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I have just sorted out my council tax and I have now had a letter from marstons, saying they are coming with removal contractors on July 21st. This is for a CCJ to severn trent water. I was already aware I was behind with this and had filed a N245 for a variation, however when I phone Bradford County Court on Friday they said they were just about to deal with it. Do their officers have right of entry. Should I tell them that the N245 has be sent. There will not be any cars there and I will not be at home. But I don't want them to break in. I was under the impression they could not force entry. -
Hi. In recent years I have been using my dad's address for mail as a "care of" address. Mainly because I've moved around a few times and didn't have a fixed address for long. I fell out with my landlady, long story. But she has got a CCJ for rent arrears in my absence, and they have traced my to my dad's address. I do not, and never have lived there. The letter is from the Sheriff's office, and is a high court writ. I am taking steps to sort this matter out, and applying for a DRO. But in the meantime, they have said they'll be around and given next week as a date on the notice of enforcement. I've told my dad not to let them in under any circumstances, and to let them know that I don't live there. But it has me worried, as I don't want them hassling him, and worry that they may try to take his possessions. I know they're not allowed to, but the onus is on the debtor to prove who owns what. And even if he doesn't let them into the flat, he has a garage outside that he keeps his tools in. He is a mechanic by trade, and his garage is full of tools he uses for his job. If the garage is open, which it often is when he's working outside it, they can gain peaceful entry? And then can they take his tools? The garage isn't linked to the flat by a door, but it's part of the same block of flats. What is the best course of action to take here? Should I call the bailiffs myself? I don't want to give them my new address until the DRO is in force, as they could come around here and try to take a vehicle that I use for work. But I really don't want them hassling my father, what can I do? -
I am wondering where I stand with this. I have been told that Dukes Bailliffs made a visit to my workplace today. They handed a letter to one of my employees. However this letter had my contact name but another companies address, which is just around the corner, said employee thought it was for them and they had got names mixed up. the company opened the letter which they found was from Dukes Bailliffs but was infact for me. I had my name and personal address inside, saying the same old thing. We have visited your home today and you have 7 days to get in contact. With how much I owed in Council Tax. They immediately returned the letter to me, but wanted to know why their address was on it. They contacted Dukes and asked them, they were told that my council had given them the business address along with my details as a director of that company, as they were unable to get a hold of me at home. They said their company must have something to do with mine. Can they actually visit a place of work and harass one of my employees, and also this has caused quite a bit of embarrassment, on both my part and the company who the letter was addressed to. Isn't this a breach of data protection.
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The following is an extract from a press article today. Westminster Council already have a similar system in place. If only other local authorities could follow this example. http://www.camdennewjournal.com/council-tax-exemptions THOUSANDS of people in Camden are set to be made exempt from paying council tax to save the Town Hall cash on chasing for money they do not have. Labour council chiefs are looking at a plan which would see around 11,500 of the borough's poorest residents no longer receive the bill from the Town Hall. The proposal will go out to a public consultation but could come into use next year. The people who will be covered by the scheme already have a discount of around 90 per cent on their council tax bill due to their circumstances, but would move to a status of paying none at all. Most are living on very low wages or entirely on benefits, and include families and disabled claimants. Conservative opposition councillors said the idea was borrowed from neighbouring Westminster, where the Tories are in power. In Camden, the loss of income would amount to around £1.4m a year, but the council estimates this will be offset by savings on bailiffs and court costs from no longer pursuing people and as the result of more money coming in from the recent increase in council tax. “There is not much point chasing people for £100 or so bill, after the discount they already have, with court orders bailiffs if they are never going to be able to pay." He added: “The rise in council tax will allow some room for redistribution. “In all, people get a good deal from the council with years of frozen council tax or below inflation rises.” “They should have listened to us earlier, as in Westminster they are already doing this. The trouble with Camden though is that council tax is far too high.” -
