Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

[daysmen]

To cut a long story short, very short.

In 2008 the council sent an agent around my mothers fully paid terrace property claiming that she had not declared her national pension that she received from working at a post office in the West End for 17 years.

They claimed fraud while my mother insisted she was entirely in the right to claim the discount. My mother then insisted that they send her the original form used to declare her earnings. They sent the form after 1 whole year. Between the time of request and when she received it they continued harassing her. The form that was send was a photo copy of the original which was "visibly" altered. They left her deceased husbands pension earnings but removed her pension earnings.

When I was told about this I instructed her to go to the Police or file a law suit against them. My mother being quite old and now spending most of her time caring for her sister who suffers dementia in nation of origin was persuaded by her older son to allow him to take care of things.

Well this older son is a so called Freeman and has not worked a job for almost 17 years. He manipulated my mother and she left it to him as she was no quite exhausted by the whole thing.

Wont say what ensued but the property was repossessed just 2 months ago.

The family including my mother were unaware of the whole mess until a few months before the repossession. We were unaware of the letters sent by courts, letters sent by solicitors until a few months ago.

I took responsibility to deal with the council tax issues however was unaware the council made her bankrupted in 2010

I have contacted lawyers who deal with this but they are quite useless in there response. They have taken up to £500 from me and have done nothing. Yes they have spoken to ***** but have not yet contacted me since there initial conversation with accounts.

My appeal is what can i do?? Where do i start??

[daysmen]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Well the house is under offer and lawyers representing my mother have filed with the High Court to stop sale. Have also met with an MP - not sure what that will like wise do to help but need every bit of help i can muster right now

If anyone has any advise hen please feel free to respond

[enquirer]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Well this older son is a so called Freeman ...

'Freeman on the Land'? Freemason?

Wont say what ensued but the property was repossessed just 2 months ago.

Repossessed? By whom? And why, exactly?

You refer to documents that have obviously been altered. Have your solicitors been appraised of this? If not, do so at once. I would also go to the police, as this is clearly forgery. Give serious consideration to making a complaint of Gross Maladministration against the council.

[A54]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

There has been a rise in cases like yours where a pattern is emerging, council's are purposely targeting the old and vulnerable who have equity in their homes, with a number of 'questionable' methods such as retrospectively withdrawing council tax benefits then unlawfully adding the created debt on the victim's current year's council tax account. This allows the council to obtain liability orders which gives them the legal authority to enforce the alleged debt, bankruptcy followed by repossession seems to be the preferred method for victims who have equity in their homes.


If the above description fits your case you/your solicitor should be aware that use of liability order proceedings to recover the alleged overpayment of benefits is unlawful.

Are the council's solicitors Wilkin Chapman Grange by any chance? Does the name Paul Bowden ring any bells?

[outlawlgo]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

....then unlawfully adding the created debt on the victim's current year's council tax account. This allows the council to obtain liability orders which gives them the legal authority to enforce the alleged debt...

This may be relevant in cases where money owed from previous years are carried forward to current year's accounts, in the sense that it should be possible to prevent additional liability orders being obtained by electing payments are allocated to the current debt. For example, if a department deems it to be outside its powers to allocate funds to the account you elect, they should be referred to the judgment of "Peter v Anderson".

In the case, Peter v Anderson (1814), it was adjudged that if a person specifies which years debt the payment should be assigned it should be assigned to that years debt.

A paragraph quoted from the judgment:

"A person who is indebted to another on two several accounts, may, on paying him money, ascribe it to which account he pleases.–and his election may either be expressed,-Or may be inferred from the circumstances of the transaction.

[ploddertom]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Chances are that any Council may try and argue that as that pre-dates the CT Regs it doesn't apply to them. Or in other words they don't have a clue - as usual.

[A54]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

I think that councils have a duty to know and correctly interpret and apply the CT Regs as intended by Parliament.

The overpayment of benefits regardless of whether they are made in error or by fraud cannot be processed in the same way as unpaid CT, they are two totally separate issues governed by two entirely different set of rules. This is one issue that should be determined in my high court appeal.

It seems as if the councils have outsourced their legals to solicitor firms that deliberately misinterpret and abuse the CT Regs to include the recovery of overpaid benefits. These solicitor firms abuse the system knowing that it is incredibly difficult for victims to defend themselves, as daysmen has discovered 'normal' solicitors are expensive, useless and often clueless in these cases.

Daysmen:

1.
Definitely report the altered documents to the Police but don't be surprised if they refuse to investigate, I recommend that you report this in any out of area Police station in the first instance.

