Enforcement process commenced

JohnBravo

Hi All,
I hope you are well.
I have received this letter from some debt agency XXXX & XXXX.
They claim that I owe ~£300 to to the council.

In the letter in Enforcement Details it says "Liability order dated <over a month ago>. in respect of Council Tax owed...."
I pay tax month by month and no electronic communication from the council about any outstanding tax then this pops in the mail.
There was no letters regarding this or a court case for this order unless they can just do it in the background without notifying anyone.

Does this make sense?
This is madness.
Please advise.

fatbelly

If there had been a liability order hearing you should have been informed about this by  post and given an opportunity to pay the debt.

Remember the bailiffs have no right to force entry on a council tax debt but keep external doors locked and any car parked away from the house.(Bristow & Sutor?)

Phone the council and  see if you can get any sense from them.

Your local councillor can usually help if you get them involved via writetothem.com

Still problems? Post again on the debtfreewannabe board

Bookworm105

surely you can work this out yourself?
either you know you have paid CT on time in full or you know you haven't
phone the council and check if you want to be 100% certain !

JohnBravo

fatbelly said:

If there had been a liability order hearing you should have been informed about this by  post and given an opportunity to pay the debt.

Remember the bailiffs have no right to force entry on a council tax debt but keep external doors locked and any car parked away from the house.(Bristow & Sutor?)

Phone the council and  see if you can get any sense from them.

Your local councillor can usually help if you get them involved via writetothem.com

Still problems? Post again on the debtfreewannabe board

yes, correct it's Bristow & Sutor.

Thank you. Will call them up.

JohnBravo

Bookworm105 said:

surely you can work this out yourself?
either you know you have paid CT on time in full or you know you haven't
phone the council and check if you want to be 100% certain !

more likely it is a purely scam letter 

I took this into account that it could be a scam but the links on the letter point to Bristow & Sutor website.

JohnBravo

I just don't understand how these people have systems in place that they can harass me and it supposed to be me to call them up and explain things.
If this is some system error of theirs or the communication was broken deliberately by them should I speak to a solicitor/lawyer first maybe?
I think all the calls should be recorded in case I want to pursue this. At least make sure all the calls are recorded.
One of my family members have been scammed by one of the councils in London what turned out to be some corrupt people working at the council taking advantage of people and I think they got away with this.

fatbelly

Probably council incompetence.


You'll probably be fobbed off with ' we can't discuss this while it's with bailiffs - you must talk to them'

Which is rubbish

That's why I showed how to get your councillor involved but be aware how helpful they might be is anywhere on the spectrum between 0 and 100

JohnBravo

I double checked the mail I received in recent months as I put everything in one place but no letters from the council about the liability.
On annual basis they send me an email with a PDF with the CT Bill. I also have electronic receipts I pay the tax using their payment portal on a monthly basis.

flaneurs_lobster

JohnBravo said:

I double checked the mail I received in recent months as I put everything in one place but no letters from the council about the liability.
On annual basis they send me an email with a PDF with the CT Bill. I also have electronic receipts I pay the tax using their payment portal on a monthly basis.

Can you view your council tax account online? That should show if there are any arrears outstanding for this or previous years.

Bookworm105

JohnBravo said:

I double checked the mail I received in recent months as I put everything in one place but no letters from the council about the liability.
On annual basis they send me an email with a PDF with the CT Bill. I also have electronic receipts I pay the tax using their payment portal on a monthly basis.

well then check your account and find out if you have an outstanding liability or not.

if you have evidence you have paid all instalments (on time!) then your payment either went astray (you made a mistake inputting account numbers) or the council system has credited the wrong account. Both of those are issues to discuss with the council, even if they try and fob you off to the bailiff.

JohnBravo

Hi Everyone, I am not registered with the council and/or use their portal.

They just send me bills over email in PDF.

Wondering if this relates to the fact that mid July the council has changed their payment system and I got a letter a week later. New payment system but to primarily improve the enforcement.