Hi,

Also had visit from Swift BULLY on Teusday , he'd been before about an outstanding council tax bill. I owed £168.00. He was quite polite when he first came, I said I remembered him from last time. I told him I had paid £50.00 to the council allready, which he didnt look too pleased about, he said obviously he couldnt stop me from doing that but it wasnt something he could endorse blah dee blah !! I asked him to wait outside and I would print out the receipt from the council showing I had paid the £50.00, so he waited and I printed out the receipt and took it out to him as proof of payment. Anyway that meant that I then had £118.00 to clear the account. I said I could arrange for money to be transferred to another bank account of mine and then I would pay the £118.00 that day. when I checked the amount he then said "And there is a £3.50 charge for the debit card". I questioned him about this and for a couple of minutes we debated the charge, at which point he suddenly said "I have given you enough chances to pay and now my patience has run out, is that your vehicle in the drive" and proceeded to add the vehicle on his list. I kept stressing to him that I would make the payment on that day but was unhappy about this £3.50 charge, but he wasnt having any of it. Anyway I made the payment, he said call it £120.00, which has now cleared the initial debt but I am now left with his charges amount to about £90.00 and he said if I dont pay the balance within 14 days he will be back for the car. By the way, my children were outside playing and witnessed all this. Can somebody please advise me what to do?

Thanks

contact the council and ask them for a balance if anything is outstanding

has the car hp/finance on it?

no hp or finance on car. I get the feeling that swift will take there share out of the 120 i paid and therefore say the rest is still outstanding to the council !!!!!

i would say you could challenge the removal of a car if it came to that for a £168 bill

if you make any further payments make them direct to council online or automated telephone service

you really need to get a true bill of what is owing from council

they say they have a levy on your car to bump up fees

from what i have read there is £46 outstanding to council plus bailiff fees of £42.50

if you can pay £88.50 online to council they can pay the bailiffs if they choose not to up to them and take it off this years bill

Write a formal letter to the head of revenues and explain you have been forced by the bailiffs refusal to accept payments to the CT to make alternative method of payment. Tell them you will be paying them £xx direct on xxx day/ date. You can preempt the form to I&E they will then send you, by sending them one ready prepared by you. Have you made the correct enquiries to the Council to see exactly what is owed to them (see below)? the bailffs will have different figures as they will try as hard as possible to inflate the debt with their fees.

First you need to establish the facts,so with pen at the ready ring them and ask:

1 - how many Liability Orders they have against you

2 - the dates they were obtained

3 - the addresses they were for

4 - the period of time each covers

5 - how much each one was for

6 - how much is still outstanding

7 - the dates they were passed on for enforcement

then you make the bailiff work for his money by sending:

"From:

My Name

My Address

To:

Acme Bailiff Co

Bailiff House

Ref: Account No: 123456

Dear Sir

With reference to the above account, Can you please provide me with a breakdown of the charges.

This includes:

a - the time & date of any Bailiff action that incurred a Fee.

b - the reason for the fee.

c - the name(s) of the Bailiff(s) that attended on each occasion a Fee was charged.

d - the name(s) of the Court(s) the Bailiff(s) was/were Certificated at.

e - the date of the Certification.

This is not a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act S7 1998 so does not incur a fee of £10. You are obliged to provide this information.

I require this information within 14 days.

Yours faithfully

Ripped off customer"

This is why it is good to film or otherwise record him, as his sudden loss of patience and adding a car to a levy, in the face of an offer of payment would be nice for an MP, or Head of Revenues to get their head round when you send them a copy and transcript, with the Formal Complaint.

I would pay the outstanding to the council and send the complaint.

ignore

Ok guys,

please could you point me in the right direction.

A few months ago someone from the above company came to my previous property saying that I owed council tax to the value of approx £280.

I didnt sign ANYTHING (walk in posession etc)

he went away and

I paid money direct to the council and had cleared the debt off about 2 months ago .

He came to the house about a month ago and said that I still owed approx £280 for council tax.

I had checked online and rang council to ask what the balance of my council tax account was

and read online and was told by the council the balance was £0.

I told him this and he said to double check and he would be round 2 weeks later,

we had moved house 2 weeks later into a temporary house provided by the council when he returned,

he asked our previous landlord for our new address, which they didnt give him.

cutting a long story short,

he attended my new temporary house this week ,

saying that he got my new address from the council

and they have given him permission to collect the outstanding FEES.

Allthough my council tax has been paid,

does he have rights now to send letters and demand their fees???????

He delivered the usual standard notice of seizure letter,

any help would be appreciated

got the receipt? if not get one = end of matter if he shows again????

You may read on other sites that if you pay the Council direct after contact by a bailiff, you are not liable for the bailiff fees. Whilst this would be ideal, if you think about it logically,

sending the bailiff in was what made you pay the Council then. Therefore the Council's ploy worked and so the bailiff should be paid. It is also a legal requirement-if you read this thread on the very topic- http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?427986-Magistrate-Court-FINES-and-the-new-bailiff-regulations...Reply-from-the-Ministry-of-Justice.

Obviously you would need a total breakdown from Swift as to how they arrived at their fee. From what you say all they have done is visit you twice so that should be £24.50 and

£18 for the second visit. However the regulations are that the visit must have been carried out by a certificated bailiff not some office wallah of theirs posting notices through

alleged debtors doors.

Once you have obtained the info that you need from Swift come back if you need any help or advice.

Or again you could ignore the advice from this site as you believe what other sites are saying. Very tempting but if you don't come to an agreement over the fees, under the

new legislation they may add £75 for their letter advising you that the amount is still owed and follow this up with a visit costing £235. And for those sums I don't think the bailiff

will give up easily. If you decide to go down that route be prepared to have your car clamped and a good few visits if you don't have a car.