Thanks so much dx100uk. Bailiffs were involved during the 2020/21 year, hence the outstanding recovery fees of £500 added to my account. At the time that they messed up my application for relief and then presented me with a huge bill after 7 months of silence, i was still unemployed and could not pay. They got a liability order which was then pursued by bailiffs for a sort time, before it was returned to the council who then added the fees onto my next years bill. I paid the council tax in full for 20/21 despite being unemployed for more than that whole period and I've also paid the subsequent years, but have refused to pay the fees from the time they messed up. I thought it more than fair that I paid the council tax itself despite being entitled to relief, and think they should write off the fees associated but they are being bloody-minded and unreasonable. All that is outstanding this ear are those fees and it is that which they are taking to magistrates court. I believe Wales works on the same system as England. Thanks for your help.

Just to add, this is Wales if there is anything different in the recovery laws.

Hi All I have a dispute with the council regarding council tax from 2020/21 year. I should not have paid council tax at all that year as I was made instantly unemployed on lock-down day without any notice and was therefore entitled to relief, they made a complete mess of my application for relief and then started to harass me for payment of the council tax 7 months later with no communication in between. The mess they made is well documented and evidenced with email trails. The communications were frustrating, back and to and they were very unreasonable about the cause of the unpaid tax and their failures and every time I complained, I got a standard response which did not address any of my points raised so they never actually addressed the specifics of my complaint. I gave up in the end and decided to pay it the following year along with my current bill, as I was back in work by then. I have therefore paid the council tax in full and have nothing outstanding including this current year. I never should have paid the 20/21 when I had no income but just wanted them off my back to be fair. However, they had applied legal and recovery fees of over £500 which I refused to pay on top of the council tax itself which in itself, was around £2400 per annum. Even though the only thing outstanding is recovery fees, they have now issued a summons to magistrates court for a liability order for the outstanding recovery fees. My question is, can they do this? Are recovery fees alone, the same as council tax and can therefore be made the subject of a liability order under the Council Tax Act? In addition, if I do have to attend court, can I ask for reasonable adjustments as I am disabled and cannot travel distances yet the court they have chosen is over 50 miles away and I would really struggle to get there. Is it reasonable for me to ask for the case to be moved closer to my home to prevent this difficulty? I've tried speaking to the council recovery team a number of times but they are behaving like complete bullies. I'd appreciate some help if anyone knows whether recovery fees can be treated the same as council tax and recovered through the magistrates court which will of course incur even more fees.

PS; there are no rent arrears.