Here is yet another case where a vulnerable adult was given a lot of grief for a CT debt. The defendant handled it the wrong way and this saw them in Court! But both the EA and LA got it wrong again!!! But as you will read they sorted it out far too late as normal... 'Paul Inns, defending, told Welshpool Magistrates Court Dockerill was of good character with no previous convictions. He informed magistrates his client suffered with Asperger’s and officers turned up banging on the door at 6am, refusing to show any ID. Dockerill attempted to find information showing he had paid the bills, before the situation escalated. The next day, he was on the phone to the council when officers returned to seize items. However he passed the phone to officers, who agreed a mistake had been made by the county council, and the matter was dealt with. Mr Inns added there was no intention to cause violence and Dockerill, who was fully co-operative, acknowledges he should have dealt with things differently. Magistrates made Dockerill subject to a six month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £40 costs and a £15 victim surcharge'. Main story from here >> http://www.newsnorthwales.co.uk/news/162868/berriew-man-threatened-bailiffs-with-hatchet-and-hammer.aspx Lead story from Scoop So with this in mind and the many threads regarding vulnerable debtors where and when will people start to try to understand that is not so simple and that this needs sorting out before something really awful happens to an EA? -
Hello everyone. I am in such a stupid position that I have got myself into. I am extremely worried that it is stopping me from sleeping. To cut a long story short I have buried my head in the sand for far too long, on June 21st the Bailiffs will be coming to my house. I have been looking around and seen that it's possible for me to fill out a 'n245 form' and ask the court to stop the bailiffs coming. I have a few questions before I do. Firstly, tomorrow I plan to print off the form and send it out first class. Can the Bailiffs next week after I send this form? Should I let them know I have sent the form, or won't it be necessarily? If they turn up should I tell them then? I am extremely anxious at the idea of them turning up at my house, I am a nervous wreck. If the court do accept the application, what happens then? I am currently on Universal credits so not receiving very much money at all. I honestly won't be able to pay much every month. Do they court decide how much I should pay off of the CCJ? I'll do anything to stop bailiffs coming, but I have such an extremely small budget I don't know how to fix it. I'm very frightened and overwhelmed by the whole thing. I have also heard that the n245 form costs £50? How is that paid, I simply cannot afford to pay it in one go at the moment. I've read about a ex160 form that can apparently help with reducing that cost? Is that right. and if so do I have to send it along with the n245 form to the same place? Thank you for having such a place to come to for these questions (and I apologise for all the questions that are no doubt pretty stupid x) Yikes I have just re-read my post, I apologise for the typos. -
Bailiffs lock doctors out of Coombswood Surgery in Halesowen Mohammed Waqas, of Evergreen Pharmacist opposite on the Coombs Road surgery, said: "The staff turned up for work but could not get in as the locks had been changed. He added: "We are disappointed that the patient experience has been affected in this way, as are the practice, but we are assured that they are working hard to maintain patient services from their other sites." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-36434956 -
Hi Bit of a long story I rented a room out and my husband also needed storage so he rented a 'cupboard' ( no electricty / power points or anything). I made the mistake of putting my name on both because I didnt realise the whole to do with rates. So i had my name on both for a couple months and the lovely council sent me a huge bill - I managed to speak to rates and the allowed me to fill in relief forms and send back by email. I was then told i had nil outstanding. fast forward to last week and the bailffs turned up on my door - apparently because id had the cupboard in my name as well as a room i owed £174 which i had no paperwork for so they hammered my door down for £500 ! of course i paid it as two burley men clamping my car on my driveway was a tad embarassing ! At the same point this cupboard was in my husbands name for a whole 2 months - again i filled in the paperwork but the council told me they couldnt read the paperwork and that it was put in his name up until now ( it was released in july last year so maybe the owner hasnt admitted to this ? or they cant tie up dates themselves! ) I told mr bailff that was wrong info and that my husband does not by any means owe £900 towards the rates on a cupboard ! he said ok ill leave that one and let you contact the council ! In the mean time i panicked (understandably) and i emailed the guy helping me at the council - starightaway he emailed me back the relief form and i had it filled in and emailed him straight back Bailiff came wed 25 - i had emailed council back by 27th In this time ive had a week away with the kids, just walked in and Mr Bailff - although he said he would give me time to resolve and he has my phone number ! has written to my husband on 27th (im not sure if the dates have crossed over ) and weve walked in for it to say hes arranging for removal men to come in to my home and take goods away for the value of £900 ! so now its 7 days today - im not sure if the council have notified him that ive tried to resolve the problem and im absolutely panic struck now for what the weekend may bring i dont know what to do with myself next if im honest - the company dealing with this is called equita PLEASE can someone help me ? Im at my wits end I thought he may have called me too to let me know of his intentions - plus when he walked in he saw that we were going away as he stepped over the packed case and watched me take our spends out the tin -
