LACEF News is an excellent online "news" website ( link below) which has been set up by the founder of LACEF (the Local Authority Civil Enforcement Forum). Anyone with an interest in local authorities, council tax, benefits (including Universal Credit etc), bailiffs etc will find a daily visit to LACEF News of interest. There are even news articles about important legal cases. New articles appear throughout the day. LACEF News is certainly a page worth bookmarking. PS: To read full news articles (as opposed to a short extract) you will need to complete the short ‘sign up’ form. https://flipboard.com/@barrieminney/...news-vvnps43sy

Looking for some advice please.... We are in arrears with this years council tax, we set up a payment plan with the council but due to circumstances with work we didn't stick to the agreement, we knew it would go to court and be passed to an enforcement agency..... We have had dealings with the same issue over the last few years.... On the 12th sept we received a letter from jbw advising that the amount of £1140 was now payable to them, the same day we received an attachment of earnings order from the council for unpaid council tax arrears, we assumed this was for the amount advised by jbw and never completely read the order. My husband contacted the council to advise he had changed employer and gave new details, he questioned the letter from jbw to be told that the team who deal with it all will get it sorted..... After receiving another letter from jbw advising they were taking it to enforcement stage I rechecked the attachment order which i have realised is on,y for £53, possibly for a previous years council tax. So now we are unsure of what to do next, my husband will ring the council tomorrow to try and organise a payment plan directly for weekly payments until 31st March then the account will be clear, I have a feeling they won't agree and will advise to speak to jbw, checked online with jbw they want £290 upfront then payments of £88, we don't have the initial payment so at a loss of what we can do.... Any advice on dealing with this would be great, we have had bad dealings with previous bailiffs being threatening so very reluctant to deal with these.... We will not let them into our home and will keep our property secure..... I have a car on hp with another 4yrs of payments left, can they levy on this or not? My name isn't on the bill just my husbands.

"Just had my water bill of £175.00 come through the letter box. That's a lot - Oxfam can supply a whole African village for £2.00 per month, time to change supplier I think"

Trying to apply for for social housing, keep getting turned down (8 times now) because of not having a "local" connection, although I have lived within 5 miles of the town for 25 years, is this legal ?. This to me seems like some strange form of racism. Ideas welcome. thanks

Hi, Sorry if I have come in to the wrong section but I have an issue with a notice to quit my garage from Eastbourne County Council. Basically, I fell into arrears with my garage rent as they didn't have the correct direct debiticon details. Anyhow I was served with a Notice to Quit letter 0n 6th August advising that I had 7 days to pay arrears or they change the locks and take possession. I paid the full arrears on the 7th day and received my receipt. However they still changed the locks as the payment wasn't allocated to my rent account. I showed them that I made the payment and showed them the receipt and that it was paid in the 7 days but they tell be that I can't have my garage back. Can a local authority do this if I have met their demand and they still change the locks, all my work tools are in there and can't get in. Any info would be helpful. Thanks

Please help! I'm very new to benifits, this is the first time ever I have made a claim for Income Support. I have been in receipt of IS since the end of May this year (2015). Yesterday I received a letter asking me to attend the above interview. I tried to ring the number on the letter today, to maybe get some idea of what it was for. However I got the answer phone of the man conducting the interview. The answer phone message made me feel even worse, as he said 'you have reached the answer phone of ****** fraud and error complience officer! FRAUD! Jesus I'm totally at my wits end. I really can't deal with this stress, I have a 16 month old daughter to look after. I'm thinking of ending my claim, and getting a job. That was my plan, and i do have a job to go back to if I want, but I really wanted to be with daughter for a little while longer. I spent yesterday frantically getting together as much paper work to support my case as possible. But is £92.00 a fortnight really worth all this stress? I'm thinking NO.

