Missed council tax, Phoenix and next steps

[BenBS]

Hi guys,

I just went through a morning ordeal.

7 am - the door bell rings. I wake up still sleep-drunken as I was planning to sleep for another 1-2 hours. Through the door I see two people in the corridor, looking like police officers. Given that getting to this floor requires an elevator code I assumed something serious has happened. As I couldn't understand what they were saying through the closed door, I opened it a tiny bit to ask what's going on without shouting and waking the neighbours. As one of them disappeared and the other one immediately pushed his foot into the gap of the open door I realized that I must have made a great mistake.

Long story short - Turns out my standing order for council tax wasn't working and I accumulated 800 quid debt over the last few months on top of which they charged me 400 quid in fees - I received no letters. The Bailiff who identified himself belonging to Phoenix refused to leave my flat, threatened to take property and that any attempt to stop him would be a criminal offense. I kept making the reasonable request that he gives me some form of paperwork I can check with legal counsel and verify, then I would pay later today. No luck though. I ended up being stressed and paying to make this go away.

However, I am quite upset by how I was treated and how this went down and also I want the 300 quid fee that Phoenix took back. I started reading some threads in this forum and would like to confirm what the next steps are.

As I currently understand, I should write to the Council Tax Head of Revenue using the template from http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...Useful-Letters -- Is there anything else I should do first or in addition to that?

I also read that they can charge me a maximum of 20% on top of what they are collecting but they charged me over 30%. Can I use this to sue them or otherwise make their life difficult? I'm not familiar with the details of British Law, but I assume that requesting as much paperwork as possible also applies here?

Is it worth contacting a lawyer?

I assume this sent my credit rating spiraling - does anyone know who to contact to get the record of this expunged?

Thanks,
Ben

[Kati]

Re: Missed council tax, Phoenix and next steps

tagging [MENTION=30402]Milo[/MENTION] [MENTION=26498]ploddertom[/MENTION] [MENTION=9189]bizzybob[/MENTION] xx

[Milo]

Re: Missed council tax, Phoenix and next steps

Ben,

Every year approx 3.6 million Liability Orders are issued for council tax arrears and clearly one of those orders is yours.

Before getting to the very late stage of a personal visit, you should have received a reminder letter from the local authority about your council tax arrears followed by a summons and in most cases, a letter warning that a Liability Order has been obtained and that unless paid, the case would be handed to Phoenix Commercial.

You should have also received a Notice of Enforcement from Phoenix approx 2-3 weeks ago seeking payment. Most importantly, this notice would have invited you to make a payment arrangement to settle the debt without the need for a personal visit (and with it, an enforcement fee of £235).

Did you respond to any of these notices?

Bailiff fees are set in legislation and provide for a Compliance fee of £75 to be added to the debt when the Notice of Enforcement is sent. If a personal visit is necessary, an enforcement fee of £235 also becomes payable.

[BenBS]

Re: Missed council tax, Phoenix and next steps

I didn't respond but also didn't receive any mail from them. My guess is they addressed it to my landlord and he hasn't picked up his post in a while now. I'll get him to agree that I can open his post to see if they addressed it to the wrong person. Either way, I didn't get any post - especially nothing with big warning signs or stamps on it.

[Milo]

Re: Missed council tax, Phoenix and next steps

I didn't respond but also didn't receive any mail from them. My guess is they addressed it to my landlord and he hasn't picked up his post in a while now. I'll get him to agree that I can open his post to see if they addressed it to the wrong person. Either way, I didn't get any post - especially nothing with big warning signs or stamps on it.

Then you need to speak with the council to ask them for the address that they had used to send notices.