2.
An emergency application for a stay on enforcement in the high court is probably the most appropriate action but you should try to reinforce this by pushing your MP (your mum's MP) and approach your local paper. Definitely highlight the altered document but do it in a way that allows people to come to their own conclusion, e.g. this document seems strange as it not only appears to have been altered but does not match earlier documents. This amounts to a criminal - not civil - offence.

3.
Put in a data subject request to your council and magistrates' court where liability orders where obtained and county court where bankruptcy proceedings took place, there are some great sar templates to use on this site. This will give you/your solicitors an opportunity to scrutinise and collect evidence of any wrongdoing.

4.
Put in appeal to the valuation tribunal England asap, you do this by writing to the council.

5.
Get your mum to or apply on her behalf for legal aid if you think she's entitled to it, then find a solicitor who specialises in public law.

6.
Be prepared for a long torturous journey.

I deliberately omitted a recommendation to complain to the LGO which is an option but be warned, they can't investigate matters that are in court or where there other options of appeal and they rarely find against the council. If the LGO decision goes against you, the council will also use it against you in court in your appeal.

Do not trust or expect justice in a county court or magistrates' court.

Also be warned, I'm not legally trained and draw on my experience gained over 18 months of fighting the council in a similar case to yours, my advice is no substitute for good legal advice obtained from a suitable solicitor.

Lastly, please let me know if the solicitors acting for the council are Wilkin Chapman Grange and also let us know who the trustees are. I have seen at least 3 cases where Wilkin Chapman Grange seem to have altered council and court documents specifically for litigation purposes.

Good luck.

[daysmen]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Yes Yes and Yes - It does - I cant say much right now other than we are going to the High Court on Friday. The document in question that my mother asked them for and whos photo copy was altered is nto even being mentioned.

Wow im shocked that you mentioned this "guys" name.

When i get home ill fill you on whats happening thus far.

[daysmen]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Thanks for your help - i thought no one would answer. Im going to print this out and read on my way home. Thanks

[enquirer]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Yes Yes and Yes - It does - I cant say much right now other than we are going to the High Court on Friday. The document in question that my mother asked them for and whos photo copy was altered is nto even being mentioned.

Give clear instructions to your legal representative that this is to be mentioned.

[daysmen]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Give clear instructions to your legal representative that this is to be mentioned.

Thanks indeed - my mothers MP sent us documents sent to him by the Head of Revenue Service of Waltham Forest - at least they admit that this whole affair is because of the alleged falsifying of earnings for a CT discount

My mother retired in 2001, obtained form from council to apply for her state pension in the same year and obviously declared her private pension. In 2008 they said that she commits fraud by not declaring her private pension. In total she was earning less than 13000 a year.

The documents are in the property which we cannot get to.

The Trustees are RSM Tenon however i made a mistake in thinking that Wilkin Chapman Grange are representing WF. I dont know whos representing them since i have not seen any legal documents except documents that my older brother had replied to (from council and RSM) in his quack freeman lingo.

[daysmen]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Returned from court today and to put it simply Waltham Forest are running a racket. The case was adjourned because the Trustees filed papers that our solicitors did not receive. They sent additional evidence to the courts on the 10th of June 2013. This is the evidence that our solicitors had requested 1 month ago but they ignored.

They also pulled "a new one" where they said that my mother knew about the bankrupcty because a Process Server had served my mother the bankruptcy documents. No such thing happened. This is the extent of Council deception and fraud.

Also when the solicitor informed them about the email that was forwarded to me by my mothers MP the Waltham Forest rep almost choked. The reason being is that they do not want this matter entertained in court. The "matter" being that this whole affair was about the non-disclosure of her private pension

I'd be happy for any advise here especially in regards to the made up matter of the Process Server

[daysmen]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Well to some up my mother lost the annulment - the judge however did not want to deal with the legitimacy of the liability orders based on non-disclosure" of her private pension. They would not allow me to take the stand at all.

We are looking at appealing as the trustees are wracking up the costs significantly. We have till this Wed to remove our goods. Trustes want someone present at £50/hr to oversee the removal. They have also said that if anything is remainging the will charge my mother for its removal

So the options we have is appeal (if we lose since the system is stack massively against the average Jo), negotiate to pay the debt or let the house be sold.

The laywers we had were nto the best to be honest. They did not prep my mother at all and for the second time our barristor turned up 10 minutes to court time.

Looking for advice here

[A54]

Re: Help needed - Repossession due to Council Maladministration

Hi daysman,

Not had much time to catch up with things but so sorry to read your last post.

Sincerely wish you the best.