I'm looking for some advice please on how to proceed with regard to a county court claim I received today, courtesy of H&L. Back in 2011 I enrolled on a local college course for the academic year 2011/12. At the time I was unemployed and applied for "mature" student finance. This was ticking along and as the end of the year approached various people also on the same course dropped out as their finance was turned down or their circumstances changed. In January 2012 I was fortunate to secure full time employment and continued on the course, my employers allowing me to attend the college the one day a week necessary. I advised Student Finances of my change in circumstances but was told there would not be a problem - I just had to get evidence from my council that my household had been receiving council tax benefit for a period up until I started the course. I applied to the council for written proof of this, and to date this never came back. The course itself was flawed. The planned course tutor was on long-term sick and the college struggled to cope. As a class we lost countless hours waiting for a tutor, a room, many times just being told to get on with things or read one of the course books. As an example we had a lesson in flash, then never revisited flash for weeks, the same for Adobe Photoshop. Being told to read a course book was OK if you had the book. For those who were unemployed or on low incomes, we certainly couldn't afford all the books, and the college only had 2 or 3 which could be loaned out for limited periods. Things came to a head after the department head randomly came in one evening and asked for feedback. As a class we came together, wrote down our grievances and passed these on, much to the department head's shock and surprise. A class representative was appointed and a meeting was held and we were told things would improve. In the end I couldn't justify taking time off away from my work and I had serious doubts on the value of the course and spending thousands on a 3 year foundation degree for an education that I wasn't getting - one part of the course was fine - the lecturer did her bit but the main IT elements (this was an Internet Business course) were sorely lacking. I left the course in early 2012 and didn't hear anything from the college. No invoice, no calls, no final demand, no default notice .. nothing. In early September 2013 I received the first of well over a dozen of threatening letters from H&L Solicitors and I contacted the college to find out what was going on. H&L had added around £35 to the total apparently although this was not made clear. The debt was for £1207. I emailed the college and eventually received a holding email in October followed by a letter which claimed there had been no issues with the course , and that I had to pay. I replied by letter, which was never acknowledged offering to pay £300 to resolve matters and cover their admin costs, or for them to put me on a new properly managed course for which I would pay. Moving to 2014, after a flurry of threats from H&L I emailed the college again, asking for my complaint to be passed to the principal. Again I offered the £300, or to pay for a new course. This was ignored. Fast forward to 2015 and many months have gone by without any letters from H&L, so I wrongly presumed the college had simply moved on. Three weeks ago I received a threat of legal action from H&L, the same as many they'd sent before and today I received a county court claim. The total is now £1600 including court costs and £80 solicitors fees, and interest. I am in a position to pay but I'm unsure as to how to proceed. My life is more or less back together after an 18 month period of unemployment before 2012 and I'm with the same employer. I don't want to get my credit rating destroyed after I've been slowly building it back up. I have never contacted H&L as my complaint has always been with the college. The H&L letters do not make clear if they bought the debt or if they are acting on the college's behalf. If I defend would I have to pay more if I lose? If I get a judgment against me but pay within a month does that get wiped? Should I counter claim?, offer a part payment? - contact H&L? Since this started I've moved house and only received the claim because my mail is redirected. Any advice you could offer would be much appreciated.

Following the new regulations in April 2014 many people (in particular those who support the Freeman on the Land ideology) have tried to avoid bailiff fees by making payment direct to the court (in the case of court fines) or the local authority (in the case of council tax ). In the early months of the regulations many local authorities were still trying to grasp the new regs and computer systems needed to be updated and accordingly, the local authorities (and magistrate courts) were slowly coming to grips with the way in which payments made direct to them after a warrant had been issued should be apportioned in line with the regulations (ie; the Compliance Fee of £75 being deducted in full and the balance being split on a pro rata basis between the debt to the creditor and bailiff fees). As many will remember on this forum, an astonishing number of Freedom of Information requests have been made to local authorities (and magistrate courts) by a handful of people seeking clarification as to how an individual local authority (or court) deal with 'direct payments' and sadly there are many examples on the popular Freedom of Information website; WhatdoTheyKnow.com of local authorities being subjected to costly 'internal reviews'. Worryingly, these 'reviews' have almost always been against those local authorities who had responded to the FOI requests confirming that they forwarded direct payments to the enforcement company. Yesterday an article appeared in a popular trade magazine that is circulated to all enforcement companies and local authorities addressing the subject of 'direct payments'. The article is written by the Director of a well known enforcement company and I have been given permission by him to reproduce the article on the forum.