I apologize if this is in the wrong section. If it it is, could a mod kindly move it for me. Thanks I will try to avoid a wall of text and a sob story, and get right to the nuts and bolts of it all as i need help with my next steps I am self employed and have been for around 5 years. The first 2 years of this, i had no idea what i was doing, so like an idiot, i pretty much ignored everything paper work wise/accounts wise/money wise. I have been working for the same company for the 5 years as a sub contractor. After the first year i spoke to an accountant who registered me as self employed etc. This is where the problem starts, i got letters to say that my accounts were late and that i would get £100 penalty. I put it off and put it off being the idiot i am until the point where the numbers didn't really mean anything other than just numbers. The last 3 years, i've had a different accountant work everything out and submit everything on time. Here's the second problem...I haven't paid anything. As it stands i owe around 7-8k in tax and about 7k in fines I've had a letter, hand delivered from HMRC that says "Warning of enforcement action" Type of tax:SA Amount you owe £149**.** It gives me a number i can ring, which i intend to do, i just need some advice on what to do next with regards to the letter and what i can expect to happen. I don't own a house, i don't have any savings. If i was to liquidate everything i own, it would come to around £6k. Any help would be greatly appreciated If you need any more info from me, fire away Thanks
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I stuck my head in the sand with council tax last year and ended up having my debt passed to Equita. It got to enforcement stage before I managed to get someone to agree to a payment plan with me. I agreed to 250pm at the time as I was in full time work. I lost my job in April and rang Equita before my payment was due to advise them that I wouldn't be able to pay the same amount but would be willing to carry on paying a much smaller amount until I get back into work. (I'm currently waiting on an award of benefits from the DWP and have been given a council tax reduction for this year based on nil income until awarded universal credit because of this). When I rang Equita I was told that final payment had been taken and my account had been closed and that it was all fine by them. I didn't think to get the name of who I spoke to On the 8th, I was rung by one of their enforcement agents who told me that my last payment hadn't actually been made and they were informed of this on the 4th. He told me he would be coming round on the 9th. I rang him back later on in the day, he said he'd call me back in around 45 minutes and never did. He also has;t turned up at my flat. Since then I haven't been able to get in contact with him. I've called and texted, I've rung Equita, they said they couldn't do anything and out me back through to their bailiff who didn't answer the phone. I'm totally lost, I can't afford anything near what I was paying them back. The most I can spare is around 20 quid a month and I don't even know how much benefit I'm actually going to be given at the end of this month. I've been trying to find someone to talk to about it in the company but I'm at a total dead end. I can't spend forever in my flat waiting for him to eventually decide to show up! -
Bailiffs from 'Can't Pay We'll Take It Away' throw car park firm out of Huddersfield site for not paying its bills A national car park firm has been dramatically evicted from its Huddersfield site by bailiffs seen on television’s ‘Can’t Pay We’ll Take It Away’ show. Euro Car Parks was abruptly turfed out of its Lord Street site and the entrance chained over. It has now been claimed that the huge international firm, notorious for giving shoppers parking tickets, has itself failed to pay its bills. The Examiner understands it has not paid the past three months rent on the site, which was purchased by a private landlord recently for more than £700,000. The Examiner has asked Euro Car Parks for a comment but it has so far not responded. This morning a new firm, Simple Intelligent Parking, was busy installing its equipment and signs at the popular town centre car park. A spokesman said the landlord had become tired of waiting for payment and had recruited bailiffs from DCBL Ltd, who feature on the Channel 5 TV show, Can’t Pay We’ll Take It Away, to come and reclaim the site. He said he had assisted in dealing with the confused and upset employees of Euro Car Parks and customers, whose cars were locked in. And he revealed plans to improve the car park with a new surface and better markings were underway. Link -
