Earnings arrestment because of late CTAX payment without warning scotland

[myrfall]

Hi,

 

I have a council tax debt that I am currently paying off to Alex M Adamson.

 

I believed I had a good deal with them, and was steadily paying my debt off each month.

 

Come April, something went wrong with my payment however.

 

For some reason the money was not taken off my account,

and it took me 9 days (exactly) before I realized this.

At this point, I immediately paid the amount that was due that month.

 

Two days later, I received an earnings arrestment schedule.

 

Granted, this was sent the day before I made my payment.

 

I contact Alex M Adamson, and explained the issue to them

- that the late payment was a mistake,

and that it has already been paid.

 

They understood, and agree that no earnings arrestment will be made,

and I will be allowed to pay off my debt at the pace i'm currently doing.

 

Fast forward to this month,

 

last week.

 

Me and my flatmate have gotten our hands on some extra money,

and decide to pay the remaining amount off, roughly £300.

 

Just to be sure of the exact amount I contact Alex M Adamson again to doublecheck the exact debt,

and i'm told that my balance is over £400. Infact, the exact amount is £114 more then I expected.

 

They explain that this is the charge for making an earnings arrestment (£57), and as there is two of us on the debt it's a total of £114.

 

Now my questions:

1. As no earnings arrestment was made, can they actually charge me this amount?

 

2. Can they really give me an earnings arrestment for being a few days late, without giving me any kind of reminder or notice beforehand?

 

3. Considering that me and my flatmate are otherwize considered to be "one person" and jointly responsible for the debt,

can they really charge us both like this?

 

I have a few friends who share a house between 5 of them,

if they were in this situation that would be almost £300 for being a few days late!

 

4. Lastly, on the earnings arrestment schedule that me and my flatmate originally received

the amount says current balance +£57 fee.

 

We each recieved a copy of this.

 

If we are jointly responsible, and this fee still stands,

shouldn't the paperwork we recieved say the total amount?

 

 

I attempted to discuss this with Alex M Adamson directly, but they simply said "This is the amount you have to pay. I can't do anything else for you". I could not get any answers to my questions from them.

Do I have anything on my side here, or do I just have to pay up the £114 extra and curse myself for having entered a number wrong or something when I tried to make the payment last month?

[hallowitch]

Am I right in thinking you are in Scotland I believe Alex M Adamson are sheriff officers

[myrfall]

Oh yeah, that would be right.

Sorry, I'm an immigrant, and I'm not quite sure of the differences between sheriffs and baliffs etc. I hope i'm not in the wrong sub-forum, I read some other post about both council tax and earnings arrestments so figured this must be the place. If not, maybe you can point me the right way.

[ploddertom]

Don't worry we'll ask some of our Scottish members to have look for you as the situation north of the border is different to us in England.

[dx100uk]

me thinks he is fleecing you two.

 

dx

[tomtubby]

The fees look VERY wrong.

 

This is one for Ida in Fife. She is the expert and I would think that one of the moderators has alerted her.

[IdaInFife]

Hiya,

 

Can you just clarify you state no earnings arrestment was made then you state you have received the letter with the earnings arrestment schedule?

 

Has any monies been deducted from your wages?

[tomtubby]

You are now in safe hands

[myrfall]

Hi, sorry for taking so long to respond to my own thread. Been a busy week

 

When I say that no earnings arrestment has been made I mean that no money have been deducted, nor will any money be deducted from my salery. I did originally recieve a "earnings arrestment schedule".

When I spoke to them after having made the late payment (day before I actually recieved the earnings arrestment schedule) they said that it could be ignored provided that I paid all future payment in time.

 

From my understanding, the letter I was sent was just a notification of something that will happen, but that due to me contacting them and sorted it out won't happen.

 

Again though, I can be wrong about almost anything. I know how these things work back in Sweden, but i'm in deep water here.

 

Thanks!

[IdaInFife]

The sheriff officers can charge £55.30 per attachment, so both of you in this case , if they apply for an attachment but not being able to complete it for whatever reason.

 

As you received a charge for payment and took no action on it then they can apply for enforcement at their leisure if payments are missed.

 

So to answer your questions:

 

 

Now my questions:

1. As no earnings arrestment was made, can they actually charge me this amount? Yes because the arrestment failed for whatever reason

 

2. Can they really give me an earnings arrestment for being a few days late, without giving me any kind of reminder or notice beforehand? Yes

 

3. Considering that me and my flatmate are otherwize considered to be "one person" and jointly responsible for the debt, You are jointly responsible so treated as two people

can they really charge us both like this? Yes I'm afraid.

 

I have a few friends who share a house between 5 of them,

if they were in this situation that would be almost £300 for being a few days late!

 

4. Lastly, on the earnings arrestment schedule that me and my flatmate originally received

the amount says current balance +£57 fee.

 

We each recieved a copy of this.

 

If the arrestment had went through the charge would not have been applied.

 

I have thought this over and there are correct but you may be able to write them a letter saying that if they had advised you of the charge to stop the arrestment you may have as well let the the arrestment go through and try and appeal to their better nature.

[myrfall]

Could you please clarify here, cause this makes absolutely no sense.

 

Are you saying that I i had just ignored the earnings arrestment and let them take it out of my wages, I would not have had to pay this cost?

 

If I have not missunderstood this, then this is just mindblowing to me.

[IdaInFife]

You have this correct I am afraid.

 

All Sheriff officers fees are laid down in statute and can be found here:

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2012/341/made

[myrfall]

Alright. I was ready for being told that "everything they do is well in their right", as I have little to no knowledge on the subject, but this one do blow my mind.

 

In either which way, thank you allot! I don't have much trust in their "better nature" from my previous conversations with them, but maybe I will have some luck this time when I atleast know in part what i'm talking about, and not only sound like a confused foreigner.

 

Again, thanks allot for taking the time to explain this to me!

[IdaInFife]

Only wished it was better news for you

 

Sometimes it is better having the arrestment - are you paying more than what it would be on the wages arrestment?

[tomtubby]

Ida

 

The last time that I looked at the statutory fee scale was when I was preparing a response to the Consultation Paper on Bailiff Reform. I would NOT like your system at all !!

[IdaInFife]

To be fair if it gets dealt with before this stage its quite simple and the 10% surcharge is added by council when passed to the SO's. This is only the second encounter iv'e came across where any other fees have been added. It is mush easier and simpler up here to deal with

[tomtubby]

As I have said here many times, 3.3 million Liability order are issued on average EACH YEAR.

 

And yet of these only approx 50% actually go to bailiffs.

 

A debtor will be sent a summons to advise them that unless the debt is paid that a Liability Order will be issued. This notice will also advise them of the date of the hearing. Remarkably, less than 1% of debtors actually attend the hearing !!

 

The most important point to remember is that the debtor MUST make sure that they contact the council at an early stage and not to let the case go to bailiffs.