I am very interested indeed to read this story today on SCOOP concerning Burnley Council who are sending demand notices for alleged council tax dating back to 1997. The article states that with minimum details to back up their claims, home owners, including landlords, are being sent claim notices for the first time and expected to trawl through past records over many years to identify if these claims are still valid. I think that this could be a bigger problem because yesterday, I spoke with a gentleman who has received correspondence at his current address from a bailiff company (no names at present) for a Liability Order that was ISSUED 20 years ago (1995). The debtor moved from the marital home that same year and his ex wife continued to live in the house for 3 years until they divorced in 1998. Yesterday was the first time that he was made aware that a LO had been issued. What is more worrying is that the day before (Wednesday) I spoke with a lady with a similar problem regarding a Liability Order from 1996 (19 years ago). This one being with a different local authority. With both of the above cases, they have received letters from bailiff companies. Interestingly, both letters are not Notice of Enforcements but do state that non payment will lead to a further letter being sent with a fee of £75 being applied and that recovery will be by way of the procedures outlined in Schedule 12 of TCE 2007. http://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/letters/home-owners-receive-council-tax-demand-from-1997-1-7160003

Hi, I received a very unexpected letter from my local council just recently regarding council tax. I am a single father living in private rented property who has MS. I am on ESA (support group) & PiP (Enhanced mobility & Daily living component). The letter stated that as of now, due to council budgeting, the council could no longer afford to subsidize the council tax & I was henceforth required to pay approx £200.00 (with offer of installments) to cover my council tax & presumably each year that follows. Now, I am not disputing the money here, what I am curious about is if this has happened in other council districts, whereby the council tax has wavered/paid the tax for people & also why I wasn't aware that this was the case previously. The thing is, for the last few years, they always sent out a council tax bill showing lots of figures then an 'amount you owe=ZERO' at the bottom so I always assumed I was somehow exempt due to my circumstances. If they have been paying it for the public for some years, then well yes this is very generous &, most certainly, one would think would attract voters so a win win for the council. I really do not wish to stir up any problems with my local council who, to be very fair, are very 'automated' in keeping the housing benefit coming & I hardly hear from them at all, sometimes for years at a time. I am just curious as to if anybody else has come across this recent state of affairs, whereby the council was subsidizing fully the tax, then perhaps the notification that alas they cannot do that anymore for economical reasons. One other question, is the £200.00 figure per year correct for a single person living alone such as I am in a privately rented accommodation? thanks in advance, i always appreciate this site, it's very existence is like a permanent weight off my mind, you guys do a remarkable job.

The new bailiff regulations came into effect on 6th April and bailiff fees are strictly controlled and comprise of a Compliance Fee of £75 which is charged when the debt is passed by the creditor. If payment is not made or a payment agreement entered into during the ‘compliance stage’ a bailiff may attend the debtors premises and an Enforcement Fee of £235 is chargeable. Significantly, the new regulations provide that from any payment made (whether to the bailiff, the magistrate court or the local authority) the Compliance Fee of £75 is deducted first with the balance being split on a ‘pro rata’ basis between the debt to the creditor and bailiff fees. This novel approach means that unless the amount due (including bailiff fees) is paid in full, bailiff enforcement may continue and it is this point alone that has caused extreme difficulty to some ‘debt avoidance’ websites with associations to the Freeman on the Land (FmoTL) movement and 9 months after the regulations came into effect it is astonishing that debtors are continuing to be advised by such websites to avoid paying bailiff fees by paying the amount of the Liability Order or court fine only (minus bailiff fees). Despite the regulations clearly outlining how payments are to be calculated, in May/June an individual made numerous Freedom of Information requests to Local Authorities seeking clarification as to how they deal with direct payments made to them after accounts have been passed to bailiffs. Since that time many more FOI requests have been made on the same subject and the up to date position is that approx a quarter of all local authorities have received requests on the same subject. What has been the outcome of these Freedom of Information request? Typically, in the very early stages (May and June) most responses made clear that the local authorities had very little idea as to how the new regulations would work in practice but, since August/September the vast majority of responses confirm that they apportion the payment as outlined in the legislation and that they advise the bailiff company accordingly (or credit the bailiff company) with the payment. PS: It is likely that there are far more FOI requests than outlined here. I have only referred to those that are available to view publicly on the FOI website: What do They Know.