Sent to me earlier today. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/gateshead-motorist-racks-up-55000-11127527 Also http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/watch-moment-fenham-two-drivers-11126935 -
I'm currently advising a friend on council tax issues. She is 62, works 12 hours a week as a cleaner and earns £450 a month. Sutton Council have decided she owes them for three years back council tax, despite the fact that they have NOT correctly assessed her benefit liability for those years, assuming incorrectly that her monthly earnings were weekly earnings. They have two liability orders for past years and she was visited by a bailiff who entered the sheltered accommodation where we both live (she has a small flat downstairs from me). The bailiff levied on a tv (3 year old 32 inch Toshiba which I lent her when her old tv died) and a dvd player, the resale price of these would no even begin to cover his fees. She is paying them £30 a month on top of the £26 she was paying the council. The council have now decided she is to pay them £48 a month for the remainder of last years (up to 31st March this year) bill and for the coming bill - so in total out of her £450 salary she is paying the council £85. We went to see them today and the lady told us that they cannot get the debt back from the bailiff - she gave us the name of the person to write to so a letter will be done by the end of this week. The council also refuse to accept that an attachment of earnings on her current salary is an 'acceptable expense' along with employees liability insurance so are working on her GROSS salary of £450 rather than the NET salary of about £400. I've advised my friend (who is now in contact with Stepchange) to go for a DRO and take all the council tax bills, including the one due in a coup;e of days time into it. The attachment of earnings is for an alleged DWP overpayment from 2001/2002....which again needs a bit more specialist help than I can give her. Any advise as to what to put in the council tax letter re legislation allowing them to get the debts back from the council and reassess them would be helpfu. -
Ok. I'll keep this shortish. In 2014 I had a CCJ against me for £1320 including court fees this ended up with a bailiff visiting and making an enforcement of goods order. I made a payment plan and have been paying £100 a month ever since for a debt totalling £1660. I paid £400 in June 2015 for a missed payment and to stop them threatening me. Missed payment due to changing bank account. They have charged me another £495 pounds saying that the enforcement went to stage 2 even though no one visited the house. I received no notice of this upgraded enforcement. Also I have discovered they have charged £90 fee initial fee when challenging them today they have added 20% VAT to all fees is this allowed? As far as I'm aware I have paid this debt in full plus some. The Bailiff has been very aggressive and threatening on the phone. I am going to stop them taking anymore money from my card as I believe they are now taking money they shouldn't have . Help please anyone!! -
Hi All, I don't know if you can advise me on this. I met a super charming guy online last year, went out with him for a few weeks. Quickly realised he was an alcoholic, a scrounger and compulsive lier, so I ended the relationship. Fast forward 3 months and I received a letter at my address for him, from Marston's chasing an unpaid drink driving fine. I called the original Magistrates court where he was issued the fine and explained that the man does not and has not ever lived with me, and I sent them a copy of my council tax bill and a letter to that effect. I also sent a registered letter to Marstons saying the same thing, with a copy of my council tax bill. I called Marstons to see what the situation was and they said that my address was in the process of being removed. Yet 5 days later and a Marston's Enforcement Officer called round at my house. I explained the situation on my doorstep, and provided a mobile phone number for him to contact the ex and ascertain his whereabouts. Luckily he seemed like a reasonable man and he didn't act in an intimidating way. What procedure should I follow if Marston's come back again? I don't want to have any more to do with this as it's not my debt and I find it very stressful. I had enforced no contact with the ex, and I want nothing to do with this person or his dodgy life. Any advice would be much appreciated. -
http://www.itv.com/news/central/2016-03-02/disabled-woman-claims-council-bailiffs-illegally-seized-her-car/ A disabled driver claims police and council bailiffs may have broken the law by seizing her car after accusing her of not paying a £60 bus lane fine. Blue Badge holder Cherry Clarke says she was physically removed from her Toyota Yaris by an officer before it was towed away from her home in Perry Barr in Birmingham. She has now been told she has days to pay the fine, which has risen to £93, or her car - her only means of transport - will be sold to pay the debt. Birmingham City Council claims it sent numerous letters to her address and that no Blue Badge was on display when the Toyota was taken.
