Hi guys, Im back on with the Newlyn saga. So since I sent Newlyn the request for the breakdown of charges by registered post (which I checked they received) back in January 2011 they never replied to my letter. But I received since then: 04/02/2011 Letter about broken arrangement saying they're disappointed I have failed to honour my payment arrangement to discharge the above dbt. And to call their special arrangement team. I ignored it. 07/03/2011 Final notice - Bailiff removal for £636.02 Clearly not up to date. I ignored it. 17/03/2011 Committal notice Magistrates' liability order dated 01/06/2010 Arrears of council tax due to L B of Lewisham. total outstanding £315.50 Clearly they've been talking to the council people as they changed the outstanding amount. 08/04/2011 Notice prior to removal of goods removal contractor and bailliffs have now been booked and will be working in {my postcode here} within the next seven days. As a result of this action a minimum charge of £95.00 will be incurred. Full payment of £315.50 is due immediately. 03/05/2011 Notice prior to removal of goods total outstanding: £315.50 The letter said as I have failed to respond to the letter hand delivered (?) by their bailiff, the debt remains outstanding. The have now assigned the Bailiff and Removal Team to my file. They will attend the premises on friday 18th march (Notice the letter was sent to us the 3rd MAY to notify us they will attend 18th MARCH!) with the intention of levying and removing my goods and chattels for sale at public auction. A few days ago we received another letter, with no date. removal notice pre-printed and added handwritten with pen the outstanding amount of £315.50 The letter says: I have today attended your premises with the intention of levying and removing your goods and chattels to the auction value of £315.50. I will be reattending and goods may be removed even in your absence. If you wish to avoid this distressing course of action telephone immediately {name and number here} Today my partner received a phone call from Newlyn on his mobile saying they'll be at our property at 7.15AM (?!) I wanted to ask you guys what I should do in case someone do turn up. We never signed a walking possession agreement. We never had any contact with the bailiff. How do they access to a walking possession order? If they do have one, do they have to inform me of it by letter? I understand either my partner or I need to sign it first we to make it valid. In the meantime I am paying the £12.31 outstanding to clear the account and show goodwill (i.e. £42.50 minus £30.19 payment done for their (unlawful) card payment fees = £12.31 outstanding) Luckily in this case I am actually not paying what they claim I owe them as a matter of principle, not because I cannot afford it. But I really want to get my mind to rest and get to close the issue. I want to send them another letter but I am not too sure where to start from as they never replied to my previous one. what do you guys think? cheers for all the info and support.

Hi Ploddertom, Thanks for your reply. Just checked with Royal Mail and my letters were received by Newlyn and the Council on 26 and 25 Jan 11 respectively. From your reply above I think I'll wait a little bit (I requested a reply within 14 days) to see if Newlyn reply to my letter with a breakdown of fees, bailiff visits, etc so I can write back to them disputing the charges based on their own words. In the meantime, do you think it is good idea to make a payment to Newlyn to clear the amount owed for their 1st and 2nd visit to show goodwill? (i.e. £42.50 minus £30.19 payment done for their (unlawful) card payment fees = £12.31 outstanding) thanks again

Hi again, I am updating my case below. So on monday 24-01-2011 I sent a letter to Newlyn asking for a breakdown of all charges by signed for post. I also sent the Council via email and signed-for post a copy of the letter sent to Newlyn accompanied by a covering letter requesting to keep it on file for reference. Today I received post from Newlyn dated 24-01-2011 with the total outstanding of £636.03. The letter is a final notice prior to removal (?) Most interestingly, I also received today a letter from the Council themselves, dated the 24-01-2011. This letter thanks for contacting the council on 22-01-2011 (this is when I made the payment on the phone and requested further information about my account to be sent by post). -------------------- The letter says they've spoken to the bailiff company newlyn and can confirm the following: 01Apr10-01Apr11 £1326.72 - sent to newlyns on 30Jul10 fees £345.69 (including card fees of £30.19) total - £1672.41 paid - £263.89 - 25 oct10 (payment of £256.20 + card fee of £7.69) paid - £772.50 - 04Nov10 (payment of £750.00 + card fee of £22.50) paid - £320.52 - 22Jan11 (payment made direct to Lewisham Council) total fees applied: 17Aug10 - £24.50 - 1st letter delivered 24Aug10 - £18.00 - 2nd letter delivered 25Aug10 - £7.69 - card fee 02Sept10 - £105.00 - 1st visit with van 02Sept10 - £63.00 - Levy on vehicle (awaiting DVLA confirmation). If DVLA check confirms that you do not own the vehicle then the Levy charge will be removed) 04Nov10 - £22.50 - card fee 05Jan11 - £105.00 - 2nd visit with van (due to broken arrangement) total fees - £345.69 minus cards fees already paid of £30.19) total fees outstanding - £315.50 You must make arrangements to pay the fees direct to Newlyns. Signed {name here} Council Tax Officer ------------------ So from this letter I deduct that: - The council have spoken to Newlyn about the payment of the outstanding amount owed directly to the council. - Newlyn passed on wrong details or Council made mistake as card fee of £7.69 was applied on 25Oct10 and NOT on 25Aug10 as stated, as this is when the actual payment was done. Do you think I should wait until Newlyn reply directly to the signed for letter i sent them at the beginning of the week asking for a breakdown and details of visits, etc? Can I do something else in the meantime? Do I need to inform the council of the above mentioned mistake? thanks again in advance for your help!

