hi TT, cheers and thanks, i do appreciate you taking time out to help me out and i also appreciate that you must be very busy too, so i'll just sit tight. I would also like to ask, is therre anything else i can do regarding the bailiff that removed my van, he did not appear on the register during the search carried out by the OFT ? Cheers and thanks.

hi folks, i'm trying to keep calm but at the same time i am starting to panic a little, time may be running out for me. The van was taken on tuesday and its now thursday, the bailiffs claim the van will go up for auction after 5 days... I'm sitting with my fingers crossed... cheers

hi tomtubby and thank you for taking the time to assemble a 46 complaint document. It is much appreciated to say the least. I have now modified and saved the document and await further instructions from you. I would also like to ask, would this document slow down the process of the bailiffs forwarding my van for auction? cheers and thanks for your time.

hi, i have just come off the phone to the supervisor at the council tax office. The head of recovery didnt call me back so i called again and got passed onto the supervisor who stated the following; She is not aware of any details in the contract that allows bailiffs to make two levy charges, she said she does not know any details of the contract and nor does anyone else at the office. She said she would have thought that a levy can be charged on each account, she then spoke to the information help desk or something and they too said, they thought that levys can be charged on each account. My thoughts after speaking to the supervisor is that nobody at the council tax office knows the details of the contract written between B&S and the council. The supervisor also stated that, all they do is contract a bailiff firm stating who owes money, the bailiff firm then collects the debt and charges whatever they wish. The supervisor then stated, she had made a note for the manager for council tax to give me a ring as he may be able to enlighten me further. SUMMARY: At this moment in time i have found out that the bailiff who removed my van was not under license from B&S according to the search carried out this morning by the OFT, the search was carried out just using the bailiffs name and company(B&S). I have also found out that i should have been informed that the van was going to be removed enabling me to remove my tools, i was not informed of a date for the removal of the van. I have also found out that the council have no idea as to what bailiffs charge, they just pass them the debt, the bailiffs recover the amount and charge the recipient whatever they choose to. At this moment in time i am none of the wiser as to what to do. Also, is there any questions that i could ask the council tax manager other than whether or not it is written in their agreement about charging seperate levys? cheers and thanks for your time.

hi, just for clarification, i have scanned in the two letters i received. May be these may shine some light on things....cheers Auctiva Image Hosting

hi KJD and thanks for your response, much appreciated. Firstly, i have just come off the phone to the OFT (020 7211 86081) and gave them the name of the bailiff that removed my van and the company he works for (B&S). The lady ran a search and found the company (B&S) and she stated that the name given by myself (the bailiffs name who removed my van) was not on the register as being certified by B&S. Also, i received two letters through the door when the van was taken yesterday. The first was a white letter titled 'INVENTORY'. The letter only contains the registration and a description of the van and my name and address, there are no figures or anything else on the letter. The blue letter that accompanied the white letter is the one that has all the figures on it. These figures are accurate as i double checked them before posting them on here previously. They are as follows: council tax = 524.90 levy fee = 42.00 council tax = 791.61 levy fee = 49.00 attendance to levy fees = 67.00 costs incurred in attendance to remove goods = 360.00 costs incurred in the removal of goods = 380.00 contractors fee incurred in the removal of goods = 175.00 redemption of goods fee(Head H) = 24.50 Sub Total = 2414.01 Cheers and thanks for your time, much appreciated.

hi, its now 11:30a.m. and i still havent heard back from the council regarding the fees. I'm still waiting to hear from the head of recovery. I've also just come off the phone to B&S and they have given me the name of the bailiff who removed my van. How do i go about checking that this bailiff is certified ? Also, at what stage should complete all the prementioned forms? any help would be much appreciated...cheers and thanks.

hi chris and thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Will i now need to download and complete a form 4 complaint, along with a N244 application and take or send the suggested letter to the magistrates court ? Also, in the blank fields on the suggested letter, do i just insert B&S or do i need to contact B&S to get the name of the bailiff who removed the van ? Cheers and thanks.

