Hi there, first posting here,

I had a liability order issued for outstanding council tax whilst i was overseas. I came home to find a bailiff letter through my door, I contacted the council who would not take paymant from me initially but later relented and took part payment,They told me they would only accept the payment of the oustanding amount once I had payed the bailiff fees. I told them I disputed the amount the bailiffs wanted and would not pay them until I had received a full break down of the fees and charges. I spoke with the bailiff who visited (Equita) and he told me he had already levied goods ie a vehicle on my driveway.Where is the paper work I ask? in my van he says... ? ? ?

Basically man from equita he wants £250 fees, i then pay outstanding council tax amount via web site.So no more debt covered by the liability order.But the equita man now states that his fees are covered by the order and he will come and remove goods. I say i dont think so.. this is a new debt and we are in dispute as to how much is infact owed.At which point he says i will come and remove goods and puts the phone down. Any thoughts?

Bump

Hi there, first posting here,

I had a liability order issued for outstanding council tax whilst i was overseas. I came home to find a bailiff letter through my door, I contacted the council who would not take paymant from me initially but later relented and took part payment,They told me they would only accept the payment of the oustanding amount once I had payed the bailiff fees. I told them I disputed the amount the bailiffs wanted and would not pay them until I had received a full break down of the fees and charges. I spoke with the bailiff who visited (Equita) and he told me he had already levied goods ie a vehicle on my driveway.Where is the paper work I ask? in my van he says... ? ? ?

Basically man from equita he wants £250 fees, i then pay outstanding council tax amount via web site.So no more debt covered by the liability order.But the equita man now states that his fees are covered by the order and he will come and remove goods. I say i dont think so.. this is a new debt and we are in dispute as to how much is infact owed.At which point he says i will come and remove goods and puts the phone down. Any thoughts?

You do have a problem.

Council tax legislation provides that bailiff fees are deducted first from any payment made.

Lets assume that the Liability Order was for £1,000 and bailiff fees are £250.

If you pay £1,000 direct to the council (thinking that you have cleared the Liability Order), the council are obliged to pay £250 which means that you have only paid £750 against the Liability Order and you have £250 still to pay.

Where this is serious is that this means that he Liability Order is NOT CLEAR and bailiff action can......and will......continue.

HOWEVER...

The bailiff fees are WRONG.

The purpose of the visit is to "levy upon goods" and the fee for this can be just £24.50 . If however he is able to levy then he cannot charge a visit fee of £24.50 but can charge INSTEAD to levy fee (but there must of course be a VALID levy)

You need to find out what has been levied upon...and WHY the charge is £250 which is WRONG . Once again, it would appear that this bailiff is attempting to charge you an "enforcement fee", which is WRONG.