I will add I am making payments and I am struggling to make small arrears repayments. The council are continuing to demand higher repayments. I can't do that. I have no more money to pay them. I think they are trying to take me to court. As long as I am trying to pay something to the council the court won't be sympathetic to the council I hope. As for Rossendales I won't deal with them at all. You have to be very wary of bailiffs and their charges. You also have to watch them for claims they make about things they can't do

I appreciate your advice but I can't deal with Rossendales. I simply do not have a penny to pay them. I cannot pay off any arrears. I just do not have the income. The council can harress me til the year dot for arrears and I still will not be able to afford to pay it. I just don't know what to do. If I ignore other bills to pay council tax I will end up in a situation where I am getting taken to court every 5 minutes by the gas, electric, water and tv licensing companies because I owe them money to. That is not an accpetable situation to be in. It means I would be continually getting harrressed for money that I do not have all the time. That is what is making me so ill in the first place. I have no way to stop it either. I have tried offering the council a repayment offer but they won't accept it. This is beyond a joke how they treat over a council tax. I only work part time. I am lowed waged. I live alone. My means are very limited. I don't have alot. I struggle to be able to afford everything. I very often can't afford to pay my bills so how can I afford to pay council tax? The stress of this constantly is making me very ill

A bailiff cannot decide if you will get sent to prision or if your kids will be took off you. This is yet more of these out rageous claims Rossendales seem to make. They cannot remove everything within your home. They must leave you with a reasonable amount of furnishings for you to continue to live with. Rossendales threatened to take my cat to pay my council tax bill. How thick must this bailiff be? A court wouldn't accept the sale of a cat to pay council tax arrears as they simply wouldn't get enough money anyway from your typical moggy. The threats the bailiff made to you are illegal. I think it is time that this country got rid of Labour because that goverment continues to accpet behaviour like this from bailiffs and thinks it is accpetable to allow councils to threat, harress and cause distress to tax paying citizens who work hard while those on the dole get their council tax paid in full each year. Gateshead council have forced me into going on to the sick from work long term to get my council tax paid for. The stress of their constant harressment for money I do not have has made me very ill with nerves, anxiety and depression. I am now unable to work and Gateshead council are still harressing me for arrears. I told them to f**k off. They are not getting any repayments from me. On my current budget of sick pay I can't afford. Their continuing harresment of me is making me more ill

Yes I am. I'm in a catch 22 situation. Pay my rent and be unable to pay my council tax or pay my council tax and not be able to afford to meet my whole monthly rent. The goverment in this country arrogantly refuses to admit to or see the plight of people like me and there are many more exactly like me all over the country. In my tenancy agreement it states that me and my landlord have an agreement that I pay him monthly to live in his property which is my home due to paying rent. Due to this agreement I am almost certain it is illegal for him to try to evict me becase he refuses to accept my rent payments. I am sure this is the reason the court refused to evict me the last time he tried to evict me. The court said it was his own fault. He is also trying to evict me for a second time without giving me notice and I know he can't do this. He must provide a tenant with notice and give you time to respond when going through an eviction process. He is refusing to carry out repairs on my property so I think he is hoping to get a new tenant who won't complain about this issue.

Yes you also don't have to pay your council tax after you are released from prision. The logic of our goverment. Instead of realising people were refusing to pay council tax because they can't afford it they think they can force people who are low paid and in part time employment like me to have enough income to cover all my bills which I simply don't. I can't afford to pay half my bills this month because I bought food for a change. I still don't have enough food either and that cost me over £85 excluding cat which I forgot. Most of my money goes on my rent. I am having trouble with my landlord. He is refusing to accept my rent and trying to evict me now. I am sure this must be illegal?? Surely a landlord cannot refuse to take rent from his tenant then try to evict them on grounds of arrears he has caused himself?????????????????

Underdog13 knowing what the council employees are like here in Gateshead I am not at all suprised that an incompetent like this has been promoted. Most of Gateshead councils staff are as bright as a blackout. In my opinion though the council still has far to much power to harress people who simply cannot afford to pay council tax. I am one of those. I still have arrears and I still can't afford to pay them off.

