Missed CTAX LO payment to Rossendales

[Sipea71]

Thanks BA

 

Email sent, I will keep you up to date.

 

Fingers crossed

 

Simon

[Sipea71]

And we have a reply.....................not good news

 

We thank you for your email.

We can confirm £100.00 is the minimum payment we are able to accept.

As stated below, Council tax is a priority debt and therefore takes precedence over other non priority spending. Please note the figures quoted by National Debt Line are guidelines and therefore the amount spent on clothing will still be taken into consideration.

Failure to maintain the arrangement set will lead to further enforcement action.

Yours Sincerely,

 

Not quite sure what to do now! I may ring the council and see if they can retake the debt back off the bailiffs. and if no joy there, contact my local councillor.

Whatever they say I cannot pay £100 per month to them.

[Bailiff Advice]

I am pleased to hear that they have come back so quickly. Dont worry....I will post back in an hour or so.

[Sipea71]

Thanks BA

I will be out this afternoon so may not be able to reply until this evening.

I'll hold off calling the council at the moment.

[National Debtline]

Hi again Sipea

 

Just following up on previous posts (though I am hoping lack of updates since Friday is a good sign???)

 

If deadlock is persisting, I would just reiterate what I said earlier about paying the amount you have offered, regardless of their responses. As you've explained paying online is n/a, perhaps you can post through a cheque or postal order for the amount you are able to pay, whether that is £30 or £50? Being able to show that you have paid/attempted to pay will stand you in much better stead for any further negotiations.

 

Dennis

[Sipea71]

Hi Dennis

 

Unfortunately no progress as yet I just had a busy last few days and not been on line.

 

The problem I have with paying a smaller amount is I can guarantee they will just send the bailiff round and add £200 odd quid to my bill soon as they don't get £100 on the 31st.

 

Add to that all the stress of having the bailiff threat hanging around as I certainly would not let them in.

 

Not sure exactly what I am going to do at the moment, a may ring the council in the morning and see if they will take the debt back, worth a try I think, otherwise not sure what to do.

 

been off line for a couple of days, but seeing Dennis's post woke me up again!

 

I have just drafted an email, let me know what you think please.

 

Thank you for your email.

Can you actually confirm to me that Rossendales are implying that I should budget for £0 across these two areas?

 

Could you also please explain to me why Rossendales would consider £50 per month not a reasonable allowance for two adults and one 12 year old child for clothing on a monthly basis.

This represents a budget of £16.60 each for the month, I’m not sure if anyone at your company has a 12 year old child but I can assure you that £16.60 is not enough especially when that child goes to a school that has a specialist uniform.

 

You state the figures quoted by National Debt Line are ‘guidelines’ and on that I agree, however the figures stated in my financial statement fall well within ‘trigger figures’ suggested by the Common Financial Statement that helps identify that levels of monthly expenditure are deemed reasonable. The Common financial statement is produced by The UK Government via the Office for National statistics.

 

I also feel it is very unreasonable of you to assume that I can just stop paying contracts that I am already obligated to, couple that with the fact that there are high cancellation fees involved as well.

 

In your email you state that £100 is the minimum you are able to accept, I believe this is not the case, I believe that your company (as would any business) wants the debt cleared up as quickly as possible and you could accept a lower figure but are refusing to do so.

 

I am asking if you can reconsider my offer of £50 per month as I cannot afford £100 per month and this would put myself and my family under serious financial pressure. I would also like to add that my wife is currently referred to her GP for stress related problems and is on medication as treatment, I also believe that any bailiff involvement or increase in our current financial hardship would only exasperate her condition and in the long term be detrimental to her health.

 

I will tomorrow book and appointment to see my local Citizens advice bureaux (who are only open Tues and Thurs FYI) and I will also contact Uttlesford district council tomorrow see if there is any other way forward.

 

If however you do reconsider my offer please let me know as soon as possible.

 

Yours Faithfully

[ploddertom]

I have sent you a PM - top right of page - Notifications

[Sipea71]

Have replied

 

BA any thoughts on my new email?

[Bailiff Advice]

BA any thoughts on my new email?

