bristow and sutor stress!!!!!!!!

charlott · 7 May 2010 at 4:03PM

hi everyone im new to this and wanting some urgent advised.

Heres my story, i owed council just over £700 for outstanding council tx arrears.

Bristow and sutor have visited on many ocassions but nevereen allowed in to property. first time i agreed to pay £160 a month in order to clear debt ths was accepted fine over the phone. After paying the first month i rang to advise that i can no long afford this as on maternity leave and only rec £124 a wk. They then sent a etter requesting £189 a month. After rec this i then sent a letter stating the above AGAIN!! and tht i was willing to pay £100 a month which is the most i can afford.

I then rec a letter frm B&S stating that this wouldnt b accepted andthat the bailiff will be out to remove goods. I continued to pay his amount each month anyway.
few weeks after i rec a visit from B&S, i then explain my situaion to which he pointed o his clip board and advied tht i still owed over £700 no explaination of fees given, he adv that i needed to get money fast and that it wasnt his problem, he was very intimerdating toward me. He then walked of nd said he would be bck leaving mewith no paperwork or nothing.

Scared of his return and being alone in the house with 3 young children i managed to borrow money incase but he didnt return. The next day i spoke to tamworth council who adv that they wontget debt back until its passed bck by B&S, council adv that i only now owed £409 and she was disgusted when i adv of the amount that they wanted adding over £300 for 1 visit, i adv council that there is no chance of them coming into my home and she adv that i am best to speak to B&S which on previous occassions is useless.

I have rec another 'notice to intended seizure of your goods' today, can thy take things even though they havent been in the house.
I feel a bit scared to what action they will take next!!

Please could some one given me some help!!!

RAS · 7 May 2010 at 4:21PM

Hi

They are charging illegal fees.
You need to find out who won the elections today and get hold of your (new) local councillor.

The Council will take the debt back if your local councillor asks them to becuase B&S have charged illegal fees.

I will post a draft note you can send. It was done by the bailiff specialist who post here, although the OP concerned was having trouble with Equita.

Several posters have got £hundreds of illegal fees written off or returned.

RAS · 7 May 2010 at 4:23PM

The bailiffs can only charge £42.50 for two visits, no more ever unless you let them in or they are able to levy on a car.

This was Herbie21's suggested message.

You need to WRITE to the baillifs (registered post) or send an e-mail to them.

You need to say something along the following lines.

I refer to the above account in relation to unpaid council tax due to xxxx

As you will be aware from your files this account has been assed to your bailiff Mr xxx to enforce.

The query that I have is concerning the amount that your bailiff is now stating is due. You will be aware that your bailiff visited my premises on xxx and for this visit I am advised that Mr xxx may only charge a fee of £24.50 for "attending to levy where no levy was made".

As a matter of urgency can you please provide a full and detailed breakdown of the charges made by your bailiff.

charlott · 7 May 2010 at 4:41PM

Thanks, i see if that works.
only thing i am worried about if they try and get into the housewhn no one is here, is it possible?

RAS · 7 May 2010 at 4:52PM

If this is a CT debt, that is not a possibility.

There are situations regarding unpaid fines where a court might authorise the attendence of a lock-smith but unpaid CT is not one of them.

This is bluster and bullying and he knows it.

shell7t8 · 12 May 2010 at 7:01PM

Hi,

I know this is a response to an old threat but it was the only thing i could reply to that seemed relevant to my situation and i couldn't see where to start a new threat i'm sorry.

My partner and i experienced some financial difficulty right up until a few weeks ago (ie , 1st May) due to loss of job and my wage having to sustain our household and also had already agreed to repay extra on mortgage due to suspended possession order.

We had outstanding council tax from 2009 which was passed to bristow and sutor from tamworth council in August of 2009. I had emailed the council to ask them if we could set up an arrangement when they told me it had already been passed but they sent out a letter in the interim saying they would intervene on this occasion and that we could pay £150 per month off the arrears which were around £1050. We got the details for bristow and suitor and i paid via the website monthly. We made the first 3 payments but this got increasingly difficult and i contacted them in November to say we wern't going to be able to make the payment. Tehy wern't very helpful and told us that we had to wait for someone to visit our premesis before they could make any kind of arrangement. This didn't happen and in January we again rang, this time getting through to smoeone who said they could set up the arrangement, this time for £120 per month. We didn't feel we had an alternative so tried to tighten our belts even more. At this pint the amount outstanding was around £650 or so. I paid again using the website in February (tehy said we could start from end of Feb) and March leaving a balance of around £410. April's payment wasnt paid as normal on the last day of the month but was going to be paid today which in essense is less than 10 working days overdue.

