stupidly have signed a walking possession order

[gorilla3]

Hi

I am new here but am looking for some advise. I have read lots of excellent info on here and have a few questions.
Last July i stupidly signed a walking possession order to Bristow and Sutor for council tax debt. At the time the Bailiff was very rude and abrupt and at one point even swore down the phone at both myself and my neighbour as he was demanding a payment of £800... if i had that kind of money i wouldn't be got them on my doorstep in the first place! However going off track sorry.
The Bailiff entered my house and logged goods as below
1x corner display unit
1xbosh dishwasher- secondhand and over 10yrs old!
1xkitchen table and 2kitchen chairs
1x broken chest of drawers
this is all i had as we had removed the tv etc the night before his return as advised by the lady at the council office when we phoned.
I have since been paying them but missed my payment at the end of dec and have been doing research to find that the walking possession order could actually possibly be void as the goods would not even cover the £180 van fee charged for hte visit is this correct?
My second and more imp question is can they now actually break in to my properrty and take the goods listed and more?
Thank you for reading my waffle i hope someoone can help me.

[gorilla3]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

i should also add i have e-mailed my council asking them to take the debt back but the girl has refused stating the account was passsed correctly to the bailiffs... i have now sent all the correspondence to the head of the finance department for our council and am waiting their reply. I have also requested they advise how many liability orders they hold on me and how much each one stands at now.

[IanM]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

Are you working?
Did you receive a liability order and fill in the income and expenditure section, employers details, and an offer of what you could afford to pay monthly?

If they had 'passed the account correctly to the bailiffs' while they had possession of your employers details on record and available for the imposing of an Attachment of Earnings Order to collect your CT before using bailiffs then you may want to report them to the LGO for an 'abuse of the legal process'!

In the meantime, go to your local council office and pay whatever you can afford regularly direct to the council, they cannot refuse payments and you can argue about the bailiffs later when someone that knows more about the walk in possession order situation than i do is available to help you.

i should also add i have e-mailed my council asking them to take the debt back but the girl has refused stating the account was passsed correctly to the bailiffs... i have now sent all the correspondence to the head of the finance department for our council and am waiting their reply. I have also requested they advise how many liability orders they hold on me and how much each one stands at now.

[Inca]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

You can also make payments directly to your council via the online system ,make them regularly to show a credit pattern.

[gorilla3]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

hi thank you for your reply i was paying through an attachment of earnings but i went on maternity leave, i didnt realise this would affect my attachment of earnings but my employer must have wrote or contacted them to say they could not pay them however my maternity pay ran out end of dec and i had money deducted from my owed holiday pay through the attachment when i contacted the council they said i need to advise my employer that it is no longer valid and now with the bailiffs?! I have advised the council that i will be paying them directly but i had a bailiff turn up on thursday evening obviously i did not answer the door as was home alone with my three small children and not willing to be intimidated as before

[bizzybob]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

Are you still on maternity leave? If so are you on other benefits like Council tax Benefit, are you a single parent? You may be vulnerable under the national standards, if you are still on benefits as such a bailiff should not be involved.

As to the list:
The Bailiff entered my house and logged goods as below
1x corner display unit: Probably worthless at auction
1xbosh dishwasher- secondhand and over 10yrs old! As above
1xkitchen table and 2kitchen chairs What other seating do you have would there be sufficient for the whole family if he took them?
1x broken chest of drawers again worthless

I am not disparaging your goods, but how much do you owe, as these would fetch nowhere near enough at auction to even pay the bailiff fees, so you can assume and complain to the council that the bailiff may have levied solely to garner fees for himself when he should have returned the debt nulla bono, insufficient goods.

you need to ask the council
How many liability orders they have for you
how much on each one
When were they obtained
When were they passed to the bailiffs.

When you know this you will need to ask the bailiffs for a breakdown of their fees, as some may well be open to challenge, in view of the worthless levy

use the letter here to request a breakdown

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?34062-Useful-Letters

In any case he cannot force entry at this stage, and xannot have you arrested and carted off to prison and get social workers or anything else he may threaten.