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The following is an extract of an article that appeared on SCOOP yesterday: Full story here: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull-mother-chased-bailiffs-carving-knife-walks/story-28348975-detail/story.html#ixzz3uVapzLee
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https://www.publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/events/GA28-PPE BA would you know if anything of interest resulted from the above conference? More haste less speed......I meant to post this in the discussion forum, perhaps a moderator would be kind enough to move it over for me? Thanks WD -
Hi, I have just received a CCJ and all I got back from the courts was a letter telling me that the creditor sent the court a letter after they had received my admission and offer of monthly repayment, and that they had complained that the offer was too low. The court has now ordered that I pay a larger amount each month and that the first payment should be paid to the creditor by the 22nd of this month which is a week before I even get paid. I won't have the money by then and it's also more than I was expecting. Will the bailiffs come if I pay a week late? Or do you think the creditor will allow me to make the payment on the 29th if I explain my situation? I do feel like it is a bit unfair as they have decided that not only do I have to pay more than I offered, I also have to find it in just over a week. Any help would be much appreciated. -
Hi all really need some advice am so worried. We have c/tax arrears for 2015/16 which up to today we had left 596.20 the last payment we we're due to make was late by 7 days due to my partner being self employed and the way payments fell due to Christmas. Anyway we have always made payments as agreed with jbw never have we not paid(over a £1000 has already been paid to them) well today I received a not so lovely visit from two bailiffs who to say the least we're not the most pleasant of people I have ever meet. They issued us with a enforcement notice for full payment which now stands at 831.20 due to 235 in fees. I said to the bailiff could we not continue with the current payment plan of £250 a month to which he replied well how much can you pay today I said £20 as I paid you £250 less than 7 days ago and that's all I have, then the next payment of £250 would be made as normal on 18th Feb. But refused this offer. Now I don't know where we stand there is no date on the letter as to when they will be back either. I never let them into my home and never offered them in either. What worries me the most is if they turn up again when my daughter who has a disability is here lucky enough today she was at school but what about next time she would not react well to these thugs in suits turning up and behaving in the manner in which they did today. I'm really at my wits end I don't know what else to do. Any advice would be grateful. Thank you -
I'm new to this site. (Hi all). Got a shock when I noticed the site accepts advertising from a bailiff company! Isn't that the enemy? Archie
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My Council (North East Lincolnshire) obtained a liability order on 30 October 2015 to enforce whatever sum it considered was outstanding at the time of the court hearing. In a letter received 13 November 2015 the council proposed the following payment arrangement which included an amount which I dispute (£120) and am not willing to pay: The following was sent to the council on 10 November and although the council aims to respond in 10 working days there has not yet been a reply. I have not agreed to the council's rescheduled instalment plan (01-Dec-2015 – £100.66) and continued making payments as per usual. It looks as though they'll be sending the bailiffs round as I have no income to which they can attach deductions. However, I have had no further communications from the council regarding this and wonder if they see the futility in appointing bailiffs when they know they have no possibility of obtaining the disputed outstanding sum. -
Am I right in thinking that the HCEO employ there own bailiffs and there are also independent bailiff companies and are they part of the HCEO ? -
