OK you got bailiffs knocking on your door for unpaid Council Tax. Here is what you should do.

DO NOT LET THEM IN, tell them to go away and sit down and print the below letter.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Your Reference

 

I understand XXX Council has appointed you to recover my Council Tax Liability arrears for 200x of £xxxx.

 

Firstly I would like to make you aware that I am fully aware of my rights and you will not gain entry to my home under any circumstances to levy goods and I know the fees allowed under statute and when these fees can be applied.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay this in one payment. I advocate a payment schedule of 24 months with 23 months payments at £xx.xx and the balance of £xx.xx to be paid on the 24th month to cover the principle. I understand this may seem a long time but this is a realistic offer that is affordable to me and will allow me to pay future bills issued for Council Tax without them falling into arrears. A greater amount would cause me real and actual hardship.

 

I am able to pay the above amount on the xx of each month, as an act of good faith I have enclosed the first payment chq number xxxxxx. Please advise how you would like future payments made. My personal preference is payment by Standing Order.

 

It should be noted that I am not at any point refusing to pay this debt but only asking for a fair payment period considering my circumstances. And if you are unable to accept my offer I will place the money aside each month until such a time the council take the account back into their management, when I will make payment of the set aside money to the council.

 

Please also send an itemised statement of account that clearly shows what charges have been added and what for, you are required in statute to supply this information and I look forward to this within 14 days.

 

I am sending the council a copy of this letter and requesting that it be filled with my account for further reference.

 

I hope the above meets your approval and I look forward to your timely reply by letter.

 

Yours faithfully,

Understand the letter and stick to it, if you need 3 years replace 24 with 36 and so on, basically what I am saying is if you can only afford £10 and owe £1,000 you are going to need 100 months to pay it, but this is not a normal debt so keep it no longer then 4 years and 2 years is better.

The bailiff may attempt to get into your home again, just keep him out, he will give up and move onto more profitable calls.

Never again talk to anyone about his debt but keep everything in writing (you may need this). You may get threats of imprisonment for refusing to make payment,

It should be noted that I am not at any point refusing to pay this debt but only asking for a fair payment period considering my circumstances. And if you are unable to accept my offer I will place the money aside each month until such a time the council take the account back into their management, when I will make payment of the set aside money to the council.

Now charges, they may have over charged but first let the 14 days in the above letter pass is they have not sent you a statement in this time, it is time now to get hold of the Council as their employer, no need for S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) and the likes.

held for part 2 coming soon

Zooman why are advising as you have advised ? Just wandering ?

Hi, could this help me?

Rossendales have my bill now, its for approximately £850. They have not been in my house, when she came to the house we left her standing at the door, but she did ask my wife what possessions we had, tv etc.

We wrote to them offering to pay £10 per week, they refused this and said we must pay £80 per week. There is absolutely no way that we can afford to pay £80 per week. I rang and told them this and they told me to send another means test to them.

I kept paying £10 per week in order to show that I was willing to pay, so I wrote out the means test and put it in an envelope with a £10 postal order. They contacted me earlier this week saying they would send out a van to remove my goods unless I paid in full within 7 days. I rang them and told the lady on the phone that we had sent a means test to them and were waiting for a reply. She said they never recieved this. The best thing about this, is she acknowledged recieving the £10. I asked how could that be as they were in the same envelope, but she was adamant that they didn't recieve the means test.

She then said it would be quicker to give her a means test over the phone, so I did. Afterwards she said "your outgoings are as much as your incomings". I replied "Yes I know, thats why I can't afford to give you £80 per week." I really wanted to shout and scream at her as she was an arrogant *&^*. But I didn't, I stayed calm.

She then said I have to send proof that I am paying my other creditors the lowest amount they will allow and gave me 14 days to do this.

Is it too late for me to send a copy of this letter. The bill is in my wifes name and she is a bit worried about any consequences. Has anyone else tried this with rossendales and been successfull.

Thank you for any information, I really appreciate it.

no get it sent, both to bailiff and your LCA, you need to add a few things to yours, I will add them for you and post it later.

odd

I refer to recent correspondence.

XXX Council has appointed you to recover my Council Tax Liability arrears for 200x of £xxxx.

