Dealing with Marstons Debt Recovery

johnd73

Any advice would be gratefully received in regard to dealing with Marstons. Currently owe £314.42 with Marstons from Council Tax arrears. When I called to change my payment plan to split payments over four monthly payments. They refused, stating that they could only cancel the payment plan, which would lead to enforcement visit. They are the most unhelpful, debt recovery agency I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Any advice appreciated.

ManyWays

Has there already been an enforcement visit? 

RAS

Council Tax debt is a priority. Has there been an enforcement visit? What fees have been added? Any visit will increase the debt.

Any other unsecured debt?

Can you revise your spends this month and live off beans and rice (not entirely a metaphorical question). Probably actually cheap pasta and sauces.

fatbelly

Sounds like they have applied the £75 compliance fee but want an excuse to also apply the £235 enforcement fee, which they will add when they make a visit.

You may think that it is unhelpful of the council to double your debt in this way, and I would agree.

Have you tried talking to your council's revenue department? A good one will tell the bailiff to accept your perfectly reasonable offer. A better one would recall the debt. A typical one will be useless.

Very_angry123

Just dealt with a very similar situation. All I can say is be very careful when dealing with Marston Recovery. It seems that this company is engaged by many councils if you are unlucky enough to be in council tax arrears. Initially, they were fine but they rely on royal mail to deliver letters to the less fortunate, poorer people who because of circumstances beyond their control frequently have to live in less than pleasant accommodation controlled by poor landlords, where mail is just piled in the shared corridors.
This particular young single mother with mental health issues, a 7 year old son who is severely autistic with serious heart problems and a 1 year old daughter was on a dept recovery plan with Marston on behalf of her council for council tax arrears of a few hundred pounds. She had a problem one month and thinking her payment had not gone through she repeated the payment which she again thought had not gone through so she paid it again. The three payments had gone though all within 7 minutes. Unwittingly and through ignorance she thought this would cover 3 months of payment which of course it doesn't. She had no additional mail advising her about having broken her agreement until she received, by hand, a enforcement agent who was threatening and aggressive saying he would kick the door in. Unfortunately there is no record of this conversation. As expected this was extremely frightening and distressing for the mother.
I contacted Marston and explained the situation on her behalf and paid the relatively small, outstanding amount of tax arrears. They took no responsibility and apparently have no control over the enforcement agents employed by them and implied these people are freelance and my only redress was to speak with him directly. I called his number. He would not engage with me at all and was extremely abrupt with no interest in anything other than saying 'pay or else'. He then hung up on me. 
I called Marston again for some help and they told me there was nothing they could do and the only option I/she had was to pay an additional £606.22 to make the Enforcement Agent go away. Its about time these traders are held to account and for Councils (who are too quick to pass debts on to these Companies) to take more responsibility and/or use more sympathetic recovery agents. 
    

fatbelly

They are supposed to wear body cams to record interactions with 'customers'. It may well be that this one turned his off but you should report the incident to

https://enforcementconductboard.org/making-a-complaint/

And they will investigate

Just to be clear. Bailiffs do not have the right to force entry other than when collecting criminal fines from a magisrates court

And they should give their name so that you can check they are currently certified and by which company, on the bailiff register