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Hi Amy,
Firstly I would like to thank you sooo much for all of the advice you have posted on other threads that I have read through
, it's helped me massively in pulling my ostrich head out of the quick 'debt sand' and deal with things.
OK, I have 2 bailiff situations, 1 business rate the other personal council tax:
Business rates
We moved into our warehouse 3/8/09, paid £307.80 on 17/2/10 to the council. Then got a bailiff from Rossendales on 26/2/10, paid £789.30, a total of £1097.10 paid for a £921.80 bill. We paid everything out of naivety, embarassment and stress. I can't find any paperwork listing fees, but I haven't unpacked all the boxes yet. He obviously gained entry into the premises as it was all open.
The next rates year then came upon us
Business was in rapid decline and so eventually ended up with a bailiff visit (Rossendales, can't check the certified register as I only have initials) for the annual bill of £1058.20. Explained the situation in full and that we hoped to pay the bill within a couple of weeks, we couldn't. He then returned on 20/7/10, wrote out a 'Notice of Distress', with the delivery van, personal car and "1 computer" listed, fees listed as £57 for Levy fee and £174.50 for a handwritten "van attendance". He took the log book for the van "to keep the council quiet". Yet again he gained access into the warehouse. We then wrote to the council informing them we would be vacating the warehouse on 31/7/10 and to amend the bill accordingly. We have never received an amended bill, only the bailiffs word that this has been reduced. Since then he has phoned, we gave him the update on the situation and our address, if I was truely honest (and dare I say it for all of the boos and hisses ), he has been fair and quite patient. We haven't heard from him for a couple of weeks.
Can we sell the van to pay the debt? As it should cover it and if they take it to auction they will get no where near what they should. We can just get another logbook
With regards to the car that is listed, it is not road worthy. However, we are hoping to be able to get it through it's MOT as we need it to take our eldest to school. Can they take this as there is no public transport I can use to get her to school?
The '1 computer' was a laptop that was in the warehouse office. This has loads of work stuff on it, and as the other half is falling back onto web design, he needs it. So I presume he can't take this one or even mine which I use for work?
Can he chase us at home for this business debt? Is he allowed access to our home as he got access to the warehouse? I understand if this was an initial visit we wouldn't have to allow him access.
Council Tax
We moved into our rented fully furnished house on 17/8/09.
The bill for period 17/8/09 to 31/3/10 is £749.60 + £63 costs from the council = total £812.60. Paid £100 on 19/3/10.
At some point the bailiff (Jacobs and he is certified) visited the house and we let him in, he wrote out something that I can't find and the car was listed on it but we can't remember if we signed it. We paid him £100. (Sorry but just so stressed)
We've had this year's tax bill go to court, but I think the bailiff is just chasing last year. Yet again on this occasion we have kept him updated with everything.
A couple of weeks ago we were expecting a payment, so told him that we could pay £200 and that we were awaiting the outcome of going on to some level of benefits, which he said he could then arrange for the rest to come out of that. However, our lovely supporting bank whipped the funds plus Child Benefit out of our personal account, maxed our overdraft to pay for the unauthorised overdraft on the business bank account!!!
I spoke to him yesterday and explained, he says that he still needs the £200 and to ring him by the end of the week. I also reminded him that we had nothing of value he could take from the house.
Once again I feel he has been patient as we set up payment agreements but failed to keep them.
What if we are accepted onto benefits, can he still push for £200? If I can I would prefer to.
Basically, can this bailiff take our car as we need it for getting our daughter to school?
Can he take the van even though he's not listed it and the other bailiff has tabs on it?
Can he take our 2 work laptops?
We have virtually nothing else to our name, apart from a slow cooker, steam cooker (prezzie from mum), a garden patio set and the girls toys, TV, DVD player and video player. That's it!
So sorry this is long winded, but I just opened up the flood gates. I would really appreciate any advice you can give us, as much as I don't really want to antagonise the bailiffs as they are reasonably quiet right now.
