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?

Having worked in Local Government and for bailiff ' s (a long time ago) my advice would be to not answer the door to the bailiff ' s and wait for it to be returned back to the Council.
When it's returned to the Council it will be without the bailiff fees and the Council will then send you another letter giving you the opportunity to pay. If your original bill was £80.00 it will be more than this as there will be liability order costs but still a lot less than the bailiff fees. I wouldn't pay the Council until you have been told it has been returned from the bailiff, if you pay the Council they may well tell the bailiff to reduce the amount by what you have paid, this then just covers their fees and you still owe the £80.

Without going into details (all to do with my ex of a dickhead husband) I have bucket loads of experience of dealing with bailiffs to the point where i actually found it amusing as i was able to be all smiley and nice to them (try that, it really throws them when they see they're not getting to you). Haven't had one for a while tho! (Mainly because of getting great advice in the beginning from a lawyer friend)
Regardless of whether u owe the money or not, they are there to bully and intimidate u into giving them the money ( and yeah, yeah they're just doing their job but God there are some right cunts nasty aggressive men who do that job. There are also some really quite nice ones who seem quite embarrassed about the whole thing.

1)the worst they can do is take your car, so if u can register it in someone else's name that's the first thing to do (I tried parking mine somewhere else once and they found it incurring costs to me to have it released)
2) it is not in the bailiffs interests to enter your house and start taking goods, this is a threat and not really something they want to be doing at all - it is very time consuming for them to start removing goods from someone's home then have to auction them of to gain, what? How much exactly are they gonna get at auction for a secondhand tv? Repeat THEY DO NOT ACTUALLY WANT TO REMOVE GOODS FROM UR HOME THEY JUST WANT TO INTIMIDATE U INTO GIVING THE MONEY U OWE (or they perceive u to owe, whatever)
3) I have never in all my years of experience of debt collection/bailiffs heard of someone going to court for an unpaid council tax bill - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS DEBTORS JAIL NOWADAYS - the worst that can happen is it will go to court, they'll decide u owe the money, u will prove u cannot pay it and they will arrange a repayment scheme of £5 per week or some other minimal amount (this happened to my sister with money she didn't owe to the inland revenue but they found against her)
4) also u will notice once they've been round 3 times and gained nothing they will disappear for a while and the debt will be passed on to another agency. If u can continue dodging it until it is referred back to the council it sounds like that's ur best bet.
All I can say is, in the 3 years or so I was dealing with them on a regular basis I never once had them try to gain entry into my home (though they threatened it)

Sallying, wrong.
Sometimes that's the best thing to do.

So how come your "best thing " has got you where you are now?

Remember, no matter what they say they CAN'T FORCE ENTRY

i believe that bailiffs acting obo council tax and hmrc matters can force entry actually.

They can only force entry with a court order to collect fines, vat or income tax and not between 9pm and 6am actually. if this is the first visit they won't have a court irder

All that stuff about them coming through an open door or window is rubbish, so ignore it. If they get nasty call the police and say u are a woman (on ur own with kids?) and they are being threatening, claiming u owe money u do not have and that the CAB have advised u to ignore as its going back to the council. The police will send them on their merry way.

RTFT Sallying

If you have £80 pay to council and tell bailiffs its settled.

Is it Bristow and twat Sutor?

They are liars. I did a subject access request on them, and they had told the council they had visited numerous times, and billed the council for it, but they hadn't. I know because the lazily put 'a terrace house with a upvc front door' when my house is nothing of the sort, but a postcode search would have said 'predominantly terrace housing' fuckers were just guessing. Their 'hand delivered' notes were sent by ukmail and they had alleged all sorts of activity that the council paid for.

Talk to the council and tell them they haven't visited etc because they will DEFINITELY fabricate-they think public officials are thick..because they are.

Rehearse this script with your friends hassling you and trying to ask themselves in..
'I am peacably refusing you entry to my property, please leave'

don't engage at all, no matter what they say, (mine said they were going to 'bend me over') and just say 'I am peaceably refusing you entry to my property, please leave'

A couple of years ago Bristow and Sutor tried to take my car. They are an ignorant and rude and also aggressive. My DH actually filmed them and they hated it. In the end I gave them the keys and we went back indoors and started dishing up dinner. Five mins or so later they put the keys back through the letter box - they couldn't be bothered. They are full of shit. The debt was returned back to the council.

OP - the advice you have been given is spot on by the CAB. If you have already received a letter from the bailiffs saying the debt is going to be returned to the council, it won't take long. Maybe a couple of weeks and the council should write to you. Try not to worry. It's all mind games and of course you won't go to prison. I still owe council tax for a property we lived in over 10 years ago. Sod 'em - they can't get blood out of a stone. We don't live in Victorian times! Relax and enjoy the weekend.

To be fair it is several pages down & after several posters had said this doesn't just happen before a full explanation is actually offered by the op as to how it had got to this stage.

Op having read your drip feed updates I apologise for my above comment. It sounds like the chasing done to the council was likely done to the address the money was owed at.

Tequila (I think) had a very good point about asking the council for a full statement of the account. It may help you understand where this mystery £80 has come from. They can and should still deal wth that side of it even if they cannot deal wth the payment. If there is an error I suggest you write to them with supporting evidence and cc the debt company and ask that until it has been investigated that the bailiffs are called off.

I don't agree that the CAB always give the best advice on things like this. And you really should seek proper legal advice for a specialist.

There is a LOT of misinformation on this thread. Without going through it post by post you need to bear in mind that CT debts are enforced through the Magistrates court bc not paying it is technically a crime. So if bailiffs have been instructed then it has already been to Magistrates and they have a liability order. The bailiffs can technically apply for a warrant for arrest but are more likely to return the debt to the council. How long this might take is anyone's guess so you need to be proactive:

Write to (not phone) the council and explain that you didn't know about the original debt until the bailiffs found you (they would have traced you through a credit ref agency). Explain that you are willing to pay the original debt and would have done so had you known about it. Give a clear timeline of what happened/where you lived etc. Head the letter APPEAL and send by signed for delivery. Do get help from a specialist debt adviser (not a generalist CAB adviser) in your local area as they may also be able to appeal to the council to ask them to bring the original debt back from the bailiffs.

All the other advice about not letting them in etc is solid. Read this National Debtline fact sheet: www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/02%20EW%20Council%20tax%20recovery/Default.aspx

I see situations like yours every day at work and all the comments about it being your own fault are bullshit - ignore them. Life isn't as black and white as these people are making out.

Good luck!