As you suffer from a degenerative condition that adversely affects your mobility, it may be worth applying for the Mobility Component of DLA, if you are given High Rate you could get a lease car through Motability that the bailiff could not touch. As you have a disability you are potentially vulnerable, and the council and bailiff should treat you as such. Email, your local councillor, MP you can find their details on http://www.writetothem.com/ and copy in the CEO and Head of Revenues of the council, as you have issues that may make bailiff action unsuitable.

You could pay the council directly online, but hopefully the experts like tomtubby, and ploddertom will be along soon, to point you in the right direction. I would contact the CEO of the council copying in head of revenues with a complaint. What council is it? If the council has outsourced it's front office, the provider may actually be linked to the bailiff, as in Capita and Equita, this would help explain their pushing you back to the bailiff. If you are a student with children there may be some entitlement to Income Support Housing Benefit, and Council Tax benefit. It might be worth doing a benefit check on turn2us: http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx or with the CAB

I agree with night-watchman unless you have let them in previously they cannot force entry. If you have a video facility on your phone, or some other recording device, try to record what they are saying whilst keeping out of sight. Don't worry things can be sorted out

As you have used a personal loan for the car, rather than HP or a lease, the title vests in you, therefore the bailiff could seize and sell your £20k car for the £545.24. However all is not lost, and the experts will likely be along to advise the best way of dealing with this.

DO NOT send them the original V5 (registration document) under any circumstances, they could send it off and transfer keeper to themselves or AN Other, and it is then easier to sieze and sell, as with V5 it would make more at auction,

Thanks for the clarification tomtubby, so if they clear the debt directly including the £24.50, that would clear the matter, or would adding £42.50 for visits and having the extra noted as being for fees on the receipt be OK? The point being if the council fails to pay the bailiff, as the debtor has paid the fees into the council, the bailiffs remedy is now with the council: If they continued action after this and carried on with a levy, van fee et.al would this be legit or could the fees then be challenged? Sorry if this is possibly nit picking, but I agree with you that it is best that no one is under any illusion as what needs to be done to rid someone of a bailiff, and prevent their return,

I think you need to escalate a complaint via the council CEO, Head of Revenues and your Councillor and MP, and as you are pregnant and in the later stages, you may well be classed as viulnerable. The experts will be able to point you in the right direction, as I think they owe you, according to your original post you paid off arrears from a previous occupant, monies that the council were not entitled to recover from you, and to cap it all they set the bailiffs on you for THEIR mistakes. This is gross maladministration, and if you have forked out (sorry fork-it) £2k or so of someone else's debt, you should owe the council at this stage a fat zero, (possibly they owe you) and the bailiffs should owe you at the least any fees paid to them returned.

This call they said was a courtesy call, and the number was withheld, and was diverted to my mobile, as i was expecting another call. The phone automatically records unlisted calls if I answer them. So i will extend the courtesy of being able to correct their admin errors if they phone rather than write.

Thanks ScarletPimpernel, That is also an option, and may be something to look at as a general response where these organisations, are always saying the call is being recorded blah de blah

True, they would be able to check that out, but it would likely be at the police office, unless they mms a pic for comparison to plods mobile

Was the bailiff told the reason for late payment was due to being in hospital giving birth, she would at that stage become vulnerable, I think the regulars here smell blood, bailiff blood.

It's defo not for publication, just part of an ongoing portfolio I am keeping of communications from SLC and Thesis, and how arrears on a deferred account keep cropping up, or changing.

It was referred to in carla's first post, and I don't think they do access them as a matter of routine, but where there is a possible mistaken identity, unless the ID has been stolen, a NINO would be one way of distinguishing between two people with same or similar names.

Thanks fork-it that is how I understood it, I had no intention of "publishing" or posting on YouTube or anything or playing it back to third parties, merely transcribing it and keeping a .doc of the transcript, and an archive copy of the call for my own use, as and if required . this was something the caller said I needed his permission to do

Will keep that in mind if required thanks guys I am now confident my position regarding recording such calls is OK They should realise that unwanted calls could well be recorded without them being told anyway.

According to carla's first post the bailiff came back and refunded the money, but that is not the point, the point is it should never have hapenned the NINO was different, and this should have been checked and confirmed before the court in Dorset sent a bailiff on a mission to gather cash. What if bailiff found no one in and court issued warrant without bail and in spite of ID carla was dragged off to Dorset? yes complaints all round and IPCC,

I have the file now as an amr transferred to a pen, and for any dca earwigging will not be playing it to a third party, but would submit a written transcript to a court for their consideration if I needed to.

Thanks that's what I thought I told him I didn't need permission, he said they could sue me and that the recording was inadmissable as I think he meant breaching RIPA etc, judge would penalise etc Said I am on benefits so would only have to pay £1 or so a month if they tried to enforce the entire loan that is deferred. I think I really annoyed him. I am going to phone their office and tell them writing only, and that my phone automatically records answered unlisted numbers.

had a call this morning about paying arrears on a deferred student loan, arrears from a delayed deferrment from SLC. Told the guy I had recorded the call, after he said he had recorded the call and he went ballistic, saying he didn't give me permission, said they would likely take me to court, and so on, Where do i stand?

If you offered ID and the bailiff refused to look at it or dismissed it and still demanded the money, then there may be grounds for an action against the bailiff imho

Don't worry carla, there is some great advice on here, and press involvement is only one of a number of options, and is not always required. Sometimes the mere threat of the press without actually contacting them can be enough. Your rights and privacy are paramount.

Bet it's a jumbo transit, I don't think the bailiff could justify an Iveco Eurostar probably hasn't the licence to drive it

If the bailiff has refunded the whole £395, which presumably was also made up partly of fees, would the main action be against HMCS, the court itself. Perhaps the intimation of press involvement would focus their minds and release a without prejudice offer of damages?

I would have thought that as there was no outstanding amount left the bailiff cam whistle for his fees, I hope you are going to go after the council for a refund of the previous occupants debt you have paid/ Others on here will be able to help you with that.

If the full balance of council tax has been paid, directly to the council, and the account balance is up to date, with no arrears, surely the bailiff can be told to foxtrot oscar and as he hasn't actually taken any payment on behalf of the council, his fees are nullified?