I have received a PCN from Redbridge Council for an alleged offence code 31 entering & stopping in a box junction when prohibited. The evidence is a picture showing my car crossing a box junction witha close up of the number plate, I can't tell if I'm stationery or moving but it does look like brake lights are on. My argument is that this is a side road entering a B road and the only way to get out is if you are flashed to go by someone queuing in the heavy traffic, that is what happened here, if I had not pulled out when given way by to by another vehicle I'd still be sitting there! This really grates my cheese as there's no effort put into this and no real policing, just some camera observer sitting there adding up the fines for the LA. Is there any point in arguing this and if so any tips on what to say? It's a £65 fine if paid with 14 days or £130 within 28 days, notice date is yesterday and alleged offence date is 03/02/2015 It states the alleged offence was noted by enforcement officer xx from a road side camera. Not a happy Homer.

If I pay in a p&d car park for all day parking can I leave the car park, say to go out for a meal, and return within the time paid for? A stroppy official told me I can't and tried to make me pay again but didn't ticket me. Can I now expect something through the post?

Hi all, My partner signed up to a local gym recently with a friend, upon signing up they were told it was a 12 month contract with the first month free. They were also told they had 30 days to try the gym out and could cancel if they didn't like it. My partner and her friend attended the gym twice over the next 4days but it became apparent that the gym was far too busy at peak times and there was a large amount males that made my partner anxious and uncomfortable (she suffered from anxiety). My partners friend phoned up with 5days of signing up and was told she could not cancel but they did transfer her membership to another gym. When we phoned up to cancel under the grounds of misrepresentation and that my partner did not feel comfortable but they said she had signed a contract and we had no legal grounds to stand on. They did offer to move our membership but the gym was too far away , they also offered an induction session but after dispute and accusing the staff of miss representation my partner feels mor anxious than ever and cannot return for fear of anxiety attack. I haven emailed a number of times now and have offered to pay the gym any costs for signing and cancelling the membership along with a month for the 2days , an offer I think reasonable given the circumstances. My complaint has now moved from their membership department to their operations manager who has said he has looked into our complaint and our accusations are without evidence and our membership still stands. They have said if we cancel our direct debit they will immediately order the bailiffs in- something I really want to avoid as this will not help my partners anxiety !! What's even more frustrating is that this gym is a a trading name of a council funded charity ! (Run for the good of the community) What I really want to know is do we have a case here, can bailiffs be appointed when we are disputing the validity of the contract on the grounds of miss-selling. And can bailiffs even collect on a debit agreement if it is cancelled before the start date (February). Part of me is tempted to give in but this is£312 we do not have. Any advice will be much appreciated .

Hello all. I want to stop my local council sharing our data with our social housing landlord. Is this under the DPA 1998 or 1989? Or does it mater which one?

My wife and I are the leaseholder of a flat in a block of six(since April 2006). My local council is Broxtowe Borough. Every year we have had bills for maintenance of some sort ranging from several lino tiles in the foyer to wall insulation. Some bills have been a few hundred whilst the dearest was over £4,000.00......... ....fast forward to around 15-16 months ago when the council decided to replace the old wooden entrance door(front and rear), with new steel security doors and security key. Their reason for the replacement was that these would add security to the tenants and stop any tom,dick,and harry coming in...WRONG!!!. The doors are continually wedged open with kitchen utensils, bucket filled with sand, house brick, pieces of wood etc..... ...I contacted the council over a year ago telling them about the situation and stressed that we would not be paying for the doors as they are no more secure than the ones that were replaced. We heard nothing more for a long time until today we received a bill for £342.59 for replacement of front and rear entrance doors. I have video and photographic proof of the doors being wedged open on various days and at different times of the day,both in daylight and darkness.... .....My questions is, do I have a good enough case to refuse to pay the demand based on the evidence I have?. The last thing I want is for the council to take me to court and I end up with a bill for several thousand. The doors are only as secure as the tenants who close them behind them and that is probably never. Incidentally,my wife and I purchased a house in february, moved in to it in June and rented the flat from July. I went there mid week to get some car items from the outside store and the so called security was wedged open then, so it is still happening. I don't mind paying for replacement doors if they are being used properly, but they aren't. Any help , especially legal wise, law wise would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all just want some advice again from this great forum again this time its for expenses claim from the local council i get a call from the council a few weeks back saying im getting a new refurbishment kitchen result i think as never heard nothink about this before. monday morning comes all suits turn up at the door doing servays etc measuring. ok your haveing a new kitchen ,bathroom and electric wiring ,boiler radiators , starts in 3weeks time ok we think result new kitchen etc work starts on the 4/8/14 still aint complete yet so every day my family me wife 4 children and 11 week old baby sitting in the front room from 8am to 6pm when they finish we can use tolit etc and sort of chill out so heres the issuse the washing machine gets put back in the kitchen only every friday night so we have to use laundrette every other day also we have no cooking faciltys except a kettle to make babys bottles the gas pipe only being moved on the 15/8/14 cooker still not in today as you can imagine its a total nightmare having floor boards up ceilings ripped down no lights downstairs for 2 weeks so we have to eat so we have been eating takeaway every night which you can image is now mounting up and is not cheep so i phoned the council and just said could i have some advice as to if i can claim anythink back for my meals and washing which they said no i cant. i think this is wrong i have no way to eat or feed my children without a kitchen so takeaway meals is the only option i have so can i claim for my expenses ??? many thanks