 

Firstly I would like to make you aware that I am fully aware of my rights and you will not gain entry to my home under any circumstances to levy goods and I know the fees allowed under statue and when these fees can be applied.

have been making payments of £10 per week for the last 8 weeks and I calculate the balance to be £xxx.xx.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay this the balance in one payment. I advocate a payment schedule of 19 months with 18 months payments at £43.33 and the balance of £70.06 to be paid on the 19th month to cover the principle. I understand this may seem a long time but this is a realistic offer that is affordable to me and will allow me to pay future bills issued for Council Tax without them falling into arrears. A greater amount would cause me real and factually hardship.

 

I am able to pay the above amount on the xx of each month, as an act of good faith I have enclosed the first payment chq number xxxxxx. Please advise how you would like future payments made. My personal preference is payment by Standing Order.

 

It should be noted that I am not at any point refusing to pay this debt but only asking for a fair payment period considering my circumstances. And if you are unable to accept my offer I will place the money aside each month until such a time the council take the account back into their management, when I will make payment of the set aside money to the council.

I have enclosed a statement of my means as requested by Miss Smith in our telephone conversion today, explain here about the money and that it has been sent before.

Also Miss Smith said I have to send proof that I am paying my other creditors the lowest amount they will allow and gave me 14 days to do this. I find this unwarranted and frankly an intrusion into my privacy I have written under separate cover making an official complaint to my Council over it policy to request this information as I do not believe the council should demand that they must have this information.

 

Please also send an itemised statement of account that clearly shows what charges have been added and what for, you are required in statue to supply this information and I look forward to this within 14 days.

 

I am sending the council a copy of this letter and requesting that it be filled with my account for further reference.

 

I hope the above meets your approval and I look forward to your timely reply by letter.

 

Yours faithfully,

Hi Zooman Just coppied your letter and sent it to bailiffs and council. Thanks very much. Will let you know how I get on

Great letter, but...

I've a tendency to NOT pay any bailiff firm a penny. By all means send a similar letter and regular payments to the council but for goodness sake do not send any money to bailiffs.

Reasons?

Bailiff firms do not get paid by the councils, they make their money from any fees they can possibly add on to your council tax bill. It's not in their interest to take stage payments and trust me on this, they WILL find some excuse for your payment plan to foul up.

The bailiff that calls at your door is more often than not a self-employed collector working on a 40% commission of the fees he can add on, 8 times out of 10 they are not even certificated (as they should be by law) or CRB checked. You can check this by asking for ID and a copy of their County Court Certification. Never been provided with one yet!

They rely on intimidation and people's ignorance of the law to extort money from the most vulnerable in society.

The system is a totally corrupt and immoral [problem] with the councils being just as much to blame as the bailiffs.

----------------

I have always paid arrears directly to the council, no bailiff firm has ever tried to chase me for their 'fees' once the council debt has been settled.

I you're worried, write to the bailiff firm under a Freedom of Information letter asking for a full breakdown of their charges on you along with exact timings etc of calls, letters, van visits etc. they claim to have made. If they do bother to reply these can always be disputed as they very rarely keep any kind of correct record. These firms are not run by businessfolk, but by ignorant bullies.

Don't even bother phoning the bailiff firm, in my experience the staff answering the phone are trained to be as unhelpful and awkward as possible, only interested in taking your money for their fees.

Just ignore their threats as unless you let them in your house the worst they can do is hand your case back to the council.

Hello, I was helped by you once before and I'd be really grateful for any advice you have on the following:

I started a thread some time ago re Newlyn's bailiffs and being forced into an agreement to repay £300 per month on an oustanding council tax debt. We have been paying this amount since last sept/oct and haven't missed any payments-though it's been extremely difficult to meet the payments.

Since December my son has been very ill again; he has been in hospital and having tests etc, and potentially it could be extremely serious. Apart from this my husband, who has been with him as much as he can, doesn't get paid (as he is a contractor) for days he doesn't work.

This means that we are very short this month and I've just rang Newlyn's to ask if we can defer this month's payment until 8th March-they refused telling me that if the payment isn't made tomorrow then the account agreement has been broken, we will incur charges and the bailiff's will be instructed.

I have just emailed the council contact I have to ask if they can intervene on our behalf and am awaiting a reply.

Is there anything I can do-my son is ill and we are just all holding on by a thread here, I really can't have bailiff's coming here and upsetting him.

I would be very very grateful for any advice you can give.

Thank you

Sadly this kind of answer from the bailiff company is typical, this is why I wouldn't recommend anyone ever paying them a penny for council tax arrears - pay direct to the council instead and stick to your guns.

