URGENT!! Jacobs Bailiffs are threatening to take goods from my property...

[petemcb]

Last year around October time I received a letter from Jacobs stating that I owed a total of £958 (for two council tax bills) from an old address and was asked if I could pay it in full, I phoned Jacobs and told them I couldn't pay it in full but I was willing to make a monthly payment of £100. I work as a self employed disc jockey mainly in nightclubs. After a couple of months I lost a night at one club and I was struggling to find more work to keep up the payments.

 

I contacted Jacobs to try and lower the payment but they refused and I didn't know what to do. It's been an endless battle trying to get them to lower the payment, I only earn just enough to pay my rent and bills. I phoned them once again and pleaded with them to lower the payment and the gentleman on the phone asked me to send an income and expenditure form to which I did.

 

I then received a letter stating that I was to pay £120 per month which of course was impossible there was obviously some kind of mistake, I phoned them back and they told me that this is the only amount they would accept. I have been arguing my case with them for sometime now and only a month back they put my amount up again to £140 per month.

 

I decided to take this to The Citizens Advice Bureau where they looked at my income and expenditure form that I had sent to Jacobs, they could clearly see that there was no way that I could make these payments they were demanding. The lady that was dealing with this for me telephoned Jacobs to try and get them to lower the amount and also tried to get them to hand it back over to the council to see if I could come to some arrangement with them, but still they were not going to move.

 

I have now received this afternoon a removal of goods notice through my front door with an increased amount of what I owed, one for £359.72 and another for £755.04 telling me I have 48 hours before removal and that I have to contact the bailiff in charge within 24 hours.

 

We are moving house in a day and a half time, not because of this but because it will be cheaper for us in the long run. I am at my wits end and maybe I have posted this a little late - but can someone please help me?

 

 

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome,

 

I'll move this thread to the appropriate Forum.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[chris600uk]

 

I have now received this afternoon a removal of goods notice through my front door with an increased amount of what I owed, one for £359.72 and another for £755.04 telling me I have 48 hours before removal and that I have to contact the bailiff in charge within 24 hours.

 

Ignore it for now, first get yourself moved, do not ring or speak to them.

If they visit ignore them, treat them as it they are invisible no matter what they do or say.

 

Park your vehicle away from the house, well away.

 

Don't leave anything outside that could be levied upon.

 

Pay the council direct online.

[petemcb]

Since I posted my original thread yesterday, I decided to write a letter to the council:

 

The Letter

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE : ACCOUNT REFERENCE ***********

I write with regards the above account for ** ********* , Thirsk.

 

I have today received 2 letters from Jacobs Bailiffs informing me that they wish to remove goods from my home to the value of £1114.76. Which obviously includes more of their fees as the original bill was for £868.26.

 

I have sent several letters to them regarding this as I cannot pay it in full. I was originally paying £100 per month but as I am self employed and I lost one of my weekly jobs I requested that they lower this payment to £50.00. They refused this offer and since then I have made no payments.

 

 

They wrote to me and said they would accept £120.00 which was not realistic as I lost a job and was asking them to lower it. They then wrote to me again and stated they would accept no less than £140.00 per month.

 

I then consulted the Citizens Advice Bureau in Northallerton who suggested I contact you direct. I have drawn up an Income and Expenditure form and enclose this to show you what money me and my partner have.

 

 

I have also, on several occasions requested a breakdown of this balance and to date, I have received nothing so I would appreciate a full breakdown sending to me.

 

As you will see we are struggling on the money we have and have several debts to pay. We have made arrangements with all our creditors and they have all accepted our offers of payment due to our circumstances and this will be re-evaluated in 6 months time.

 

 

I was quite happy to pay this debt back at £50.00 per month but as they have kept increasing it I have paid nothing. I am well aware I need to pay this back but increasing my payments is doing nothing but delay this.

 

I write in the hope that we can come to an arrangement where I pay £50.00 per month back direct to you which I am quite happy for you to review in 6 months time. I also dispute all the fees the bailiffs have charged as this is only making my situation worse.

 

 

I am sure you can appreciate that I am worried about this and do want to resolve it as soon as possible but the current situation myself and my partner are in the only way I can resolve this is for you to accept this payment.

 

I would appreciate you contacting me on 07979 ****** as soon as possible and hope we can come to an agreement so Jacobs no longer need to be involved. Their forceful and rude attitude is not helping me resolve this and the matter is only getting worse but I am quite happy to resolve this with you if you will accept my payment offer.

 

 

I would appreciate your immediate attention to this matter and look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Yours Faithfully

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a question - Can the council refuse to take back the debt?

[chris600uk]

yes, so what you do is tell noone and just quietly pay them online, they'll know about it, after you've done it, and I promise you....they won't give you the money back

[petemcb]

OK well, we have now moved into our new home, we did have to go back to the old place to do a spot of cleaning before handing the keys back over to the landlord.

 

A bailiff did come to the door and my partner answered it and told him that she was the new tenant at that property and that as far as she knew I had left a week ago.

 

I have started making payments online to the council but the question now is - does this stop Jacobs from hassling me? If it doesn't what can I do?

[chris600uk]

I have started making payments online to the council but the question now is - does this stop Jacobs from hassling me? If it doesn't what can I do?

 

No, but not gaining entry or finding anything to levy upon will do the trick because the bailiff will eventually hand the account back to the council.

 

Being a bailiff is a bit like being a salesman, in that, their time is valuable and they won't want to waste it on people who are unlikely to or unable to pay.