Baliff advice needed

bargainbetty

Hello all,

Looking for a bit of help for a mate here. He is paying his council tax on monthly direct debits, but has arrears. He advised the council that he needed to reduce the payments and structure repayments due to financial difficulty, but they have ignored him and passed the debt to a DCA.

The DCA, certified baliffs Goodwillie and Corcoran (any hints on them?) have delivered a template form saying they will show up and enforce a liability order. To his knowledge, no court proceedings have been issued, no further correspondence has been received from the council notifying him of the debt transfer, and he doesn't even have a formal record of how much he owes them now as they refuse to talk to him.

The baliffs did not show up on the day noted, but he is nervous about it. I have given him all the advice about not opening the door or windows, talking through the letterbox only and requesting details of the charges, costs, and debt etc. I have also found a template letter on here that should help.

However, have I missed something? Any help would be most welcome.

Thanks to all

RAS

This needs a bump

CLAPTON

He needs to go down to the council offices and sort out a repayment plan with them.
They won't go away.

CCCS_Matthew

Hi bargainbetty,

The advice you've given so far to your friend is good. I would suggest that they get in contact with the bailiffs ASAP to try and set up an arrangement rather than waiting for them to contact him.

If the bailiffs go back to the council and claim that they've been unsuccessful in retrieving the arrears, the council would have the power to obtain an Attachment of Earnings where the money would be deducted straight from his wages, and he won’t have room for negotiating what he can afford as it’s normally set at 17%

Regards,
CCCS