Council Tax Help!!!

runnerrunner

Hi all,

I've had problems at a couple of points in the year with regards to Council Tax arrears. Long story short, I had a liability order issued against me very early in the financial year, setup an arrangement, didn't stick to it, now currently 2 payments in arrears on the arrangement (yes I know, I should know better...) and received the first enforcement notice (From Aylesbury Vale District Council), stating that I had until the 4th of January to make an arrangement.

So my intention was to pay the 2 payments from the original arrangement at the end of December when I got paid, and go from there. I went to do this and for some reason couldn't get their online system to work, so popped them an e-mail to let them know that I was trying to pay, but couldn't because their system wouldn't let me, and intended to keep to the original arrangement. So the following day driving home from work everything went wrong, burst tyre in the dark, car having problems, had to spend a couple of hundred in the end just to be able to get to work on a daily basis. In the meantime I started doing lots of overtime and was hardly home. Got home this morning after working from 8am to 7am today (this was volunteered by me, probably illegal mind!!), found a letter which was hand delivered "NOTICE OF ATTENDANCE" which reads "Further to my enforcement Notice dated 21.12.16 I have attended your property today with a view to obtaining a "Taking Control of Goods Order". Unless the full outstanding amount (including all costs) is paid within the next 24 hours, I may have no option but to apply to the courts for a warrant of entry for your property."

Breaks down like this:

£505 Outstanding
£75 Compliance
£235 Enforcement

Further to this I finally received a reply to my original e-mail 10 days later, telling me that any council tax issues should be referred to *name of agent* . So I have tried to contact this agent about 5 or 6 times today by telephone, left 2 messages for her to call me. I had a from her which rang for about 2 seconds, so I called her back immediately to no avail.

I have since sent an e-mail for her attention to the e-mail address given on the letter, with my circumstances and an offer of £200 at Month end, £315 the following month and then £300 at the end of March. This is all achievable by me. I have also suggested that I did engage and make contact during the Compliance stage to try and sort out a plan but didn't receive a response until today, so have politely asked for the £235 enforcement stage fee be wavered. The reality is, I doubt this will happen.

I'm really nervous about the situation and very upset, I've worked hard to get where I am and my little house just as I like it, but with some monumental mistakes, I find myself in this horrible and stressful situation. I know, it's of my own making.

I suppose what I want to know is, can they get a warrant to gain entry to my house when I'm not here, what are the time frames for that sort of business? Any advice from the general situation? The reality is, I can quite easily clear it before the end of the financial year, I have a poor credit rating though so can't get a loan to help with it, and what do people in the know think about the Enforcement Stage Fee? I know it's correct in law but do I have grounds to have it waived?

Many Thanks...

CIS

They cannot force entry to the property unless they need to re-enter the property to recover goods that have already been taken control of.

The fee is set in legislation so it is statutory - that means it shouldn't be waived if incurred correctly but some local authorities will agree agree to waive it as a good will gesture. You can certainly ask the local authority.

In the meantime I would advise to try and pay as much as you can - they may not agree a formal payment arrangement but they shouldn't refuse payments.

Craig

runnerrunner

CIS wrote: »

The fee is set in legislation so it is statutory - that means it shouldn't be waived if incurred correctly but some local authorities will agree agree to waive it as a good will gesture. You can certainly ask the local authority.
Craig

Cheers Craig. Just one question with regards to this, the fact that I engaged with them within the time frame, but they chose to take 10 days to reply to anything, could this constitute negligence on their part and force them to waive it?

CIS

runnerrunner wrote: »

Cheers Craig. Just one question with regards to this, the fact that I engaged with them within the time frame, but they chose to take 10 days to reply to anything, could this constitute negligence on their part and force them to waive it?

There's not a specific mechanism for doing that (apart from perhaps a judicial appeal) other than to state your case to the company / council. I will say that it was far from unheard for the the local authority I worked for to ring the enforcement agents and 'suggest' that it was better if the fee was perhaps looked at again - in most cases it was sorted there and then.

Craig

runnerrunner

Thanks again for your reply Craig, your opinion and experience is valued. In your opinion, do you think there is a chance my offer will be accepted with no further action as long as a stick to what I promised? I understand different authorities are different but an idea would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

CIS

I've instructed enforcement agents to accept a lot less when I've had to intervene.

I can't see them refusing - it's less than 6 months to clear and they haven't had access to the property. If they refuse the worst situation for them is having to return the council uncollected (at this time of year they're looking ahead to justify their collections rates for the contract - something is better than nothing ) and their fees are then gone.

Craig

runnerrunner

Appreciated Craig.. I think with Aylesbury Vale their Bailiffs are employed directly by the council and are not contracted out. As expected though they haven't replied to my offer yet, pretty impossible to get hold of by phone, so I'll just wait and see what happens... The thing is, if they were to waive the enforcement stage fee there's a strong possibility I'll be able to clear the whole lot by about the 6th or 7th of Feb. I'll keep that up my sleeve for now though and wait to see what they say.