Council passed on my account to debt collection agency whilst an agreement was in place 10 January at 12:27AM in Reclaiming mortgage fees, council tax, etc 2 replies 158 views

tnel15

Hi all, hoping for some advice here. 

I had liability for an old property with an outstanding balance. The council agreed to £50 per month to clear the balance. This went out of my account for 5 months, then suddenly stopped. They payments were going out in addition to my standard payment to the current property I live in. 

I received a text today saying that goods will now be removed by a collection company. I rushed to check my post and saw two letters dated end of December from the collection company (live in apartment block and I'm really bad at checking post) but no letters from the council regarding this account. 

I've contacted the company and they've agreed I can make 3 payments starting Friday to clear the balance before the end of the financial year, and reassured me that this agreement would stop any officers coming to my property. 

I've contacted my bank to find out whether the direct debit for the council got cancelled accidentally by me, or by them and they said that the direct debit is still active...so seems the council has decided to stop taking payment. 

As mentioned, I've had no letters or emails from them regarding this, and was happy with the agreement we had where I was paying £50 a month to clear it. 

Now that it's been passed on, I will have to pay £300 extra for the privilege of dealing with the lovely debt collectors. 

Legally, if the council admits fault, will I still have to pay this new balance with the debt collectors, or can the council choose to take back account and carry on as before?

welly_59

the council can choose to take the account back 

tnel15

welly_59 said:

the council can choose to take the account back 

I'm hoping that's the case. I called them today and they were baffled as to why I had no correspondence, but the department I needed to speak with weren't accepting calls today, so I've got to try again tomorrow.