I also have this same situation - my charges are £54.00 each month which is being added to the mortgage and therefore also having interest charged on it. So far I have had the suspended order since June 2007 and it will take until June 2010 for my arrears to be below the 1 month target where no charge is paid so in total another £1944 added to the mortgage. Does anyone know if this is legal to do especially as the judge only ordered an additional £50.00 per month onto the mortgage payment??

Hi Chris, the 2nd letter sent to the baliffs is as follows Re: Your Reference ******** Client reference ************* Please understand that I am fully aware of my rights and you will not gain peaceful entry to my home under any circumstances to levy goods. I know the fees allowed under statute and when these fees can be applied. Dear Sir/Madam, Further to my letter of 20th November 2008 (a copy of which is enclosed) to which I have had no response, I have received a demand for you that appears to add nearly £272.50 to my original outstanding council tax bill. This is considerably more than you are entitled to charge. Demanding fees for work that you have not done - is an offence under Section 2(1)(b)(i) and Section 4(1)©(i) of the Fraud Act 2006, and grounds for a complaint to the County Court under the Distress for Rent Rules 1988 or Form 4 complaint. This account is in dispute, the amount you are demanding is incorrect as I have been making payments direct to ********* Council since September 2008 and I expect NO FURTHER ACTION to be taken. I will pay any fees owing to you, but will only do this when I have received and had time to have checked a full breakdown of charges, including what the fee consists of (showing appropriate receipts if applicable), when they visited, the vehicle used, the name of the certified bailiff and the court at which he was certified, otherwise I am entitled to refuse to pay the fees. If I do not receive the information that I have asked for by return of post, I will make a complaint to ************ Council and a regulation 46 complaint to the Magistrates Court which issued the liability order. I am sending a copy of this letter to *********** Council Yours faithfully,

Just an update, nothing received yet in response to my letters to the council or to the baliffs, however I did find whilst routing in the house the original court summons stating the amount outstanding and the summons costs - I now calculate that they have charged me £292.50 extra which is even worse!!

Thanks Chris - yes I do have copies, all of the payments have been done through my online banking, I set them up for regular payments which means you can filter it to show the payments for a specific payee showing the amount and the date that the payment was sent. I also specified on the account reference number the year that the payment relates to. Has anyone ever had the charges reduced by the baliffs?? I am sending them another letter today by recorded delivery, enclosing a copy of the original letter and asking them for a breakdown of their charges and stating that if there are any unlawful charges I will be taking further action.

Hi, yet another addition to this post. I got home from work yesterday to find another visit letter from the baliffs, now stating that they attended with a view to removals and in order for no further action to be taken I need to pay them XXXXXX - an increase of £272.50 on top of my original council tax bill. No mention at all has been made regarding the amounts that I have already paid over to the Council by bank transfer and no mention of a reply to my letter sent over a week ago. Up to the last visit 11th November to which I responded with the letter, the fees charged were £42.00, so just like that another £230.50 has been added on. My boyfriend was actually at my house all day yesterday putting some lights in the garage and he said that no-one came near the house at all so it looks like they just added some more charges on and pushed the letter through the door. Surely this is not legal, is it a right for a baliff to just add whatever they feel like on top of a bill. Also isn't it amazing that the signature on the letter is illegible! Does anyone have any idea of what the extra charges could be and am I right in thinking that only the 1st and 2nd fee is legal & chargeable?? Can anyone advise on the next plan of action?? I have sent a letter to the council but as yet no response has been received but no way am I going to pay a baliff money for nothing, this is how I got into trouble with council tax as first a baliff gets involved, adds extortionate fees on top and after having to lend the money to pay these getting in trouble with the next year's bill and it starts all over again. The last point on there letter is ' do not ignore this letter as we will keep on calling ' Sorry to rant on but I am so annoyed by these people - they know that people are struggling with money, else a person would not be in a position where baliffs are involved - why can't they be reasonable and then people would be reasonable back!!

Hi, I also had this problem with Npower, but my new company Ebico said that it is normal for them to do this. Ebico just sent in the applications again a couple of weeks later and Npower approved it - tell your new supplier to apply again

I know what you mean, in some ways I do actually prefer a prepayment meter as I like the fact that I don't get a bill and can budget better. However, I remember last year the problems my local shop had with their top up machine and the times I had to go to bed freezing with no gas. It made me start thinking a credit meter on direct debit maybe a better option, I just have to make sure that the DD covers the payments. Plus if it is so easy to change from prepay to credit and vice versa then I can always go back again - they have shown that it can be done just like that!!

