Hi,
I am new to this forum and would like some advice. i feel really betrayed and sick for way my local sheriff office has treated me.
To cut a long story short, I was served a "Charge for Payment of money" on the 19th August 2010. This brought the total balance to £626.49. The original council tax balance was £563.08 which is for year 2010/11 (This year).
The day the charge was served, i was at work and officers had visted my property. Roughly at the same time they visted, I called the council office to arrnage to pay £20 per week. However, the then referred me to Alex M Adamon (based in Falkirk). After submitting a complaint via email, I recieved a nice call back from an officer who seem very helpful and spoke to as person and not as a statisic. They main line customer service is shoddy to say the least.
Anyway, I arranged to pay £25 per week which is alot to me - scraping the barrell and he said he was happy with that. He even said, if you have more cash at xmas - pay up with I said I would do. I did not reieve any agreement document what so ever and have only had letters this week since August from them.
I recieved a letter yesterday in the post with one sentance - Enclosing Debt Advice and information package. The balance on the letter said £451.49(which yesterday I was pretty chuffed with as the balance had gone down quite a bit).
I have now today recieved Earning Arrestment Scedule showing the new balance of £502.90. (it states Less paid to account £215.00).
I have missed 2 payment since then one was when I was in england about 2 months ago for work and I made a payment about 3 weeks ago and I think the website payment order timed out or something - perhaps my fault, however if they decided to call me, I would have happily made an extra £50 payment extra this week to save the hassell and fees.
Please note the Earnings Arrsement Scedule has not been signed by the officer ( I read that it needs to be signed). I have never heard from since my inital phone call and now they do this. Fair enough if I had missed 2 -3 weeks in a row worth of payments. The times I missed, I made a made a payment the following week and they now add extra charges. The £215 I have paid (75% has went towards charges as it stands) - Is this not snowballing?
I am going to cal them tomorrow, but like many people, its like trying to draw blood from a stone.
Also, the order form has been sent to the organisation I work for, however i am an agency member of staff and I am not paid by the organisation they have sent it to.
The amount I have paid so far, if to continue at that rate - the debt would have been setteled before April 2011. I mean they are trying to arrest my wages which I can't really afford for services I havn't even recieve dyet! - The law is really ridculous.
Any advice or information would be greatful.
Thanks
Wad