much the liability order is for (this question is to gauge whether the payment proposal should be accepted by the council).

The letter that you have received is frankly appalling and I am sure that the Ministry of Justice would take a very dim view of the wording indeed with the veiled reference to 'forced entry'. Personally I would be inclined to write a formal letter of complaint to the Chief Executive of the Council regarding the threat..which by the way....is a threat that is not allowed so please do not worry.

On the matter of whether or not the bailiff is certificated, the problem is that the HM Courts website is only as accurate as the information provided by the courts and some county courts are better than others ensuring that HM Courts bailiff register is updated as soon as the bailiff has been granted a certificate. In your letter of complaint to the council you should raise the query about the bailiffs certification.

You do not need to allow a bailiff into your home and I would not suggest that you do. The problem that you could have is if you or your partner (if you have one) have a car parked outside and this could be taken.


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I have three different liability orders for council tax, I shall list them in date order.

Liability order granted 15 July 2013
Debt: £338.00
compliance stage: £75.00
Total sum outstanding: £413.00

Liability order granted on 18 November 2013
Debt: £198.86
compliance stage: £75.00
Total sum outstanding: £273.86

Liability order granted on 14 October 2014
Debt: £360.60
Compliance stage: £75.00
Enforcement stage fee: £235.00
Total amount outstanding: £670.60

Total debt due :£1357.46

I have been paying £20.00 per week since 27 March 2015, so have now paid £80.00 off this debt. so debt is now at £1277.46.

I did have a payment arrangement but I ended up defaulting it. This was firstly because my partner was receiving JSA and they cut his money from £210.00 per fortnight to £110.00 per fortnight, this was to pay off a social fund loan we had. The Job centre also cancelled money that was being deducted from his JSA for council tax. To this day we still do not know why this was done.

In the meantime my partner has got a temporary job, which is why we are now offering to pay £20.00 per week, instead of per month.

Tiahanya

Thanks for your advice Herbie21 I did submit a question through the bailiff advice online, but I never got a reply back. Not to worry, it was more than likely me not pressing right buttons. I had a strange feeling there was something not quite right that threat, more so since I could not find anything about it on the internet. Given the current times I would have thought there would have been more people in my position also wondering what a warrant of entry was.

I'm going to email them again with a payment proposal, despite them saying that they will refuse based on my payment history. If they still refuse I shall carry on paying regardless, at least then they won't be able to put me or my partner into prison, well as i understand it they can't as we are making payments.

Herbie21

Tiahanya wrote: »

I have three different liability orders for council tax, I shall list them in date order.

Liability order granted 15 July 2013
Debt: £338.00
compliance stage: £75.00
Total sum outstanding: £413.00

Liability order granted on 18 November 2013
Debt: £198.86
compliance stage: £75.00
Total sum outstanding: £273.86

Liability order granted on 14 October 2014
Debt: £360.60
Compliance stage: £75.00
Enforcement stage fee: £235.00
Total amount outstanding: £670.60

Total debt due :£1357.46

I have been paying £20.00 per week since 27 March 2015, so have now paid £80.00 off this debt. so debt is now at £1277.46.

I did have a payment arrangement but I ended up defaulting it. This was firstly because my partner was receiving JSA and they cut his money from £210.00 per fortnight to £110.00 per fortnight, this was to pay off a social fund loan we had. The Job centre also cancelled money that was being deducted from his JSA for council tax. To this day we still do not know why this was done.

In the meantime my partner has got a temporary job, which is why we are now offering to pay £20.00 per week, instead of per month.

I am pleased to see that the amount of the fees is correct and the only additional fee that could ever now be added would be a 'removal fee' of £110. You need to be careful if either of you have a motor vehicle as this is at risk.

I would strongly suggest that you keep the bailiff company advised if your benefits or hubby's employment changes. I am assuming that you get council tax relief and if so, hopefully this will stop a Liability Order from being issued for this coming council tax year as otherwise you will struggle to get back on track with these old debts.


Bailiff Advice Online

Herbie21

Tiahanya wrote: »

Thanks for your advice Herbie21 I did submit a question through the bailiff advice online, but I never got a reply back. Not to worry, it was more than likely me not pressing right buttons. I had a strange feeling there was something not quite right that threat, more so since I could not find anything about it on the internet. Given the current times I would have thought there would have been more people in my position also wondering what a warrant of entry was.

I'm going to email them again with a payment proposal, despite them saying that they will refuse based on my payment history. If they still refuse I shall carry on paying regardless, at least then they won't be able to put me or my partner into prison, well as i understand it they can't as we are making payments.

Since all questions to us are now free we receive on average about 30 enquiries each day but I cannot find yours so possibly internet problems occured. Hopefully though the answers here on the forum have assisted.

As I have said in another post, the bailiff company can only charge one further fee (removal fee of £110) so unless you both do not have cars or the cars are worth very little the bailiff company would be inclined to accept your payment proposal.

It is also worth noting that it may seem harsh that bailiff companies are not wiling to accept low payment arrangements but the truth is...that this is normally always due to the terms of the contracts that the councils have with their local authority clients and many such contracts stipulate a maximum payment arrangement terms of 3-6 months. This should not be applicable in your case though as the bailiffs are 'in house'.


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micky2phones

Hi,Tiahanya.

Just a few things you may already know/done/doing.

Hope you are putting the 20 pound to one side, then you will have a lump sum to pay when s**t hits the fan.

From the council view if you cant pay the arrears then how can you pay this council tax now due plus now they have passed the debt on now.

Hope you have checked or claiming all the benefits you can.

I hope you can get things sorted out soon, worry and stress about debts are not nice