Hi, I also have an ebico gas meter and have only just changed over from Npower, who had messed up the credit/debt on the meter that much that Ebico had to send a big credit onto the card to sort it, so I thought it was all to do with that. I have spoken to a lady at Southern Electric today who says that any debt built up on the meter due to it not working correctly is not payable by the customer as it is Ebico's mistake and as long as you top up by the 1st December by at least £1.00 the mistake will be rectified and you will start prepaying again, I replied with does that mean that if I hammer my gas useage up to the 1 December I will not get charged for it, she laughed and said basically yes - My advice is to take a meter reading on the 1st December to make sure that if a bill does arrive you can point out where the mistake was. I then asked if I decided to have a credit meter instead how do I go about it and she said that I should ring them on the 1st December with a meter reading and that I would start being on a credit meter from the 1st December with either a bill or a monthly direct debit plan. One thing I found incredible was that when I was with Npower, they told me that it would cost me £100 to change my meter over from a prepayment to a credit meter but astonishingly it looks like it can be done just like that!!!!

Thanks Scatz, I will amend and take out the fraud and locksmith parts and send it today, hopefully I will get a response

Sorry the table did not paste properly but you can get the gist of it

Thank you scatz - below is the letter that I am sending to the baliffs, from your opinion do I need to add anything to it? Dear Sir or Madam. Re: Your Reference ******** Client Reference: ******** Council appears to have instructed you to collect unpaid council tax. This notice directs that you are not being given entry to my home or to levy goods contained within and your entitlement to charge a Walking Possessions fee stands revoked. Please be advised that if your fees now or in the future are found to contradict Regulation 14(2) or Regulation 45(2) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, you may be liable for criminal prosecution under the Fraud Act 2006. Without corresponding with you further I will also automatically file a Form 4 at court. Since September 2008 I have been making payments direct to the Council through their online payments system and therefore the balance shown on your letters is incorrect. Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay the debt in whole and will make payment of £**** each month direct to the council as I have been doing since September 2008. I have also asked that the council take back this account. These are the only payments I can afford and allows me to pay future council tax liabilities without falling into arrears. Please be advised it is not a "criminal offence" for me to deny a bailiff entry to my property and it is an offence to threaten me with breaking and entering with "locksmiths". I am willing to pay the fees due of £24.50 first visit and £18.00 second visit totalling £42.50 as these are lawful. In response to your threat of adding £95.00 attendance fee to my account may I refer you to the table below from the National Debtline. A charge for attendance can only be charged after levy has been made – in this case no levy has been made and therefore no charge can be added. EVENT COUNCIL TAX CHARGES POLL TAX CHARGES For a visit to your home where no entry is made and a list of goods is not made (i.e. a levy is not made) £24.50 for a first visit £18.00 for a second visit No further charges for further visits £15 for a first visit £12.50 for a second visit No further charges for further visits For making a levy (i.e. where the bailiffs gain peaceful entry and make a list of goods) £24.50 for the first £100 or less 4% for the next £400 2.5% for the next £1,500 £15 or 15% For entering into a 'walking possession' agreement Flat fee of £12 10p per day For a 'close possession' agreement (e.g. bailiff stays with the goods) £15 per day 10p per day For one attendance with a vehicle with a view to recover goods after the levy has been made under this heading Reasonable costs incurred (N.B. only one charge can be made.) For the removal and storage of goods Reasonable costs incurred For various items relating to sale or proposed sale of the goods (e.g. auctioneers' fees etc) Various fees and expenses Yours Faithfully

can anyone tell me if the £95.00 attendance fee is a lawful charge please? I am just composing another letter to the baliff and wanted to make sure of my facts. I know that first and second visits are £24.50 and £16.00 but I thought that was all they could charge without a levy?

