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My daughter has a historical council tax debt,

which according to the bailiff Grencar is currently standing at around £3500,

however that figure includes their various fees.

 

I only became aware of this problem when my daughter broke down in tears about 18 months ago,

having got her finances into a dreadful mess and was threatened with eviction by her landlord.

 

she had various debts at the time which we have managed to sort out,

however the council tax debt with Grencar continues to haunt her.

 

They had been demanding payments of no less than £200 and whenever they put the frighteners on her she found a way to pay them £200, but unfortunately this meant she couldn't pay other debts - it was a vicious circle.

 

While she was living in temporary accommodation with her young daughter following her eviction, with a family friend, she managed to shake them off, but now that she is back renting again they have found her.

 

Last December they finally agreed to accept £80 per month as a 'temporary' arrangement, but she has managed to keep paying it since then every month and she had hoped they would let the arrangement run on. Unfortunately a few payments were late in Grencar's eyes (just a few days), although she did actually make a payment every month, but they've used this as an excuse to come knocking at the door again, at 6.45am last week.

 

They issued her with a letter stating that they would be back 2 days later to remove goods - we do know never to let them in.

We immediately emailed them apologising and asking if the £80 per month could continue, even though it was difficult for her, and asked for a copy of her account with them.

 

They have now replied saying they've put her account on hold until 1st October, and they want to do a new review of her incomings and outgoings, see 3 months payslips and 3 months bank statements.

 

Can they demand to see these things?

We don't feel comfortable showing them her bank statements.

 

I have been looking on your site at similar threads, and some people seem to have had council tax debts referred back to the council, and refused to deal with the bailiff.

 

Is this something we should consider trying to do?

I just feel that she's never going to pay this off if they keep adding fees anytime they feel like it.

The figure never seems to go down much!

I'd be grateful for any help and suggestions,

 

thank you.

Edited by dx100uk
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urm..how long has this been going on?

 

I think you need to establish whay has happened in the past FIRST:

 

so

 

First of all establish from the Council how much was owing etc

.

You need to speak to someone at the Council and ask the following questions:

 

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

8 - the dates & amounts of any payments

 

...........................

.

Next you need to send off for a breakdown of the charges the Bailiff applied.

.

Here's an example,

use and ADAPT at will and best sent initially by email backed up by a copy in the post.

.

"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

uest 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"

.

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Please listen and act on this advice, it worked for me and has done for many others on this forum

 

Call / email your daughters elected local councillor / elected head of council. Their numbers / Emails are on Google and are public information. They will take the bailiffs of your daughter's case and make the council accept an affordable offer.

 

If you need any advice on how to word things, please post on here.

We could do with some help from you.

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Good advice fom DX and London 1971, a fee breakdown is needed for sure.

 

 

One question, how long has this bailiff situation been ongoing?

 

 

If it is pre 2014 the old Regulations might well apply and that is a can of worms. Hopefully Bailiff Advice and others will look in on this soon with some salient advice

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

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The bailiff: A 12th Century solution re-branded as Enforcement Agents for the 21st Century to seize and sell debtors goods as before Oh so Dickensian!

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From my Council Tax arrears (Nearly 5 K!!!) the bailiff 'visit' was something like £375 added on to the debt. There were also several liability orders at £75 each. I managed to get the Bailiff fees waived as my wife was ill and unable to work so she was classified as a vulnerable person.

 

Realistically, what I think you (the OP) can achieve via the local councillor is

 

1. A 6 month affordable agreement, even if it's only £30 per month (she must keep paying this)

2. The Bailiffs off her case

 

I think it's unlikely that they will remove the bailiff fee, although it won't hurt to ask, and it's almost impossible that they will waive the liability order fees. Long term there is no way to escape council tax. My wife became much better, we both got better jobs, and in the end the council took an attachment of earnings, that took 2 years to pay off the whole £5k debt.

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

 

 Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

 

If you want advice on your thread please PM me a link to your thread

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Good advice fom DX and London 1971, a fee breakdown is needed for sure.

 

 

One question, how long has this bailiff situation been ongoing?

 

 

If it is pre 2014 the old Regulations might well apply and that is a can of worms. Hopefully Bailiff Advice and others will look in on this soon with some salient advice

 

Although the council tax arrears may date back to 2014 or earlier, I don't think they went to the bailiff until August 2016, as that seems to be the date quoted on their statements.

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did you send those requests today?

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Thank you for this, we will try to obtain this information.

 

Hi, no unfortunately I haven't had a chance today, been really busy at work.

I'm only just sitting down now to it..

 

Thanks for your help BTW

 

I've looked at the bailiff's statement again this evening, and am slowly getting my head round it.

 

Their statement is divided into 7 pages, so presumably 7 different debts all to the same council, covering different time periods, and dated from August 2016.

