Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I'm in need of some urgent advice. The bailiff called and dropped a letter through my door on the 13th November, saying that we owed £1097 in council tax arrears. I found it rather odd, as I thought I'd come to an arrangement with the council in regard of this for a bill of £1200 including a small amount of arrears from the previous year. rang the bailiff and informed him that I'd arranged a meeting with the council to sort this out. When visiting the council, it turned into the most confusing meeting ever. The outcome of the meeting was, that they said they'd cancelled the agreement, even though I thought I was paying it. They said I had to pay them £225 at £45 per month, which was no problem, and that I'd have to come to some arrangement with the bailiff for £1097. I didn't foresee a problem with this, until I spoke to the bailiff this afternoon, which is the real matter I require advice about. He said to me, could I pay the full amount straight away? I told him no way, I can afford to, but was prepared to pay it in installments to clear it for April. He then said, in order to do that, I had to cough up £270 in charges, so that he can come to the house and assess my goods. Then and only then would an agreement be arranged. There's no way I want to let him into the house due to the horror stories I've heard, that once in, your stuffed. Surely this can't be right. Any advice of what I can do, as I can't afford the £270 payment. I'd rather pay it off the arrears. I feel I'm in a catch 22 situation right now. I feel like I'm being blackmailed by bailiff he said to me that if I didn't agree to pay the £270 and let him into the house, he would just keeping coming to the house racking up the fees. I've been reading on the web, that you can ask the council to withdraw your case from the bailiff, then arrange to pay the council. Has anyone got any advice if the council say no?