Last night the bailiff turned up demanding £640 and advising he was going to give us 20 minutes to find the money or else take our goods. I didn't think that this was allowed unless they had already been to make an inventory and given that we were only 10 days late with the paymetn it seemed a bit odd considering we had been chasing them for months to try and come to an agreement. We didn't want out goods taken so i managed to ask my mum to put it on her credit card in the end but this was embarassin (I ccan deal with that part) and obviously now ive got to pay that back with interest. When i asked how come the balance was still over £600 he said it was because the ycharge £230 for coming out yesterday to attend with the van. He was very intimidating.

I have dealt with bailiffs before unfortunately, again for council tax a long time ago and thought that they could only seize your goods if they had physically done a walking inventory beforehand and you had then defaulted on the payment.

Does anyone know whether this is the case?? I'd really like to oppose this if possible as i don't deny owing the money but i don't think i should have to deal with their attitude and extortionate fees.

Look forward to hearing from anyone that can help

Shell

Herbie21 · 14 May 2010 at 7:50AM

RAS wrote: »

The bailiffs can only charge £42.50 for two visits, no more ever unless you let them in or they are able to levy on a car.

This was Herbie21's suggested message.

You need to WRITE to the baillifs (registered post) or send an e-mail to them.

You need to say something along the following lines.

I refer to the above account in relation to unpaid council tax due to xxxx

As you will be aware from your files this account has been assed to your bailiff Mr xxx to enforce.

The query that I have is concerning the amount that your bailiff is now stating is due. You will be aware that your bailiff visited my premises on xxx and for this visit I am advised that Mr xxx may only charge a fee of £24.50 for "attending to levy where no levy was made".

As a matter of urgency can you please provide a full and detailed breakdown of the charges made by your bailiff.

Sadly, with the recession we are finding that the vast majority of bailiffs are attempting to charge an "enforcement fee" to accounts at the same time as a 1st visit. This is really an "attending to remove " fee"

I refer to the above account etc.

As you will be aware from your files I had contacted your bailiff on receipt of a letter and agreed a payment plan. Unfortunately I was unable to keep to this agreement as I was on maternity leave . Your bailiff has therefore cancelled my arrangement and instead, demanded payment of £xxx.

I have contacted the council and they are shocked at the amount demanded as the balance due is only £xxx.

I have sought advice and it would appear that your bailiff has applied an "attending to remove" fee of £300 to my account but that such as fee is really an excessive "attending to remove" fee which can only be charged in the event that a prior levy had been made on my goods. No such levy has been made and for this reason I am copying this letter to the council and I will be asking that it is recorded as a FORMAL COMPLAINT against the charges that your company are attempting to apply to my account.

As stated above, I am on maternity leave and I have also been advised that in this respect my circumstances are classed as "vulnerable" according to the National Standards for Enforcement Agents and that consideration should therefore be given to returning my account back to the council. Please confirm that this is to de done and confirm also that you have removed the charge of £300 from my account. I require this confirmation by return.

charlott · 14 May 2010 at 9:50AM

thanks for the reply, i have copied the letter and will b sendin to B&S and the council today.

I am just worried that the will try enter the house while i am not here.

I will just have to wait for reply or the next knock at the door.

jojo1964 · 14 May 2010 at 11:07AM

I had previous dealings with Bristow and Sutor, and found trying to negotiate impossible, thanks to advice from here it took one call to the council to get them to accept the offer i had previously made to B and S, they are simply trying to screw money from the vulnerable, their phone number is premium rate, and they charge 4% on top of debit card payments, hopefully the new govt. will crack down on these sort of people.

charlott · 14 May 2010 at 11:45AM

I have tried to ask the council to take back the debt but they have advised me that they cant ask for the debt to be passed back until bristow and sutor have tried every way to get the money, so unfortunatly i have to suffer it out by the sounds of it.

RAS · 14 May 2010 at 11:51AM

charlott

GEt hold of your local councillor. If B&S have been charging illegal fees, the councillor may well be able to force the revenue Officer to take the debt back.

bristow and sutor stress!!!!!!!!

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