Rossendales hassling me for a £250 approx CT debt.

I supplied them, through email docs, proof I'm on benefits and can only afford £10 a month.

I set a standing order up and it's been paying a short while.

They wrote to say according to my income I have to pay out more than I'm receiving which isn't possible therefore I must pay £50 a month LMAO!!!!

Loving the logic there.

I found a hand delivered letter today which state I now owe £450 (WHAT??!?!) and that they wanna take goods blah blah.

I've been paying £10 so will I still HAVE TO pay the extra they've slapped on?

What do I do?

Just make sure no one answers the door and...? Will they keep visiting and slapping another chuff knows how much on the bill?

I've shown proof it can't be paid, have no money on benefits, surely this is illegal? Wish I could take them to court I'm sure a judge would see it as bullying.

Incidentally the original issue didnt reach me for years (from 2012) becuase I'd moved on, wasn't registered anywhere and council claim I owe overpayment of benefits, you know that old chestnut. Irrelevant now.

Continuing to get letters stating they'll be sending bailiffs every week at a charge of £235. hello what can I do???? Surely this is harassment?

They cant

Ok so if the bill for CT is £250 yet they want an extra £235 every other week and it just keeps climbing, and I keep a note of when the £250 is paid off from my £10 monthly, they're gonna say ah no the CT isn't paid you've only been paying our fees/charges etc right? You can go to prison for not paying council tax that's the part I'm worried about...

They can only charge £235 once

And no you cant goto prison!!

Not sure what site you are reading but its lots of ole twaddle....

It's pretty well known people can and have been sent to prison for non payment of council tax.

Such a sweeping statement dx.

Yes people have gone to prison for non payment of CT.

However these are all people that wont pay and could not those that are struggling to pay and are paying something.

You wouldn't be commited to prison with your circumstances.

The £235 can only be added once but now you do owe it in its entirety.

 

I supplied them, through email docs, proof I'm on benefits and can only afford £10 a month. I set a standing order up and it's been paying a short while.

 

They wrote to say according to my income I have to pay out more than I'm receiving which isn't possible therefore I must pay £50 a

 

I've been paying £10 so will I still HAVE TO pay the extra they've slapped on? What do I do?

It would appear that you had submitted an Income & Expenditure and decided that £10 per month was the maximum that you could repay and you then set up a direct debit for that sum. This arrangement would seem to have been made without the agreement of Rossendales. Such a low amount which equates to just £2.30 would not not usually be accepted by any enforcement company as the debt would take over two years to repay.

Without an agreement in place, the debt had escalated to the 'enforcement stage' and with it, an enforcement fee of £235.

PS: Even if attachment against benefits had been set up by the council, I would expect that weekly deductions would have been more than £2.30 per week.

Sorry, I forget to address your query about additional fees. Once one enforcement fee of £235 can be charged.

Hi Marlow I am sorry that you are in such a mess.

Some time before you started paying £10 per month you would have received a Letter of Enforcement from Rossendales advising you that you had 7 days to contact them to arrange a repayment plan for the debt. that added £75 to your debt Did you contact them or just arrange the £10 per month as that was all you could afford backed it up with them by sending proof of your financial situation?

When you read their letter stating that £10 per month was too low, did you contact them? Have you contacted the Council to let them know of your situation? Please advise us of what Rossendale and the Council said to you if you contacted them.

Are you continuing to pay the £10 and have you missed a payment or has one been paid late-even by a day or so?

Under the new Regulations relating to bailiffs the debtor must contact them within 7 days to arrange payment. failure to do so will result in them paying a visit which costs an additional £235. I think that is an exorbitant amount to charge but it is the Law.

No matter how often they return they cannot charge any extra for those visits. They will come back as if they cannot get the amount of money they want to reduce the debt, they will want to enter your property with a view to removing goods and auction them off to pay the debt and their fees. You are not obliged to let them in so DO NOT LET THEM IN-UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. If you have a vehicle outside they will attempt to clamp that instead.

There are several others on this site who can give you further advice on where to go from here. If you could kindly answer the questions I asked above, it may make it easier for them to give the best advice for you.

It's pretty well known people can and have been sent to prison for non payment of council tax.

nope only the wont pays

I arranged £10 a month by contacting them. I sent them emails. I'm not obliged to phone them at extortionate phone rates, I'm not obliged to give them my phone number, I'm not obliged to do jack in fact. I KINDLY decided I would ALLOW them to have some pennies. First off stated I'm on benefits, they asked for proof, so I sent it, again via email. Their precise response line to that was:

"It would appear your incomings are lower than your outgoings, as this is impossible we can not accept your offer of £10/month and set it to £46" (or something similar to that amount).

That's right, becuase you are like every other person in the country on welfare, in that you're unable to afford to live, so we will extort more from you. Vile pieces of ****.

Contacting the council is useless, all they say is once it's gone to debt collector it's out of their hands.

Not missed a single £10 payment no.

Well now I know they can't keep adding a fee and they can't break in they can go swivel.

Purely principal, if I won the lotto tomorrow they wouldn't get it.

None of it is my fault.

Overpayment of benefits is the governments fault, when your jobseekers stops now the local council are INSTANTLY informed so that they can stop people's housing benefits straight away too.

Well shame they didn't think of that 20 years ago isn't it? NOT my responsibility

. I left the property and they weren't able to get hold of me

. When they finally did I demanded they provide proof I owe it, using a subject access request letter. They didn't provide the proof, therefore broke the law.

Then they get the debt collector involved and so on.