 

I will be back on the forum in about 2 hours and will respond then.

[Sipea71]

Hi

 

After some advice please.

I had missed my last two payments of council Tax 2014/15 and received notification of the local authorities intention of gaining a Liability order on the 12th Feb 2015 for £278.

 

On the 28th Jan I made one months payment of £136

 

I was aware of the court date but could not make any payments before that, however I did make another payment of £136 on the 23 feb 2015, so the outstanding council tax is paid

 

Today I have received a Notification of liability order dated 26th Feb for £278 plus £95 costs and a demand for payment within 14 days of £373.

 

Now I appreciate that the second payment was after the court date but surely the Liability order should have been for £136 I just wanted to know if anyone could shed some light on where I stand.

Is the order invalid because the council claimed for the wrong amount?

 

I am currently paying a DCA for a historical council tax bill and could really do with avoiding those vultures again.

 

Any help/advice anyone can give would be greatly appreciated

 

Regards

 

Simon

[ploddertom]

They applied for the LO on the sum they had at the time, whether it was for 10p or £1000 there is little difference but even if you have cleared the outstanding original amount then there is still a sum outstanding equal to the costs incurred & yes the Council can & will take enforcement action to recover this.

[Sipea71]

Hi

 

I did speak to the LA yesterday and they have confirmed it's paid however £95 charges still remain.

They have agreed to add it to next years bill and will not pursue collection any longer.

[ploddertom]

At least they seem to be taking a more responsible approach.

[Sipea71]

Hi all

 

I have been successfully paying a payment arrangement with rossendales for the last 25 months or so, rather than direct debit I pay online via their payment page.

 

Due to a number of things going on the last couple of months including issues with my salary and my daughter being ill and income being a bit tight after juggling things around last month I thought all was well.

 

Yesterday I received a letter from rossendales saying I missed a payment and they now want the full balance of £250 else they are coming round to take my stuff!

 

I genuinely forgot to pay it! I'm kicking myself!

 

My November payment is now also due and I don't have the money to pay so will be 2 months in arrears.

 

This was a £1700 council tax liability order plus their initial fee and I have £250 left to pay!

I've been paying £50 per month for all those months

 

Really I suppose I'm just asking if anyone can offer any advice before I make the dreaded call today, I'm not looking forward to it!

 

Thanks in advance

 

Simon

[Bailiff Advice]

Simon,

 

When the payment arrangement was initially set up, was this arranged following a Notice of Enforcement in the post or a personal visit. The reason for asking the question is to find out whether you have only been charged the Compliance fee of £75 or whether a visit fee of £235 has previously been added as well.

[Sipea71]

It was a compliance fee of £75 if I remember correctly.

 

Just going back through the numbers it was actually £1466.20 as an original figure not sure where I got £1700 from!

[Bailiff Advice]

Hi all

 

I have been successfully paying a payment arrangement with rossendales for the last 25 months or so, rather than direct debit I pay online via their payment page.

 

Yesterday I received a letter from rossendales saying I missed a payment and they now want the full balance of £250 else they are coming round to take my stuff!

 

I genuinely forgot to pay it! I'm kicking myself!

 

My November payment is now also due and I don't have the money to pay so will be 2 months in arrears.

 

This was a £1700 council tax liability order plus their initial fee and I have £250 left to pay!

 

I've been paying £50 per month for all those months

 

Simon,

 

Can I first say a big 'well done' to you for managing to stick to the payment arrangement for this long period of time.

 

As you will know, it is almost impossible to secure a payment arrangement over such long period of time (over 2 years) and I can well understand why you are now kicking yourself for missing the October payment. The problem that you also have is that you cannot afford the November payment either. With the Christmas period, I would assume that the December instalment will also be difficult.

 

I know from looking back at your earlier posts that we tried very hard indeed to get Rossendales to agree £50 per month. They were very insistent on not accepting anything less than £100 per month. The letter that I drafted for you at that time can be read here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?433981-Rossendale-Notice-of-Enforcement&p=4624856&viewfull=1#post4624856

 

Because you are having to also default on the November instalment of £50 I think that a personal visit will probably be unavoidable. The problem is that this will incur an additional enforcement fee of £235 being added to your debt.