Thanks Ploddertom, This is a great idea. I will post a letter along these lines tomorrow to Newlyn and copy to the council. Newlyn said on the phone they would send me a statement but I am not too sure how detailed it will be so this one will help to clarify what they are claiming we owe. thanks again

Hi outlawla, In reply to your questions: 1) yes, we did receive a notice of seizure, with a vehicle's registration plate number. My parter called Newlyn straight away to say the car was not actually owned by us. They acknowledged this and while on the phone my partner looked out the window and realised they'd levied on our neighbour's car which was parked outside! 2) According to the Statement of Account the bailiffs have paid the council the amounts owed. And with this last payment I made to the council directly there is no money owed at all to the council. thanks

Hi guys, So this is my update. I called the Council this morning to pay the outstanding amount owed to them. I found last night online on the Lewisham Council Tax website an 'Internet Statement of Account 2010/2011' stating: - liability -> £1201.72 - costs -> £125 breakdown of costs: - liability cost council -> £50 - summons cost council -> £72 - summons cost justice -> £3 Payments: Bailiff payments: £1006.20 Breakdown of payments: - 16/11/10 -> £750 - 02/11/10 -> £256.20 Balance outstanding for period: £320.52 So I called them to pay the full outstanding balance on the phone and I did. I explained the situation and she referred me back to the bailiffs for payments, to which i replied I wanted to make the full payment to the Council and that they weren't allowed to refuse. She ended up taking the payment and she agreed she'll contact the bailiffs on monday 24 jan 2011 to let them know of the payment to the council directly of this outstanding sum. She mentioned this would not clear the debt with the bailiffs as I still have to pay charges, I explained briefly the disputed charges, she said she was not a Bailiff specialist and that I had to write to the bailiffs about dispute and copy the council (which I will do on monday). I also requested email address to write to council recoveries department and councillors (x3). With this Internet Statement i confirmed that the amounts paid to the bailiffs were passed on to the council (minus the credit card/debit card charges which we paid on top and are unlawful according to a post above) What should my next steps be: I will write to the bailiffs to agree to pay for 1st (£24.50) and 2nd visit (£18) for 'attending to levy', where no levy was made. A total of £42.50. I will say I dispute the other charges: van attendance fee DVLA check reattendance fee I will say the credit and debt cards surcharges they made us pay are unlawful and I want my money back. Or to use this money to pay towards the 1st and 2nd visit charges leaving an outstanding amount of £12.04, which I am willing to pay. £7.69 -> charge for use of debit card for payment £22.50 -> charge for use of credit card for payment My weak points is, i am struggling to put together a letter which summarises these points above with the correct legal backup. I am not sure what is the correct procedure they should have followed. If they attend with the intention to levy twice and they fail to have any contact with us and levy anything. What should have they done next? I understand they need to levy first upon my goods (no van) and then send a van for removal of goods (in a different visit) and ONLY if they have a levy previously done AND if they have a walking possession order which they didn't (and which i would have had to sign myself and I never spoke to or had contact with them). - So the ATR charge is not lawful as to apply it they need to have a valid levy. And there was not valid levy done in the first place. - The DVLA fee they want to charge us on the neighbour's car to prove is not ours I believe is not lawful as mentioned by 'hallowitch': 10. No person shall be entitled to charge, or recover from, a tenant any fees, charges or expenses for levying a distress, or for doing any act or thing in relation thereto, other than those authorised by the tables in Appendix 1 to these Rules. Also the good levied are not owned by us so the levy is not valid and the bailiff must refund the levy fee (DVLA check?) and all the associated charges resulting from this levy (ATR and 4th reattendance van fee?) - 4th visit - Reattendace fee. (no letter or notice of it left). This was unlawful too. I understand to legally send a van round for collection of levied goods they would have needed to check first the vehicle levied in previous visit was actually owned by us (which it is not). So the levy they had was not valid. In any case to charge for ATR (reattendance van fee) for 2nd time goods must actually need to have been removed (Idea of where I can find legal backup for this?) Which is not the case as the didn't have: - valid levy - walking possession order My question is: do I need to quote the legislation when disputing each one of the charges? I find it that I've read a lot on this forum about what's lawful and not but don't necessarily have the quoted text from the legislation to back it up? Can I write a letter with my vocabulary, as above? Do you think it'll be enough? I am not feeling that confident about making myself clear and backing up my point so that this issue doesn't drag on forever. Thanks again to everyone that answered to my post (so quickly!). It's helped me and informed me loads.

