I am a astonished that farming both Council tax Administration and Enforcement to the same company/group of companies is even lawful, given the obvious that could, and indeed strongly appears to be happening, that they wont deal with debtors fairly but automatically hit the Enforcement Agent button thus profiting themselves. It is clear in these situations that the best outcome for both the Council and the Debtor is not being looked after, but instead the well being of the company is the priority. I did wonder, if someone high up realised that had the attempted privatisation of Fines gone ahead, it would be illegal/unlawful, having a private company choosing how to enforce, and just happening to own the enforcement company.

It really is time that EA's were required by law to film ALL visits, with large enough fines for not doing so, or for the footage to "vanish" to put the Directors into therapy when they see the figure. Really any and all State Officials, whether EA's, Police or Council Enforcement Officers and their contractors visiting homes should be required to have a body camera. The civil liberty complainers who will poke their heads up sqwuarking at such a thing would soon be grateful if they were the victim of Police, EA or other Injustice. Not to mention assisting in the prosecution of people who attack or otherwise break the law when dealing with those Officials.

Official complaint to the Police for Harassment, if necessary they can get a court order forcing whichever online sites have been used to provide evidence of what the guy was posting, even if deleted. Report the company to the Information Commissioner for breaching your data protection by identifying you. Anything the guy or his friends do online, take screenshots so you have the evidence even if they then delete. You could send the Restaurant owner a text, email or letter asking them to stop the harassment etc, in the hope of triggering a reply where they incriminate themselves, thus giving you some nice evidence for the Police etc.

These are for private parking charges? They must be committing fraud then, if they are acting only as a debt collector, but are using phrases such as "Notice of Enforcement" and the fee scale of genuine enforcement, despite not operating under a valid Court Warrant - any victim receiving this letter and googling NOE and the fees, will get the impression they are operating as Bailiff's. Serious complaint needed to trading standards, MOJ and the DCA regulators? If a DCA like Lowells were issuing their demands with NOE and the fee scale of enforcement with a warrant, the DCA regulator would come down like a ton of bricks, seems to me DCBL need serous slapping.

One of the reasons this comes as a shock of course, is Councils when contacted never, ever mention that HCEO's could turn up in a couple of days, instead advising the tenant has 2 months.

I wonder how much of this is down to the Powers that be freaking out at the likely unfillable magistrates shortage they are looking at, in a court system already falling apart due to lack of spending and total chaos from the CPS to Translation Services, and the realisation that with the collapse of the Privatised Fine Admin scheme, the Charge was going to make Gove and others look very, very bad since it would add millions upon millions to cash owed, but not collected...

Whilst you are sorting all this out park your car somewhere else, a couple streets away or on a friend or family members land as they cannot take cars from private property, only the street and the debtors own land. He would likely demand to see the insurance documents if he got his hands on it, and if they name you, then he would be happy to seize, and the courts would back him up in any complaint. And No, he cannot return with Police or Locksmiths, he may very well threaten to do so, in an attempt to scare you, but you have now come here and found the right place to learn your rights, so you are learning his real powers and what your rights are. He may even threaten to have you committed to Prison for non payment of council tax, this is also not something he can do. The chances of you going to prison are pretty much zero - to do so, you would have to stand in front of a magistrate and point blank refuse to make any payments, even £1 a week towards the debt! I would very strongly recomend that using your phone, or another device, you record any more visits he makes, but don't tell him you are doing so (covertly recording is perfectly legal)

For your own peace of mind if/when he visits again talk to him through a window - they are no longer allowed to enter through open windows, and by not speaking to him in your doorway, you are protected from him potentially trying to barge past you into the house, and from putting his foot between the door and frame so you cannot close it and ignore him, leaving you to face his high pressure techniques - using a foot to block the door in this way is not lawful entry for him, but many still try and claim it is. Keep the doors into the home locked at all times, even when home - as you have other people living with you, if he got in, he would behind levying all goods he is allowed to take, regardless of what you and your housemates say about ownership, and the only real way your friend etc would be able to stop him taking their stuff is to provide receipts. They could all get a Statutory Declaration done, a notice at a local solicitors that costs about £10, sometimes free in your county court where they list all the goods they own, and it is notorised, which is also lawful proof of ownership to protect themselves, but it is far better, especially in terms of costs not to let him in, as that will see the fees he is allowed to collect raise hugely, especially if you missed a payment.

