Urgent bailiff advice needed!

roughyed

I know its a bit late in the day but -

I owe £538 in council tax, liability order has been passed. Removal team is on the way (allegedly).

Bailiff says he can only accept full amount. I want to pay 138 today, 200 in a week and then 200 a month after that. He says he wont accept and they are coming for my stuff.

Can he do that? I've made a reasonable offer?

Help?

MrsTinks

Please have a read HERE

MrsTinks

Did he say WHEN they are coming for your stuff? Has the bailiff ever been in your home? (If not then DON'T LET HIM IN!)
Have you tried to contact the council directly to see if they will take the debt back from the bailiff if you pay according to the schedule you have mentioned?

roughyed

Well the letter says a removal team will call today or tomorrow, and when I said I couldn't pay in full he said it was out of his hands and now in the hands of the removal team.

I know some of this will be bluff to get me to pay in full, in fact he couldn't actually tell me how much I had to pay! He is ringing head office to get an amount!

I don't know which bits are bluff and which are true though.

He has never been in my flat, I have never actually had a visit while I am at home and I have never signed anything.

OberonSH

I'd be tempted to say it's a bluff - if it's Rossendales they're a bunch of bullies. If they do turn up, ask for a copy of the court paperwork, and ask for his certified baliff card - apparently they have to have one to collect council tax, and I doubt Rossendales staff can write their own names without help, so doubtful they have it.

Get onto the council and make them the offer.Don;t panic - these people rely on you not knowing your rights and getting flustered.

MrsTinks

I think they are bluffing in that case
Re the liability order... the court/council requested I & E details?
If you haven't recieved notice from the courts about the liability order then I would contact the court that it was alledgedly issued through?
Sorry I just don't trust that there really IS a liability order unless ofcourse you have recieved the paper work already about that?

roughyed

The liability order is real, I know that much!

Its Equita and they appear next to useless to deal with! They don't seem to get the fact that I don't have any credit cards or fast access to £500, the fact I haven't be able to pay the council tax should act as a clue to my solvency!:rolleyes:

roughyed

Said they would call back in an hour with a figure at about 12 noon...nearly 4 hours later! If they think i'm ringing their 0870 number....

NUFCnutter

Make sure you don't open the door to them, conduct any conversation through the letterbox, and keep all your windows locked too.

roughyed

Argh!!!! So f'ing angry!!!!!!!

I rang bailiff after waiting for them to return the call, he said he had stopped the removal team and the balance was £679. I asked why this bigger than the 538 initially wanted. Asked for a breakdown of the charges and he said I will get them in 7-14 days. I then agreed to pay £100. Gave card number.

He then said the rest will need to be paid by the end of june, I said can I have the break down of charges before then so if I need to query any I can do. He said I can't have the breakdown till I have paid it, I said I wasn't happy at that, he said he would then send the removal team back round. I then said he can send them round all he wants as they are not coming in, plus he know as well as I do they can't break in. He then said he had tried to be nice and now he wants all the money in one go. I ask for managers number, he puts phone down.

How can these people operate in this way???

roughyed

Oh he also said something about sitting outside my house all day and charging me £50 a day for doing so....!