Yes I'v been to see a solicitor but it is very frustrating trying to get in contact with him as he is very busy. I think he is now looking at getting legal aid to cover the case if it will as the cost of the furniture my ex is trying to dispute is reasonably low about £500 or perhaps £600 at most. My ex says I took some of his possesions which is bull. My landlord will provide a legal statement saying I do not have any possesions or belongings from my ex and that the only property I have is my own ie: ladies things, clothing, ornaments, footwear, jewellery, etc and that there are no male possesions here. I also have a tenacy agreement stating that my flat is fully furnished and rented like so with a list of my landlords possesions. However my ex waffles he can reposses these and take recovery action to get my lanlords furniture handed over to him. Baloney. That would be fraud. I am my landlords tenant and I couldn't take recovery action against my landlord if I left here or was evicted! The other items he is claiming are his are covered by a will. These are part of my legal inheritance from my dead mam's estate. After her death my dad drew up a will stating that all possesions and belongings jointly owned by my parents and gifted to his children are to go exclusively to us and to no one else. The things covered by the will and being illegally kept by my ex are two matching chests of drawers, a bookcase and a wall shelf. These were exclusively gifted to me by my mam while she was alive and were in here home, I moved them to my exs flat for a short time while we lived together but they are covered by my inheritance. My bed also is as me and dad bought it jointly between us for my sole use at the flat as it's only occupant at the time. Other items not covered by the will were given to me and me only as gifts by my uncle and my brothers ex wife. My ex doesn't have a leg to stand on as this property is legally mine. Can anyone advise further?

Hello, don't where to post this so putting it here. My ex is keeping my furniture. He fully admits that this is my property and he is keeping it out of spite and nastiness, he has lied to his solicitor about this though. I have the receipts to prove I bought it. For other itmes I have sworn statements from witnesses who attest that the property was given to me exclusively and not to my ex. I didn't live with him when the property was either bought or given to me. We lived together for about a year with my furniture. I also inherited some of it after my mam's death from her estate. She didn't leave a will but my dad made a will after she died saying that all of the properties jointly owned by my parents while my mam was alive are to pass to me and my brother and remain in our possesion. So basically he can't keep any of this stuff right? I mean I have proof of purchase for some items and others would be covered by the will dad made? My ex is also alledging that my landlords furniture are his and I stole them from him. I rent my flat fully furnished so this is laughable. He states he ellected not to pursue recovery action as he considers this property he alledges I took from to be full and final payment for my furniture which he is keeping illegaly. Except the problem is I didn't take anything from him. He is trying to say I took his furniture from him but the furniture in my property is my landlords. He can't do that. His solicitor is an imbecile who has advised him that it is illegal for me to apply to a court to reposses my furniture when I have the receipts proving that I bought it and I inherited some of it from a will. I mean it is legally mine. Help please

my landlord houses asylum seekers. They have over £500 a year spent on them for their rent and council tax. This is a disgrace when you consider that there are many very poor hard working people like myself who struggle everyday and get no help at all. We also get harressed, threatened and bullied to pay council tax we cannot afford

P.S. This matter is no longer with Rossendales since I complained to their customer services office about their disgusting behaviour. This matter has been passed to another debt collection agency. I don't know who they are. I am ignoring them however. Will let debt solicitor deal with it

My property is private rented and it does not belong to me. They CANNOT reposs it all as I am not the properties owner. My landord is and he doesn't owe council tax debts on this property. For all reading this do not confuse certificated bailiffs with county court bailiffs. When a county court bailiff has a warrant to repossess a property they can force entry and if need be use force to evict you. If you are faced with repossession please seek proper legal advice and don't just attempt to refuse the bailiff entry. It will not work, it is an offence for which you can be imprisond for. I do not think they can force entry here at all as this flat is private rented. Not one thing in the property with the exception of clothes belongs to me. My flat is rented fully furnished. It is not legal for them to remove property belonging to a person who owes them no debt. The possesions they would attempt ro remove are the exclusive property of my landlord. They have no rights to them. I therefore doubt that they would be successful in getting an order to enter my flat as they would be committing burgarly and they would have to return all possesions to my landlord or compensate him in full. However they certainly cannot repossess my property and I don't think they can evict me either as I don't own my property so it my home has no value they can use to pay my debts. I am once more completely, utterly and totally digusted by this goverment we have in power. We should NOT have to pay council tax at all. I am far to poor to be able to pay it. Most of my money goes on my rent. I do not have enough left to pay all of my bills nevermind wasting money paying the most useless organisation in my area the council. They empty my bin once a month and take my recycling when I remember to put it out. I have to pay them over £1000 a year for that? The councils are granted far to much power which they CERTAINLY SHOULD NOT have to threaten, harress and destroy extremely poor hard working people like myself who simply cannot afford to pay council tax. The actions of local councils are similiarly disgusting. They know people in my positin simply cannot afford to pay council tax and they have options to arrange lowers payments. They know what the goverment refuses to acknowledge or understand. People generally don't pay council tax because they simply can't afford it. Most people don't pay it because they don't want to. They are simply fincailly unable to afford it. I doubt that they would try to evict me by force from a private rented property due to poverty. I pay what I am able to. I can do more than that. I cannot give them what I don't have. It is very unlikely that they would try to imprison me for that. Meanwhile David Cameron spends £21k a week on a yacht holiday payed for with tax payers money. That is the UK goverment for you. I do not know why people continue to vote for labour. Between idiotic left wing do gooders saying it is racist to describe your black pet cat as being black in colour and council tax they are well on the way to destroying this country