[gorilla3]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

Thank you so much for your reply. I am no longer on maternity and no not a single parent. We have a sofa and two chairs worth money but had a neighbour draw up a receipt to show they belonged to him so they could not take possession of them and all other valuables ie kids ds tv etc we moved to the neighbours house. When he came and completed the possession myself and my partner begged him to take our goods but he point blankly refussed as he knew he could squeeze £400 cash out of us there and then (lent to us by the same great neighbours!) at the time we did not know our rights and he threatened that if he took the goods he would keep returneing and taking any new items we purchased until the debt was paid! currently we owe £2400 with the bailiff fees added without them i am unsure as i dont know how much they send on to the council every month and i have made several payments of £90 to them. I have sent e-mails to the council regarding the walking possession and advised that i feel it was only done for his own financial gain but the person that responded was most unhelpful i have now sent an e-mail to the head of revenues and await their response. Thank you i feel slightly more at ease my partner is a chef and works long hours so i am home alone with my children alot and hate the thought they will just walk in and take everything.

[ploddertom]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

Get the information asked for from the Council & get the letter for the fee breakdown sent off - do this initially by email - tonight? - - followed by a copy in the post - tomorrow?. The levy can be easily dealt with afterwards as it is not worth the paper it is printed on. If the Bailiff does re-attend then you do not have to let him again - regardless of what he says or any threats he makes. These are done more to coerce you into making a payment you cannot afford, do not open the door but speak to him through the letterbox or upstairs window. If you are unsure of yourself and think you may weaken then go out for the day but please note he may call anytime between 6am - 9pm.

[bluebottle]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

Do you know if the Attachment of Earnings Order (AoEO) is still in force? If it is, B & S should not be involved and the local authority should not have instructed them. It is illegal to pursue more than one form of enforcement against the same person for the same thing at the same time.

[CleverClogs]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

i am home alone with my children alot and hate the thought they will just walk in and take everything.

Despite what the oaf from Bull and $hite might say, bailiffs are no longer allowed to seize your children and sell them for spare parts surgery or medical research.

[gorilla3]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

thank you i will do the emails tonight and paper copies tomorrow. A payment was taken out of my wages in dec one of which was going against one of the liability orders cleared through the bailiff so as far as i know yes they are in force as i have not instructed my employer otherwise which the lady at the council advised was my responsibility to do.

[bluebottle]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

If the council applied for and were granted an AoEO for one of the Liability Orders (LO), they cannot alter that without going back to court or until the debt to which it relates is satisfied. If you have more than one LO and both are subject to individual AoEOs or they have been consolidated, that is, combined into one, there is no way the council involved should have instructed bailiffs. Could you clarify what the actual position is, please?

[gorilla3]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

ok i had an attachment of earnings made for a previous property which was around £400 which was granted and also a seperate one for last years c tax of around £1100 also granted they were showing as council tax 1 and council tax 2 on my pay slips. i then went on to maternity in april last year and then had a knock on the door from bailiffs on the 10 july saying that they had consolidated both the debts and had been instructed to attend from the council.In December i had my final statutory matern ity payment made from my work and also all holiday that i had accrued and not taken during that time. I assume that my holiday is taken as pay which is why my employer deducted the relevent amounts for the two aoe. However the smaller one of £400 was cleared by dec through the bailiff

[bluebottle]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

ok i had an attachment of earnings made for a previous property which was around £400 which was granted and also a seperate one for last years c tax of around £1100 also granted they were showing as council tax 1 and council tax 2 on my pay slips. i then went on to maternity in april last year and then had a knock on the door from bailiffs on the 10 july saying that they had consolidated both the debts and had been instructed to attend from the council.In December i had my final statutory matern ity payment made from my work and also all holiday that i had accrued and not taken during that time. I assume that my holiday is taken as pay which is why my employer deducted the relevent amounts for the two aoe. However the smaller one of £400 was cleared by dec through the bailiff

Do you know if the council went back to court and ask for the AEOs to be discontinued? If they did not, they could be in breach of the law and so could Bristols & Hooters. Contact the council first thing tomorrow morning and ask to speak to a senior manager and ask them just what the hell is going on. There is no way that AOE and Distress should be pursued simultaneously against you for the same matter. The law, quite simply, does not allow it. To the best of my knowledge and belief, neither does the relevant Council Tax legislation.

[gorilla3]

Re: stupidly have signed a walking possession order

I am assuming that they didn't as i left on maternity in April and they wrote the end of June to inform me that they were told my employer could no longer pay the Aoe and they had passed it to b&s i rang them when i received the letter and stated my situation and my expected return date to my job. If they had gone back to court over it surely they should have confirmed with my employer and surely my employer would not have deducted money from my pay as recently as dec when this all started happening with the bailiff in july? I am so confused i will ring the council tomorrow and try to speak to someone senior. If they have breached anything is it possible to recoup any money that B&S has taken towards their charges from the £750 i have paid them?