BA, the OP is saying that B&S are refusing to lower the amount from £36 - the excuse they are giving for this, and it sounds like utter rubbish is "The debt is legally enforceable" so erm, they would lower it if the debt was NOT legally enforceable, and thus the Debtor was not actually obliged to pay??

Unreasonable since the EA Company have not suffered any loss or detriment - given that banks, the benefits system and Employers Pay Departments can mess up, leading to late payment of income, there really should be a "window" established into the Legislation of 48-72 hours after a payment due date before the extra fees can be added. It is not fair if a payment is due on Tuesday the 5th, but at Midnight, the Bank suffers a major systems crash/problem, like Natwest/RBS keep having, and a debtors pay doesn't clear as it should, so he can't make the payment that day. As I say, the EA Company suffers no loss.

If you want to make a very high wage, just create a Charitable or NPO organisation providing "private sector" run bedsit Hostels to fill the gap, in areas with high numbers of evictions, and homeless. In fact, I think it can even be done purely as a private company, as ISTR either in one of the dodgy landlord articles or Whistleblower documentaries a couple years ago, in the couple of areas in England they looked at Estate & Letting Agents were doing that, and were putting evicted people and families, including with young children into bedsits where the walls and floors had massive outbreaks of Mould and iirc even fungus growing on the walls, and in a couple of cases, the floors, places so riddled with damp, that you would go to bed with freshly laundered bedding, and it would all be damp through by morning. And the Council's had surveyed all those rooms and judged them fit for habitation!!! If rogue landlords and agents can do that, then I imagine there is a lot of cash to be made for a decent Landlord. Here in Mid Wales there is a Registered Charity who have been running since the 70's, doing things like assisting the homeless and "problem people" such as drug addicts with things like advice, advocacy and social worker type assistance. They have become, or at some point became "a Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee" a distinction that allows them to Trade and generate income from trading and so on, and have gotten into the Hostel game. In Aberystwyth alone, they operate around 6 or 7 Hostels, 1 is where they mainly put people who are either ordinary people, who don't have chaotic lifestyles, no drug or MH issues and are often in full time employment, but for whatever reason have become homeless due to an eviction, and some people from the other Hostels who have been in them long enough to have proven that despite personal issues, such as alchoholism, they have followed the Hostel rules, and have generally been exemplary Residents, offering no problems or trouble, and that place costs around £75 a week, within the Housing Benefit Allowance, if not working. Those other Hostels are generally nightmarish places, whilst some are as above, behave exemplary, and appreciate having a roof, many of the Residents are extremely chaotic - whilst they may obey the rules, or haven't yet been caught breaking them, such as smuggling alcohol in, we are talking about long term drug abusers who would sell their own grannies for a fix, habitual criminals with long strings of convictions, thus Police attendance at the properties to arrest suspects and so on is regular, and some don't care about the rules, and until their license to reside is revoked, will assault, and steal from other residents/each other, have fights outside the doors, just the way you can imagine these places can be like. The figure I know for the weekly cost of these rooms is 5 years out of date, so they have of course, risen, perhaps even dramatically since then, but those Hostels, the 5 or 6 of them, have from 6 to I think 12 or 13 rooms and the Charity charged the Local Authority around £180 a week for each room 5 years ago !!! So there is some serious cash to be generated - of course, the operating costs for the ones with the really rough residents include Night Wardens, but most of them just rely on CCTV. I saw inside a couple of them once, and my impression was that cleaning, decorating & repairing damage was not exactly a priority for the Charity, if even on the "to do list" in the first place

