Can bailiff visit Ltd Co premises for pers CTAX arrears?

[Peterbard]

I think this has been massively over-complicated, due to problems getting the OPs story right, no ones at fault, it happen when you try and advise at a distance.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong , but this was the first and only letter you have received from any bailiff, is that correct ?

 

The mention of sending the notice back was because they knew there was nothing to levy and they wanted to be at enforcement stage before it went back, in order to give you chance to pay.

 

In your first post you said that the ammount owed was on the letter, this is confused in latter posts, but it would have been the ammount owed and the compliance fee.

 

I suggest that there was only one bailiff company and the account was returned in the first instance and then it was given back to the same agent when they got a lead on the debtors details.

 

So now we are at a stage where the debt is on the verge of being sent back again or has been sent back.

 

Is any of this right or is it all in correct ?

[whitsend]

Yes this was the first letter I have received.

 

Sorry I must of made a typo in my first post, where to letter said balance owed, it was letf blank as was the date.

 

I says nothing about not being able to levy. I will find my previous post and copy it in after I post this.

 

Everything else is right, i think. Except the fact that the letter was not addressed to my company it was addressed to a company around the corner from me.

[whitsend]

Exact wording of letter received.

 

The exact wording of the letter is this

 

Final Notice: Council Tax Arrears

 

An Enforcement Agent (bailiff) has visited you home again today.

Your possessions are now at risk of being REMOVED.

 

Despite numver attempts to contact you we have still not received satisfactory response about you Council Tax Arrears

 

An Enforcement Agent (bailiff) has visited you home again today to take control of your goods and remove them for sale.

 

If you debt is not settled within 7 days of the date above, we will return your case with one of the following recommendations

 

Attachment of Earnings - taking the funds from you at source

Bankrupcy - this will affect your credit rating

Charging order on your property - your could be forced to sell you home

Commital - you could go to prison

 

FAILURE TO CONTACT US WILL BE TAKEN AS YOUR REFUSAL TO PAY.

 

They did not visit my home that day and did not leave a copy of this letter at my home address.

[Peterbard]

Ok so we can safely assume(I think )that this was a visit to deliver the notice of enforcment, not an enforcment visit.

 

So where are we now ?

 

The seven days have gone past and there has been no other visit, and now the debt has been passed back to the council, is this correct ?

[whitsend]

It was exactly a week today. So if weekends count then it should go back after today.

[Coughdrop]

It may not affect the stage at which we are with this letter, but originally you stated:

 

"they say that this enforcement went out to another company August 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. However they sent it back to the council last month saying they could not contact me. How is this possible I have had cars parked outside my house, I have been living in the house, but have heard nothing at all from any bailiff company before. Wouldn't they have taken my cars? Anyway they then instructed EA to make an attempt at my place of work. They admit the business address error, but don't know why it happened."

 

This clearly suggests this is the second enforcement company, though you don't recall receiving anything from the first company at all, possibly because they could not find you. This is very odd given you state quite clearly there have been cars parked outside the property on which council tax enforcement was targeted.

 

Is the issue of a second enforcement company correct (it may reflect what is likely as the next step)?

 

Can you shed any light on them not being able to find your house, for which this debt is payable, and outside which cars are parked?

 

Finally, are you accepting the bailiff's fees (£75 or £235)? If so, then all of us here will be pulling in exactly the same direction.

[Coughdrop]

Okay, in the absence of any response, I'm going to agree with DB that this is being overcomplicated. I can't see anything that out of the ordinary with this, and would still favour the advice given in the second half of this post I made two or three days ago:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?466946-Can-an-enforcement-agent-visit-my-Limited-Company-premises-for-my-personal-council-tax-arrears&p=4921839&viewfull=1#post4921839

[whitsend]

Sorry couldn't answer, I had to go to work.

 

I think the bailiff must have had the wrong address same as for the company address.

