As i said in my earlier post i have been e-mailing a nice lady from the council tax department who has given me all the details of what has been going on. I contacted them as they finally sent a bill to my forwarding address (parents) who sent it on to me. Any advice please now i've cleared that up?

Hi guys, any help would be appreciated here. Ok so here's the story, I moved out of the house in June 20th last year and the council said i had 6 months before i would have to pay anything as the house would be empty for that time. In my reckoning that takes us up to the 20th December. Apparantly they sent a bill to that address on the 9th December then on the 16th Jan they gave me 7 days to pay...none of which i received even though i have my mail redirected! They now have taken it to court without my knowledge and it is going to the bailiffs within the next 2 weeks. All this bearing in mind im not in the country has been done without my knowledge. However, the amount that was sent to the court will be wrong as the house was repossessed on the 14th jan. There is a nice lady at the council tax office telling me to pay the outstanding amount then apply to the recovery people to get my court costs back!!! What can i do about this....i don't mind paying the outstanding amount but i shouldn't have to pay the court costs as i haven't received anything from them about the amount i owe. They have a care of address that they send stuff to and there's nothing from them. Have they not got the judgement by default as they know i am not in the country and they have that in writing? any help or advice gratefully received...i'm sick of these people railroading us!

cheers guys this just keeps getting better! I think i need to dig out all their paper work as i'm not sure they did the court thing by the book. However, do they not have to check that we are still at the address where they are sending letters as the house has been repossessed anyways so they cant get a charging order on it. What happens to a court order when you are no longer in the country and they can't find, does it just disappear after 6 years and if so is it the date from when it was issued? Whats the best thing to do, should i just sit tight and wait it out or should i contact the court in writing, however, if i do that that means i am acknowledging the paper work and they will be like rottweilers then and try and track me down. I would pay some off this debt but they are such nasty people to deal with i am reluctant to do anything about it. I really don't want an arrest warrant out for me as this may affect our residency which we are currently applying for. I can't believe they are going this far its only a debt for 7k i think although they will have bumped that up with solicitors costs and charges. What's the chances of the court agreeing to this do you think, i've never heard of this before has anyone else? Thanks for the advice everyone.

thanks for that kitchen boy....although we are not planning on coming back to the UK but if they want to pay for a ticket we can use it for a visit i guess!! Whats the chances of them serving it across the Atlantic do you think???? I got the original court order way back last year and my wife filled it in and signed it on my behalf offering a payment but nothing was done as far as i know and the letters are fairly recent which my wife has now burned as i'm not in the country and neither of us live at the address which the letters are being sent to as our house has been repossessed, we are only getting the letters as we have our post redirected to a relatives address in the UK and they post some on to us. They are pretty nasty though these guys and threaten also according to my wife....the original company was really bad to deal with also so please be on your guard anyone who has to deal with them. How does this stand getting the judgement set aside if my wife filled and signed the original court papers would that stand as the debt is in my name only. if there was anything else the judgement must have been got by default.

cheers, i thought that to but is it possible...these guys play real hardball!!

Hi guys, To cut a long story short i am out of the country currently and I have tried to deal with Creation consumer finanace to make a full and final settlement last year before i left the country but they wouldn't accept anything. Consequently they took me to court and as i am not in the country obviously they didn't get any response from me. I have finally had mail forwarded on and the lastest letter states that "if we do not hear from you we will make a further application to the court for an oral examination. This is requiring you to attend court and provide full details of your income and assets and liabilities including the amount owed to the above parties (of which there are two, mortgage company and home owner loan company). Should you fail to attend the oral examination, you should be aware that you may be at risk of being held in contempt of court for which the court may issue a warrant for your arrest". That is the letter verbatum. I know they are using alot of 'may' in their threat but i have never heard of this before and as i'm not in the country obviously i won't be attending court! My question is can they actually do this oas i have never heard of this before but this company plays hard ball and were a nightmare to deal with. Their solicitors are Greenhalghs of Wigan. Any help and advice would be much appreciated as i do not want a warrant out for my arrest nor do i want them to know where i am either. What do i do? Anyone else had any dealings with these solicitors? thanks in advance