BA - Combined with what you PM'd the other day, regarding that other stuff in the works, this is fantastic news, and both a triumph and a timely reminder of just how important the existence of an Independent Judiciary is. And another example of how the Tory Government, or at least its senior ministers are continuing to legislate purely on ideological grounds without doing any research into the pro's, con's and indeed awkward things like facts and reality, and how a a particular bit of ideology would actually operate in the real world. I suspect Community Payback is something in need for reform, that could perhaps be transformed into a better way of making Offenders "pay their way" The scheme is supposed to benefit the whole community, yet generally they appear to mainly be benefiting Charities with a very specific specialisation, so only benefiting a very small part of the community, not the community as a whole, and Not for Profit Organisations, but NPO's are not Charities, from what I have seen, a good many are Charities that gave up their charitable status and became NPO's in order to be able to pay senior management a lot more money with a lot less scrutiny, and so that a lot more of the cash being made can be shifted into those managers pockets. Also, several regions CP Schemes are sending Offenders to work in private companies alongside paid staff, which would appear to breach the rules, they aren't supposed to benefit and generate profit for private corporations, and Offenders must NOT be used to replace paid staff, or allow a company to operate with less paid staff, yet if you know you have a steady stream of free staff, like Poundland/Tescos with the Workfare fiasco's, you are clearly not going to have on the books as many paid staff as you actually need. Incidently, my Local Court would appear to be actually assisting people issued with a Court Fine, rather than setting them up to fail, so EA's can be sent after them and generate massive fees - I know a guy who was given a fine a while back, and the other day he showed me a special payment card he has - he said, when the fine was issued, the Court Staff approached him, and offered him the Card, onto which he makes an affordable payment every week out of his benefits, at Paypoints - since this scheme exists, you would think more Courts would be behaving in the same way, rather than washing their hands and letting it progress to Enforcement.

There is a bit of Irony in "Those who have difficulty in understanding, speaking or reading English" needing to make contact ASAP to advise of their Vulnerability under the linguistic issues - not comprehending English in any form means they likely wont know what an EA is, or that one is coming until an EA is knocking at the door. I would have thought though, that in the case of Council Tax Arrears, the Council would already be aware of the linguistic issues, potentially, from dealing with them for Housing Benefit, or if they have had contact with Social Services and so on, and thus could at the very least ensure paperwork is sent through with a Translation, or contact with a Translator made. The same not only applies to Magistrates Court's where a Fine has been issued, providing it was not in the absence of the Defendant, but they would absolutely know, since they will have needed to arrange a Translator for the Hearing. Mind, as for Parking/Speeding/Other Road Safety Issues, if they cannot comprehend English, then surely they are not safe to even be on the Road, since they can't read and understand road signs. The same way that any for example non French speaking Brit who goes driving in France should be banned from doing so unless they have learned the French for the main road safety signs etc.

Can they still challenge the sale of a Car for £10 to a mate, if it was done before a Court formally agreed a Debt was owed, and issued a CCJ and the Creditor transferred the Debt over for Enforcement? Or can they only challenge a sale and it's value, if it happens a few days either side of the Debt being granted a CCJ / Notice of Enforcement etc? I can well imagine, our favourite places on the Internet are advising the poor people mistaking their snake oil for sound legal expertise that they can sell the car any time, like in the old days.

I would have thought that forcing someone to be in contempt of Court, and it is forcing, they are saying if you leave on the date the Court orders you to, then we will brand you intentionally homeless, and thus will not rehouse you, thus forcing you to be in contempt of the Order of the Court would be against Human Rights. I don't believe existing Legislation even says Council's can lawfully brand you intentionally homeless if you leave when the Court orders it, rather than when the EA or HCEO turns up, but the Authorities higher than Council's don't appear willing to do anything about it. I imagine if we suddenly saw a massive upswing in middle class families being treated in this way, then Something Would Be Done of course, especially if they were Tory Voters. It is difficult to imagine that the High Court was ever intended to be a forum for bog standard, non problematic, every day, run of the mill evictions, it is supposed to be there for serious and complex issues, and for large monetary debts. The minimum value of a monetary debt that can be taken to the High Court should be raised to £5,000 and Landlords wanting to process normal evictions banned from using the HC. If you are talking about like a couple of cases on Cant Pay, where the houses were worth a million or two, if not more, and the Tenants facing eviction also owed over £5,000 in rent, and the Landlord wants to pursue an Eviction Order combined with a Money Order for the Rental Arrears, then I could see them being ok for the HC - Landlords risk and almost certain loss in HC Fees mind, since iirc from one case, the HCEO's turned up, House was almost a Mansion, Tenants owed something mad like £15+ grand in arrears, and they had done a flit, only leaving behind furnishings that came with the house, so Landlord was left with being owed £15+, his County Court Fees, the HC Fees for upgrading, and the Fees for sending the HCEO's and them being unsuccessful in getting payment, unless they continued off camera to try and locate the ex tenants. But the sort of people who can run up those sorts of figures in arrears then do a runner without breaking a sweat very likely know exactly what they are doing, and their rights, and thus a HCEO wont be able to outwit them.

