Bailiffs turned up charged £250 because I was self isolating

[Chocolate2020]

So December 2020 the bailiffs turned up at my door 2DAYS AFTER a repayment to chandlers was 1 days late
( I wasn't aware that they had changed the date from the 7th to the 6th)

Added £250 bill to my account and won't drop the charge.

The bailiff didn't ring or email or send a letter to say they were turning up (to check if the property is covid safe, and knowone is isolating) it states on the letter they must do so) .. My family was self isolating!!!
And had been for 2 days by the time they turned up.

I didn't even hear them knock at my gate, I only realised that they had turned up when I checked the outside letter box that evening.

They expect us to pay £200 each month until April to pay off this debt or they will turn up and add another £250.
We cannot do that because my husband had much work due to covid.

I actually thought my husband had rung them and got them to drop the charges and complain to chandler's to complain.

(we spoke to the council tax about this and even they said what they have done is disgusting )

The bailiffs are rude and blunt and so is the company chandler's (2*reviews online)

2020 has effected us horribly.

I feel there is more to this story.

Sorry you are going through this. Is it because of being late with rent? I thought people couldn't be evicted at the moment because of covid but I'm no expert. Who are Chandler's? Are they trying to turn you out of the house or take stuff?. Horrible situation either way.

As long as you let no bailiff in your home do not answer the door and don’t have a car out in the street nor leave your windows open they can do nothing

I'd suggest contacting Citizens Advice.

If its for council tax, which I'm assuming it is with you saying you spoke to the council. They can only add the visiting fee of £250 once. They're just trying to put the pressure on you. You can make a complaint to CIVEA. they are like the ombudsman of enforcement agents.

Yes agree with pp, contact the Citizens advice bureau. If you are struggling to pay debts they will offer you free advice and help you work out an affordable plan.

2020 we got in council tax arrears and rent arrears because coronavirus happend and we got no help paying our rent or our council tax, my husbands income just about covered the £1,200 rent and that was nt including the bills.
We have young children which couldn't go to school.

We had to move home because if we stayed there we would have ended up being evicted.

My husband and I almost divorced because of this.

We had no debt March 2020 now we owe thousands because of the pandemic.

Contact StepChange

If I let them into my home they couldn't have taken anything!. We sold the majority of our stuff when we moved because we had to pay off some bills.
I would have said to them take my car its worth £200 and a peice of Sh*.(it's just got to the scrap yard today)

The only thing of value we have is a second hand computer and laptop (which was given to us by my family).

We couldn't be evicted last year but if we stayed we would have been at some point because our bills were mounting and we were just about to start drowning

Wow I never knew that, I'll have to contact them.
My husband is the only person who's spoken to the enforcement agents and because he hates confrontation he just let's them get their own way.
But not me, I won't let this go

Step change are brilliant for helping people with debt, they are a government charity. A lot of people are going to be in a similar position, get help now before it spirals further x

Apply for Council Tax Reduction if you haven’t done so already and see if your council has a discretionary scheme to help with council tax.

Before you speak to the bailiff, get in touch with council tax and ask if they'll take the debt back setting up an affordable payment plan. You'll need to provide your income and expenditure to them.

They can't turn up after two days, it's illegal. They have to post a letter with a notice of intention to visit, then wait seven days, then they can knock on.

Keep your doors locked, then can't force entry but they can just walk in if it's unlocked. Same for patios. They can't climb in windows or over back gates. Park your car on someone else's drive and they can't clamp it. They won't take it if it's not worth anything but they will clamp it to stop you being able to move it.

Like PP have said, contact step change, contact the enforcement company and notify them that you are getting financial advice and are in need of a welfare/harship refferal. This won't stop the debt but it will stop them knocking the door. Contact the enforcement agent and tell them the same.

Good luck.

My husband got landed with a bill of £2500 ish which was a joint one with his ex wife and she point blank refused to pay a penny even when it went to debt collectors. Anyhow, we paid about £1200ish and are now paying the grand total of £1 a month. It’s possible to negotiate down to ridiculous sums like that if you just insist that you don’t have any more money.

Thank you for all your help.
I'll be contacting them today
I thought then turning up after 2 days was so wrong
they did turn up without any notice at all.

@Chocolate2020

Thank you for all your help. I'll be contacting them today I thought then turning up after 2 days was so wrong they did turn up without any notice at all.

It's an admin error if you've already paid it, so please don't worry about it but just get it sorted out - call and complain.

In the future, council tax is priority arrears, which means that if you are going to stop paying anything then it should be council tax last. If you rent from the council that also needs to be prioritised. If it all starts to look tricky to pay you need to get help as soon as possible - don't leave it until payments are already missed.

I didn't know that bailiffs ever gave notice.

You should have had bills, then a final demand, then a notice telling you the debt had been sold, then a notice of intention to visit.

The notice of intention to visit and the visit have to be at least seven days apart, legally. There is no wiggle room on this and if this didn't happen then you need to complain vociferously. Check your last correspondence with them to verify the date and wording on that, but you should complain about it if they didn't. If it's in your last letter something like "if you do not get in touch to pay then an enforcement agent will visit your property at a later date" then that counts as the notice.

Some companies visit and hand deliver the letter and request payment and then leave. If they've charged you £250 and added that to the debt then that's not what it was.

If they do turn up again, record everything, tell them you are recording. Panic means people forget what has been said. Recording it means it's easier to revisit.

Hope you get it sorted OP.

Thank you for that, my husband made payment 1 and they turned 2 days later, my husband also made the same payment the previous month on the same date un aware that they had changed it. So they had a month to tell us it was a late payment.
They have our phone numbers and emails.

The way they are behaving is awful.

Yes the bailiffs had to call send a letter and email to check no one was self isolating before they turnedd up because if they did call they would have found out we were self isolation. ☹️