Hi guys, Thanks for your answers. I have actually remembered I could access my council tax account online on the Lewisham Council website. I've checked it and it shows the bailiff payments we did and the balace outstanding for the period which covers up to march 2011. It appears that the system lets me pay that amount online to clear the account. (only £320.52, against £636+ the bailiffs are claiming) So what I've decided to do is give the council a call 1st thing tomorrow AM and offer to pay outstanding amount in full on the phone and then ask them to make bailiffs back off as debt's been paid off. Do you guys think this is doable? I was hoping worst case scenario would be to pay for 1st and 2nd bailiff visit charges (£42.50) of which most is paid as they unlawfully charged us surcharge to pay with debit and credit card (£7.96 and £22.50 respectively, amount which could go towards the payment of the visits, leaving an outstanding balance of £12.04, which I can pay directly to Newlyn) Or do you think I should not be paying for the 1st and 2nd visit charges? By the way I noticed the amount owed is NOT for 2009/2010 as I thought it was, but the current period 2010/2011 ending in march 2011, so technically it is nowhere near as bad as I thought I was, as last payment for the period was due only the 1 Jan 2011, not too long ago. What do you think? Thanks again for your helpful replies

Hi guys, I've been reading a lot of previous posts and it's really helped me to deal with the people at Newlyn. I've got a couple of specific question I'd be grateful if you could help me with: Newlyn's dealing with my debt to Lewisham council for 2009/2010 Council Tax for £1326.72 Never opened door or talked to bailiffs. 1st visit -> 17 Aug 2010 - no response 2nd visit -> 24 Aug 2010 - no response 3rd visit -> 2 Sept 2010 - no response - Van attendance charge (ATR) - Levied neighbour's car parked on street outside house. We don't own a vehicle. Oct 2010 - we contacted Newlyn and agreed payment of full amount owed in 3 instalments including their fees @ £345.69 Since then we missed some payment (Newlyn website not taking my payment, tried various times and then forgot about it) 4th visit -> 5 Jan 2011 - Reattendance charge (over outstanding amount) Contacted Newlyn to pay full amount owed in one payment with bit card on the phone upon clarification of their admin/fees charges. Since then I found out these charges are not quite right. Payments done so far: £263.89 - 25 Oct 2010 (+ charge for use of debit card of £7.69) £772.50 - 4 Nov 2010 (+ charge of 22.50 for payment with credit card) Breakdown of Newlyn fees £345.69: £24.5 -> 1st visit bailiff £18 -> 1st visit bailiff £105 -> Van attendance ATR £63 -> DVLA check (they haven't done it yet and car is not mine but already charged for it) £105 -> Reattendance charge £7.69 -> charge for use of debit card for payment 25 Oct 2010 £22.50 -> charge for use of credit card for payment 4 Nov 2010 My dispute: I am ok to pay: Outstanding amount for council tax + 1st and 2nd visit of bailiff Not prepared to pay: 3rd visit - Attendace van. I believe they cannot apply an Attending to Remove charge unless the have a valid levy which they didn't, actually, as they didn't levy anything or got access to my property on 1st or 2nd visit there was no point in sending a van over on the 3rd visit as they wouldn't be able to collect anything. So I dispute this charge. Also they confirmed on the phone in this 3rd visit with van they levied the neighbour's car. I believed they have to send bailiff round first to levy goods, then send a van over to collect? They say they have done both on the same 3rd visit? Is this possible? 4th visit: Reattendance fee as we failed to pay as per agreement. I believe in any case they can only charge two van/removal fees but if second charge is made goods must actually be removed. Car levied on 3rd visit is not owned by us so levy is not valid. I agreed to pay outstanding amount of the council tax debt and 1st and 2nd visit charges but refuse to pay. van attendance fee DVLA check reattendance fee They refuse to take anything but the whole outstanding amount including all fees. They explained the DVLA check would take 6 weeks so better to pay the £63 and they call back to claim the money back. What do you guys recommend to do? I don't want to pay extra to these people. Is it better to find out how much of the paid monies went to cover council tax debt and pay the rest to the council? Not too sure if Lewisham council will accept this. Thanks ever so much in advance for your help.