Bristow and Sutor

KFAM

Hello, I am new to the forum so forgive me if I am posting in the wrong place. Any advice you could give me would be gratefully received.

I was renting a house from a friend on a very informal basis (no rental agreement)in Cheshire. We agreed that on top of my rent I would look after the Council Tax. I was in the property Feb 2017-October 2017, a total of 10 months. At the end of my tenancy I rang the council and paid my bill in full. During this phone call I was alerted to expenses that may have been incurred by the Ballifs (Bristow and Sutor)???
I told her that this meant nothing to me as I had no communication from them at the property and also I travelled a lot for work so I was hardly ever there. She instructed my that this was not a matter for them and that I should take this up with B&S. I told her I had no intention of contacting B&S as I had paid my CT bill and knew nothing about bailiffs . She asked for a forwarding address to send a receipt to me and I gave it.

The address I have moved to is now out of the UK and last week (5 weeks after paying the bill) I have now received a notification from Bristow and Suitor at my new address. I want to know having paid the CT bill can B&S pursue me for a bill that is not outstanding (as I have paid in full), can they pursue me outside of the uk for expenses that they incurred and what is the best thing to do? I am living in the Republic of Ireland but I feel like I am being pursued for services that were a matter between the council and B&S. I have never communicated with B&S, have never received any paperwork from them..... many thanks

[Deleted User]

Council Tax is paid monthly.
Paying in arrears, like you did, means you have 9 missed payments recorded against you.
Therefore, you are now being chased for these payments/interest accrued due to them.

nyermen

As what catsacor has said. Council tax is due in advance annually, with the "option" to pay it monthly (which the council can revoke if the bill isn't paid).

Your situation is strange - were there not a lot of letters coming through the door? (and tbh, after 10 months, bailiff's visit(s) etc).

Since I'm guessing the council tax isn't in your name (ie. you've never had a bill yourself), then the council were going after your friend. If the council letters were coming to the address, I presume they were handed on, if they were redirected to his house, then I'm not sure why he/she didn't deal with them.

Two options really:
1) The friend didn't provide you the council tax "statement" that comes in March/April each year (it indicates the bill due per month etc), then really I'd say the extra fees are their problem.
2) You did get the statement (either from the friend, or because your name was on the bill), in which case you should be paying...

Since they're chasing you now then either it's your bill already (case 2 above) or they've transferred the bill to you (case 1 above).

Hopefully someone with more experience will be along in case I've missed something obvious,

National_Debtline

Hi KFAM


It's hard to do much more than speculate on the precise circumstances that led to these extra fees and B & S's involvement. It may end up being academic, as realistically they will not be interested in trying to pursue a bill across the Irish Sea in a different legal jurisdiction from their own.


Your options, broadly speaking, appear to be:


(1) Simply ignore it - I've not heard of council tax bailiffs seeking to enforce their fees in other countries - it would potentially be a lot of work for a sum likely to be in the region of £310.


(2) Query the fact that it has been passed to them without you getting any prior warning earlier in the recovery process - though I think this will have more to do with your friend than either the council or B & S.


(3) Offer them a (nominal?) one-off payment as a gesture of goodwill in exchange for their agreement to drop the matter.


For future reference, if you do ever end up back in the UK and liable to pay council tax once again, it's worth being aware that you are normally given the right to pay the year's bill by monthly instalments (they are issued every April) but that right can be rapidly withdrawn if you miss a couple of payments and that is when extra costs can start to get added. Normally correspondence would be addressed directly to you, of course.


Dennis
@natdebtline

CIS

I was renting a house from a friend on a very informal basis (no rental agreement)in Cheshire. We agreed that on top of my rent I would look after the Council Tax. I was in the property Feb 2017-October 2017, a total of 10 months. At the end of my tenancy I rang the council and paid my bill in full. During this phone call I was alerted to expenses that may have been incurred by the Ballifs (Bristow and Sutor)???

Rental agreements do not have to have to be in writing. Under council tax legislation you would be liable as either as the tenant or as the resident, either way you would be liable unless the property wasn't your 'sole or main residence' in which cases there's some different issues to be considered,

If the notifications have been issued in your friend's name then the enforcement agent wouldn't be chasing you - the action can't be changed from one name to another without having been withdrawn and completely restarted so they had to have issued them in your name.

If you contact the council they'll be able to tell you where the documents (demand notice, reminder, summons, enforcement warning notice) were sent and went - providing they've been sent to the last known address (or any contact address) then they would have been issued correctly.