Basically i want to find out if they can justify the fact that we have paid OVER £1500 to Ross & Roberts or ..their bailiffs, and yet only approx £300 has come off of our council tax debt/bill..surely i have got them here. that has got to be illegal as fork said.

Just as an update for everyone. I have secured a face to face meeting with one of the Council Tax officers/personel from our local council. I wont give an exact date unless prying eyes are watching, which i suspect they may be after the documentary on the TV tonight, "Exposure" i believe it was called. I am wondering if anyone could browse back through this thread and give me some pointers on what i should be telling these people so they cannot squirm free. I spoke to one of their people on the phone and she said that a bailiff can take a first visit fee, a secon visit fee and then a further fee based on incremental percentages of your Council Tax debt as well...for example,4 % on top for £400 debt, etc etc (just as an example, not a correct amount). She said th bailiffs CAN charge this " H Fee" which i have never heard of, apparently because it is a council tax bill/debt they can charge it...she also said because it is a council tax debt they CAN charge a van fee ..i said a van never came out and they couldnt charge a van fee if one wasnt used to carry out work and that this was fraud contrary to the 2006 Fraud act, as Fork-it advised. She said they can charge it because its council tax and that it didnt have to be a van, that it can be charged for any vehicle, van or otherwise that turns up with a view to removing goods, however i am sure fork-it is right and they cannot charge that van fee...in any case my wife was told she was signing a receipt when she signed the levy/walking possession fee, therefore invalidating it as per Fork-its advice...she also listed goods which were not even ours. Any advice on how to handle this meeting???

Thanks for the Reply Seanmarts. I think you're probably right. Fraud is Fraud as far as i'm concerned, i'm glad Fork-it informed us that this (fraud) was what theBaillifs/Ross & Roberts were commiting in no uncertain terms. And as you have quite correctly pointed out, the Council have been given more than enough time to resolve this. I'll call, e-mail and Snail Mail the council tomorrow to inform them that we are no longer willing to wait and that we are going to hand this matter over to the LGO. Maybe then they will take this instance of fraud seriously. Thanks again.

Many thanks Martin.

Update: As per Fork-it's intructions we sent a letter of complaint to the Council. We informed them of the amount taken from us by R&R and/or their bailiffs, informed them that there were numerous fees not provided for by law on R&R's breakdown and pointed out that taking van fees as per forks decription amounted to Fraud under the fraud act 2006. We also informed them the goods written down on the levvy were and are not ours, and that my wife was told she was signing a receipt not a walking posession agreement, therefore invalidating it. We also sent a strongly worded letter to several of our local councillors and our MP. One of whom got in touch with the council himself as he claims he is disgusted that someone who served their country could be treated this way by his council/bailiffs etc. These letters and e-mails were all sent on the 7th July 2011. We were given a date for a report/conclusion to be sent to us however this date has been and gone. We then got in touch with The council again, and with a little more info. She called us and said she was waiting for a reply from R&R and that she had called them again that very day and that, conveniently , both the manager (R&R) and his assistant manger were off sick, a likely story. I dont know whether this woman that the council has assigned to investigate this matter is working to help protect Ross & Roberts on this matter but thats how it appears. She informed us she would have conclusion by the end of the week for us. This was back in August. After AGAIN giving them benefit of the doubt and yet MORE time to resolve this matter, We then got in touch with the Council again, and the aforementionded Councillor. He got in touch with the Council, AGAIN, and they informed him they would have an answer/conclusion and report by the friday end of that week...which would have been the 16th September 2011. As you can all appreciate, that was 3 weeks ago. What should be the next port of call? Involve the Police? More calls to the council? If i call the council again what should i be telling them? Or is now the time to ask an official government Ombudsman to intervene? Many Thanks all: Note: All of this must be worrying the council and Ross & Roberts as the Council agreed to take £50 pcm from us towards the bill And Ross & Roberts have not blackened our door since we moved..they came here once but since we told them we were onto them and started all these proceedings we havent heard anything from them.

Ok great. But Ross & Roberts head office sent us theirlist of breakdowns...so they are not allowed to put all these fees down either..i.e...neither the bailiff nor the firms HQ can claim these kidns of fees. Van fees H fees etc

Sorry to beg for more info again its just that i want to ensure i have everything lined up before i let them have both barrels.

With regards to the van fee again Fork....the baillif herself never gave us a breakdown of fees....Ross & Roberts themselves did when we got in touch asking for a full breakdown of visits that incurred a fee etc etc as per PlodderToms advice...and it is in that breakdown that they list the van fees.....will it be Ross & Roberts as a whole liable for that as they have put it in the breakdown..or whichever bailiff they sent on that occasion? or both? Our councillor got in touch and said he wouldn't have baillifs acting for the council in that manner and has sent a copy of our email to the Council C.E.O and Head of revenues along with his own e-mail demanding an investigation. Though now im pretty sure i have a leg to stand on im going to approach the police and inform them the same...that this amounts to fraud.

haha. That explains it then . My fault sorry, i misunderstood. Not doing a great job dispelling the "low IQ" myth about Para's am i haha. Again many thanks Fork your being an invaluable help here. Im still shocked these people have been allowed to get away with the things they have for as long as they have.

