Sheriff Officers want my details

[lenray101]

Hello everybody, I've been looking through the various forums and very impressed with the help and advice given out. Now its my turn to ask for help/advice.

 

I'm currently paying Alex M Adamson £70 per month for council tax arrears, which I've been doing for a few months without any problems. Recently the council sent me a demand for a benefit claw back which I couldn't pay and they passed this debit on to Adamson. Now Adamson have sent me a letter requesting that I supply them with my employer's details, home and mobile number, email as well as details of my income (wage slips).

 

I have put it in writing to Adamson that I will only deal with them in writing and therefore will not give phone numbers or email address and they have accepted this without any problems.

 

In light of this new council tax debit my question is am I under any legal obligation to provide them with this information?

 

I have just written to Adamson and asked if possible to add the new debt to the one already in existence and continue to make payments at the current rate.

 

Any help/advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Crocdoc]

There are two issues here, can you confirm that the Council tax debt is subject to Summary Warrant and that a Charge for Payment has been served. this is an important factor to establish whether or not the existing payment arrangement is voluntary or otherwise. Depending on what you earn it may be that you are currently paying more than you would do under a Wages Arrestment Schedule. If you give us an weekly/monthly earnings figure I will look it up.

 

Furthermore, what is the status of the benefit overpayment, has any court action been taken or not. What I am looking at here is whether or not we could make them offer of the same amount as they would receive if the debts were subject to a conjoined arrestment. Depending on your circumstances it may be possible to repay both debts by contributing less than you are at the moment.

[lenray101]

Thanks for getting back so quickly. In answer to your questions, yes it is subject to Summary Warrant and a charge for payment has been served. As for the repayments I'm alright with the amount I'm paying as I want to clear this as quickly as possible.

[Crocdoc]

If your happy with the arrangement then that's fine, my only concern is that if the amount you are currently paying is less than could be obtained by wages arrestment they may go down this route to increase the level of repayment.

 

You also need to be careful in case they try Bank Account Arrestment on the strength of the Summary warrant. (They could only do this for the Council Tax Debt) as the overpayment issue has not as far as I am aware been through the courts.

 

In this situation it is wise to ensure that there is never more than £415.00 in you account as this figure is ring fenced, in addition overdrafts cannot be arrested.

Good Luck

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[IdaInFife]

trying to click on your star croc but tells me to spread it about first

 

and to answer on topic

 

yes you should give the SO's the information as it is in court process' although the SO's will probably already know this info