What can the HC Masters do though, the Landlords and the HCEO's are acting lawfully afaik. The law needs changing, and MP's need to seriously consider whether the High Court is a suitable place to take Eviction hearings. As Grumpy says, the problem is not that the HCEO's are turning up in a few days, its that LA's are refusing to rehouse before physical eviction, they brand anyone who leaves before that point as "intentionally homeless" and refuse to help, which is unlawful, but nobody in power seems to care, maybe its something that needs to be taken to the Local Gov Ombudsman? Grumpy - whilst I am sure some tenants damage the property as you say, I doubt its more than a tiny minority, and if they do such, then the Police exist for dealing with criminal damage, attempting to cause harm with booby traps etc. Why should HCEO's specifically be excused from giving notice of attendance to evict when in every single other area that requires enforcement agents, including County Court EA's also performing evictions? I would be interested to see why you think Landlords and their contracted HCEO's who go to the high court need and should get special dispensation when noone else does.

There must be plenty though who are "newbies" when I have asked around people I know, not 1 person has known that a special type of Bailiff can be sent by the Court to perform an Arrest. I only knew the position even existed as when I moved into a previous address a few years ago a Card was put through the door for the ex tenant stating unless she contacted them re Council tax arrears, the female Bailiff would be attending the property to perform an Arrest and bring her to Court for a Committal Hearing. It is because of that Tenant (and in fairness the Tenant in the next property me and my ex moved into) That I never look at the names on mail that arrived and open it blindly (Though I believe it is also legal to open the mail for your own protection in these sorts of situations. As 9 Constables arrived and tried to arrest my ex until I found her passport and proved she was not the ex tenant, not to mention another time, some CID Officers, and a small parade of Debt Collectors, Bailiff's and god knows what else. She had left a huge amount of stuff behind, when she did a runner, presumably because so many people were after her, and basically just took a load of clothes. We found under the Kitchen Sink a huge box of jewellery and an antique Clock, her passport and some other guys, loads of Police Arrest and Bail paperwork, Court stuff, and a pile of paperwork for various things and blank sheets where she had been trying to forge signatures to put on the paperwork, and a couple of internal doors had been smashed to bits and were covered in blood! its what made the attempted arrest thing so stupid, we immediately contacted the Police and handed over all the dodgy stuff, jewellery and so on, and got them to look at the doors in case she had been kidnapped or something. The Constable who came said they had been looking for her, and didnt know she had been living there, so they only knew that address as we told them she was the ex tenant, so who knows why they then turned up looking for her.....

Oh the reason is easy, and often mentioned by those Tenants on the programmes! A lot of the time, they HAVE been and told the Council, who has then advised them they won't help rehouse until the physical eviction has taken place, and "don't worry" it will be at least 2 months after the Court Hearing before the Bailiff arrives to do it. The problem is, as Paul Bohill has pointed out, several times, many Landlords are instead opting to immediately upgrade to the High Court, and send in the HCEO's which means they are arriving to perform the eviction a few days after the hearing, not the 2 months County Court Bailiffs take, so people havent begun packing, because the Council either intentionally trying to fob them off until they really have to deal with them, or from a lack of training in Evictions and the ways they can be carried out, such as the difference between an EA from the County Court, and a HCEO. It really is time Schools as part of the curriculum taught basic consumer, civil and other rights, it might help the kids as adults from getting into such messes if they know their rights and responsibilities on a wide range of issues.

I wish there was legislation forcing Housing Associations to provide adequate heating. the only heating in my flat is a storage heater in the living room which doesn't warm the room up very well, because all storage heaters are useless, and it costs around £4-£5 a day to have on!! There is an electric heater in the living room too, but again, that wipes the meter credit out extremely fast, it's ridiculous. Each flat has the space to put in a gas boiler for example, because the Hot Water is run by ancient boilers controlled by a ticking mechanical box, looks like 1970's technology, and they again cost about £2 a day to have on, so it's not affordable in these flats to have hot water or proper heating with what has been supplied, and the areas where the Water boiler is kept is more than big enough for a Gas Boiler. There is also a very large back yard/garden and they could easily put in a small unit with a communal boiler.