hi tomtubby, i have just been on the phone to the council, they said that no one in the office knows much about the fees etc and the only man who does is the head of recovery. They say he will be in the office later today and will call me with a matter of urgency. I told the person i just spoke to the fees the bailiffs charged charged me over the phone, and i assume he took a note of this. He said he couldnt comment and that the man in charge of recovery is the only person with any knowledge of these situations. He said he would pass this info on to the 'main man' and that the 'main man' would get in touch with the bailiffs and then be in touch with me. They also stated that the total amount i owe is £524.90 + £791.61 = £1316.51 Is there anything else i can do in the meantime, i only ask as i feel a little useless just sitting here, especially if there is something that i can do. Cheers and thanks for your time.

hi tomtubby and thanks for your reply, much appreciated. I dont want to sound daft but am i to ask the council about the following charges made by B&S? levy fee = 42.00 levy fee = 49.00 redemption of goods fee(Head H) = 24.50 or am i to also ask about the below charges made by B&S: ie. costs incurred in attendance to remove goods = 360.00 costs incurred in the removal of goods = 380.00 contractors fee incurred in the removal of goods = 175 cheers and thanks for your time.

hi and thanks for your replies, they are much appreciated. Just a couple of things that i'm not sure of. 1) Is it too late for me to do anything else now but to pay the amount requested by the bailiffs? 2) Is it too late to now state that the van was sold to a friend over the weekend and to produce the slip stating this ? 3) Is it too late for me to pay the council what i owe the council direct online or plead for mercy and have the van returned. 4) Is it possible for me to go through the steps of advice given in this post and get a result before the van goes up for auction in 5 days according to B&S? As you can tell, i'm pretty desperate for any advice at this moment in time. Cheers and thanks for your time.

hi, can you tell me whether it makes any difference at all, that on the inventory form that has the details of my van that the bailiff removed, this form has not been signed by me or anyone else. It just has the reference no. Date, my address and the van details on it ? Also, to be honest, at this point and i know its ealry in the race, but i have no idea what to do. According to the bailiffs i have 5 days to pay the amount in full or my van will go to auction along with my tools. Also, if i cant get this stopped or arrangements made for payment other than the amount in full, then, if the van only sells for £1000 i take it the bailiffs will still be chasing me for the remainder ? i only ask as i dont know and i dont want to assume as time is running out.. cheers and thanks for your time.

hi, thanks for your replies, much appreciated. Just a couple of things. The blue letter they posted through the letterbox after removing the van today had the time of 14:45. This was the time of their initial visit, they didnt post anything on their initial visit. When i got home approximately 16:30 the van was still on the drive, when we returned at 18:00 the van was gone and the neighbour said they dont know how me missed them as they had literally just taken the van and left. So, the time on the paper is not the time the van was removed, also, on their earlier visit today they didnt leave any letters or anything stating that we had x-amount of time to pay today before the van will be removed. My partner said they arrived at 14:25 knocked on the door, my partner did not answer so they sat outside the house in their white van, and then they left. Also, i dont want to sound daft, but i have no idea who the bailiff was who removed the van as there is just a scribble on the page where he signed it. cheers and thanks for your time.

hi, the van was practically full of shovels, pick axes, builders buckets, compressor, saws, lights, trowel, cabling, fittings, you name it. Plus lots of building materials and thats no exagerration as i used the van to store my tools in as we have a small garden and no where to put them. The van was not sign written but its obvious its a builders van due to the items inside. The van was not on finance nor did it owe any money either. cheers and thanks.

hi, to be honest, as far as i am aware, the bailiffs have called round about four times and left letters each time stating 'removal of goods'. If they have called round besides these times then i are unaware of this as they have left no letter or sign that they had been. cheers and thanks for your time.

