I know exactly what you are saying. She has no internet and is relying on me to help her. She is a really genuine person who works as many hours as she can to make ends meet and is really struggling. I really feel sorry for her. She has not contacted her councilor as she just doesn't know what to say or where to start. So I am going to do a letter for her.

My friend finally received a reply from the council. It was more of an history of the account and failed to answer any questions or address the points raised regarding her vulnerability and the invalid walking possession. The person who replied has obviously swallowed Jacobs fabrication of events. The letter read as follows: ******** Dear Miss ******** COUNCIL TAX ACCOUNT ************ Thank you for your letter of complaint regarding bailiff activity on you outstanding Council Tax account. Council Tax is administered by Mouchel (GBS) as part of a public private partnership called “service Middlesbrough”. I work within “service Middlesbrough” and have been asked to investigate this matter. Due to non-payment of your 2012/2013 Council Tax, a summons was issued to you on 9 May 2012 for a Court date of 29 May 2012. On this date a liability order was granted by Teesside Magistrates court. You were issued with a Liability Order dated 20 May 2012 requesting either payment in full or an offer of repayment. Neither was forthcoming and your account was later passed to Jacobs Bailiffs for collection 14 August 2012. On 17 September 2012, (Jacobs bailiff) Mxxx Txxxx visited your property where you signed a walking possession and a levy on your goods was taken. At this point you also made an arrangement to pay £40 weekly. My records show that you made contact with Jacobs on 20 December 2012 to notify them that you had broken your foot and that you were now on the sick from work, and that your mother would make payments on your behalf. Jacobs requested that you forward a copy of your sick note to confirm your situation and reduce your arrangement to £20 weekly. You were informed at this point that failure to provide the sick note would result in your arrangement being defaulted upon. Which would result in a further visit to your property in the New Year. You received a letter from Jacobs early January 2013 stating your arrangement had been defaulted upon and requesting payment in full. Your mother telephoned the bailiffs 16 January 2013 and was told that unless payment was received a bailiff would be issued to your property. You wrote to Jacobs 30 January 2013, stating that your circumstances had not been taken into account and offered to pay £100 straight away followed by £40 weekly. They replied confirming the previous conversation of 20 December 201 regarding proof of your sickness from work and that failure to provide proof would result in further action being taken. Jacobs also requested that you brought your account upto date by paying £320 and then then they would reinstate your arrangement. As no contact was made, Bailiff Sxxx Axxxx made a further visit. To your property. He was unable to make contact, but left notification that he had visited your property. My records also show that you wrote again to Jacobs on 9 April 2013 requesting details of your account, but not providing the information they had requested. A reply was issued to you at the end of April 2013 giving you the information you had requested, and again requesting proof of your medical condition, and your income and expenditure details within seven days to enable them to review your account. I note from our records that Jacobs have tried to make contact on several occasions to request information, and collect money. I do appreciate that you have been unwell but must point out that it is in your best interest to update the Bailiffs with changes to your circumstances, continue making payments, and provide evidence, to enable them to assess your financial situation. I understand that Jacobs have requested again details of your income and expenditure along with an initial payment of £50 within 7 days. There is no evidence to suggest you have provided this to the. The bailiff is now fully aware of your current health situation and I am sure that they will make consideration, if needed, for this in the future. However following a review of the above information, I do not feel that any error/mistake has been made on your account and as such the debt will remain with Jacobs bailiffs for collection. I would advise you to make contact with them immediately, to arrange repayment, and prevent further costs being added. I hope this letter fully address your concerns but if you require any further advice or information regarding your Council tax account you are welcome to contact me directly on ********** ******** Any further advice appreciated.

I advised her to but unfortunately I am not 100% sure. I will check with her and if not I will do this for her. I hope she did though.

Hi again, Just a quick update. My friend has still not received any reply from the council almost weeks ago since she sent the letter. I have advised to call the Council tomorrow asking what is going on. I have also advised her to hand deliver a copy of her letter to the council. Jacobs on the other hand are still ignoring my friends vulnerability and have sent yet another threatening letter which read as follow. ******** Dear Miss *** *** FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO PREVENT REMOVAL ACTION If the above amount is not paid in full to this office within SEVEN days of the above date we will have no option but to attend to enforce the liability order by the SEIZURE and SALE of your goods. If you cannot pay in full now you must contact this office immediately to avoid the possibility of having your goods removed. It then advises how to pay. ******** Any advise please as the next step.

