New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

The government has today released excellent guidance to local councils on good practice in the collection of Council Tax arrears. It is extremely welcomed and heavily on the side of the debtor, NOT the bailiff.

Below is a link to a newspaper article about it and the guidelines. I've also put a copy of the guidelines in the Useful Links section of the Bailiffs forum as a sticky.

The potential impact of this guidance should not be underestimated, there is some VERY strong wording in it and as a site, Legal Beagles very much embraces and welcomes it. We need now to ensure bailiff companies are held rigidly to the guidance.

For example:
FREEdebt advisers should have a role in defining vulnerable clients and arranging sensible repayment plans. LB knows of a free debt adviser and recommends several.


Local Authorities are reminded that they are only permitted to charge reasonable costs for the court summons and liability order. In the interests of transparency, Local Authorities should be able to provide a breakdown, on request, showing how these costs are calculated.


A Local Authority should take all reasonable steps to exhaust other options available to them prior to obtaining a liability order. Once a liability order has
been granted a Local Authority should explore other enforcement options which are available to them, such as direct deductions from benefit or an attachment of earnings order.

It is the LA's responsiblity to ensure bailiffs are working within the law. They should be prepared to recall the debt at any point in enforcement proceedings. Fees must be transparent.

Phantom visits should be reported to the police as a criminal offence under the Fraud Act.

.......and do on. It is a very easy and welcomed read. There is nothing new, per se. However, it is good to see it set down in black and white so very clearly. An excellent step forward.

LINKS

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/clampdown-on-councils-using-heavy-handed-bailiffs?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaig n=news-story-clampdown-on-councils-using-heavy-handed-bailiffs-2

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax

[MissFM]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

:high5: Labman that is very good news. Big congratulations to you, Cel and the many other illustrious members here that have fought and still do fight this battle tirelessly and let's hope this result will be both effective and the thin edge of a massive wedge x

[Rob0000]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

It is of course fabulous news, but when i report a bailiff for a phantom visit and he says he knocked, who will the police beleive? Who will truly enforce this when you have a lying cheating bailiff and a scared lone mother with scared children?

as i say, it is good but who has the teeth?

[labman]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

This is very true, and we have to do our best to make it work. I'm heartened by the new addition of Free Debt Advisors having a role to play with the bailiff company in identifying vulnerable clients and arranging reasonable repayment plans. I dislike the word reasonable immensely in guidance and legislation.

There's also the addition issue of the bailiffs being 'forced' to explore other options from a further steps notice first, so chances of the above happening should, in theory, be reduced. There's also, of course, the explicit use of the word 'fraudulent' and the real chance that contracts could be terminated.

Believe me, I'm as skeptical as you are, but I think it's a step in the right direction and that in itself is a good thing. We've made the National Standards work and they're not legislation, so we can try to do the same here. Raising awareness of the content is the first step.

I sometimes think we should have a sticky near the top of the site on avoiding trouble - especially debt, court, bailiffs, CMC's etc... as currently we get people when they are at varying stages of a problem. If we could have something which stops them progressing to the next stage that would be good. It would be a mammoth task to produce such a thing though.

[bizzybob]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

What about councils charging £70 for obtaining the Lo against a debtor, when it costs them la fiver or so, is that not also fraud under these guidelines?

All in all it is a step in the right direction.

[Milo]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

This Guidance released yesterday took many people by surprise and I am sure that Lord Lucas's recent Parliamentary questions regarding councils receiving "kickbacks" from local authorities was responsible for DCLG to finally open their eyes to what is really happening with local authorities and their bailiff providers.

What is desperately needed is for DCLG to take a thorough look at the "close relationship" with local authorities that use Capita Ltd as their "back office" provider and where each time such a "contract" is awarded the bailiff provider is either Equita Ltd or Ross & Roberts ( both of whom are owned by Capita Ltd).

This Guidance released yesterday is significantly important and must be used as the basis for any complaints.

[Milo]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

Hi

This is from this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/c...anded-bailiffs

Eric Pickles today set out plans to tackle the use of heavy-handed bailiffs by councils to protect people from unfair treatment.