Our local lifestyle shop delivers our newspapers. A few weeks ago we did not receive a weekly paper so my husband went in to collect one. The male shopkeeper would not let him have a paper saying it had definitely been delivered, his wife had put the papers in the paper boys bag so they had been delivered. He raised his voice to my husband so my husband raised his voice back saying it may have been delivered but not to our house! The shopkeeper then says my husband is banned! All over a 75p paper. The following day I went into the shop and asked if customer service was any better today he immediately started shouting that I was abusing him and he wasn't going to serve me! He then stormed off and locked himself in the back room! I walked out saying I would never buy anything from the shop again. Today I went to the post office which is a small sub post office inside the shop, so I had to walk through the shop to get to it. I did not buy from the shop. The shopkeepers wife approached me and said had I had an apology from the paper boy - I said no I hadn't but it wasn't the boys apology I wanted (mistakes happen) but I wanted an apology from her husband for calling both me and my husband liars. All she kept saying was it was the paper boys fault! I kept calm and said nothing and started to walk away and the shopkeeper started shouting "you are banned and don't come to the post office either" No I have phoned the post office and apparently if these people own the shop (which they do) they can stop me walking through to access the post office. Now I can cope without using the shop but being unable to use the post office is very inconvenient indeed. Are they within their rights to do this?

Hello, I'm a motorist in a seaside resort and I live in the town center (of a small town), where around my home for 2-3 miles all of the roadside parking is zonal parking. This means I must display a valid "visitors" permit (which you must purchase for £10 for a book of 10), or a valid "residents" permit, for the zone of which you reside (zones are A or B), from my local council. Parking is an issue. I have had threatening letters placed on the windscreen of my car previously for legally parking in the zonal area showing a permit. My car is taxed, has a valid MOT and is insured all above board, and even at this point I displayed a valid "visitors" permit as I refuse to pay £25 per year to park in a town that receives money from myself and my family by way of council tax. It's becoming a seriously sore point among motorists and locals, to the point where more and more tickets are being issued. I'm now getting bailiffs at my door, making threats to seize goods and gain access to my property with or without my presence, the lot. What I'd really like to know is, is there anything that says that I'm obliged to pay these fines? I constantly see commercial vehicles without the proper "contractor" permits displayed, parking in loading bays and disabled bays (of all places) day in day out that don't get ticketed. The tickets are the windscreen ones, that offer a £25 fine if paid in 2 weeks, or it escalates to £50. Please also note I have chased this up at so called "head office" to which they provided me with no telephone number, or address, to which I could make contact with any form of Parking Enforcement department for my local council (East Riding Council). Any and all help is much appreciated. Thanks

Can anyone explain what signs are required on pay and Display car parks. Are there any rules regarding size of lettering/colour of background etc? Is there precise legislation I can refer to?