Firstly I would like to thank you sooo much for all of the advice you have posted on other threads that I have read through
, it's helped me massively in pulling my ostrich head out of the quick 'debt sand' and deal with things.OK, I have 2 bailiff situations, 1 business rate the other personal council tax:
Business rates
We moved into our warehouse 3/8/09, paid £307.80 on 17/2/10 to the council. Then got a bailiff from Rossendales on 26/2/10, paid £789.30, a total of £1097.10 paid for a £921.80 bill. We paid everything out of naivety, embarassment and stress. I can't find any paperwork listing fees, but I haven't unpacked all the boxes yet. He obviously gained entry into the premises as it was all open.
The next rates year then came upon us
Business was in rapid decline and so eventually ended up with a bailiff visit (Rossendales, can't check the certified register as I only have initials) for the annual bill of £1058.20. Explained the situation in full and that we hoped to pay the bill within a couple of weeks, we couldn't. He then returned on 20/7/10, wrote out a 'Notice of Distress', with the delivery van, personal car and "1 computer" listed, fees listed as £57 for Levy fee and £174.50 for a handwritten "van attendance". He took the log book for the van "to keep the council quiet". Yet again he gained access into the warehouse. We then wrote to the council informing them we would be vacating the warehouse on 31/7/10 and to amend the bill accordingly. We have never received an amended bill, only the bailiffs word that this has been reduced. Since then he has phoned, we gave him the update on the situation and our address, if I was truely honest (and dare I say it for all of the boos and hisses ), he has been fair and quite patient. We haven't heard from him for a couple of weeks.Can we sell the van to pay the debt? As it should cover it and if they take it to auction they will get no where near what they should. We can just get another logbook
With regards to the car that is listed, it is not road worthy. However, we are hoping to be able to get it through it's MOT as we need it to take our eldest to school. Can they take this as there is no public transport I can use to get her to school?
The '1 computer' was a laptop that was in the warehouse office. This has loads of work stuff on it, and as the other half is falling back onto web design, he needs it. So I presume he can't take this one or even mine which I use for work?
Can he chase us at home for this business debt? Is he allowed access to our home as he got access to the warehouse? I understand if this was an initial visit we wouldn't have to allow him access.
Council Tax
We moved into our rented fully furnished house on 17/8/09.
The bill for period 17/8/09 to 31/3/10 is £749.60 + £63 costs from the council = total £812.60. Paid £100 on 19/3/10.
At some point the bailiff (Jacobs and he is certified) visited the house and we let him in, he wrote out something that I can't find and the car was listed on it but we can't remember if we signed it. We paid him £100. (Sorry but just so stressed)
We've had this year's tax bill go to court, but I think the bailiff is just chasing last year. Yet again on this occasion we have kept him updated with everything.
A couple of weeks ago we were expecting a payment, so told him that we could pay £200 and that we were awaiting the outcome of going on to some level of benefits, which he said he could then arrange for the rest to come out of that. However, our lovely supporting bank whipped the funds plus Child Benefit out of our personal account, maxed our overdraft to pay for the unauthorised overdraft on the business bank account!!!
I spoke to him yesterday and explained, he says that he still needs the £200 and to ring him by the end of the week. I also reminded him that we had nothing of value he could take from the house.
Once again I feel he has been patient as we set up payment agreements but failed to keep them.
What if we are accepted onto benefits, can he still push for £200? If I can I would prefer to.
Basically, can this bailiff take our car as we need it for getting our daughter to school?
Can he take the van even though he's not listed it and the other bailiff has tabs on it?
Can he take our 2 work laptops?
We have virtually nothing else to our name, apart from a slow cooker, steam cooker (prezzie from mum), a garden patio set and the girls toys, TV, DVD player and video player. That's it!
So sorry this is long winded, but I just opened up the flood gates
. I would really appreciate any advice you can give us, as much as I don't really want to antagonise the bailiffs as they are reasonably quiet right now.
. The phone conversation with my OH was that he needed to come in to sort the paperwork for a payment plan, and signing the WPO was confirmation of that.
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