council tax debt help please

robevie

Hi

right i will try to keep this as short as possible

basically got into arrers with our council tax to the tune of around £1300
we have tried to make arrangements to pay this at £50 per week but was told it was not enough tbh this was already more than we could really afford anyway

so we had a vistis in december from a council in house baliff who levied on the car... that is on finance anyway and not in either of our names he was made aware of this
anyway i then phoned the next day again and tried to make arrangement
wouldnt listen to our situation was adiment it was full payment or he was getting me infront of a juge for my comittle to prison!
so we have just made payments when we could of vareying amounts whatever we had spare! basically
anyway today i get back from hospital and again he has been while we were there, hand filled in/deliverd letter saying we have till the 25th to pay the outstanding thats over 1k or they will remove the levied goods... well he cant actually remove the levied goods can they?
im worried what will happen as we cant pay by the 25th we are already having to borrow off friends/family to get us throuhg to pay day with all the extra enpence the little one being in hospital has brought!
and when he can come home i dont want my partner worrying about them turning up etc

(my partner is on maternity leave and at the moment our new born is currently on a pecial care unit in hospital! nothining todo with the debt but this is my biggest concern at the moment the last thing i need is this adding to the stress/ worry of getting sent to prison for this )

any advice?

i know its our fault for getting in the mess its a knock on affect of having a stint of unemployment and other things we do not live beyound our means in any way tbh if they got in the hoiuse there is nothing of any value anyway we have two 10year old+ tvs an old broken ipad and a laptop thats owened by company


thanks for any help

Vkz

Sorry, I haven't got much advice although, I have friend that went through the same thing recently.
I would suggest calling the national debt helpline as they gave my friend some wise advice and after them initially refusing to put a payment plan is place, they are finally clearing their arrears, my friend mentioned to the council that she would be taking the payment refusal to her mp and the ombudsman (that was after two bailiff visits) this is what seemed to work for her.

P.S national debt helpline will tell you what the bailiffs can and can't take and his to keep them out. x

sourcrates

Hi,

Was there a company name mentioned in the paperwork at all ?
I would work on the assumption this guy is a 3rd party bayliff, don't allow them access to your property, that includes unlocked doors, as they can just walk in, but not break in.

If that letter has an address on it, make your offer of payment in writing to them, don't engage with them any other way, it's rarely productive.

robevie

Hi

its the councils own in house debt collectors im trying to deal with

BMDC collections or something, with the council offices address

its Bradford council the debt is owed to

sourcrates

robevie wrote: »

Hi

its the councils own in house debt collectors im trying to deal with

BMDC collections or something, with the council offices address

its Bradford council the debt is owed to

Make your payment offer in writing, they should not refuse it.

Give National a Debtline a quick ring, the number is in my signature below, ask there advice on this.

dancingfairy

If you go to the national debtline website they have a really good fact sheet in bailiffs and council tax debt ( sorry I can't do links from my phone).
A few points though to start with
1 they can't break into your house ( unless you have v let them in previously).
2 they won't send you to prison. Technically in law there is a provision for sending someone to prison for not paying council tax but you would have to have millions in the bank, be building your own swimming b pool and have just bought a porche and still not pay your council tax or do something equality stupid. People just do not go to prison for not paying it. Imagine the uproar, 'parents of sick newborn sent to prison after famling behind on payments. Bailiffs refuse payments'. It's not going to happen I promise.
3 they can't refuse payments.
Hope you get it sorted soon, its added stress I obviously don't need right now.
Df

robevie

thankyou for taking the time to reply everyone

i will give debt line a call asap

thanks again

chevalier

Once you have sorted out this initial crisis, then perhaps we can help with getting you on a better financial keel?

But as far as the debt is concerned, make an offer you can afford in writing and copy in both the bailiffs and the head of collections at the council and your local councillor. That way you might get some movement on their taking a repayment plan
regards
chev

National_Debtline

Hi

Sorry it's taken a while to post. Hopefully you've been able to call us by now.

In order to have the right to force entry into your home a bailiff needs to have been allowed into your home already, made a correctly executed controlled goods agreement listing your belongings and you would also need to sign it. Otherwise you simply keep the door locked, don't let the bailiff in and their options will be limited.

They shouldn't touch your car if it's on a type of finance which means you don't actually own it, such as hire purchase.

You've done the right thing by offering affordable payments when you could to show that you aren't refusing to pay. Don't worry about prison if you're making payment offers, it's not for the bailiff to make that kind of threat and it sounds like he's deliberately trying to make you fell pressurised.

As far as you're concerned make a payment offer based on a realistically affordable amount. If the bailiff refuses to take it save it up as he'll either need to accept your payments or pass the debt back to the council. You could also try contacting the council to see whether they'll accept payments from you directly at this point. Copying in your local councillor and head of collections is a good idea from chevalier.

You might find this council tax recovery factsheet useful:

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


James
@natdebtline

m4rc

You have had all the good advice already, I just wanted to give a teeny bit of reassurance too. As has already been said you won't go to prison, the bailiff is just trying to scare you. A very similar situation to yours happened to a good friend of mine a few years back, he owed other debts too but he had a council bailiff getting very aggressive. He was round at 6am to catch him before he went to work, he would follow him to work and sit outside threatening to go and see his boss, my friends very young son was in Great Ormond Street and their lives were falling apart. He was born very poorly and spent the next 2 years in hospital, even to this day (I think he's 15 now) he spends a few months a year in hospital.

My friend eventually got taken to court, turned up and told his story. The magistrate asked him what he could afford to pay, he said about £60 a week as the cost of travelling to hospital several times a week plus their other debts and his partner not being able to work was having a huge impact.

The magistrate asked him if he could promise to pay £100 a month (he had offered £60 a week as I said) and told him he could make the first payment in 28 days, he said if he was struggling to get in touch with the courts. He never heard from the bailiff (if that's the correct title) but a week later got a letter from the council apologising for any distress and saying that this guy was undergoing some retraining.

It's not as if you are ignoring them and refusing to pay, don't be bullied into borrowing from others or stop paying something else that's important just to keep this bully happy, get the advice and you pay what you can.

I don't know you but I wish you and your family all the best and I hope everything works out for you guys, from personal experience I know how tough it can be.

Best wishes