Hi Guys, Just need some advice. My wife's sister fell very ill last December, she had to take an emergency flight to visit her. She took out daughter with her and she missed 4 days of school. We explained the situation to the school , however they passed out details on to the local council. We have today received a fine of £180.00 each. A total of £360.00, I was just wondering, could we appeal? I think the amount per parent is excessive. Our local council is Waltham Forest. Any information that can help would be much appreciated.

I am currently on ESA in the wrag group after migrating from Incapacity Benefit. My health is not good and recently when i visited my local Jobcentre Plus office for my ESA work- focused interview with my personal adviser she advised me to apply for Personal Independence payments due to my condition. She said this would help me financially and also i would not have to struggle to attend any more interviews with her. I applied for PIP by telephone and then a massive PIP claim form arrived. I have had difficulty trying to complete this form(ESA50 is nothing compared to this monster). I telephoned them to say i was having difficulty completing the form. I have now received a letter saying an adviser is coming to visit me at my home address. They say they are coming to assist me with the form and to discuss benefits i am already receiving or may be entitled to, plus to provide information on further services. Has anyone else been through this procedure or can anyone offer any advice please? I hate claiming benefits in this current social climate and am very suspicious(rightly or wrongly) of DWP after all the problems i have had with them and ATOS whilst claiming ESA. I do not know if i have done right by applying for PIP. Should i have applied to go in ESA support group? Will they stop my current ESA payments if i fail on my PIP application? The whole thing worries me so much. Can anyone help please?

Hi i wonder if someone could help. My parents bought a house last year, it has a nearly new garage conversion, they only bought the house because it had all the paper work and completion cerificate from local building control saying it meets building regs. However 6 months in and there conversion which is a bedroom is seriously leaking water. They have had 3 builders around and all say dont know how this was signed off!! The floor sits lower than outside, no membrane on floor just existing garage floor with underlay carpet underneath floorboards. My question is can they sue the council for this? The local building control manager did go around there and have a look and all he kept saying was this is poor. But wouldnt say they would put it right. Its not going to be cheap but why should they have to pay. Thankyou for reading and hopefully helping.

Hi, I would appreciate some advice please. My name was disclosed, by social services, to a family after I reported somethings that some children had told me and that was of concern in regards to their welfare. I have suffered almost 2 years of daily harassment and intimidation from this family, the police have been involved and they recommended to have a community alarm as a vulnerable person. Which I have to pay rental on as I am too young for funding. I put a complaint through and saw through investigation to stage 2 where the complaint was upheld and that my confidentiality had been breached. The social worker refused to believe police were involved (despite me giving them crime reference numbers). On top of this, the social worker continued to disclose details of the complaint and investigation to the family resulting in further intimidation. This was happening at the school gates daily, was overspilling into those children bullying my children and was the last straw and I had to remove my children from the school. The investigator told me to ask for the cost of the distress, the alarm, plus financial losses (I have had to cease my home visit business due to odd phone calls) but investigation report told me to claim compensation from the local authority but denied my business suffered because of the disclosure. I also want to claim petrol and car costs to get the children to and from their new school also. But I am not sure what to do for this and I guess this is where they expect me to give up. A solicitor will cost me money but will this get me more money? How much is a breach like this worth? I still don't go out on my own locally, I even changed my car as my old one was quite distinctive. This has totally changed my life. I want to claim liquidated damages if possible, so they learn and do not do this to others. The reported ordered all social workers to undergo further data protection training so I assume that disclosure is a serious issue. Any thought on how to proceed would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Evening all, I have an account with a local agricultural merchants due to various problems I have mentioned on other threads I fell behind with paying it off, I then agreed to send them small monthly amounts to reduce it but again due to continuing problems I fell behind with it and have not paid them for a few months as I literally have had no spare money, I have spoken to them and explained the situation and they agreed to wait, I have now had a letter threatening court action if the full amount is not paid by the end of the month, I have written them a letter explaining again and enclosing a cheque as a gesture of my intention to pay, now the question I have is, this account is a word of mouth agreement, nothing has ever been signed, in thier letter they are qouting as per company policy, no company policy has ever been shown to me or any terms and conditions of trading, as I say I intend to pay the debt, but I would like to know the legal position so that i can advise them of it if they continue to threaten court, cheers Purp