Hi All Posting on behalf of a friend regarding a social housing letting where the landlord claims abandonment when they are aware that this is not true. Background: Tenant of social housing flat for 11 years. Has significant mental health issues, heavily medicated, full access to mental health support and social services for ten years with diagnosed conditions. Landlord Housing Association fully aware. Last year, gas safety inspectors reported unhygenic conditions and tenants flat was a mess and full of rubbish so they reported it to housing association HA, who came out, inspected and then following communication, HA paid for a deep clean, tenant agreed to keep flat clean but did not, mainly due to mental health. This year, last Thurs 23rd Feb, same gas inspection due, they arrived and refused to enter due to condition of the flat. Gas engineers called HA who sent officer out, who walked around flat and took photos, told tenant they would not help this second time and would be starting eviction proceedings. Tenant had a breakdown, packed his tent and left for the hills on Friday 24th (so 6 days ago). Was receiving emails from the HA about him cleaning his flat so that the gas safety inspection could be done as they refuse to enter in current state. They also say that he has registered with a GP in another area which they were told by social services without the tenants permission. ((In fact, the tenant had temporarily registered with a GP in area he is camping because he was admitted to hospital on 26th having had a breakdown and hospital advised him to temp register to get his strong medication while he is in the area as his meds are controlled and pharmacy would not give to him without prescription. He is a suicide risk so he is only allowed a week supply at a time)). Tenant responded yesterday to this email, saying he is away, does not plan to be away for any significant length of time but is having a breakdown due to the threat of eviction. Exact wording used to HA was "I do not plan to be away for a significant amount of time" with an explanation that he is ill, suffering and cannot face the situation at the moment and also explained that his registering with a GP was temporary and he has no idea why the HA had been given that personal detail by social services when it is none of their business. Response from HA is that because he has not told them when he will return (he's only been gone 6 days), and it is a condition of his tenancy that this remains his main residence (not a tent in a field) they have issued him with a notice to quit for abandonment and also say that they are now forcing entry into the property, will take possession before the notice period is served in the notice to quit and will also cap the gas because they have not been able to complete the gas safety inspection. It;s odd that gas engineers refused to enter the property when he was there to inspect, yet seem happy to enter to cap it but this means that when he returns (if they have not already taken the property off him) he will have no heat or hot water. He is very very distressed by this and I am not sure that it is legal? He has told them prior to this notice to quit that he is not abandoning and has only been gone 6 days, all of his belongings, appliances and personal possessions are in there. He really does not want to say a date of return yet until he feels well enough to face it but it will only be a week or so. Can they do this to him? It seems an underhand tactic when they know he is now homeless and just seem to want him out. How does he respond to this notice to quit, especially with them saying that they may force entry and take possession BEFORE the notice date is reached due to the gas needing capping as they claim it is a safety issue which again seems a sly tactic. He's expecting to go home when he's up t it to then find he has no home and his possessions are all gone.

Thank you so much @Kyosanto for your help. I am absolutely certain that there were no terms and conditions attached to the booking via Ryanair on their downloaded app, so no emails involved in the booking itself. I booked the flight for two passengers, then clicked 'extras' and chose car hire. A list of cars and their prices came up, I clicked 'book' on the one I wanted and it added it to my flight with no additional 'click here to agree to T&Cs' or anything of that nature. We do this regularly, and when we arrive at the rental desk, they ask who the driver will be and we complete the paperwork. This is the first time we have selected Budget from the list and expected the same, but on arrival at the desk, they wanted 120euro extra to change the driver that we had never named. They claimed that Ryanair said I was the driver, I don't believe them as Ryanair have never named me as the driver with any other car rental company before so I don't think that this is the process. However, I can't get a straight answer from Ryanair either to confirm or deny whether they did book the rental with my name as a driver - so I can't say for certain which company decided to pick a driver from the two flights passengers without authority. All communication with both has been by email since we returned, so lots evidence that they are fobbing us off and playing ping pong. I called my bank from the airport at the time and asked them to refund the debit card payment as we had not been given the service, but they said I needed to try to resolve with the companies myself and come back to them if I had no joy after 14 days, which will be by this coming Friday so I will go back to my bank and try again. Thanks again for your help, it is really appreciated.

Thanks Homer. Unfortunately not, I don't have a credit card which was part of the original issue above, it was paid by debit card around 3 weeks prior to flying and had already well cleared my current bank account.

Hi All Wondered if somebody could help me with a basic contract question? I booked a flight to Ireland via Ryanair on their app, adding car hire at only 68euro with Budget Car Rental. There were two of us travelling, it is a regular monthly trip to see family. What usually happens is, we get to the car hire desk, tell them my partner is the driver for the booking (I'm disabled), do all of the documents and drive away. We have never used Budget before via this method although their prices are always in the options but this was the first time we selected them. We got to the desk, they said the car was booked in my name as the driver (it wasn't, because adding the car to the flight does not ask at any point who is driving of the two passengers). They would only 'change' it to my partners name if we paid and extra 120euros, almost 200% more. We explained that we have not designated a driver, I am disabled and my partner was the driver and no booking had been made identifying any driver. Long story short, they were hostile, uncompassionate and refused to budge. We asked for money back and they said our contract was with Ryanair not them, as we had booked and paid to Ryanair. Tried to contact Ryanair for two hours t no avail, so we declined the 200% extra payment, were stranded at the airport until we could arrange a car with another company and continued our travel. We had to pay more as booked at the desk, but not the extortionate 120 euros more. Came home, contacted Ryanair to ask why they booked a drivers name when none had been asked for and none given. They said they will not respond as they are just booking agent and will not deal with our complaint or refund, we must contact Budget. Contacted Budget who say our contract is with Ryanair. Now in a catch 22, who is our contract with and how do we get our money back for the car hire that never happened? It is a small amount but it is the absolute principle of the situation after the treatment we received, which was hostile to almost aggression at the car hire desk and then each blaming the other and fobbing us off? Thanks all