I did get one from the council when I got the letter saying it was going to court, which I filled in and sent through to them offering that I paid another 10.00 per month on top of my monthly payment to bring the account up to date (which would have taken 13 months), but I never received any reply to that. Come to think of it I didn't even receive a letter from the Court to say that a liability order had been granted

Hi Scatz thanks for your reply, yes I do live on my own and yes I do claim the 25% discount but with everything else it is still a struggle. Voxter, the only reason that the baliffs get it every year is the extortionate charges that they add extra to the account which makes keeping up to date with the current year difficult - I don't want to have to keep paying baliffs but the council are far to quick to bring baliffs into the equation and do not seem to want to listen to householders who are in difficulty. When this year's account went to court, I was 2 months in arrears with my council tax - I rang the council up to talk about it before the hearing date and the response I got was nothing can be done until the liability order has been granted, ring back after that date. By the time it actually went to court I was only 1 month in arrears, I rang the council back the day after it went to court which was the 26th August and was told that it was now too late, the account had been passed to baliffs and there was nothing I could do about it, that was when I decided to start paying the council direct by internet transfer into their account and have done so ever since. Sorry to rant but the council really get my back up!!

Thanks for the replies - I have wrote a letter to the baliffs informing them that I have been sending payments to the council each month since September and would they refer it back to the council - not received a reply on that as yet but yesterday I got home and there was a letter in the post from them stating the following 'Your goods are now at risk' Your case has now been allocated to my team to conclude. We are scheduling your case into our Removal Team's workload for immediate seizure and removal of goods. Your goods will then be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. Auctioneer and storage costs will be added to the above balance. In any event our Removal Team's attendance charges which will be no less than £95.00 will become payable by you also. To prevent the above action you must telephone ******* immediately to arrange full payment. In the absence of any contact, we shall have no option than to continue as above. Does anyone have any advice?? I have never let anyone into the house or even spoke to the baliffs, my main worry was that my car could be taken - most of the time it is not parked at the house as I stay at my boyfriends most of the time, so hopefully it will be ok. The reason that I hadn't paid my council tax dates back years to the fact that when I split with my long term partner I was left with many debts one being council tax and baliffs got involved and for the past 5 years I have struggled to pay the baliffs, then got in trouble with the next year's payment meaning that again it goes to baliffs - just when you think that you are getting on top of things everything goes wrong again. I am so glad of this site as in previous years I have just paid the baliffs and their fees (Rossendales) and from what I have read on this forum it looks like they overcharged me by around £300 each year in fees, they were never let into the house but always the fees increased - now I am thinking that hopefully following the advice of some of the posts I can SAR them and get some of these fees back but in the meantime can anyone help me with the present problem?

I did think of writing to the baliffs with one of the template letters from here informing them that I was paying the council direct but wasn't sure which one to use. Is it possible that the council would take back the debt or does anyone have any further advice in addition to miziwizzi in the fact that as they have not returned the money that it infers an agreement. Could anyone advice of any template letters that I could use to send to the council regarding taking back the account? I have not had any acknowledgement from the council at all regarding the payments, but it is going directly into their council tax account as listed on their payment book with my account number and 08-09 added on after the reference

Hi I am wondering if anyone could advise me Back in August my council tax for 2008-09 was put into court and a liability order granted. Since September I have been paying a monthly amount directly to the council under their online payment system - I didn't ask if I could do this but presumed that as long as the account number and year it related to was on the payment reference that they would be able to tie it into my account. In October I received a letter from Dukes baliffs stating that they had been instruced to collect the debt, but it was for the full amount on the liability order with no mention of the payments I had made to the council. Basically I ignored the letter and carried on making the payments direct. On Tuesday I was off work and my car was parked in my driveway which is also shared with my next door neighbour. There was a knock at the door and I was upstairs and looked out of the window to see a man walking away from the door and getting into a white van (he must have only stood there for about 10 seconds, not even giving me time to get down the stairs to the door) Anyway I got down the stairs and there was nothing put through the letterbox so I though it must have just been a salesman or something. About 2 hours later I went out to take my dog out and walked down my shared driveway, as I walked past my neighbours garden an envelope caught my attention, I picked it up and it was addressed to me and from Dukes saying that I still owed against the liability order, they have added on charges of £43.50 (which seems correct from what I read) and that I should contact them to arrange payment of the debt. My questions are: 1 As my car was in the drive, is it possible that they have levied on it or do they have to leave paperwork to state this? 2 Can they take a note of the registration number and levy at a later date? 3 The fact that I found the letter in my neighbours garden, does this contravene Data Protection I am still paying the council monthly payments and will continue to do so until the debt is paid off but my worry is that now they have seen my car would they be able to take it? Any advice would be gratefully received.

