Sorry for delay in reply. Bailiffs did not "seize" enough to make it worth their while actually taking anything and wouldn't have covered half the outstanding debt let alone their add ons. I received one standard letter saying the arrangement was broken and never heard again.

Many thanks for your replies. I've rang them and arranged to pay over 12 months, which I should just about manage with the current payments. I couldn't pay anything last year because I was trying to pay the bailiffs for the prior year before defaulting on that after a couple of payments and haven't heard from them for 7 months. I did offer to include the 2012 c/tax with my repayments, but the council officer would not include that and said I had to speak to the bailiffs about that, which I won't be doing.

I haven't been able to pay any of last years council tax and am being taken to court for this next week. Bearing in mind we are nearly into this years council tax, if I ring the council before the hearing, are they likely to give me time to pay? It's about £1.550. Thanks for any advice. Tom

HSBC say that because the accounts are linked together they cannot not pay the card. I could understand more if they the current account was in default because of an unauthorised overdraft.

A week before Christmas I tried to use my HSBC Business Card only to have it declined. I had checked the balance by telephone prior to this and it said there was about 50% of the credit limit available on the card, so I double checked this at a cash which told me to contact the bank. I rang the bank and after 2 calls and more than 2 hours on the phone, it transpired that the card had been cancelled, not suspended, and could not be reactivated. I had to apply for a new one and I would be more likely to be picked to compete in the 100m in Rio in 2016 before getting a new card with my credit record. The only warning I received was a letter dated 11 October saying that by paying the business card, I had gone overdrawn and I had to pay in £80 in the next 7 days. As I had already paid in £800 in 4 days, I ignored this. Anyway, during the calls they referred to a Default Notice which I had not yet received with the Christmas post and waited for this to arrive. I have now received this and the wording has left me totally confused. It reads: This notice refers to a credit agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 under account number 40xx xxxx xxxx xxxx. You have breached the terms of the Payment clause of the Agreement, which requires you to pay the monthly contractual payment by failing to make the required payment. This is incorrect, the full amount was deducted from my business current account, which put the account £420 over the overdraft limit, but the payment was not reversed, and the payment was made to the card account to bring the balance back to nil. You can correct this if you make a payment sufficient to clear the overdue amount of £xxxx.xx (the balance at the time of the letter) by 7 January 2014. If the action required by this notice is taken by 7 January 2014 no further enforcement action will be taken in respect of the breach. If you do not take the necessary steps we will terminate the agreement without further notice……well they did this three weeks early and the eight people I spoke to would not say anything more than it was a decision taken by the back office staff, who, of course, cannot be spoken to and the decision was totally irreversible. I haven’t spoken to the bank since before receiving the letter and want to attempt to sort this out, as it completely screwed up our Christmas, as I still had things to pay out of the money on the card. Prior to receiving the letter, I had accepted the situation, albeit wrong, However, I had gone over the overdraft limit and I did not want to waste energy on things I have no control over and accepted I had to move on. However, on reflection, their action is a total contraciction of the letter which makes me feel someone has screwed up by cancelling the card too early, which probably is irreversible, and they are trying to cover this up. Any advice on how I stand and how to tackle this prior to calling them would be gratefully accepted. Thanks, Tom

Thanks for all your advice have agreed to repay them at £70 per month until February when a 20k bank loan is fully paid off and I will have an extra £430 a month at my disposal and will increase the Halifax payments to £375pm. Why am I repaying the loan before secured debts? Because it's with my bank who give me 10k in overdrafts on my business and personal accounts and have been good with me through thick and thin. Plus they would take the money one way or another.

Thank you both. I would have preferred to keep things in a written format but made a quick call to ask them to put any action on hold and I would call them properly at the beginning of next week. This will allow me time to propose a realistic plan. They haven't banged on the door at all, just sent reminders, and I have tended to pay those banging loudest. Once we have a monthly figure agreed, I will get the first payment out of the way and then look at reclaiming any fees, if this is possible. Great if it is, I would say around a third of the current balance (from what I can work out) is fees and interest on it.

i don't feel the form is a very accurate way to calculate the charges and that the fees should be tackled once we've entered some form of dialogue and agreed a payment plan.

No, because of the varying interest rates during the period.

I wrote to them on 6th July asking them to send me a Income and Expenditure form in order to calculate the payments so I could set up a standing order with my bank. I said that they had wrote to say they were arranging for an agent to visit me and asked them not to do this, as it will only add further costs to the mortgage. I said I had attempted to calculate the actual mortgage balance but was rather confused by their charges, which were never clearly explained.i.e. letters showed different arrears (balances) and asked them to clarify this. I said on the subject of fees, I had recently been advised that the charges made by building societies could be reclaimed along with the compound interest for the last 12 years and said I would be grateful if they would refund these as this would reduce my balance by a considerable amount and helpin my repayments. I faxed this letter to the Collection Department three to the fax number on their letterhead so I had proof of receipt. Four and a weeks later I have no response to this. I did, however, receive a letter saying I had been charged £45 for the agents fees. This was followed by a letter to say legal proceedings would commence in 15 working days unless I contacted them immediately. I immediately faxed them to say I had not received a response to my original letter and that their letter was received on the sixth working day. I explained I had suffered a mild heart attack since writing and again asked for the I and E form so we could agree a payment plan. That was over a week ago and still no response.

I know the answer to several of the questions you listed and I did check with the council if they would transfer it back to them. While on the phone to them I filled in the gaps - they passed it onto the bailiffs in March, so it took them 4 months to deal with it. The council tax outstanding from last year is £451. The notice states: Council tax outstanding - £451 Levy fees - £40 (hate to be pretty but I believe this should be £38.51 - £24.50 for first £100 and £14.01 on the balance) Walking possession fee - £12 Enforcement fee - £135 (he said he had taken £100 off this - maybe I misheard him and he said he had taken me for an idiot). I'll allow him a couple of days to update things, so my payment plan is in the system, then email them. If anyone knows the location of any templates I'd be grateful. - thanks brassnecked. Posts crossed.

Thanks brassnecked, but I don't even have 5p to transfer at the moment, only cash for shopping. Anyway, I called the bailiff and he agreed to accept the payments over 8 months starting in three and a half weeks time. Now, that's done I can tackle the charges. Would it be better to speak to the council's council tax department or their bailiff's section, now that I am armed with Tom's info.

I realise it's a priority debt, but I'm self employed and have just enough set aside in cash to buy food for the next week until funds are in. If that's late it's bread and water until it arrives. Bank accounts over the overdraft limits and credit card maxed out. In 2 weeks time the first council tax monthly instalment for £175 will taken as a direct debit and I want to ensure that's covered.

Thanks for your patience and spelling it out for me so clearly. I can view the credit and debit balances online.

Just a point, but I have to ask. Can they add to the original contents (once they have entry) if they feel the listed items, won't cover the costs?