Middlesbrough. Once again thanks for all the replies.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Yes they are unfortunately. Better to pay that extortionate amount than have continued harassment from the bailiffs.

Hi Altcr, A friend of mine is going through a similar issue to yours. She got a letter from her doctors at the cost of £25. They charge this fee as it is not NHS related. The letter confirmed her medical condition. She sent this to the Jacobs and all they have said in there reply is that they have updated there record. They then demanded a payment within 7 days or they will proceed with further bailiff action. She is awaiting a reply from her Council.

Any body got any idea of what sort of reply she should send Jacobs??

Yes this has been sent to both.

Yes they have, unfortunately she let them in. She has sent letters with proof of vulnerability. Just waiting to hear from the council.

Here is her response to the letter received above. ******** Please find enclose a copy of the letter you requested for proof of my medical condition and a receipt for the cost of that letter which I trust will be taken off my outstanding balance. The simple fact that I am a single parent is reason enough by law for me to be treat as vulnerable and my medical condition compounds that vulnerability even more. To further add to my vulnerability my 2 children also suffer with epilepsy. I would also like to point out that the walking possession dated 14-9-2012 is not valid as you have included furniture which is required for satisfying basic domestic needs of myself and my family. In your letter you stated that Mr yyyy attended on both the 27-3-13 and 28-3-13. Mr yyyy did not in any way shape or form attend on the 28-3-13 as such I rebuff that claim. He left a letter on the 27-3-13 stating he would return on 30-3-13 which he did not do. I have copies of these letters. I suggest you return this debt to the council and I will deal with them directly. Due to my vulnerability this is the best course to take for both parties. I have not included an income and expenditure breakdown as I am waiting to hear back from the council regarding some discrepancies on my Council tax bills which I am querying them about. I was hoping to have had a response from them by now regarding this. I will be chasing this up as soon as possible. ******** The reply from Jacobs is below Thank you for the information you have supplied regarding your current health circumstances. You account has been updated accordingly. Please note that we will not be reducing your balance to cover the cost of this. We will not be returning the account back to the Local Authority as we feel you are in a position to make arrangements direct with our head office should you comply with our request to forward you income and expenditure details. We have reviewed the items on the inventory and disagree with your claim that it is invalid. Your allegation that the bailiff did not visit is not accepted. The bailiff is equipped with the latest technology that transfers details, including GPS location reference, to our computer system at the time of the visit. We await receipt of your household income and expenditure details along with an initial £50 within 7 days. Should payment not be received, further bailiff action will be taken - this may result in additional costs being added to your account. Jacobs ******** She is awaiting replies from the council and her counciillor's. Any advice on her next steps?

