ROSSENDALES falsely claiming previous correspondence

[dogma88]

On 2nd May this year I received a letter from Rossendales, dated 30th April 2015, at my parent's address. The letter was concerning council tax owing Liverpool City Council from July 2014 for an address I moved out of.

 

I'm guessing the council tax is covering the short period between that last month's council tax I paid and the date I moved out of the residence. I thought I notified the council of my forwarding address (my parent's) but can't find evidence of this and they told me this past month that I never.

 

This correspondence was the first of any kind I have received via phone, email or mail from both the council and Rossendales. I called Rossendales 2 weeks ago on my lunch break (after attempting (and failing) to contact them via email and their website contact form) questioning the enforcement fee and previous correspondence this letter refers to, to which they replied that they were sending letters to my old address, the one passed to them by the council.

 

My question to them is, if they had my parent's address why is it only now, almost 1 year later are they sending mail there. No enforcement agent has been to my parent's address. No mail has been sent to my parent's address.

 

I paid the man on the phone (Rossendales) the council tax fee of 54.80 making sure I stated that it was only for the initial debt and that I am disputing the enforcement costs [calls are recorded, right?]. My question is, has this been seen before where they are claiming correspondence that has not taken place? and/or know if I can argue these so called charges?

 

I have contacted the Council on several occasions over the past month and they've just told me I need to contact Rossendales while the man I spoke to at Rossendales told me I need to get the council to dispute those extra enforcement charges.

 

I've never had to deal with anything like this before and have a spotless credit rating, I'm scared that I'm going to be screwed when looking to buy my first house next year for the sake of a stupid 50 quid :'( but I also can't afford to pay those costs.

 

Council Tax due: 54.80

Enforcement Costs incurred: 310

Paid: 54.80

[lookinforinfo]

The fees that they have run up would be because they were visiting your previous address to collect the money outstanding. Their fees went up last year so they

can now charge £75 to send you a letter of Enforcement after a chase up letter or two from the Council had not raised the shortfall in the Council Tax. When there

is no response to the Bailifs letter after a couple of weeks they then visited your old property which raised their fees by another £235.

If you did not advise the Council of your move how did the bailiffs find your parents address?

Despite the fact that you told the bailiffs that you would only pay the amount owing to the Council, they will have allocated that money to the £75 enforcement fee until the matter is resolved.

The only good news is that Council Tax debts are not reported to the Credit agencies.

[Bailiff Advice]

The council tax appears to be for the period 2014/15 but I am very confused indeed by the amount being demanded of just £54.80.

 

As a matter of urgency you need to contact the council and they MUST provide details to you regarding the actual amount of the Liability Order and the summons costs. My concern is that most summons 'costs' range from £50 to as high as £95 (or even more) and given that your debt is just £54.80 I am wondering whether the 'debt' to the council was just a couple of pounds and with summons costs added....£54.80. If I am right, then I will be hoping mad!!!!

[brassnecked]

The debt might well be only a fiver before LO and costs.