Queries re council tax debt and sheriff officers

[Melisandre]

I am not currently working, but am married and as my husband works full time, I am not claiming benefits.

 

I owe council tax arrears that were accrued before I met my husband, so he is not liable in any way for the debt. The arrears were being paid off when I was working, but I was made redundant.

 

I have been avoiding dealing with the sheriff officers as I find them pretty aggressive and nasty and find they consistently refuse my offers of payment stating it is not enough, but need to do something as I am concerned they will try and arrest my bank account (I dont know if they can do this or not as it is in my married name and they only have my maiden name). The money that is paid into my account is CB, tax credits and my husbands wages - are they entitled to arrest any of these?

Edited May 3, 2012 by Melisandre
clarify post

[freakyleaky]

Hi and welcome to the CAG.

I am sorry you've had no replies as yet.

I will flag this up for the site team to take a look at.

[IdaInFife]

Hiya,

 

Yes they can apply for an arrestment to your account even if funded by the above.

 

What SO's is it?

 

Approx how much do you owe?

 

How much can you realistically afford to offer for payment?

 

Have you received a charge for payment? if so when was it dated?

[Melisandre]

Hi. I'm not even sure of the exact balance on the account anymore, as it was coming off my IS for nearly a year, so I never had any correspondence with them in that time. Once I moved in with my partner - now husband - my benefit entitlement stopped so their payments stopped. They have been trying to phone me but I haven't been answering the phone and I never advised them of my new address so they will have been sending letters to my old address. The last time I had to speak with them on the phone they had me in tears, so I have been avoiding dealing with them.

 

The last thing I want is for them to freeze my account so I need to contact them but i'm worried that if they won't accept a payment offer, they will just freeze it anyway. They dont have my bank account details but I read somewhere if they ask and you refuse to tell them they will fine you. I don't know if that's true. SO are Walker Love.

 

They were entitled to take 3.75 per week off my benefits, and now I am not earning or receiving benefits except tax credits and CB I was going to offer them £5.00 per week and see if they would accept it. I really don't want to deal with them over the phone, would emailing them be acceptable?

Edited May 4, 2012 by Melisandre
ETA: SO are Walker Love

[IdaInFife]

Yes they have a form on their website where you can apply for payment arrangement and i would start making payment when you can i.e if you want to make it every tuesday make your payment on that day next week as they do take a few days to get back to you..

 

If they do refuse it, continue to make the payment you have offered on time and come back and let us know and we then can take it from there.

[Melisandre]

Hi

 

I finally bit the bullet and phoned them. They told me the balance on the account but when I asked for them to send me out paperwork for me to submit a payment proposal,(they said they couldn't agree to anything over the phone) they said 'we wouldn't send anything out, just write it on the back of a bit of paper and send it in'. I decided to email instead. Not quite sure why they were so reluctant to send me paperwork

 

They said they would need proof of how much CB and TC I received and said to send in bank statements, but i'm not doing that as its probably just a ploy for them to get my account details. If needs be I will send photocopies of my TC and CB award notices.

 

I will let you know if they respond to my payment offer. Fingers crossed they accept it but I'm not holding my breath, I have a feeling they will pressure me for more.

[blueda]

Hi Melisandre, i have had experience of sherif officers a few times, one time i agreed to pay them by direct debit and posted the mandate form through the letter box of the bank at night, time went on and as far as i was concerned the payments were being made, until one day i went to use my card and dicovered my bank account was frozen, i went to the bank and found out the mandate was never processed and no one knew about it, i contacted Stirling Park and was told that i needed to pay them a sum of money to have the account released, i managed to get the money by borrowing some of it. Have you told your Husband about this,perhaps he is an understanding person. Perhaps you could get the installments funding by switching to cheaper utility suppliers and cutting any unnessesary outgoings, keep us informed on how you are getting on.

The debt was for council tax.

Edited May 5, 2012 by blueda
Missed some content.

[IdaInFife]

yes your award notices are suffice

[National Debtline]

Hello there. If there is an outstanding court order (known as a summary warrant) you may be able to apply to the court to pay via instalments, this can stop the sheriff officers:

 

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/factsheet.php?page=06_time_to_pay_directions_and_orders

 

If you have other debts too you could consider using the Debt Arrangement Scheme:

 

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/factsheet.php?page=22_debt_arrangement_scheme

 

For general council tax advice here is our council tax fact sheet:

 

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/scotland/factsheet.php?page=03_recovery_of_council_tax

 

We hope you find these useful!

 

National Debtline.

[alienatedyouth]

Hi Melisandre!

I came across your post as I am currently having the same problem with council tax. I recieved a letter from stirling park issuing a warrent! I understand your worries about the bank account being frozen, I'm worried about this too. Keep in touch and we'll hopefully get this problem resolved for you!

CAG is a fantasic place to talk to people about your debts. no-one should have to face it alone!

 

All the best

 

AY