help with bailiffs visit please ?

[MyLittleWerewolf]

There are not enough angry red face emoticons in the world to suggest how fuming I am.

Returned home from park yesterday to find a Bailiffs letter through our front door telling me that they had come to collect an outstanding council tax debt from our previous address. This is the first I have heard about it.

There was a mix-up with our moving out dates at our previous address so we ended up staying eighteen days longer than originally planned. The council were given a forwarding address for us and used it to issue me with a cheque for £10.35 to it because it turned out our council tax account was in credit. Unfortunately they had worked this out using our original leaving date and effectively we owe 18 days of council tax for this address. About fifty pounds, a bit of a drag, but no real problem.

So imagine my surprise when, ten months later (yesterday) I find the Bailiffs have visited, claiming I owe £157.41. This i not including a Liability Order Debt for £414.51 - I don't know what that is, incidentally. When I called and spoke to someone, I asked why I hadn't received a bill or other notification that we owed money - he told me a summons had been sent to our current address in January. We didn't receive this so I asked to see a copy of it - he told me that they didn't have one. He said the best he could do was to write me a letter saying that in January they sent me a summons. Surely a summons is a legal document and would need to be hand delivered, or at the very least, signed for ?

I'm happy to pay the outstanding council tax, and wish I had been made aware of it before now so I could have done so. I am seething at the thought however, of paying the bailiffs costs, or the Liability Order Debt as we weren't made aware of any outstanding monies.

They have no proof of having sent me anything, so do I have any legal grounds to stand on at all ? Any help appreciated.

Write to the court asking for it to be listed for a hearing. Tell them why. Then find out what you owe the LA and pay it.

Don't pay their fees and costs though

Hi Collaborate, thanks for your help - just been looking online as well - it seems that I should have received notice that they intended to get a Liability Order Debt and between obtaining the Liability Order Debt and now they should have given me 14 days written notice to expect this visit. I have received nothing in the post, absolutely nothing. Also the letter I received yesterday is dated 27th Jan 2011.

grrrrrrr, i hate feeling intimidated by this. What will the hearing involve ? Should I pay the LA directly or the debt collection agency ?

Hi, if you follow this link this is a very helpful factsheet from the CAB website explaining the council tax arrears process, what a liability order is and what you can expect to happen after it is granted. It is very important it is dealt with straightaway and if you need help, the CAB are used to dealing with this kind of topic. Good luck
www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/d_council_tax_arrears.pdf

thanks scattered, I'm on the phone to cab now, but they're running a limited service. I'm furious about the Liability Order - we weren't informed it was in the process of happening and feel sure we ought to have been before it went into effect. will try to get through to cab first thing tomorrow.