Can you provide a copy of legislation allowing you to seize from private property not owned by the Debtor? Everyone seems to agree you can't including CAB and even the HCEO's on Can't Pay admitted they cannot seize from private property when a Debtor parked his car in a pub's car park. You can only seize from the public Highway or land owned by the Debtor, and you know it. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/bailiffs/your-belongings-and-bailiffs/what-goods-can-a-bailiff-take/vehicles-and-bailiffs/ If you notice a Car is being parked in at the private land all the time, then you can apply for a warrant to seize it there, but when you turn up on normal enforcement you cannot take it, if its parked in the next door's drive for example.

Certificated Arrest Officers are a type of Bailiff who are allowed to perform arrests on behalf of Magistrates for non payment of fines, non appearence at a magistrates court hearing and so on. They do exist, but for some reason info on them is extremely minimum in the public domain

So what happens when the person being arrested kicks off and with force resists what he will see as attempted kidnap because he has never heard of bailiffs having the right ot arrest and they cant even produce a warrant as proof?

No, AFAIK they have a Duty of Care to specific groups of people, where Housing is concerned. For example, A Single Parent with young or sick children, they don't have a DOC to everyone. If I turned up tomorrow in Birmingham, Brum CC Would not nominally have a DOC to me as I am not from there and have no long term family connections in the City, its possible that a couple health problems I have mean that they would, but probably not. But in the situations where they DO have a legal DOC to a person facing eviction, they are breaching that Duty, such as a single parent with young or sick children. I don't know what breaching a DOC is seen as - for example Council's have a DOC towards Children and their safety, which Rotherham Council recently and spectacularly failed to follow, was that failure unlawfu;?

Why would they need to see Bank Statements from 12 years ago? Seems a bit pointless, even if you were loaded 12 years ago, you clearly were not 6 years ago when this went to court. Are the legal fees correct, as £25,000 on top of a judgement for what you say was £15,000 sounds ludicrous. If you don't own a Home or any assets, it might be worth contacting them and pointing out that with no assets and your current income situation etc, it would actually be vastly cheaper for you to go bankrupt, so continuing to pursue is only wasting their money. Do you have a Car? It's always possible they might try and get a Warrant and send a High Court Enforcement Officer - as its a personal debt, with you at your residential home, the HCEO has no more powers than a normal bailiff, and providing you know your rights, ie, keep the doors to the house locked at all times, and any car hidden or parked on someone elses land, such as a family members drive, and refuse to allow them peaceful entry to your home, ie, inviting them in, then there is very little, also known as diddly squat the HCEO could do. I get the feeling the actual Creditor is probably a bit of a pawn in this himself - the Legal Representation stand to make nearly double his own compensation, £25,000 is serious cash, and I wonder if they are continuing to flog this horse because of the significant reward if they manage to get payment - it is possible the guy has pretty much buried any hope of ever seeing a penny, and the Solicitors are acting "on their own" having done a review of money they are owed, and finding you owe them a significant sum in fees. Equally, it's possible the Guy is being used as a cash horse by them - if he is paying for the current actions, it is possible he is paying them for doing them, so they are again flogging a dead horse as they are cashing in on what he is paying them. With your current financial situation, no matter how much the Creditor and his legal reps might whine and whinge, £1 a week or similar is pretty much the only offer you can make, and there is nothing they can do about that. Seems strange they are even bothering - I suspect the wanting statements from 12 years (banks will only go 6 years so I doubt you can be forcibly obliged to supply any further anyway) thing is they are hoping you have hidden assets somewhere, or they are hoping you gave a load of money to a friend or family member, and will then try and bankrupt you, and see if the Insolvency Service can try and force friend/family member to pay the money into the bankruptcy claiming they were treaded as preferential Creditors. There was a thread from a guy who's brother owed him £20,000, paid him out of redundancy money then a year or two later went bankrupt, and the Insolvency Service are hounding the guy threatening court saying as his brother treated him preferentially, even though the brother did not believe himself to be insolvent at the time, then despite the fact the Poster was owed this money he must pay it to the bankruptcy, though not a penny will go to any creditors, it will all be swallowed up by the "Costs" of the Trustees dealing with it, as usual. I suspect your only real worry is a Bailiff or HCEO turning up, but as I say they are easily defended against providing you read up on your rights, and keep doors locked/car on private land not owned by you.

What is failing to do their Duty of Care under the law then? Unlawful/Illegal or just nothing wrong at all?