A month ago, a regular contributor to this forum (Dodgeball) started a thread on here about the ‘sale stage fee’ of £100 and when it should be charged by bailiffs. The regulations were completely overhauled in April 2014 and there is (and will continue to be) a great deal of differing of opinion about the wording and application of the regulations and will no doubt not be properly resolved until a court makes a judgment. Unfortunately, Dodgeball’s thread was once again the focus of unwarranted attention elsewhere and with this in mind, the thread ended up running to seven pages. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?453200-Removal-for-sale-fee-when-can-it-be-charged I am reliably informed that because of the importance of this subject, Dodgeball approached the countries expert on bailiff law; John Kruse for his professional opinion. John considered that the question was important enough to be quoted is his regular Bulletin (that is available to the advice sector for free or available by subscription to the public). Given the popularity of this forum, it is frequently viewed by members of the the enforcement industry. Those individuals are unlikely to read a copy of John Kruse's Bulletin. Hopefully by providing a copy of his opinion on the charging of this fee it may prove useful to them. A copy of Dodgeball's question is below: I am currently engaged in an interesting debate about sale fees and when they are applicable- in particular if a bailiff can charge the sale stage fee whilst on an enforcement visit. Many, particularly HCEOs, are under the impression they can. My position is that they cannot. My arguments are these: Sch.12 para.13 TCE Act 2007- this section outlines the ways that goods can be taken under control; it says that one of the methods listed must be used. Since only controlled goods can be sold then presumably only one of these can be used and must be used prior to removal for sale. It must be noticed that none of the options relate to the sale of goods, in fact they all indicate that another attendance must be made, to removed the previously secured goods or to inquire about the failure of a controlled goods agreement. The mention of removing goods in para.13 is, as you say in Bulletin 27, for purpose of storage rather than sale, so a subsequent attendance must be made there also. The Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations state that “the sale or disposal stage ... comprises all activities relating to enforcement from the first attendance at the property for the purpose of transporting goods to the place of sale etc.” The attendance at enforcement cannot in my opinion be for the purpose of transporting goods to the place of sale, because no goods have been seized at this point. There is also the matter of arrangement for sale as you mentioned in Bulletin 29. I do not believe that merely ringing for a van can fill these criteria as I believe the MoJ has suggested. Thirdly I think that the procedure was intended to be in three stages, so allowing the EA to circumvent the last stage by switching from enforcement to sale whilst in the enforcement stage is not what was intended. I would appreciate your thoughts.
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Hi everyone, Just need a bit of advice about re-claiming money back from LA/bailiffs. I have recently been visited by Jacobs and they got £422 out of me .They turned up at 6am and woke the whole neighbourhood up, by nearly knocking down my door. I am absolutely furious about this, not only did they have no grounds to do this - they also committed other offences (that i have just found out) The story goes... I got a bailiff letter out of the blue saying enforcement action was imminent. - thought it was a joke I checked with NCC and it was indeed a live case. I explained that I knew nothing about this and have had no correspondence, they told me to send in a TE9 which I duly did . Tried calling LA and got no joy OOT WS was rejected and bailiffs sent another letter saying i had 7 days . Called bailiff and explained my situation - didnt want to know. I said I was seeking further legal advice. on 24th October they turned up and clamped my car - could not call anyone as b4 7am - had money taken out of me as I needed my car for work. Also the original debt was for £187 and they took control of a £3000+ car there by abusing regulation 4 and para 66. of taking control of goods guidelines 66. Enforcement agents should take all reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the value of the goods taken into control to cover the sum outstanding is proportional to the value of the debt and fees owed I moved to my new address in feb 14 and the PCN was issued in nov 14, therefore I did not get NTO or any correspondence as DVLA still had previous address. My main issue is that i have been taken to court without my knowledge and had a summary judgement b4 i knew anything about it - surely this contravenes article 6? My right to a fair trial? my question is this. They came on 24th Sept - is there anyway I can get my money back or have any legal recourse? what is the time limit for filing an N244. It has taken me a while to read up on this subject and find your forum