Hi All Just to update you on this matter, they did give me the run around for over a week, with promised call backs from the Complaints Dept which never materialised but I persisted. They have offered me compensation by way of a goodwill gesture of £50, then when I declined, they increased it to £80 but will not budge on this. I have no idea what is reasonable considering their actions but to me, £80 seems very low considering that they broke into my home unlawfully and caused me such a lot of distress. It transpired that they had also added the cost of this 'visit' to my account of £27 and £150, but have now removed these charges. Thanks to Brassnecked for suggesting that I check this as I wouldn't have thought of it and you were right, they had applied these charges and have only removed them when I directly asked whether they had done this. They now say that we have reached 'deadlock' as they have made two offers that I have declined, and are sending me a letter to that effect so that I can go to the ombudsman. Am I being unreasonable expecting more than £80 for what they did or are they just trying it on? I really think that £80 for such a catastrophic error seems measly and I am not after a windfall here, I am genuinely not rubbing my hands in glee that I'm getting a payout as I would much prefer that it had never happened in the first place as it has taken my sense of security in my home away and that is priceless. I just don't think that £80 sounds the right level considering I was in tears for two whole days, cancelled a social event as I was too upset to go and can't sleep properly (or naked) any more.

Hi All Thanks so much for your advice, I will keep you updated on developments and as it seems that SP were at fault not the bailiff, I will contact SP again tomorrow so that they cannot just hope that this goes away. Thanks Dodgeball, I will do a SAR under GDPR as I want to see what they claim they sent me if anything at all, but certainly nothing was received since 11 Nov which was just a normal bill, otherwise I would have reacted and contacted them to inform that I had fully paid and they had an error somewhere. BA, the bedroom is downstairs but at the rear of the house, it is a very large detached old property with 2 foot thick walls and I was fast asleep when they knocked, I have full CCTV all around and watched it afterwards, they knocked twice and then broke in. There is an outer double porch door which makes it hard to hear knocking from the rear of the house but these outer doors are usually unlocked and open once I am up and about - but were locked that morning as I was still in bed fast asleep. No damage to locks that I can see and no locks changed, they appeared to 'pick' the locks on the outer door according to the CCTV. although I couldn't tell how they got through the inner door as their bodies were in the way of the camera shot but it was quick, which makes me question my lock security too and will be upgrading. What woke me up was him coming into the bedroom and I hadn't heard a thing before that.

Thanks Brassnecked. It was Scottish Power and the bailiff said he was either from a company called Richmond or his own name was Richmond, it's all a blur with the shock. He did not show me any paperwork at all, although to be fair, I didn't explicitly ask and just listened to what he verbally told me about a warrant being issued and why he had the right to be there.