Hi, I am a very poor, low waged, private rented tenant of a property in gateshead. I work part time at Asda. I struggle to pay all of my bills. I simply cannot afford to pay for my full council tax each year. If I paid my full council tax each year I would be placed in a position of debts spiralling out of control. Paying my full council tax would mean I simply could not afford to pay my utility bills. I cannot believe we live in a country where we are told we must pay council tax before any and all other bills. This is simply impossible for me to be able to do. I have a number of things that I absolutely must pay before my council tax. The first of these is 1.) Rent 2.) Busspass-without it I am unable to work or to get there 3.) Food-as a very poor person I am often unable to buy food but I try to buy this as soon as I can 4.) Pet bills-I must feed and provide adequate care for my cat before I pay the bills as his food runs out at the end of my pay cheque. 5.) Then I have gas and electric bills. They come directly out of my bank on direct debits before other bills do such as my phone and I am keeping it that way as I don't want to be cut off I pay for the council tax, tv license and water via payment cards. I try to pay something off these as soon as I can after getting paid. However being so low waged I am often behind on them. So naturally I am behind in my council tax payments. I am charged council tax off my properties value which is grossly unfair AS I DO NOT own my flat I RENT it privately and my income is not taken into consideration at all. The council have reused to pay me my full housing benefits entitlement as a part time employed person. This has resulted in my situation of extreme poverty. I refuse to work full time and claim tax credits as I would be finacially much worse off by doing this. 1.) I lived here for almost 1 year without a single council tax bill despite the fact that I repeadetly asked about it. 2.) When I was finally given a bill I was not told how much my monthly instalments were. When I was told how much they were the sum was ridicously high and well beyond my ability to be able to afford to pay. The council have systems in place to protect vunerable and low waged people such as myself and they are refusing to use these to help me. 3.) I have a payment card to pay council tax which reflects the fact I make a low income and I pay tv license, water and council tax together. Despite my low income the council still refuses to help me making exboritant demands for council tax which they know is well above my means to be able to pay and refusing to pay me the benfits I am entitled to. 4.)This has led to arrears which I cannot afford to pay off as I simply do not have the money. If I pay off the arrears then I am unable to meet this years council tax payments which means I will build up further arrears. I already simply cannot afford to pay all my other bills nevermind the council tax so I will end up in a position where I have debts spiralling out of control with the only thigs getting paid being the council tax and rent. This is unacceptable. I will not simply pay my rent and council tax and no other bills. It is short sighted of the goverment to say the least to except that I should just pay rent and council tax and say it doesn't matter about the rest ignore them. I can't do that. I would end up with things getting cut off, CCJs eveywhere, debt collection companies, people at my door for unpaid utility bills. No. I can't do it on my limited means. I can't allow paying the council tax to get me into that situation. So as I have arrears the council have hired a well known group of thugs known as Rossendales bailiffs. This group of loan sharks, bullies and thugs are well known to many courts due to the huge amount of complaints made each year about bailiff actions carried out by their staff. These actions include illegal threats, fraud, actual pyshical assualt and bodily harm on people owing council tax and in some cases assualts on and threats made to the landlords of private tenants such as myself. Please see my thread posted uder Rossendales, illegal threats, harressment and intimidation for further information on Rossendales actions to try to force me to pay money I do not have and and stuggle to pay my other bills