[Coughdrop]

No problem. I still agree with DB that it's being overcomplicated. Basically you admit to owing it, they want it, so I refer you back to the second half of post 123[removed] the substance of the second half of the post is still good).

Edited July 14, 2016 by honeybee13
Off topic comment removed.

[whitsend]

That is what I was going to do, as soon as I have confirmation from the council that it has been returned to them. I am going to pay £50 a week on their payment site if they do not accept a repayment plan.

[Coughdrop]

Make that payment only when you know it has been returned, or it will simply go towards bailiff fees as mentioned previously.

[Peterbard]

£200 a month is a good offer, I cannot see why you would not offer this initially, for the sake of £75 and to save all the subsequent disturbance. I am not sure how you will go with this, but keep us posted.

[whitsend]

Ok, the council have started the process of enforcement from scratch.

 

It seems that they didn't just have the wrong details for my business address they had my wrong home address as well. And the amount was wrong. It is 1104, which is half the amount they told me last week.

 

So today I have received a letter from the same bailiffs as visited last week, starting the process from scratch, with a letter saying i have 31 days to pay or contact them to arrange payment. After that they will start to visit and add charges. If I had this in the first place I would of offered them a payment plan of £200, but I didn't know about it until last week, with the final notice.

[whitsend]

£200 a month is a good offer, I cannot see why you would not offer this initially, for the sake of £75 and to save all the subsequent disturbance. I am not sure how you will go with this, but keep us posted.

 

I didn't offer it because I didn't know about it. As I have stated I received no letters at home. I was unaware of it all until last week, when they sent the bailiff the wrong company address after me. It seems either the council or the bailiffs got the details wrong.

[Bailiff Advice]

Excellent response Whitened and now you have been given another opportunity to make a sensible payment arrangement. As long as to keep to the arrangement, the bailiff fess will be capped at £75.

[whitsend]

Yes, I am going to sort that out tomorrow afternoon as I am off work.

 

What is worrying is how they went about all this, everyone around my business premises now know the details of this. I am sstill going to persue the data protection breach though.

[ploddertom]

If it were me I would be contacting my local Councillor(s) and creating in the hope they may knock some off. Not forgetting the fact they have sent it staright to Bailiffs without an opportunity to formulate a payment proposal first. At worst the Council can be accused of mismanagement and should offer at least an apology.

[Peterbard]

Hi

 

sorry i dint know this was ongoing.

 

Yes I think they should be brought to task for enforcing the previous action when they had not even sent you the original 7 day letter(at least not to your address.

 

It seems that enforcement when a order is returned can be seamless, in effect the next EA can enforce under a new power within seconds.

 

The reason is a technical one and probably of no interest on this thread.

Anyway you have the chance now to make your offer to the bailiff and get them off your back.

As said a few times already your fees will be capped at £75 as long as you act before the 7 day limit. That means that all your original £50 payment will go towards them and half your second, after that all your payments will come off your debt.

 

Good luck DB

[josephbloggs]

Are you sure the new letters arent for the current year?

[Coughdrop]

Ok, the council have started the process of enforcement from scratch.

 

It seems that they didn't just have the wrong details for my business address they had my wrong home address as well. And the amount was wrong. It is 1104, which is half the amount they told me last week.

 

So today I have received a letter from the same bailiffs as visited last week, starting the process from scratch, with a letter saying i have 31 days to pay or contact them to arrange payment. After that they will start to visit and add charges. If I had this in the first place I would of offered them a payment plan of £200, but I didn't know about it until last week, with the final notice.

 

Hi Whitsend,

 

Sorry, I've only just seen this as I've been rather unwell.

 

Frankly this beggars belief. and I would most certainly involve my Councillor in this, as Ploddertom suggested. To be honest, you were ready to put a repayment plan on the table, the council messed up in a monumental way, even breaching the DPA. Now, overnight, they do a complete U-turn, give you an entirely different amount to pay, tell you that they had the wrong home address - does that mean letters were sent to that address and visits carried out to that address, all in your name? Possibly someone else, wholly innocent, has had a car clamped or something - Who knows?

