Jacobs Bailiffs

[Marie8137]

I need some advice regarding Jacobs Bailiffs. I have been paying them for quite a while now which is for council tax.
Not really had any problems with them till recently, we had an arrangement to pay them £33 per week, and we maintained the payments. Just before Christmas we received a letter from them telling us that the council wanted the oldest debt cleared before March and they increased our payments to £46 per week, which has been a struggle.
I rang to make my payment last week by debit card only to be told by a rather rude woman that we were £500 in arrears, I kept telling her that we have covered every payment and all she could say was "well I can only say what is on the screen", eventually after speaking to another woman who told me to send in any proof I have which luckily I pay by debit card and I had a bank statement with all of my payments on, which I copied and posted special delivery to them with a covering letter, I am worried sick even though I know I am not in arrears, and I am not sure what to do if they won't listen to us.
They have put any further action on hold for seven days, and they have signed for our "evidence" as they put it.
I need to know where I stand, as after my husband then contacted them they couldn't even tell us where the arrears were from.
Help!!

[Amy]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

Marie,

Stop telephoning them. Keep everything in writing from now on.

Do you know how much you have paid towards this debt and how much is made up from their fees? If not, you might like to send sending them this letter.

Bailiff - SAR - Legal Beagles

Did you sign a walking possession order?

[Marie8137]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

A bailiff came and made an inventory but she did that to everyone on the road I live on and that was about 2 years ago.
I am still making my weekly payments by the way and they are still accepting them.
I will amend the letter and send it to them and keep you posted on what happens.
I just can't believe they can put you through so much worry for something I don't even owe.

[Guest]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

Have they been charging you a fee in order to take your payment via a debit card? If so, how much was that fee?

You should be aware that bailiffs do not make a great deal of money out of the prescribed fees that they are allowed to charge in their business of collecting council tax arrears yet still they manage to post impressive profits year after year and one has to wonder why.

If bailiffs want to recover debts economically they could achieve this objective by sending letters and telephoning but I do not believe this is their agenda. Bailiff firms make remarkable pre-tax profits on relatively modest turnover and a margin of over 40% is common with 50% return on capital employed. They do not make such returns by receiving fees of £24.50 and £18.00 for visits as per the regulations. Jacobs advertise on its website under vacancies that they are offering bailiffs who join it “Salary: £10k Basic Plus Bonus OTE over £35k Uncapped.” I doubt that it can offer such terms by charging the fees prescribed by the Statutory Instrument for recovery of unpaid council tax.

You should look very carefully at all the fees and charges that they have added in addition to the original unpaid council tax bill that they have been charged with collecting and you may find that you paid this off long ago and are now merely lining their pockets.

If, as I strongly suspect, you have been paying non-prescribed fees, this is fraud and you can recover your money.

[Marie8137]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

They charge £2 per debit card payment, if you have one of there own cards which you use at a post office they charge you £2 for that also.
I actually used the online service today to make my weekly payment, as I was advised not to ring them anymore and was charged £2 for that.

[Guest]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

These are non-prescribed fees and are therefore fraudulent. See this post for details on what to do next.

Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please - Page 2 - Legal Beagles

However, depending on how much you still have to pay, you might want to wait until the debt is paid in full before you begin.

[Marie8137]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

Hi there,
Just to let you know that I received this today from Jacobs.

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Council Tax 14 Day Due to: Redcar and Cleveland Council

Further to your recent communication I write to inform you of the following:

We advise that we have received all payments made and they have been allocated correctly to your accounts.

We apologise for our previous email advising that your account was 550.00 in arrears, this was an error on our behalf. We can confirm that your arrangement is up to date and we have reactivated it.

Please ensure payments are made on a strict 7 day basis to prevent further recovery action taking place.

Once again we apologise for any distress caused and look forward to continued receipt of payments.

Yours faithfully

Jacobs



Well I don't really know what to say, this has kept me awake for many nights and then I find out it is an error which obviously I am glad about, but they didn't even have the decency to send this letter first class it has been in the post since the 27 of March.
Is there anything I can do about this, to say I am furious is an understatement.
They then have the nerve to say about paying on a strictly 7 day basis to prevent further recovery action, the cheek of them.
Thanks for all the advice I have been given, but just don't think they should be allowed to treat people this way.

[Amy]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

Odd that isn't it. Kick-up a fuss and all of a sudden you're not in arrears.

You should do as advised and get the non-prescribed fees returned and find out what else they have charged to your account.

[Marie8137]

Re: Jacobs Bailiffs

I intend to Amy and thanks for all your help.