New guidelines for councils set out that they should no longer be collecting ‘contractual kickbacks’ from bailiffs or employing those seeking to exploit residents through ‘phantom visits’ or excessive fees. Figures suggest the five biggest bailiff companies earn a combined revenue in excess of £60 million.

The steps taken today fulfil a coalition government pledge to provide more protection for the public against aggressive bailiffs and unreasonable charges.

The Citizens Advice recently found there had been a 38% increase in complaints about private bailiffs over the last five years. Almost nine in ten bailiff problems the charity deals with relate to private bailiffs, who collect debts such as council tax and parking penalties.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said:

"It is unacceptable for councils to employ burly bailiffs with heavy-handed tactics like kicking down doors, making phantom visits or charging excessive fees – it is unfair and damages a council’s standing in the community."

"Today our new guidance is crystal clear: it is time to stop the dodgy practices where town halls collect contractual kickbacks from bailiffs that will do almost anything to make money."

Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said:

"A third of the bailiff problems we help with each year are for council tax debt. We see cases where bailiffs overstate their powers, act aggressively and bump up debts by levying excessive fees and charges. Local authorities must protect people from bailiffs who flout the law by helping people early on who are struggling to pay their council tax. We urge councils to sign up to our protocol for dealing with council tax debt."

Ending ‘phantom visits’

The guidance will put a stop to the worrying practice where some bailiffs undertake ‘phantom visits’ – charging inflated fees for putting a letter through a door - while not actually making any realistic attempt to speak to people or negotiate payment plans. Any such practices should be grounds for termination of a contract with fraudulent activity reported to the police as a criminal offence.

Ceasing council kickbacks

Further protections make it clear that it is inappropriate for councils to receive extra payment or profit-sharing from the use of bailiffs and the charging of fees. Contracts should not involve rewards or penalties which incentivise the use of bailiffs where it would not otherwise be justified.


Further protections

• bailiffs providing the debtor with a contact number should they wish to speak to the billing authority;
• local councils remaining responsible for the action of bailiffs they have contracted;
• in-house bailiffs having to explicitly state that they are part of the local authority;
• councils publishing their standard scale of fees on their website, to allow public scrutiny and highlight unreasonable practices; and
• actively encouraging councils to sign up to that good practice protocol

Further Information

This guidance replaces the previous Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) Guidance, ODPM Council Tax Collection Good Practice, published in 2005.

View the full document, Guidance to Local Authorities on good practice in the collection of council tax arrears.

[bluebottle]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

A welcome addition to the advice community's armoury. Thank you for posting it up, LM.

The next step has to be training the police not to believe what certificated bailiffs tell them. My gut-feeling is that a lot of chief constables and individual officers are going to be furious when they realise the civil enforcement industry has mislead them and the police have unwittingly aided and abetted individual bailiffs to commit criminal offences. When that happens, expect the backlash from the police to be swift and hard.

An FOIA request I am preparing to send to the MoJ with regard to MC Distress Warrants should shed light as to whether the faux Distress Warrants some bailiff companies have used to hoodwink debtors and police officers have any legal weight. Having seen genuine MC Distress Warrants, my gut-feeling is that the actions of certificated bailiffs working for HMCTS could lead to compensation having to paid and vehicles recovered that have been fraudulently seized, that is, in contravention of Condition 2 on MC Distress Warrants.

[labman]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

What about councils charging £70 for obtaining the Lo against a debtor, when it costs them la fiver or so, is that not also fraud under these guidelines?

All in all it is a step in the right direction.

Read it BB - it's only a 10 minute read, but it covers that exact point.

[Nibbler]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

3.3 Charges for the court summons and for liability orders should be clear on all documentation with clear information on how they can be paid and how they will be collected if not.

3.4 Local Authorities are reminded that they are only permitted to charge reasonable costs for the court summons and liability order. In the interests of transparency, Local Authorities should be able to provide a breakdown, on request, showing how these costs are calculated.

Reasonable though? Not sure I've ever seen local government estimate costs at levels that I would consider reasonable.

[labman]

Re: New government bailiff guidance today - excellent news!

Reasonable though? Not sure I've ever seen local government estimate costs at levels that I would consider reasonable.

I think we have FOI requests showing what it actually costs them though haven't we. If enough people complain using solid evidence like this then hopefully something might happen (we live in hope lol!)