I have reposted your post at the below link. Click on link to view the thread and to recieve advice and guidance. If you cannot click on the link to be taken directly to it right click on the link with your mouse, click on cut or copy, click on your browser bar, right click on mouse again, pick paste and paste it into browser bar, then click on go to go to thread. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bailiffs-sheriff-officers/145672-note-i-am-not.html#post1535261 I'm not sure what your rights are but I would be making a complaint about the police here. They simply cannot ignore an assault of this nature. Also the bailiff terrorised your family. I would challenge them and claim my goods back as if they have removed them they have done so via an illegal entry. There must be something you can do. Good luck and view new thread

ORIGIONAL MESSAGE POSTED BY MESSAGE_TO_GARCIA. DIRECT RESPONSE TO THEM NOT MEmessage_to_garcia Basic Account Customer Join Date: Oct 2007Posts: 2 Re: Rossendales & council tax for this year 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hi everyone, Can someone advise, I am seriously disabled with no income and have just been violently assaulted by one of Rossendales thugs. I had a horror story with them and my council last year so wasnt prepared to grant them peaceful entry this year, so they had no right to forced entry and the matter would be referred back to court.Last week I opened the door, placing my foot over the threshold as I had been advised and stated as loudly as I could " It is not my intention to allow you peaceful entry so please go away and stop scaring my children ". I am still in a state of shock as I cant believe how I could be so violently kicked and attacked and forced back into my house. My wife was screaming and called 999 but when the police arrived, " I said I want you to arrest this man as he has just assaulted me " immediately the police said " No he hasnt ". Their attitude was there has been an entry so they would now allow him to empty my house and if I interfered they would arrest me for a breach of the peace. I told them they didnt understand bailiff law and the fees charged were illegal so technically they were aiding and abetting a fraud etc. I meant to post the other day but I am finding everyday a struggle and am not sure I can or want to go.Apologies if this rambles.

Do not deal with them at all. Do not speak to them when they attend your premises. What they are threatening they cannot do. A dumb van bailiff threatened me with the illegal use of a locksmith when he had not previously entered my property. A bailiff cannot make any entry what so ever into your property without gaining previous peaceful entry via either the person living in your home allowing them in or their entering via an unlocked door or window. Deal directly with the council not Rossendales. Do not reward these thugs for their behaviour. Pay Rossendales nothing and under no circumstances what so ever or you to sign anything they bring to your property for you to sign. Offer repayments to the council.

She was very off hand with my husband on the phone & said that if we don't see her today then she has no alternative than to send a van next week to recover the debt by our goods going to auction. I'd like to know if she's allowed to do this & if the council could just accept our payments as the bill is for this year (2007)? All replies are appreciated. She may not remove a thing from your property. Under no circumstances what so allow her to gain entry to your property. Keep all windows and doors sercurely locked. If you must open a window lock it open securely as if they attempt to enter via it they are breaking the law. You must never allow them entry into your property. If they do so they may gain the right to get a walking possesion order after carrying out what I think is an inventory of your properties contents a levy I think. They are not likely to remove anything if they gain entry I think at this stage. What they are trying to do is frighten you. She CANNOT remove your property alone remember that. It's scare tactics. HOWEVER NEVER EVER LET THEM INTO YOUR HOME NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. If they gain entry they have the right to break in at a later stage. Never answer the door to anyone you don't know. Always go to your window and look out to see who is there first. Do not open the door to "salesmen" or "charitys" "chuch members" such as a jehovahs witness etc as bailiffs may try tricks like pretending to be one of these to attempt to gain entry to your home. Never open your door to them as they try to barge past you into your home then. Don't open the door to "window cleaners" either if it's not your usual window cleaner. Rossendales tried that one on with me. I said "**** off. I don't have a window cleaner." I opened my window though not my door. Action by van bailiffs at this stage is very unlikely. I had a Rossendales van bailiff trying to threaten me. I have complained to my local counciller about it, my landlord, Gateshead council, BT and Rossendales customer services complaints department. I complained to the police about their illegal threats also but they refused to act. My back door is starting to buckle. Rossendales were braying on my door again today. My landlord is going to wait til their next visit call the police, have the bailiff caught in the act of thumping on and kicking my door, point out damage to door by the bailiff, fix my buckled door hinges then present Rossendales with the bill for the repair. Hahahahaha. Taste of their own medicine for them. As well the damage to my back door was not noticed til after the bailiffs visit. My landlord takes none of their rubbish. He told a Rossendales bailiff this morning he would be removed from my property for trepass and a breach of the peace. Stand up to these thugs

Tell them that each act of illegality has been duely noticed and that the police have been notified. Moreover, if Rossendales have ever made illegal threats in the post, i.e. saying they are going to break in, tell them that this is an offence under the Post Office Act and that you will report them to the Investigations Department of Royal Mail. The same applies if they have threatened you on the phone, except in this case you should complain to the Investigations Branch of British Telecom. I have informed BT about telephone threats. They were useless. They did nothing at all. Similarly the police have failed to act. 3. Do inform the police. Do not allow them to fob you off and insist that they give you a Crime Number (this is very important). Also, if there is evidence of uttering threats by post or mail, inform Royal Mail and BT, as suggested above. Still outraged by their behaviour.

