Hi all, sorry for the long post but never been in this position before....

we received an enforcement letter through the door last night in my old name ( i changed my name via deed poll) demanding £542 .

after doing some ringing around we've established its for a part unpaid council tax bill in 2014 ( which we wasn't aware of until we got this letter yesterday)

phoned the council who advised the amount outstanding is £192.04 and gave us the dates (it was an honest mistake at a crap time & didn't even realise it wasn't paid until now) they are saying they wont help now its been passed over.

The forwarding address the council had was incorrect

we've moved since

didn't know anything was owed

didn't give another forwarding address,

due to this we've had no letters off the council,

had no letters off Bristow & Sutor

We had this hand delivered letter last night...W

we would have dealt with the payment if we would have known in the 1st place !!

now we have the original £192 debt ,

plus the £75 they charge for handling

im presuming i should have had a letter from them & then the £275 for hand-delivering ... where do i go from here ?

many thanks in advance

Have you got a notice of enforcement??

i think thats the one that was hand delivered yesterday, thats the only letter we've had which is how we found out this debt exists

Well go check then..

Even if the noe i s hand delivered they cant yet charge the £235 only £75 if you dont sort it within 7days

im at work at the moment, on my break & didn't bring it with me, ill check when i get home tonight

Did the council confirm there is an existing liability order??

the woman said the outstanding amount is ... & its been passed over to Bristow & Sutor now .. thats all she said

you need to know when it went to court to give the council the liability order.

being at an old address they probably did this but that also means they may still be chasing the debt at the old address rather than asking the court to change the paperwork.

This menas that you are likely to get a set aside if you apply for one and then you can pay what you owe rather than the fees as well.

Also a poke in the eye for the councl if they knew they were chasing you at the wrong address

ok thanks will get back onto the council , what do i do about the bloke from the debt collectors that keeps ringing & knocking the door ? just leave him too it ?

and is there anything specific i say to the council ? to make sure i get the right info & doesn't come back to bite me ?

Ask when the LO was granted

The bloke is a bailiff not a debt collector..very big diff the later have ZERO LEGAL powers on any debt

A bailiff has no right of forced entry on ctax debts

And to all intent could be ignored

But it might end up with you making an arrangement to pay thru him..IF you did get the NOA?

And keep any car or other vehicle away from the property, as they might clamp it or take it away.

Thanks will do that too

I’ve emailed the council asking for the information, what do I do once I know then the lo was issued

Ok thanks, I’ve emailed the council asking for the information, what do I do once I know then the lo was issued

There's nothing more you can do until Monday with the council. You need to phone them as emails can take 2 weeks to be replied to.

It doesn't really matter when the LO was issued - it was issued and that's that. The council only need to send correspondance to the last known address they have for you. If after you moved you informed the council of your new address you will have cause to complain but that can wait for now.

The immediate situation with the bailiff is more important. Your trump card here is that the bailiff must send correspondance to your usual address, ie your present address. Sending a notice of enforcement (NOE) which is called the 'compliance stage', to a previous address is not acceptable. The bailiff clearly has your address now as he has posted an 'enforcement stage' letter through the letterbox.

The bailiff cannot, by law, move to the 'enforcement stage' until you have received the NOE at your present address. The bailiff will know this but will hope you don't.

As soon as possible you need to contact the bailiff's office (not the bailiff) and ask for the address the NOE was sent to and the date it was sent. If sent to your previous address remind them that it needs to be sent to your present address. The law for this is the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 part 8(1).

This will show them that you're not a pushover.

ok thanks for that,

ill ring them tomorrow if they are open & if not will be monday .

it was a honest mistake & i know we owe the money its just not having any notice & whacking £310 on top is the kick in the teeth ,

hopefully by telling them that they will have to take the £275 off the bill that they kindly added,

but i will double check the wording on the letter that was hand delivered when i get home

just got home & looked , the letter we had hand delivered is titled... enforcement visit warning .. going off the previous response we've not had the notice of enforcement to this address so will be taking the advice & ringing them as soon as they are open

Bristow & Sutor, (Bristols & Stupor) might be hoping you don't know what you have found out on here.

just got home & looked , the letter we had hand delivered is titled... enforcement visit warning .. going off the previous response we've not had the notice of enforcement to this address so will be taking the advice & ringing them as soon as they are open

The Statutory notice is the one called Notice of Enforcement. The one that you have received is merely an advisory notice to let you know that a bailiff has visited your property. By the way, the enforcement fee (which you should not at this stage be liable for) is £235 and not £275.

The enforcement company have managed to identify a new address for you and accordingly, a fresh Notice of Enforcement should be issued. At that stage, only the compliance fee of £75 should be added to the debt. The good news is that on receipt of the Notice of Enforcement, you will be able to enter into a payment arrangement to repay the debt over a short period of time (usually around 3 months).

thanks for your advice , nice to know what im on about when i ring them, no doubt they will try to fob me off !

Help required please... in relation to the above post...

ive just phoned the office as advised by 2 posts..

he asked me to confirm our address as number 16 ( we're 16b) i relied "if thats what you have on file" he advised the the 1st letter was sent to the old address & a 2nd one was sent to number 16 (we're in a block of 3 flats so we have 16a,b,& c.. we never had a letter )

he's saying that because the letter was sent to 16 they HAVE to charge the visit fee.

.. he can send me out a new letter but it will have the enforcement fee on too.

. i told him under the taking of control of goods regulations .. by law they have to , he said no they don't ... what law?

what do i do now?

many thanks in advance

to quote a well known court case- "they would say that wouldnt they"

what address does the order have on it, you ask the court not the peope trtying to get you to pay them for nothing.

funny how they can suddenly find the right address when he thinks £235 can be added

LIAR!!

I had a feeling it wouldnt be that straight forward being as their fees are more than the original council bill.. how do I find out the address on the court order? Do I have to phone the council back and ask them which court it was sent to ?

no harm in ringing the council and asking when the relevant liability order was granted and what address the notification that they must send before going for one was sent too...might shed some light on things.

Appparently they sent a notice to the old address & then one to number 16 ( there is no number 16 just 16a,b &c)

he’s saying they sent one so they can’t remove the £275 as they “had to do the groundwork to find us! “

he can send me another notice but it will have the 2 sets of fees on.

Apparently there’s no law that says they have to remove it

.. talk about bashing your head up a wall... is there anything else I can say/do ?