To ignore bailiff

[Thebrowntrout]

Anyone got any experience of this, I have bailiffs coming round for unpaid council tax and I don't owe it.

I'm waiting for it to be referred back to council, does anyone know how long this normally takes?

I understand your plight here and am not surprised that a small debt has escalated as the enforcement agents and bailiffs charge enormous fees. £75 for a letter for example.

My advice is;

Council tax bailiffs cannot force entry but if you allow peaceful entry to them once, they then have a right to entry subsequent times. They can't push passed you or break windows or locks. They can obtain a police warrant but this is unlikely with the amount of money you owe.

They can take goods outside your home without permission, usually car.

If they call, I would advise talking to them through a door chain, open window or even letterbox to clearly state your case so make sure you know your rights.

Gather your evidence to present to the bailiffs but bear in mind that they can only demand full payment or pass the debt back.

Hope you can resolve this. It's awful.

Cheers Cigerettes, fingers crossed not too much longer then.

It's ridiculous, it really is.

I won't be conversing or engaging with the bailiffs at all. Not a chance. It's just a waiting game really - just hope that it is sorted out soon :)

Ok, I give up.

Hope you get it sorted soon OP.

Good grief. I think the vast majority of posters on this thread must have failed reading comprehension at school with flying colours!

Keep following cab advice, op, they know more than any one posting here.

Why are so many people on here purposely ignoring what the OP is telling you? Are you all on the wine?

1. She didn't know she owed the council any money until it had already gone to bailiffs and penalties had been put on increasing the debt from £80 to £1000.

1. OP has moved house, she has not been chased for this money at the new address until last year when the debt had already increased by £900. Before the OP moved house the council assured her she had no council tax outstanding.

1. The OP immediately offered to pay £80 however this has been refused and the bailiffs will only accept the full amount.

1. CAB have advised OP to wait it out.

The one thing you can't do with any sort of debt is to ignore it and not answer the door. You have to deal with it as it will never go away.

*Sigh. No, Alice, I owed £80.

I asked 'do I owe anything else' they cheerfully said no, and that was four years ago.*

Above comment very misleading OP. I feel it's where all the confusion is coming from.

So stop admitting to owing anything you asked if you owed and they said no job done.

Ask for your council statements and if CAB say wait it out then wait it out.

CAB have advised OP to wait it out.

Wait it out till when? Fees grow? It goes to court?

Me too Sanchar - and the ^nerve of you, Tequila* , getting frustrated with ME?

Sometimes it's okay to say 'ah ok, didn't know that, good luck OP.'

Thank you, he

Sallying, wrong.

Sometimes that's the best thing to do.

Orange, until the bailiffs hands the debt back to the council!

Oranges - until it's referred back to court.

As I've said.

Tequila I think you've got a nerve actually behaving as if you are the injured party.

Thank you SO much to the PP for explaining so clearly and now I don't doubt my written skills

No oranges till it gets referred back to the council who then take it back to court.

This is a process that regulary gets followed.

four years ago I asked the council if I owed anything else and they said no

Do you have evidence of that?

Do you also have evidence of the fact that as soon as you knew about the debt you offered to pay £80?

If you still live within the same council's area, have you tried talking to your local councillor about this?

Op I don't have any more advice from what's been given however for posters who express disbelief at how this can escalate:

Years ago I was a few days late in paying my monthly council tax payment (paid monthly rather than dd at the time). Few weeks later I got a reminder for unpaid council tax which I ignored as it had been paid.

Roll on another month, same reminder which again I ignored as I knew I had paid up.

Next letter was from the bailiffs for unpaid debt. Naturally I was very confused as I knew I paid on time in full every month on time except for one month which was a few days late.

When I spoke to the council tax they said I had underpaid by £x for the preceding council tax year. I was shocked as I always paid up. Thinking I had somehow messed up I asked how my payments were for the current year. They explained that I had overpaid by exactly the same amount I had underpaid for the previous year for which was now in the hands of bailiffs!

The root of all of this was that my late payment was made at the start of the new council tax year so wasn't transferred to the correct one.

This took a huge amount of threats on my part in order to get them to rectify the situation including calling off the bailiffs.

That's how easy it is to get landed with a bailiff order!

Glad it got sorted for you in the end Shenanigans :)

I'm half asleep and high on painkillers and I understood perfectly.

I'm sure people skim read and pick out key words and phrases and run with it.

I've seen it on loads of threads where the OP is trying to explain to the terminally stupid. It frustrates the hell out of me and it's not even my thread!😄

I thank god that my mother had the sense to move back to Northern Ireland when I was a babe. The amount of threads I see on here about council tax is shocking.

Sometimes I think people just want to give an OP a hard time so run with their version of events - then I think, no. It's AIBU on mumsnet, that would never happen

On the wait it out point in many areas of English law there are only 6 years to recover damages so in 2 years it might be time barred although it depends on the type of debt. For example bank personal guarantees are signed as a "deed" and the period is then 12 years, not 6.

Not sure about debts particularly council ones, but would they
A: have proof of the debt
B: proof of you being aware of the debt
C: proof of notifying you of the debt

In normal debt terms, you need to have all of the above before they can transfer to bailiffs. I'd wait for it to go to court to be honest. And under no circumstances let the fuckers in. Also be wary of wolves in sheeps clothing. They can and do use false pretences to gain entry.

oh - i just thought, would it be worth posting this on the legal section? sometimes solicitors and barristers give advice on those threads.

I'm not sure that is true for council tax Eustace but in any case the second it goes back to the council I will happily go to court and pay what I owe.

'What I owe' being the operative words :)

Do you have evidence of the fact that they told you you owed nothing, and that you offered to pay as soon as you found out that you did owe them? Because if you do you should be able to get rid of this; but if you don't, you've got problems.

I think what tequila is trying to get at is that you could do with some proof that you have made efforts to pay it and they have refused. Their own regulations state clearly that debts can be paid right up until seizure of goods which in your case has not yet occured. So they are talking shit when they say they can't deal with you. If you are there in person you can in fact require them to put their refusal to deal with you in writing. This will help you in court as it proves you made reasonable effort to pay the balance and were turned away. The onus is then on them to explain why they wouldn't accept payment and the extra costs become delightfully their problem.