When the Taking Control of Goods regulations came into effect in 2014, they not only provided a much clearer and fixed fee scale, they also introduced a fairer system whereby, in order to keep bailiff fees to the barest minimum, (of just £75) the debtor is given the opportunity of avoiding a personal bailiff visit (and an enforcement fee of £235 being applied) by paying the debt (including the Compliance Fee of £75) by the date outlined on the Notice of Enforcement....or alternatively, by agreeing a payment arrangement with the enforcement company. Most payment arrangements are for a short period of approx 3-4 months (sometimes even more). Where problems have arisen since 2014, is that many people receiving a Notice of Enforcement from the bailiff company, try to avoid paying bailiff fees by visiting the local authorities website and making an online payment of just the debt owed to the council. Such avoidance methods do not work. This is because, the regulations are very specific in that once the Notice of Enforcement has been issued, the debt owed includes the compliance fee of £75. Furthermore, and this is again in the regulations, any payments made after the Notice of Enforcement has been issued must first be applied towards discharging the Compliance fee (of £75). The bottom line is that if a payment is made to a local authority (minus bailiff fees) after the date on when a Notice of Enforcement is issued, the enforcement company are entitled to their compliance fee (of £75). The effect being that any payment made to a local authority (minus bailiff fees) must be considered as merely a part payment and accordingly, the warrant is not satisfied…and bailiff enforcement can.....and will continue. Since 2014, debt avoidance websites have inundated local authorities with many hundreds of Freedom of Information requests enquiring as to whether councils retain these online payment or pass the compliance fee to the enforcement company etc. These pointless requests have achieved absolutely nothing. There have been quite a few Local Government Ombudsman’s decisions regarding this scenario but a very recent one is of interest because, in this particular case, the local authority adjusted the amount of the Liability Order but failed to inform the enforcement company. The debtor also paid the council direct (minus bailiffs). A have copied the decision in the next post.

Hi Guys, I sold an item back in November via eBay. Customer then opened a PayPal case for SNAD in February and PayPal informed them that the item should be sent back to me, once it was sent back, they issued a full refund. The item arrived back broken and I called them up, I was then informed to report this to ActionFraud which I did and to provide them with the Ref #. I did this but this was not enough, they want a letter with Ref #, I am chasing Action Fraud for this. Everyone at PayPal says something different, one chap said the Ref # is enough, then another said I need the letter headed paper from ActionFraud! these guys Akinika have sent an email, of course I have not contacted them but I just had a few questions: Can these guys affect my Credit Rating, I never had no issues before and I don't want any sort of mark on my Credit Record. Do these guys have any power at all, reading the forums, I see they referred to as potless DCA, Any help would be much appreciated, Regards

Please can anyone give me any advice on what I can do please I have a prepayment meter with British Gas and I haven't been able to afford to put any money in it. I am unemployed and was just about managing then I got a benefit sanction of over 6 months and in that time I've not had any gas because I can't afford it, but I have still been getting charged and I now owe over £87 in the meter. So I would have to pay that of first and then put more money in to actually get gas Can they do this, charge for gas when its not been used? Is there anyway of me getting my gas put back on as I hate having no hot water or heating and all this has been going on for so long now, I just want it sorted out Thank you for reading this