This may help: here are the figures that are shown on the Bristow & Suitors blue letter that was posted today when the van was taken. council tax = 524.90 levy fee = 42.00 council tax = 791.61 levy fee = 49.00 attendance to levy fees = 67.00 costs incurred in attendance to remove goods = 360.00 costs incurred in the removal of goods = 380.00 contractors fee incurred in the removal of goods = 175 redemption of goods fee(Head H) = 24.50 Sub Total = 2414.01 cheers and thanks for your time..

hi, and thanks for the replies, they are much appreciated. Firstly, in answer to the previous question. I am a bricklayer by trade and the van was used for work, the van contained my building tools. Secondly, in answer to the latter question. The bailiffs have never been in our property. A few months ago, this would have been the first visit from the bailiffs. The baillifs turned up when i was leaving out and we stopped at our front gate. The bailiff stated they they were here for council tax and i asked for a breakdown. They couldnt provide the breakdown as to what we owed the council, so i said that its unreasonable for me to pay anything if i cant be showed why i am to pay this amount. It was left at that and we went our seperate ways. The furthest a bailiff has been to our property is to our front door, we havent spoke to a bailiff at our door, opened the door to them or spoke to them outside except for on the first instance. Cheers and thanks for your time.

hi, i've been reading threads on here for a little while and unfortunately its now time for me to post my own. Over the past few months i have received numerous letters from Bristow and Sutor debt collectors. They have come to my home residence when i was not at home and my partner was too scared to answer the door with fear of intimidation. This is all down to council tax bills from last year and this year. Initially the bills amounted to approximately £1200, but by the time they added their ridiculous fees it soon rocketed up to £1800. Last month after receiving a letter by a so called field agent stating that they were going to remove goods from my premises, i contacted the bailiffs and said i would like to make arrangements to pay off the debt. Previously to contacting the bailliffs i had contacted nottingham city council with the same view to make arrangements to pay off the debt. The council worker stated that because the debt had now been passed to the bailiffs it was out of their hands and that any arrangements would have to be made between me and the bailiffs and not me and the council. Nottingham city council was the council that issued the original council tax demand. After speaking to a lady at Birstow & Sutor, she stated that the minimum i could pay off would be £300 per month and that fee was set by the council. I explained that i couldnt afford that amount and she refused to lower the payments and stuck to her initial statement that it was the council and not them that set the minimum payments. I explained again that i couldnt afford this amount and that this conversation was going round in circles. I stated i am willing to pay but she refused to budge as far as lowering the payments and the conversation ended there. Previous to this, on one occasion when a field agent called round to our home, they noted down the registration of my van parked on my driveway, and the letter they posted through the letterbox stated that they were going to remove the van. The big crunch came today whilst i was out. My partner was at home and she called saying that the bailiffs had came round again and she never answered the door with fair of being over run or intimidated. Our family car was parked out on the road in front of our driveway where the van was parked. I came home when she called to say the bailiffs were here, but by the time i got here the bailiffs had gone. I was then told by neighbours that the baillifs had been asking around as to who's the family car was in front of our driveway, the neighbours said they refused to answer. I then went back out to our family car with my partner, only to come back a couple of hours later to find the van had been removed from our driveway. The keys were in the house, so i have no idea how the van was removed. The neighbours said one man came and took our driveways gates off and rolled the van onto a recovery vehicle. The van was also full of all my work tools and household tools as it was also used for storage as i had no where to store my tools. When we got inside our home, we found a letter from the bailiffs stating that the van had been removed at 15:45 the initial visit from the bailiffs was at 15:00 and yet we know that the van was removed at 18:00 as the neighbours said we had just missed them taking the van when we returned home at 18:00. Birstow & Sutor are now claiming that, inlcuding all there chrges for their visits, contractors fees etc..we now owe £2400. They state that unless we pay this amount in approximately 5 days then i will loose the van to auction. The inventory sheet had the make and model of our family car on it, but this was scribbled out and replaced with the details of the van they removed. Another thing is, it was not stated that the van was full of tools on this inventory of seized goods. I was advised to state that i had sold the van over the weekend to a friend, and to complete the documents and send them off. To be honest, we know we owe the council tax bill and yes we should have paid, but we couldnt afford it. With all these extra fees they have made it impossible for us to settle this amount even though we have offered. I would just appreciate any advice that could help us shine some light on this as to where we stand legally, if we stand anywhere at all. All comments will be much appreciated.