Hi I hope you can help me with some advice on recourse after a bailiff broke into my home with a locksmith while I was in bed. I woke up to find a complete stranger in my downstairs bedroom and 3 others turned out to be waiting in my hall. I genuinely nearly had a heart attack, I am a woman living alone and was completely naked in bed. The bailiff quickly explained who he was and that he was looking for my electricity meter as they had broke in to change it to a pre-payment meter as they had a warrant. I knew absolutely nothing about this. He politely removed himself while I got dressed, I was in shock and crying by this point. I went out into the hall and he explained that he had an outstanding bill for electricity from August. I had paid the bill in full Nov 2019 and was able to show him this by bank statements he said that I should have had a letter to say the bailiff was coming and that the electricity company still had it listed as unpaid, I had had nothing whatsoever except my last bill which was dated Nov 2019. He rang the supplier and they then 'found' the payments and confirmed it was there, saying that as I had paid it on a standing order, their system does not recognise this as a payment method automatically so I should have paid by a different method. Just for clarity, the original bill was almost £800 and I had called the supplier at the time to say I couldn't pay all at once and they agreed £200 per month. I paid this in August, Sept, Oct and Nov, paying the bill in full. No payments were missed but their system only recorded the Oct payment, even though all payments were made from same bank using the correct supplier and customer reference number and the Aug, Sept and Nov payment were recorded goodness knows where, but were instantly 'found' when the bailiff called. The next bill was issued in Nov and considerably less, so I just carried on paying the same £200 and in Nov and Dec 2019 paid that second bill off too. The next invoice is due around now but haven;t had it yet. There were no arrears therefore at the time of entry, no letters issued, no warning. They do have my address incorrect, and I have corrected it twice now but they haven;t changed it, listing it as a village 6 miles from the actual village but the postcode is right so some, if not all, post should still reach me, it was certainly no problem for the bailiff to find me. The bailiff accepted an error had been made and the person who he called at the suppliers just told him to tell me that I could carry on paying the £200 per month for next due and future bills but by direct debit and not standing order. The four unwelcome visitors all then left my house- without changing the meter. How can this happen, it was the most distressing and frightening experience and I would like help on what recourse I have and with whom. The supplier? The bailiff company? The court for issuing a warrant on a paid debt? Who should have stopped this process in it's tracks before it got to this point? I haven't slept properly since this, I keep re-picturing the intense fear of waking to find a stranger in your bedroom and even though he explained quickly who he was and left immediately to restore my dignity, that first few moments I thought it was a burglar and I was going to be murdered in my bed. The neighbours must have found it entertaining too and I am mortified. I have raised a telephone complaint with the supplier and waiting for somebody to call me back, nothing so far. Can anyone advise me please?

Thanks guys. There is nothing in the letter which identifies as a POPLA code and their reference at the top is 13 digits long so this may not be it. I'll write to them and ask for it.

Thanks ericsbrother. Are you saying then that not being the driver and not knowing who was, is not a defence in itself?

Thanks Dragonfly. I can't offer a defence on didn't see the signs or no contract entered as I wasn't present. The wording in their letter is "if you were not the driver, in order to transfer correct liability of this notice, we will require the full name and address of the driver for the time this charge was incurred". I genuinely don't know who that was. One of my brothers is unemployed and the car was parked on an NHS site next door to where he signs on, on the same day of the week that he signs on, so putting two and two together I might be getting 5, but he is adamant that he has never parked there and he isn't normally shy of accepting responsibility if he's done something so I'm really unsure. Should I write and just say I an't help with the driver as I don't know who it was?

Thanks Silverfox. The offence was on 13th June, they wrote to me dated 24th June and a further letter on 14th July as I hadn't responded. I received both letters on 18th July having been away. I wrote to them 21st July and received a reply on 28th. I'm away again but had my Mum open it as she'd identified it as them and called me. The company is CP Plus Ltd in Barnet.

Hi all Can anyone help me? I own a car which I rarely use as I have a company car and my own car is left at home and general used from time to time by my Mum, my brothers and one of my brothers' girlfriends depending on need. I work away and take the company car with me. I received a notice that somebody had parked my own car on private land about 6 weeks ago and everyone is denying it. I only return home every 3 or 4 weeks so didn't get the letter until after the appeal period. I wrote to the company and asked for photographs of the driver but they have responded saying they have no pictures of the driver, only the car as it was parked and that I must tell them who was driving and the fee is now £120! I genuinely don't know who had the car, they are all denying it although I have my suspicions because of where it was parked, but no proof. I've banned them all from using my car without agreeing with me in advance but is there anything I can do about this charge as I think it's unfair to fine me for something I definitely didn't do! I don't want this to create bad credit on my record so would I be taken to court if I don't pay it?