I would check with the council the exact amount you still owe them and then start paying them directly. In the meantime write to the bailiffs asking for a complete breakdown of how much you have paid and exactly what any of their fees are for.

It's not too late to break away from them, it sounds to me like they have been exploiting your situation and any county court will come down on your side.

Hi your help would be greatly appreciated.

Bailiff called today (looks like they are part of the local authority as their address is same as Council) total bill £538 owing -dont know how they got to this figure am sure it was only £200 outstanding if that - did owe them £800 and agreed to pay £200 a month of which I paid 3. Do I still send the letter to them as it may be the Council's own internal bailiffs that called. Your help would be appreciated.

Woodentop

Firstly if you are not aware how the bailiff got to their figure you have every right to demand an explanation. That should be your first task. You haven't mentioned whether or not the £600 previously paid was to the bailiff or to the council?

It makes sense for the bailiff to have a postal address at the council offices as it makes them appear to be more official. Personally I think that this is taking the immoral, corrupt and unethical relationships between councils and these collection agencies a bit too far.

Send what you can asap to the council, either online or via automated telephone system if possible (that way they cannot refuse payment as their systems usually are not clever enough!).

Remember that unless you've signed a walking possession agreement the worst thing the bailiff can do is hand your file back to the council marked 'unable to collect'.

Martonman - thanks for the response. The £600 was paid to the Bailiff at the Council (I presume this same bunch). There was £800 owing and I thought I had paid the lot but obviously I had not (that will teach me for not checking). Hadn't heard a thing so thought that was it paid then this appeared yesterday.

I havn't signed anything at the door. Will check with my Son whether he has but I have told him not to let anyone in. But then again he has no right to sign anything.

I won't be able to send any money until the end of the month - do you think that will be OK for me to ignore until then - I will send them a letter asking for a breakdown of the charges tho - shall I send the template letter on here or not? Sorry to be so dumb they frighten the life out of me.

Woodentop

Don't be worried by baliffs collecting for council tax arrears!

Almost everything that comes out of their mouths is at best questionable and of course carefully designed to scare people into parting with money that they don't have to part with. It's a [problem].

Providing you do not let them in the very worst they can do is pass your file back to the council, which is exactly what you want them to do!

Write to the council recoveries department first, stating that you are unsure about certain charges added to your account by the bailiff company (true!) and that you have asked them for an explanation. Ask the council for your arrears balance and inform them that you will be paying them the arrears directly in installments, starting at the end of this month.

Send another letter to the bailiff company requesting a detailed breakdown of all charges they have added, including dates and times of any visits etc.

These two letters should put any recovery action on temporary hold immediately. Any bailiff that calls in the meantime can be told that their charges and conduct are being investigated by the council (true!) and that until the investigation is complete you will be continuing to pay your arrears to the council directly.

Well done btw for not letting them in or signing anything.

I would like to know more about the relationship between these bailiffs and the council though, pm me if you want with the council and bailiff names and I'll investigate.

Martonman - thanks for that you have put my mind at rest - will do the necessary over the weekend. I will send you a PM tonight when i get home.

Woodentop

Hi everyone

I made a foolish mistake before xmas of signing a walking possession ,my wife only works 7 hours a week and i am on incapacity benefit.the amount we agreed to pay back a month is £100.00,this months payment was late being made due to the fact that my benefit had to be adjusted to a different rate, i used my debit card to send the amount 8 days late it has been taken from the account.we received a letter from the bailiffs stating that unless the total amount was paid by the 19th of this month the goods would be taken for sale.

I have two children one is seven and the other is 17 months old,one of the items on the list to be removed is our three piece suite which i find very disturbing other items include t.v.,video,dvd player and microwave.

As i understand from the time i signed the walking possession agreement my goods become their property,so does this mean they are legally responsible to have all my electrical goods tested after all if a fire broke out due to one of these appliances who would i claim off. all advice will be very much welcomed.

Hi everyone

I made a foolish mistake before xmas of signing a walking possession ,my wife only works 7 hours a week and i am on incapacity benefit.the amount we agreed to pay back a month is £100.00,this months payment was late being made due to the fact that my benefit had to be adjusted to a different rate, i used my debit card to send the amount 8 days late it has been taken from the account.we received a letter from the bailiffs stating that unless the total amount was paid by the 19th of this month the goods would be taken for sale.