Hi all. Due to my work it is hard to keep this up to date. So she sent the following letter suggested by wonkeydonkey in post #7 and added a few extras things. ******** Dear Sir/Madam With reference to your letter dated 09-04-13 and received on 13-04-13. With reference to the above account, Can you please provide me with a breakdown of the charges. This includes: a - the time & date of any Bailiff action that incurred a Fee. b - the reason for the fee. c - the name(s) of the Bailiff(s) that attended on each occasion a Fee was charged. d - the name(s) of the Court(s) the Bailiff(s) was/were certificated at. e - the date of the Certification. This is not a Subject access request under the Data Protection Act S7 1998 so does not incur a fee of £10. You are obliged to provide this information. I require this information within 14 days. Please refrain from sending myself any further correspondence which are threatening to unlawfully force entry into my home. I am a single mother with 2 young children and as such I am vulnerable. To further compound my vulnerability I suffer with epilepsy as does my oldest child. As a result of my vulnerability I refuse to deal with any bailiffs you may send. I am in correspondence with the council I owe this money to and I have made them fully aware of your threats and of my vulnerabilities. I am more than willing to pay this debt but a suitable method of payment needs to be found and demanding the full amount is both unrealistic and impossible for me to carry out. ******** She received the following reply. We thank you for your correspondence, the content of which has been noted. Please find below our response to your points raised: Mr xxxx attended your property on the 5th September 2012 at 13.51. As he did not make contact with you he left a letter at your property. A fee of £24.50 was raised. Mr xxxx called again on the 14th September at 11.38. During this visit an arrangement was agreed upon and you signed a walking possession. A Levy was also conducted. A levy fee of £50.00, Walking possession fee of £12.00 and a schedule 5-header H fee of £24.50 we allocated to your account. Please find enclosed a copy of the notice of seizure and arrangement. Mr xxxx was certified at Liverpool CC and the certificate expired on 20th January 2013. Mr xxxx is no longer employed at our company. As you did not adhere to the arrangement your account progressed to the enforcement bailiff, Mr yyyy who attended your property on the 27th March 2013 at 08:56. An attendance fee of £90.00 was raised. He also attended on the 28th March 2013 at 10.12. Mr yyyy was cartified at Liverpool CC and has also recently left our company. As you signed a walking possession our bailiff may gain peaceful access to your property if required. We note you consider yourself to be a vulnerable case, we advise that we shall require proof of your medical condition, and a full breakdown or four income and expenditure, along with proof of all your household income. We shall review your account on receipt. Please forward the aforementioned information to our head office within 7 days to prevent further action being taken. ******** The levy has the following items listed: CTV F/S W/S Samsung +RC 2+3 sofa, cloth brown It also has 3 other items on but I cannot decipher the writing. I think it says: (indecipherable) unit brown. (Indecipherable) unit. Side Table (indecipherable). She replied to this letter with her proof. I will copy the letter below along with Jacobs reply, please bear with me.

Today she received another letter through the mail dated 9-4-13 which I have typed out below. BAILIFF REMOVAL - 7 DAY NOTICE AMOUNT DUE: £665.04 Dear Miss ******** FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO PREVENT REMOVAL ACTION. If the above amount is not paid in full to this office within SEVEN days of the above date we will have no option but to attend to enforce the liability order by the SEIZURE and SALE of your goods. If you cannot pay in full now you must contact this office immediately to avoid the possibility of having goods removed. It then goes on to say give payment details. ************************************ I have since found out that she suffers from epilepsy as do her sons. I would have thought that this would mean she is vulnerable, being a single mum as well. Can any previous Levy be used on another debt? Any advice greatly received ? The poor woman is beside her self with worry. I have advised her to write to Jacobs and the Council explaining her situation.

Hi all, Sorry I haven't been about, I have been working away had little to no internet access. If you can recall my friend broke her leg and missed paying Jacobs as she was house bound. Any way, this is still ongoing. I have since learned that the levy the bailiffs had in march last year was for 2011 CT arrears which was cleared in May of 2012. So she is now being chased for her 2012 arrears. Bailiffs attended on 27-3-13 and left the following letters. Letter One REMOVAL 48 HOURS BALANCE DUE £665.04 The Council has instructed us to collect the above debt and any Enforcement Costs incurred. Despite previous requests the debt remains outstanding. Jacobs have instructed me, as Bailiff in Charge, to arrange for the removal and sale of your goods. I will re-attend your premises and REMOVE goods even in your absence. To stop removal action contact me MR S. A****Y IMMEDIATELY on 0788******* to arrange PAYMENT IN FULL within 48 HOURS. Signed by Mr S AXXXXXy **************************************** Letter 2 Name and Address hand written. Jacobs Ref and Client Ref also hand written NOTICE OF INTENTION TO FORCE ENTRY AND REMOVE GOODS WE REFER TO OUR NOTICE OF SEIZURE OF GOODS & INVENTORY DATED 14-9-12. (Date hand written) TAKE NOTICE that as you have failed to pay the balance outstanding we must now remove the said goods for sale. We will be re-attending at 09.00am Sat 30-3-13 to remove said goods. Please ensure you are home to allow us access to proceed with the removal. PLEASE NOTE - If you are not home we will utilise the services of a locksmith to gain entry to your home and the removal will proceed in your absence. This will incur further costs for you. It is there fore in your interest to ensure you are home when we attend. Please contact me on the telephone number below if you wish to discuss the matter. Signed by S AXXXXXy. ****************************** My friends say she cannot remember the bailiffs coming into her house a second time for another levy, nor does she have a notice of seizure of goods & inventory for the date stated in letter 2.

Sorry my mistake, they didn't get the Levy through the Window.