Woouldnt that template amount to me admitting ownership of the goods?? I.e: DATE Dear Sir/Madam Re: [YOUR NAME]: Notice of Ownership I write to you understanding you or your firm of bailiffs is intending to seize [CHATTELS/A VEHICLE] or other property belonging to me at the above-mentioned address as collateral for a debt belonging to somebody else. I confirm that I am the lawful owner of the aforesaid property and contents. This document was handed to you in person and a photograph has been taken of you reading it, as proof of delivery. Yours Sincerely

Sorry Fork but the template letter to hand to the bailiff didnt show on your reply. Is there a standard format for one i should give him? I've sent one letter offering payment etc but only to the council..sent that on Tuesday. So i'll type another one up now saying, as reccomended, that im making an official enquiry of embezzlement due to the amount of money that has gone missing. The bailiffs reciepts are all with us...but the breakdown didnt come from any of the 3 bailiffs they've sent to us....the breakdown of payments, fees etc etc has been sent to us directly from Ross & Roberts themselves..they sent it back in January -February so im assuming that wether the breakdown is from the Company, Ross and roberts themselves....these fee's still arent allowed.?? I.e ..are there fees that Ross & Roberts can make that are different from the fees that a bailiff themselves can make??

Also re: the above post. Ignore the grammatical errors. Im not really a divvy brain haha it's purely because im typing this in anger. Just the thought of them getting one over on me is infuriating. Purely because i am sure they are breaking the law along the lines here. I just cant believe that they could have taken ...what amounts to be approximately £1200-£1250 out of that total for themselves as various fees..dubious fees..such as one they call a "H Fee" in their breakdown... while only giving the Councuil around £300..its disgusting. Something has to be done about how these people operate.

Hi Fork, Would first off like to say a big thanks for your advice regarding Ross & Roberts bailiffs. We took your advice and sent a letter, recorded delivery to the Council offering them payment of £50 pcm until such a time that our bill was cleared and informed them that at no point had we ever refused to pay and are still not refusing to pay. We informed them that we were not prepared however, to deal with Ross & Roberts anymore and let them know we wished to make a complaint of embezzlement about Ross & Roberts. We informed them we have a full breakdown of Ross & Roberts fees and had my fathers solicitor point out that charging a van fee of £160 on 4 occasions when no van was ever present, and no van was ever used to move goods amounted to fraud as per the 2006 fraud act as one example of their treachery. I have a couple of questions im hoping you can help me with. When my wife signed their walking possession/levy back last year in December of last year 2010, she was told this was just a receipt to say she'd been visited....stupidly my wife signed it as i was at work adn she isnt overly in the know on these matters...well....that was 8 months ago and we have since moved to a new address..would we be right in thinking that levy would no longer be valid?? There are items on ther that are on load to us by my father but he has no receipts....is there anything we can do to prove they are his? Main point though is, would their levy still be valid considering we have move and the levy was filled in 8 months ago and contains items from a previous levy (again that my wife stupidly signed ) dating back to May of 2010. Also exactly what fee's can a bailiff charge by law? i know they can charge a first visit fee of like, £24.50 or so and thereafter i think its £16...but are there any other fee's at allt hey can charge as they have had £1565 in payments from us since last year yet only about £300-350 of it has gone towards our Council Tax Bill. What should i write/phonecall to my Councillors and MP and say? Would it be worth involving the press? Should i inform the council im going to issue a complaint to the magistrates courts regarding them and their bailiffs?? Sorry to be a pain...feel a bit useless really.....you'd never have though i served in the Para's.

I am hoping this (and the fact the original is 8-9 months old) to be the case. If it is then i can refuse them entry and they will have no option other than to pass it back to the council. Unless the council opt to take us to court over it. Which is where the letter to the council, offering payment and informing them at no time are we refusing to pay, comes into it. Sent recorded, it will leave them little room to breathe im hoping, i .e if the council did, in annoyance then go to the courts and send us a summons we'll have proof that we have offered payment, and that we just refuse to deal with the bailiff because of dubious conduct.

Thanks Fork-it....So basically send a letter to the council recoveries department first, stating that we are unsure about certain charges added to our account by the bailiff company (true!) . Ask the council for our arrears balance (again) and inform them that you will be paying them the arrears directly in installments, starting at the end of this month and inform them in the letter how much we have already paid to the bailiffs (who have twice added van fee's when no van has been present). So £24.50 is the most they can ever charge us? If so that'll add weight to our argument. Im still wondering about that walking posession....like i said its from when we were at our old property...we've been in the new one since April 1st of this year...and the walking posession was signed by us around 8-9 months ago. Would that even be valid now and could we argue that case? Since their last visit wasn't until 3 weeks back?