 

While I think you should agree your repayment plan with the bailiffs just to start getting this repaid, I think also you have a very strong cause for an official complaint to the council, in which, as part of the resolution, you should ask for the account to be taken back in-house and all enforcement fees removed. Hopefully your Councillor will support you with this.

 

Are you sure they are stating the Enforcement Stage is now 31 days long (as opposed to the normal 7)? You also state after that they will start to add charges - are you implying there have been no charges so far, or did you mean they will start adding further charges?

 

They have made an absolute pig's ear of handling your account. Potentially they have shared your data and your financial problems with goodness only knows how many people. They got your debt totally wrong (are you absolutely sure there is not a second LO still to be added to this?) It would be hard to find anything they have done correctly - yet still they think it appropriate to set bailiffs on you!

 

Please seek clarification to these questions, involve your Councillor and complain bitterly to your council. They have messed up significantly and you deserve better than they seem to be delivering currently.

 

You've sent the SAR already - that should make very interesting reading. Time to complain methinks!

[whitsend]

it does say in red bold typing that I have 31 days, is this perhaps because of my complaint. They are using the same bailiffs who were giving me 7 days last week and no payment plan.

 

It is for last year, they haven't got a liability order for this years as I have been paying, usually late but still paying.

 

The information I was given over the telephone was incorrect. When I queried by phone today, I was told "now we have your correct address we are able to give you the correct account information". What does that mean, they made it sound as if it was my fault that they did not have my correct home address or business address. I do feel sorry for whoevers door they have been knocking on.

[Peterbard]

it does say in red bold typing that I have 31 days, is this perhaps because of my complaint. They are using the same bailiffs who were giving me 7 days last week and no payment plan.

 

It is for last year, they haven't got a liability order for this years as I have been paying, usually late but still paying.

 

The information I was given over the telephone was incorrect. When I queried by phone today, I was told "now we have your correct address we are able to give you the correct account information". What does that mean, they made it sound as if it was my fault that they did not have my correct home address or business address. I do feel sorry for whoevers door they have been knocking on.

 

Yes, still at least now you have ample opportunity to make a good offer, they will requires some kind of payment when you make your offer, anything you pay will come off the ammount outstanding and the more you pay the more likely they are to agree it.

[Leakie]

Personalty I would have thought with the council admitting they had the wrong address, it should be brought back one step further

 

Obviously Witsend .did not even know about the LO

Council incompetence

why should it even be with the EA after the admission.

[Coughdrop]

I agree with you Leakie. The council have been totally incompetent, and they have admitted their shortcomings.

 

£75 for a Compliance Fee is a lot of money - a vast amount of money (to me at least). If Whitsend is struggling with this years CT, paying it late usually, but paying it nevertheless, applying fees to the debt is not going to help, and why should they when, by their own admission, they have not had the right address.

 

Whose address have they had? What has happened to those people, did they have bailiffs?

 

This is more serious to my mind than saying, "Ah well, at least now I can give them an extra £75 and sort out a payment plan." I did state Whitsend should agree a repayment plan (and ensure she sticks rigidly to it, as bailiffs do not give a days leaway). However, I think she has significant cause to complain to the council, and given they admit not having the right address, push it all the way to the LGO if necessary.

 

I reiterate, it is important she agrees a plan now though, so she is seen to be willing to pay. The rights and wrongs can be sorted alongside that.

[Bailiff Advice]

Personalty I would have thought with the council admitting they had the wrong address, it should be brought back one step further

 

Obviously Witsend .did not even know about the LO. Council incompetence

why should it even be with the EA after the admission.

 

The thread has run to so many pages and all that we seem to be doing now, is repeating advice that has previously been given to the OP.

 

The OP has indicated that she is eager to get a payment arrangement set up and she is now able to do so . We should all let her get the arrangement in place and wait to hear back from her.