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PinkBlondie

Hi, not sure if this is the right place? I owed £1250 council tax and my debt was passed to Jacobs. I paid £600 in October and agreed a payment plan but personal stuff happened and I broke it. Last night I paid £550, leaving £100. Today I phoned to pay the balance but apparently someone had been to my house this morning and now I owed £335. I paid £100 and have 10 days to pay the extra fees or they'll seize goods.

Is there any way I can fight this? I think I've had letters but when my depression gets bad I don't open post...

National_Debtline

Hi PinkBlondie and welcome to the forum.


Jacobs have added the £235 as an "enforcement fee". This is a set fee they are allowed to charge for visiting your property in an attempt to recover money/goods when an agreement has been broken. Unfortunately you don't really have any grounds for disputing the fee, but they will not be able to seize any goods unless you let them in. They cannot force entry to your property.


If you have a vehicle, park this out of sight ahead of any return visit by Jacobs.


If you follow the above advice, there won't be any further fees Jacobs can add, whether you pay in the next 10 days or not. Sit down and work out what you can pay and when - you may find working through the budget on our site useful:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/steps/step2/Pages/Step_2_11.aspx


It's easy for me to say, but do please do your utmost to open any further letters you get as it could help to avoid any further penalties/action by other creditors. Try speaking to one of the debt advice charities for support if you're not feeling confident about doing this.


There's more on dealing with council tax debt here:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/02%20EW%20Council%20tax%20recovery/Default.aspx


Dennis
@natdebtline

PinkBlondie

Thank you. Just seems a bit of a coincidence they added the fee the day after I phoned...

poppasmurf_bewdley

PinkBlondie wrote: »

Thank you. Just seems a bit of a coincidence they added the fee the day after I phoned...

Were you at home all day when the supposed visit took place?

Did the so-called visitor leave a card or a letter, saying they had called?

If you can answer 'yes' and 'no' respectively to the above questions, then you should dispute the fact that a call was made.

I leave it to you what to say to them.