Hi Tomtubby Sorry for barging in on this thread but can you answer me a question - I have a case that went to court, I replied to the claim form, giving details of income & expenditure and offering payment - the court said that they never received it and granted judgement in default and on the same day that judgement was granted, Marstens high court officers were appointed and now the debt has gone from £800.00 to over £1300, and they are adding charges on every day. I sent into the court form N244 to vary the judgement with a fee of £35.00 but they returned it saying that I also needed to pay another fee of £115.00 for stay the warrant of fifa because of the high court involvement - is this correct? Ps I have asked the High Court sherrifs for a list of their charges but they said that they cannot supply these until the debt has been paid???? Hope you can help

Hi Tiglet, talking of Rossendales, I had the same sort of situation, they said that they sent letter after letter in respect council tax debt - I didn't pay this straightaway and they added charge after charge on top for letters, they added for visits and also for van removal costs, even though no van was ever seen. I did eventually pay all of this are they allowed to add for van removal costs if no walking possession agreement has been signed, and if so could I go back to them to try and get this charge back?

Thanks Ell-enn, I actually got their account number and sort code from them when I spoke to them this morning and paid it straight into their account, and I've also faxed them a copy of the paying in slip and the letter from my mum stating that she has no interest in my house, so there is no way that they can say they never got it!! I know what you mean about telling my mum, but sometimes it is hard to admit that you need help to the people who are closest to you. I felt that I would be putting pressure on her if I'd told her about it, but I feel much better now she knows about the whole thing. Thanks again for all your help

Thanks for your advice its much appreciated. However I have good news - last night I bit the bullet and spoke to my mum about everything and after talks about everything she has very kindly wrote a cheque for me for £2000 which clears the arrears from my suspended possession and also puts me in the position that I am a month in credit in respect of these payments (and gives me breathing space). I rang mortgage plc this morning to tell them and spoke to a really nice man (for a change the women I have spoke to have been condiscending about the arrears and spoke to me as if I was dirt). I told him that I had a cheque for the arrears and asked if the eviction would be stopped. He told me that I would have had until the end of the month to sort it out anyway and gave me instructions regarding the cheque - it seems that as it is a cheque from my mum's account that a letter has to be written to say that she has no financial interest in the house even though she is making a payment off the mortgage. So anyway great news and at last I can sleep at night and will not ever again miss a payment (hopefully). I will work hard now to try and bring the arrears down to nothing by paying a bit extra each month and hopefully then the £54.00 charge will then stop. Incidentaly can these be reclaimed or should I wait until the bank charges case has finalised. So thank you for your suggestions and help it was really appreciated to know that there are people out there who are willing to help others that find themselves in difficult positions.

Hi as of this morning I've still not received anything from the court regarding an eviction date (how long does it normally take for one to be sent from the court?) A funny thing though I did receive a letter from Mortgages PLC dated the 8th April which was the day that they said they had requested a possession warrant. Basically the letter states that my arrears including this month's payment are now £2900 approx and that I have 7 days to bring the account up to date or they will instruct their solicitors to take further action and it advises me to speak to the local council regarding housing - does this mean that they have not actually taken that step to issue a warrant yet even though they said they have?

Thanks ever so much for your advice, have just got home and checked the post but nothing as yet, as soon as I get something I will let you know

Yes I can make the April payment on the 25th when I get paid, I have already told them that and they said that if the eviction date is before then the payment needs to be made before then

Hi Bona Thanks for replying, sorry I got a bit mixed up it is February and March payments that I have missed my April payment is due by the end of the month and I usually pay these on the 25th of each month when I get paid. I spoke to Mortgages PLC again last night before I read your response and asked them when the warrant was requested as I had rang them as soon as I had the answerphone message and their response was as soon as they rang and left the message at 9.45am yesterday because I didn't actually answer the phone they submitted the application for warrant straightaway, it was only a matter of at the most an hour before I got the message and rang them back, are they supposed to give you any time to contact them or can they just apply straightaway? Anyway the lady I spoke to last night said that my arrears now actually stand at just over £2900 which includes my April payment which isn't even due until the 25th April and she said that I need to pay at least 50% of the arrears (ie just under £1500) for them to stop the warrant being executed as soon as I have made the payment in cash before the eviction date (she could give me no idea of what this would be, she said anything between 1 week to 3 weeks) for me to fax over the paying in slip and then they will contact the baliffs to stop any eviction - is this correct and should I get confirmation of what she said in writing? I've got statements showing the charges that they have applied to the mortgage since I went into arrears but they have not included the charges in the amount of arrears that is outstanding. I was going to try and claim back the charges once my arrears were clear but because of the test case thought I would have to wait, is this true also? Thanks for reading