Council Tax + Bailiffs. How to deal with this?

sourcrates

I really would look into a DRO, to see if you qualify, failing that, have you considered bankruptcy?

Not as scary and seismic as it may sound, for the sake of both you and your family's mental health you need to end this rinse and repeat with the CT bills, what kind of debt is owed to HMRC, as benefit overpayments are a qualifying debt in bankruptcy/DRO but tax isn`t.

Some councils are terrible, ours on the other hand will fall over backwards to help out, CT payment arrangements can be made from your CT account online, and its so easy to do, and any arrears from a previous period can be spread out over future payments, I realise not all councils are this helpful, but they should be, lets hope this will change.

RAS

An IVA is not really suitable for anyone renting, it's bankruptcy for those protecting a property.

I think your options might be a DRO, as long as your total debt is below £50k and you have less than £75 surplus income. Or basic bankruptcy. Neither of these require consent from creditors, so you should have been advised of these options when you couldn't get an IVA.

My one concern is that CT is a joint and several debt?

Corkz

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81873759#Comment_81873759

Unfortunately we don't qualify for a DRO as our surplus is above £75.

Council Tax debt consists of 24/25 liability and current liability. All joint bills.

Bankruptcy - nothing is currently unmanageable or spiralling. We are going in the right direction as a whole with exception of Council Tax.

This brick wall only got hit when I stood firm on not accepting this debt cycling that was happening.

I think my current choices are limited.

I'm wondering if my best way forward is to pay in line with what's affordable (current liability + £150).

Corkz

I should probably add this as it highlights that this is a structural issues more than the debt actually existing.

The Bailiffs did in fact offer a reduced payment but it was conditional. They wanted medical information which I refused. The amount was for £360 (£10 over what I had set aside) per month. I forwarded this to council saying I would meet this number but wanted it structured to ensure current liability was being paid. So current liability to council then rest to bailiff. Again refused.

Highlanddream

Hi, I found Citizen's Advice were brilliant to help with council tax & bailiffs, definitely worth a visit.

RAS

Any chance you could share amount owing on 24/5 and 25/6?

ManyWays

are you renting privately or social?

so your UC will be going up quite a bit in April, that will help.

sourcrates

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81873797#Comment_81873797

The bailiff may say they refuse the offer of payment you made, but you should still pay it anyway.

As long as you deny them access to your property, should they re-visit, there is no further enforcement action they can take, so they are essentially blowing in the wind saying they refuse, they will not return your payments if you pay them this amount, they are holding out for an unrealistic resolution here.

I`d just ignore any further contact from them, pay what you can afford to pay them, until its cleared, don`t go looking for their agreement, as it isn`t going to happen, just treat them the same as you would any old debt collector.

fatbelly

It may be difficult to force a payment on the bailiff but you can usually pay the council using the original council tax reference number

EssexHebridean

I agree with the suggestion to do an SOA and post it here - two reasons - firstly it may be that other people spot savings you had missed - sometimes when we're under extreme stress it becomes hard to see "the wood for the trees" as it were. Second, it might be that you are currently understating your outgoings which in turn means that you may have less surplus than you think - adjustments there might mean that a DRO could in fact be an option.