Council tax in dispute passed to debt collectors

DjangoUnchained

My daughter who was a student and paid council tax accordingly, when her course finished she stayed at the house until the end of the summer. it was not until she left she recieved a demand for the extra time she was living there. This is not in dispute but she disputed the extra £100 they added on for late payment. She has been writing to them to request that this is deducted but they have responded without answering her question.
Today she has recieved a letter from a debt collector who has added on another £150.   Im looking for advice on what to do. have no problem paying the council tax owed but dont want to pay debt collectors or their costs. Should i call them and tell them so (on her behalf) or just ignore and deal with council. 

sourcrates

Charges added by Debt Collectors should be treated in the same way you would treat an invoice, you can choose to pay it or you can choose not too.

For example, £5 for sending a letter, may be reasonable, but £150 for sending the same letter is outrageous, the charge must be in proportion to the breech, or service given.
The debt is not owned by the DCA, so to get paid, they have to add a charge, which they invoice you for, now its not there debt, so the debt and the charge, are two separate things altogether.

No one can make you pay the charge, unless they take you to court, then you would have a good defence as the charge is excessive to say the least.

You would be best contacting the council by phone to sort this out.

DjangoUnchained

Yes, i tried to call them today but they wont discuss it with anyone but the account holder, my daughter, so will have to call with her on Monday. Should we just ask to pay the bill, less all the collection charges, will they agree to this and call off the hounds or do we have to wait until the collectors give up and give it back to council?

sourcrates

Are you certain they are debt collectors and not enforcement agents (bailiffs) ?

Councils usually collect unpaid council tax via a liability order, and engage a bailiff to call on you, they don`t usually use a debt collector.

What is the company name,  with that information I can tell you with a certain degree of accuracy in what capacity they will be acting.

DjangoUnchained

it is a liability order..  CDER group, formely JBW group ltd. do they have more power?

fatbelly

They have the right to take control of goods but not force entry on a first visit.

The charges are set by statute and £150 does not feature, unless they are acting on two liability orders (?)

The compliance fee (when the first letter is sent) is £75
The enforcement fee (when they visit) is £235

Even if there are two compliance fees, if they are enforced as one unit they can only claim one enforcement fee.

Why was she paying while she was a student? Students are exempt from Council Tax

https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/discounts-for-full-time-students

DjangoUnchained

sorry my mistake. She wasnt paying while she was a student there but when her course finished she was there for a few weeks more, but  didnt realise the council tax was due, she didnt recieve any letters. It was over a year later that they sent her the demand to our address, where she lives now.
As much as i dont want bailliffs turning up here, i want to fight this thing.

fatbelly

Can you say what you want to fight or what you think the council have done wrong here?

The 'late payment' charge of £100 would have probably been the summons cost and the liability order cost.

My council charges £130 for these but they seem to vary locally

@CIS is our council tax expert and may well be along shortly...

DjangoUnchained

I think the council didnt send her letters until long after she moved, they must have made the effort to trace her to us. As soon as she recieved the letters she emailed them asking for a breakdown as we feel the tax is too high anyway and there were 2 other people sharing the house, but they are asking her for the full amount.  They havnt responded to any of her emails, just automated responses saying the emails would be responded to as soon as possible, next thing we get the baillifs letter. 

sammyjammy

DjangoUnchained said:

As much as i dont want bailliffs turning up here, i want to fight this thing.

Ignorance is no excuse, perhaps you should let her sort this out herself, she is after all an adult?

DjangoUnchained

sammyjammy said:

DjangoUnchained said:

As much as i dont want bailliffs turning up here, i want to fight this thing.

Ignorance is no excuse, perhaps you should let her sort this out herself, she is after all an adult?

I agree. and to an extent she has tried, wrote to the council explaining the situation and offered to pay the council tax but queried the extra charges. Council didnt have the courtesy to even reply. Just passed it to baillifs.  Fact is, when the baillifs turn up, she wont be here. I will be but im not the one named on the enforcement order so i wont engage with them.   Meanwhile i will try and speak to council on monday although doubt i will get to speak to anyone with any authority.