The recovery section is just like talking to a bailiff with zero help. This will be my forth letter of complaint to the council in a week!!!! I will be coping my Mp into all my complaints from now on

Up date from today. I have spoken to the council and they said that it is not their policy to take back cases or put them on hold whilst there is a formal complaint. She was very rude and constantly talking over me. I then tackled her about the over charging. She persistanly told me that I had to take that up with the bailiff has the council do not interfere with bailiff charges. However I too was persistant in telling her that the bailiffs where working for the council and that they too must allow the over charging. She came back and told me that the rest of the charges where for a van he turned up in. I explained to her AGAIN that he had not entered my house, so no levi was made, thus no charge for a levi or a van. She phoned me back after speaking with the bailiff and he told her he pre-wrote out the summons letter and just posted it through the door when I was not in and did not change the charges. When I spoke to the bailiff after he came he did not mention this to me!!!! I phoned Rossendales and they will take £5 a week until the benefits are sorted and applied to the account. What is getting to me is that it should not have gone to the bailiffs in the first place. If all the benefits are back dated should the bailiff charges be dropped to? Thanks again for any help

It was a formal template complaint letter so had all the relevent jargon in it. I should not have to pay any council tax but just wanted to show willingness. The letter was just taken into the councils benefit office and I got a reciept . i will phone the council to find out why they will not stop action pending the dispute. Thanks for your replies so far. I am off to work now but will reply to anyone this evening. I will make a donation to the site when I have a bit of spare cash. Have a good day all

Hi Thanks for your reply, I wrote a letter of complaint and took it in on Monday and got a reciept for it (I did not know you got reciepts for paperwork or I would have asked for one when I took the document in back in April. However they have not stopped bailiff action has one turned up yesturday. Has a gesture of good will I offered the bailiff £10 a week , should I have done this?

I have read the help on bailiffs and will not let him in and the kids are also aware. The car is parked out of the way. I have written to the Mp. I cant beleive it will take the council another month to sort this, they say they have a back log.

Mansfield District Council

Hi Thanks for your reply, the council are aware that I claimed after all the lady at the JSA applied for me. They said that they did not recieve the paperwork that I took in! They already had my bank statements ect proving my income so knew I would be entitled to council tax benefit. I have always complied with time scales. The bailiff is charging me approx £280 for his first visit!

Thank you very very much x

Hi I am new to this forum and first time posting. So my back ground. I am a single mother of four children. I was working full time from 1999 until August 2011 when I was made redundant has an administrator. I was on JSA for 2 weeks when I decided to go self employed. I knew I would not be able to claim a wage for a long time but eventually would be able to get a part-time wage then maybe more. When I claimed JSA they made a claim for council tax benefit for me and when I went self employed I also informed the council about this and my non earnings. I sent in all relevent documents to the council yet in December 2011 I recieved a letter from the council saying they have taken me to court and obtained a LO. Sent to Rossendale. I phoned the council and they put a hold on the bailiffs and asked me for more information. I sent in the information and in March 2012 they requested more information which I took in personally to their office. I did not hear anything else for a few months so I wrote to them asking why this application was taking so long (sent recorded delivery ). I did not hear anything until September 2012!!!! When they sent me a new application form out and asked me to fill it out and ask it to be back dated!!!! On 28th September 2012 a bailiff came whilst I was out giving me a final notice ect ect ect so I came straight on this group and looked for about 20 hours over the weekend to find out my rights and I am so glad I did. The first thing is he has charged me £1004.35 for a 743.28 debt for his first visit. This LO was from August 2011 (before that I was earning and paying council tax).From reading these forums I was not letting him in so decided to write a letter to the bailiff and leave it pinned to my door for him to collect. I wrote him the 'I know my rights ' template letter and also the 'over charging' letter. I also sent a copy of these letters, with a cover note to my Mp, the council and his employer. This was last friday and he said he would be calling in 24 hours (saturday). Even though I knew my rights me and the kids went into hiding all weekend and relaxed on sunday when I knew he could not call. I knew there was another LO coming for this years council tax and yesturday (wednesday) I got another call from the bailff when I was in. I did not open the door and told him to take the letter and he did and went away posting a notice. After reading all my rights and complaint letters he came back with a letter of repayment and only charged me £24.50 for his visit.This was a different bailiff. I am thinking of seeking help about going back on JSA has the business is still not making enough money for me to take a wage and in the last month I have applied for over 60 jobs.I am not idle by any means. My question is how long do I have to stay in hiding? The council say I have to wait for a month for my application to be looked at. I have not ate since last friday and feel sick every time the door gets knocked on. Its affecting the whole family. Any help would be gratefully recieved. Kind regards