I have two children one is seven and the other is 17 months old,one of the items on the list to be removed is our three piece suite which i find very disturbing other items include t.v.,video,dvd player and microwave.

As i understand from the time i signed the walking possession agreement my goods become their property,so does this mean they are legally responsible to have all my electrical goods tested after all if a fire broke out due to one of these appliances who would i claim off. all advice will be very much welcomed.

vbrep_register("572072")

my farther in law has the same problem as set me free,

he signed he walking possesion order and is expected to pay £330 pound for 2 months, any advice asap please

Another example of a bailiff firm's intransigent, unlawful and inept attitude.

Ok, maybe you should have paid your council tax on time (I don't think I ever have since the outrageous poll tax was tried - still haven't forgiven them for that!). But now that you are in this predicament let's get you well and truly out of it.

QUESTION the bailiff's fees and demands by writing a letter to them, including details of your current situation. Copy the letter to the council and tell the council that until the bailiff's demands and charges have been fully investigated you will be paying the council direct.

Send the bailiff's letter recorded delivery, and personally take the council letter down to the council if possible. Ask to speak to the Recoveries Officer or someone else high up. If possible send an email or letter to your local councillor asking for their help.

The letters should put the bailiff's recovery action on temporary hold.

Once you start paying the council, keep it up.

Because you have signed a walking possession the bailiff can I think, in theory, force entry. This is why the letter of complaint is very important and urgent.

However, even with a walking possession agreement, the bailiff really does not want to remove goods. They'll get practically nothing for them at auction (no offence there!) and it really is a bullying threat tactic to get you to pay for their extortionate fees. They'll be hoping that you will be ringing round friends and relations to borrow the money to pay them. Fact is, most of the money they want off you is their fees, which are probably fraudulent and against government regulations and guidelines.

From past experience they will send another couple of letters claiming to have called at your address with a van but were unable to gain entry. This gives them an excuse to add another few hundred quid to your account.

If one does call again, make sure you get his name, check his ID card and ask to see proof of his court certification. If he can't produce you are quite within your rights to send him packing off your property with his tail between his legs using, if necessary, 'reasonable force'.

In the very unlikely event that he does have all the correct credentials, state that his firm's and his behaviour are being investigated by both the council and the local county court and that until the investigation concludes you are paying your arrears directly to the council. Therefore any attempt by him to gain entry will result in you calling the police as well as 'your rather large friend from round the corner who works as a doorman at weekends'.

Get them stopped now. The sooner that councils are forced into stopping using these unregulated shysters the better.

Many thanks martonman you are a star,I will certainly follow your advice and try to revert this matter back to the council,if i have no joy i will proceed with the OFT and ask them are the bailiff's responsible for safety checking my electrical goods which they now own under their walking possession agreement, I feel quite strong about this as they are applying i believe a daily rate for the goods to stay on my premises which inturn means they are leasing the goods to me.

I don't think you'll get anywhere with the electrical safety thing.

Good luck with the letters and your visit to the council, let everyone know how you get on.

hi setmefree, i had the same problem with council tax with bristow and sutor they kept refusing to accept my offers. I then got a bailiff who was oh so very nice not he tried to tell me that if i signed his papers he would be able to set up the arrangement i wanted no chance.

i rang my local council office explained what had happened and they rang the bailiffs and told them to accept what i had offered. So i am now on an affordable payment plan last 21 months.

good luck with your case

what a surprise mine too is bristow and sutor http://www.bristowsutor.co.uk/pdf/Code%20of%20Practice.pdf interesting to see the bit of what they won't take regarding basic needs, i guess that's my 3 piece piece suite safe what else can i sit on:p

The nice man(not) asked me a few questions about what things i had he actually said that he wouldnt even take my 14 year old daughters computer because she would need it for her educational needs. It would be interesting to ask bristow and sutor exactly what they are able to take, its worth reminding them that if you tell them an item is borrowed they have to then prove it isnt before they take them. When i rang the bailiff to tell him that the council had approved my offer his tone immediately changed and told me i must have caught them on a bad day!!! good for me though have you tried ringing your local council office tell them you want to pay but bristow and sutor wont negotiate with you, see how that goes.

nic

victory for me I contacted the top recovery officer at the council they have now put my account back with them and reduced my payments from £100.00 a month to £15.00 and they also stopped any goods seizure :D:D:D and also gave me a month's grace