I have one window locked open at the moment. Osca is on my knee.

I do not think I am getting the full council tax benefits and housing benefits that I am entitled to claim no. I have challegened the council on this point on numerous occasions as I have been advised by housing benefits staff that I am not getting my full entitlement. I have had various arguements with them which always result in my getting nowhere. However if the stingey ***s where paying me my full entitlement I wouldn't be in this position. I have been advised to seek a solicitors help in getting more benefits out of them

I cannot keep my windows shut at all times especailly in the summer and when I'm doing my housework. They windows are locked when they are open and I can do them for breaking and entering if they enter via that method. Their entry will also be illegal and invalid if they go that way as I can easily prove that they broke in cos of the broken window locks. They could then be prosecuted and as they will most likely damage the landlords window frames using this method they will be charged for damage by them

I have reported them to the police who are refusing to do anything. I complained via e-mail to my local councillor today. I told him I simply cannot afford to make my full council tax payments each month and I will not be terrorised in this manner. I am going to report them to BT for making threats via the telephone. I have complained to the council. I am seeking advice from a solicitor as I had help from Derbyshire Housing Aid and they were useless. I am sick of being told I MUST pay council tax before all my other bills. I simply cannot do this. It is unrealistic and unfair to expect me to do this. These bills affect my credit rating and prevent me getting things to. I struggle to pay all my bills

I live in a downstairs flat. The upstairs flat often has their windows open but as it's not my flat Rossendales have no powers to enter it and if they do good luck to them with that one as I don't live there. I have window locks fitted on all my windows anyway as I am very nervous. When my windows are open they are locked open with the window locks I have fitted. As far as I am aware Rossendales may not enter my flat via a locked open window so they may not enter. As soon as they tried they see the locks

I went on Rossendales official website yesterday and rang their number on there. I was connected to what must be customer services for complaints. I made a complaint about the bailiffs action. The customer service adviser was well aware that their actions are illegal. He said he will put a stop to the bailiff in particular the one threatening to get a locksmith to gain illegal entry to my flat. The customer service adviser advised me that if a bailiff gained illegal entry into my flat Rossendales could be prosecuted for breaking and entering. I hope they do something. I complained to my landlord. He told Gateshead council that he will not stand for his tenant being threatened, intimidated, bullied and terrorised in his property by parties acting on the councils behalf to collect arrears as he has the legal obligation to look after my safety as his tenant. He has told them in no uncertain terms he will take all actions of threatening behaviour against his tenant very seriously with a view to taking action against them. My landlord seems to have powers here that I do not so when he goes up against them they seem to back off.

P.S. I wish I made £475 a week. I would be so much better off then. I could pay my rent out of that in just one weeks pay. I make about £490 a month and £340 a month £85 a week is my rent. It kills me but you know I work. I can cope with just a stingey amount of housing benefits to help me pay my rent. I get about £15 a week to pay my rent off the goverment so generous. I don't have to just pay my rent outa that £15 but the council tax to

Lol. I wish. My tv and digi box are currently broken and I can't afford to replace them. I guess I'l have to get my 10 year old tv out of the spare room now. I can't afford any food this month at all. I bought some food for my cat and a little milk but that's all. I guess I was being selfish there to. I should let myself and Osca starve to death.Oh and I suppose by having a telephone in after years of struggling on the dole and not having a phone service I am being selfish to. You know I have no right to have a phone service even though it's one of the reasons I wanted to work again I also wanted to work so I would have more money and not struggle so much. However I am now much worse off working than I was on unemployment benefits. I should have stayed a selfish scrounger on the dole and had my council tax paid for for me. You know us hard working english folk and the poor folk on JSA etc are so selfish. We buy food when we could pay council tax. Lol. Hehehehehe. Oh my pcs moniter is starting to break. Another expense I can't afford to replace