Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

[Celestine]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

I cant see how they can conflab an excuse to cover threatening BR for under £750 :o

Despite all the many failings CornishPasty has experienced over the debt, my concern is focussed on the abuse of debt collection guidelines by a major council.

[Celestine]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

This is the email I await a response to:

Dear John

Following our brief telephone conversation, I can confirm:

The debtor is Cornish Pasty
XXXXXX XXXX XXXXX

CT REF XXXXXX

The debtor received the attached letter; which clearly states BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS. It then goes on to describe the consequences of Bankruptcy in detail.

The UK Bankruptcy threshold is £750 and it is an abuse of OFT debt collection guidelines to lead someone to believe they will be made bankrupt for an amount lower than that. Im sure you will agree, £42.50 is therefore a gross abuse of the guidelines.

I was disturbed to learn from Newlyn that "Coventry Council approve of these letters". If this is incorrect, then the Finance Director responsible for the contract for CT collection needs to address this very urgently.If it is correct then I am very disappointed that a respected City Council has misinterpreted national regulations to such a serious extent.

I work at the 'sharp end' of debt and I see the devastating impact such letters have upon an already stressed population. Such threats can lead to suicides and depression and do not assist in resolving the indebtedness in a fair manner.

Mr XXX has been extremely upset and distressed by these events and deserves an sincere apology from both Coventry Council and Newlyns.

I would also expect to see reassurances that such letters are never used against debtors owing less than £750 again.

I can be reached on XXXX or XXXXX.

Mr XXXX has kept a detailed diary of his experiences here:

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...RE-Council-Tax

Legal Beagles is an OFT stakeholder and works to improve the treatment of consumers by the financial industry. We are viewed by 2 million people annually and have 35,000 registered embers.

I plan a major article on this story, especially if we see no sensible response from either Newlyn or Coventry. Nationally there is a huge amount of dissatisfaction with the conduct of bailiff companies acting to recover CT, so it is expected that "Coventry Council threatened Bankruptcy for £42.50" would attract a high level of further media interest.

I therefore look forward to hearing from you promptly.

Kind regards

Kate Briscoe

Founder www.legalbeagles.info

[labman]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Of course it was only £707.50 below the BR threshold! It would be hard to explain, other than the common one of 'Computer generated letters' which never quite cut it with me.

I like the email - it will be interesting to see the response.

[bizzybob]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Of course it was only £707.50 below the BR threshold! It would be hard to explain, other than the common one of 'Computer generated letters' which never quite cut it with me.

I like the email - it will be interesting to see the response.

Newlyn could soon inflate the £42.50 to £750, by means of multiple claimed visits and outrageous ATR and van fees. If they did do that the whole BR proceedings would be vexatious potentially unlaeful, and leave Coventry CC and Newlyn in a very bad situation. They have been hoisted by their own petard imho.

Great work Celestine, hopefully this email of yours will be the wake up you cannot do this to people call they most definitely need

[CleverClogs]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Legal Beagles is an OFT stakeholder and works to improve the treatment of consumers by the financial industry. We are viewed by 2 million people annually and have 35,000 registered embers.

Don't write us off as mere embers - I'm sure I could manage a flame if required. :grin:

[Celestine]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Hi Kate,
Sorry for the delay.

Here's our response.

A Council spokesperson said: " The Council has discussed the issue with Newlyn Plc and we would like to apologise to Mr XXXX for the letter issued and for any distress it has caused.

"Mr XXXX settled the outstanding Council Tax arrears by instalments, but left outstanding £42.50, a sum equal to the visit fees incurred on the account. A letter was sent asking for the remaining balance, which did include details of potential bankruptcy action. The Council and Newlyn accept entirely that this was inappropriate due to the small balance that remained outstanding.

"We will be contacting Mr XXXX to apologise for the error and, together with Newlyn, we will look at processes and work to ensure letters are issued correctly."

Thanks,
John.

[enaid]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Chuffin 'Sorry' my gawd they should be strung up by the balls.

PS forget to say very well done to all concerned but it is become a habit ROFL xx

[labman]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Another happy customer and a good result. Well done Cel. The more we can keep the pressure on through examples like this, the better. Can we not still publicise the letter, along with their apology somewhere? Maybe a few more people from Coventry would come forward then.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

I echo that Enaid well done to all concerned x

[Celestine]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Yes, I plan to tweet this later once I've written a summary.

[bizzybob]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Superb result, +1 to the good gals & guys

[ploddertom]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Well at least they had the decency to admit it was wrong. The response to my mind was everything I would have imagined they would say the only thing missing was was "the only thing we did wrong was get caught out" - how many more of these were sent out to others in the Council's name - maybe the OP would like to field a FOI to Coventry City Council on this.

[Celestine]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

I think LB can rustle up a FOI

[ploddertom]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

I think LB can rustle up a FOI

That would be a good idea as they may not be so dismissive of it. My reasoning for being a little disbelieving about the Council's & Newlyn's attitude is because this is not the only thread concerning the 2 of them, there are others. It does sound as there has been complicity between the 2 of them - maybe at a lower level - but now realising others have noticed they may do something about it in the short term.

[Celestine]

Re: Newlyn Bailiffs RE: Council Tax

Yes I think you are right. As updated on the Twitter thread, I was astounded at how Newlyn confidently claimed that Coventry City Council were 'aware and supportive of their letters'.

I think its important that we keep investigating this overly cosy relationship.

Still, I bet the Councils Finance Director responsible for that contract is having a large brandy this evening after a stressful day explaining why his/her management of a lucrative contract was so poor.