They were pressurising my daughter to pay £200 per month and were refusing to accept less,

 

between August 2016 and the beginning of 2017 she did pay them this amount each month - but was not paying her rent and some other bills because she couldn't afford to do both,

 

when she had a big burly man regularly on her doorstep she was too scared of what would happen if she didn't pay him.

 

Unfortunately she didn't tell anyone else what was going on.

I had no idea.

 

by April 2017 she'd received a Court summons over her rent, and ultimately an eviction notice. It was only then that she told us.

 

In April and June 2017 she paid them £200 each month, but then was temporarily staying with either a family friend or with me, and they only managed to track her down again once she settled in a new flat.

 

At that point she was addressing her debts with the help of citizens advice, and Grencar agreed to a temporary arrangement of £80 per month.

 

It was supposed to be for 3 months, but she just kept paying it even though it was quite difficult, and they left her alone until this week. It was as if they were waiting for her to make a mistake and give them a reason to come back, although she had actually paid them £80 per month.

 

She knows she has the debt and is happy to pay, but it's the heavy-handedness that we object to, the fees added and the lack of flexibility.

 

The total arrears was £4778,

and the total fees added so far is £1238 on top,

of which £75 x 7 for Compliance

and £1232.75 in total for Enforcement fees.

 

There is currently £3496.44 outstanding,

with 3 of the separate debts paid off,

and 4 still in progress.

 

I shall try to find out more information about the Enforcement fees, because the amounts seem to vary quite considerably with each debt...

 

I've posted some more information below with details of the exact arrears and fees.

I will try to obtain a breakdown of their Enforcement fees.

 

She doesn't expect to escape council tax, and is keeping up with it at her current address.

 

I've posted below more details about how much she owes and the fees that have been added in case anyone wants to comment on this.

 

Her problem is that she is a single mum with a 7 year old, and an ex-partner who is a waste of space when it comes to being a father.

 

He rarely pays any maintenance and they are always at loggerheads.

 

He lives back with his mother and only works sporadically so she has been unable to pin him down to pay maintenance via the CSA.

 

However, my daughter has always worked and still does, she is trying really hard to cope and to clear her debts while keeping up with her rent and other bills now, but it's really tough.

 

Grencar now want to review her payments and have asked for her payslips and bank statements, which we do not feel comfortable in providing.

 

I feel that it would be great if the debt could be handled by the council instead of through the bailiff, and if a more reasonable monthly repayment could be agreed upon.

 

The bailiffs off her case would be an excellent result!

Thanks for your advice,

it's much appreciated.

 

Sent!

 

This is very interesting, thank you. I wouldn't have thought of contacting the local councillor!

Edited by dx100uk
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ok good work

 

well somethings not right here already...

the enforcement notice fee [£75} can only be charged on each liability order once..

so she must have 7 LO's and I bet not..

 

same goes for the £235 visit fee after the 7 days from the enforcement notice

that can only be charged ONCE for each LO that actually exists.

 

bet post 2 done as a priority please you WE need that ACTUAL information and they MUST supply it.

 

next is london1971's excellent idea...

that should work

 

your daughter is very lucky to have you..looks like you've positively moved this FWD

to me the bailiff is having a laugh at her expense.

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Share on other sites

I think you will be able to come to a temporary arrangement, using your local councillor.

 

 

However eventually in the next year they will try for an attachment of her earnings. In fact I can almost guarantee that they have written to her many times already asking for her employment details. Councils have a far easier time clawing back money this way than using bailiffs.

 

The AOE will come out of the blue, she will only find out a couple of days before pay day, and they will go for the maximum they are allowed, that is 2 AOE's to run concurrently, and it's pretty scary! At that point you will need to contact your local councillor again to bring it back to one.

 

However, take a look at this, this is what they can take from your daughters net salary at source.

 

https://www.northampton.gov.uk/info/200028/council-tax/996/council-tax-attachment-of-earnings

 

Look at the figures, it might actually be worth you asking them now to take 1 AOE at a time to pay her debt off, if it's affordable for her? This will knock the bailiffs off her, and in a couple of years all of this trouble will be a distant memory. She will also pay it off a lot quicker and be able to budget every month. As I say, it's an option worth looking at.

  • Haha 1

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

 

 Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

 

If you want advice on your thread please PM me a link to your thread

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To be honest an AOE would be fine. She's had one before (to repay an overpayment of one of her benefits), and it with any luck it would eliminate some of the bailiff's fees. I'm sure she could negotiate for an affordable amount too. So far, we've contacted the bailiff with the letter as suggested by dx100uk and emailed a local councillor. My daughter is going to contact the council to ask the questions also suggested by dx100uk, so hopefully all these won't be too long in replying. I'll let you know how we get on. Thanks to everyone!

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