Debt gone to Excel Enforcement HELP 11 December 2022 at 1:13PM in Debt-free wannabe 4 replies 254 views

booksandbacon

I have an outstanding council tax debt, I can see on my council tax account page it has been passed to Excel Enforcement. Does anyone have experience with the process of what happens? I can set up an arrangement to pay. I really really don't want anyone coming to my home and I'm panicking. 

fatbelly

Well, firstly don't panic. Bailiffs acting for council tax have no right to force entry despite what they might say.

It sounds like you have not yet received your 'compliance' letter with £75 fee.

As things stand the council don't know that you know it's with Excel. Why not give the council a ring and see if they will set up an instalment plan. They probably won't but they could.

In the good old days I used to regularly phone my council on behalf of clients and they would calculate roughly what would be due to be paid for the next financial year (we know there's a 5% hike) and then divide the total including this year's arrears by how many months to get to the end of that financial year. In this case it's 15 months left so that's what I would try.

Do you have any evidence that you could be classed as vulnerable? If so, do the council know this?

booksandbacon

fatbelly said:

Well, firstly don't panic. Bailiffs acting for council tax have no right to force entry despite what they might say.

It sounds like you have not yet received your 'compliance' letter with £75 fee.

As things stand the council don't know that you know it's with Excel. Why not give the council a ring and see if they will set up an instalment plan. They probably won't but they could.

In the good old days I used to regularly phone my council on behalf of clients and they would calculate roughly what would be due to be paid for the next financial year (we know there's a 5% hike) and then divide the total including this year's arrears by how many months to get to the end of that financial year. In this case it's 15 months left so that's what I would try.

Do you have any evidence that you could be classed as vulnerable? If so, do the council know this?

Thank you for the reassurance. I've contacted the council office via email and will call to chase up tomorrow when they're open. 

I don't think I would be classed as vulnerable. It's been a difficult year for sure but there isn't any formal evidence of that. 

Their website says that to make an arrangement to pay they will need to log goods to make the arrangement against. 

sourcrates

booksandbacon said:

fatbelly said:

Well, firstly don't panic. Bailiffs acting for council tax have no right to force entry despite what they might say.

It sounds like you have not yet received your 'compliance' letter with £75 fee.

As things stand the council don't know that you know it's with Excel. Why not give the council a ring and see if they will set up an instalment plan. They probably won't but they could.

In the good old days I used to regularly phone my council on behalf of clients and they would calculate roughly what would be due to be paid for the next financial year (we know there's a 5% hike) and then divide the total including this year's arrears by how many months to get to the end of that financial year. In this case it's 15 months left so that's what I would try.

Do you have any evidence that you could be classed as vulnerable? If so, do the council know this?

Thank you for the reassurance. I've contacted the council office via email and will call to chase up tomorrow when they're open. 

I don't think I would be classed as vulnerable. It's been a difficult year for sure but there isn't any formal evidence of that. 

Their website says that to make an arrangement to pay they will need to log goods to make the arrangement against. 

That would be the bailiffs website yes?

Doesn't matter what their website says, if push comes to shove, and you have to pay the bailiffs, you don`t engage with them, speak to them, or look for any kind of approval, you just send payment of whatever you can reasonably afford to them on a monthly basis.

Its best to send as much as you can possibly afford, so that the debt is repaid quicker.

Hopefully you will be able to do a better deal with your council, and not involve the bailiffs in this at all.

fatbelly

booksandbacon said:

Their website says that to make an arrangement to pay they will need to log goods to make the arrangement against. 

Of course it does. 

The game pretends to make an instalment arrangement with the friendly bailiff. In practice they will make that as difficult as possible until they have been able to apply both fees (£75 and £235) and will then put pressure on to pay in one lump anyway.

Once they've been into your property and 'taken control' of goods, they can force entry on a subsequent visit.

No-one sensible would advise you to give bailiffs more rights than they already have.