I've had a look at the link thanks Uncle Bulgaria and it's really helpful. I'm mortified to read that this will be advertised in my local paper and even more squirming at the thought that my employers will be informed as I work in a large Human Resources and Payroll department and it will be my immediate colleagues that get the information and I have to work with them on a day-to-day basis

Thanks everyone. I do still have the original SD with the wrong court on it and copies of the letters that I sent asking what the debt was for. I haven't moved house in 20 years and have had nothing about this even from the court. Would Lowells be able to convince a court that they had served details without actually doing so and proving it?

Nothing that was handed to me Brigadier but I received a poor photocopy of what was titled a statutory demand about 10 months ago through the door with a mobile number written on it. The demand stated that they were making an application in my local court, detailing the address etc - so I rang the court to ask if a hearing would be arranged. The court informed me that they do not hear such cases and have nothing to do with bankrupcy so they suggested that Lowells were 'mistaken'. I've not received anything similar and the court that has made me bankrupt is a different court in a different town completely. Hope that helps.

Thank you Brigadier, I'm in floods of tears here, I just can't believe these people can get away with things like this.

Hi All Not sure if anyone can help me with this. I returned home today to the shock of my life in the post. I've received a letter from an official government receiver to say that 6 days ago, I was made bankrupt by a court. The letter and enclosed leaflets etc tell me that my bank accounts will now be frozen and my home possibly sold. They have asked me to attend a meeting on 23rd April with bank statements, wage slips etc Nothing in the package says who claims that I owe them money, but I have had dealings with Lowells over a disputed debt that they wrote to me about 18 months ago saying they now owned a debt of mine for just over £1200. The letter didn't state who the original debt was supposed to be with or what it was all about and I wrote to them asking for details but never received the information I needed to help me know whether I owed somebody money or not! They wrote to me a couple more times and I sent a copy of my letter but informed them that unless they explained what it was about, I would ignore any future requests for payment. In their standard letters, they threatened bankrupcy but I was quite confident that this could not happen without them first proving that I owed them anything. I haven't heard from them since September last year but now this! Can somebody make you bankrupt without telling you? Don't the courts have a obligation to inform you of a hearing? This is going to have a serious impact on my life and I'm just disgusted and devastated that a court has allowed these cowboys to get away with it? The letter from the receiver says that I can complete a form 7.1 and ask for a annulment - is this likely to happen and can I stop the process of freezing bank accounts etc in the meantime?

Hi PPP. Yes they are. Overtime is paid after you have completed your basic contractual hours and if you are late, you haven't completed them so they have the right to use some of the extra time to complete your basic hours and then pay overtime on the remainder.

Can I add also, that she only leaves the house on average 3 or 4 days a week and doesn't go out at all on bad days so they haven't a complete picture of even a complete week while watching her.

Thanks Nystagmite. I think that's why she qualified. On leaving the house/car she can walk 100m with some ease, but when she has an attack, the walk back to the vehicle/home/assistance is more of a crawl and takes a long time with lots of stops. I know that this issue was assessed some time ago, as in the fact that she can walk 100m etc without difficulty, but not in reverse. I understand that years back, her doctor did a detailed report about why her walking difficulties were not of 'the norm' as they were not as apparent and she had to go for a DWP medical assessment to explain. The photographs were all taken in the Summer months anyway when she is more well, but she knows that she had several incidents throughout the Summer and can't understand why they would only show her photographs of her shopping etc and not have taken pictures of her becoming ill while out because she knows that she definitely has several times over the last few months. Do they 'cherry pick' the evidence or is this not a practice they perform? It just seems too much of a coincidence to us that they happen to have not being watching her on all of the days that she became ill while out. She has been helped back to her car by strangers on more than one occasion during the 'investigation' period.