 

Do you have a car parked outside of your home?

 

At this moment in time, I would strongly suggest that you call the council and explain that you have been paying for 2 years and that you want to reset the payment arrangement without the need for a visit.

[Sipea71]

Thank you for the info, I may be able to get together the November payment at a push but not 100% and December will actually not be a problem.

 

I do have a car outside but it is subject to a finance agreement.

 

is it possible that the council could take it away from the bailiffs completely? (not sure exactly how it works!)

I am also 100% up to date with this years council tax could they add it on? do they do that?

[Bailiff Advice]

is it possible that the council could take it away from the bailiffs completely? (not sure exactly how it works!)

I am also 100% up to date with this years council tax could they add it on? do they do that?

 

It will be for the council to make the decision. You really must cal them.

[Sipea71]

OK Thank you

 

I'll keep you updated

 

Thought I'd go one better than a phone call as my local council (Uttlesford) has a satellite office at my local library.

 

Just been down there and explained the situation and the very nice lady said that it's not something she can deal with but she then phoned recoveries at the main council office and passed over the phone.

 

The lady I spoke to was quite abrupt, said there was nothing she can do and that once it's with the Bailiff I have to deal with them as its like a separate contract and nothing to do with the council any more!

 

I was on the phone less than 2 minutes! bit gob smacked to be honest!

 

it appears that my only option is to call the Bailiffs

, any further advice would be greatly appreciated!y

Not sure when they close but guessing I need to do it soon

 

Simon

 

Update number 2!

 

Just got off the phone with Rossendales office, actually quite a nice person on the phone ( must have been lucky) but after explaining the situation and declining the offer to pay in full, I was told the file is with an enforcement officer, given a mobile number and told to call him ��

 

Just called the mobile, went to voice mail, left a message to call me back. ��

 

I have also worked out I can offer £100 end of Dec £100 end of Jan (getting me to where I should be) and £50 final payment !

Not sure if he can accept that sort of thing, and I am assuming I still don't let him in the house to discuss?!

 

Simon

[Leakie]

Hi Simon

 

Unfortunately, the £50.00 will not be the final payment,

Unless you can persuade Rossendale not to send the EA,

It will be another £235 to pay

A bit harsh as only £250.00 outstanding.

 

Sorry for the bad news

 

Leakie

[Sipea71]

I left a message on the bailiffs phone after the office gave me his number last night and also text the bailiff after an hour or so to say I had not had contact, also pointing out that I understand the implications of him turning up so would not be letting him in!

And how i am trying to avoid the extra fee being applied should he do so!

 

 

I also am aware that all my contact has been within 6 days of the date of the letter they sent (I think they need to give 7 days notice of attendance?)

 

 

Not that it matters, I will be calling the bailiff first thing in the morning. ..............

 

 

..side note. Surely there should be some regulation to stop these people sending letters that to be honest are very important, second class!

 

 

My letter arrived 1st Dec, dated 25th Nov!

[Sipea71]

Update 3

 

Managed to borrow the money this morning off of a family member.

 

Just made the payment of £250 on the payment system and have called the bailiff and given him the reference number

 

Hopefully this is now over!

 

Thanks for all the advice

[Leakie]

You may be lucky,

 

I personaly think that if the EA has not call then no extra should be charged,

but others say once it has been passed to the EA then the £235 is due.

 

You have done everything you can, lets hope this will be the end of it,

please update if you need too

 

Leakie

[Bailiff Advice]

You may be lucky,

 

I personaly think that if the EA has not call then no extra should be charged, but others say once it has been passed to the EA then the £235 is due.Leakie

 

The regulations (regulation 5.1(b) of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 are quite clear on this point. Payment is due when the enforcement agents attends the debtors property and not before.

 

 

5.1(b) the enforcement stage, which comprises

all activities relating to enforcement from the first attendance at the premises

in relation to the instructions up to but not including the commencement of the sale or disposal stage;

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1/regulation/5/made?view=plain