Council tax arrears paid in full Bailiff fees outstanding... please help

[peacefullish]

I am new on this site and this question might have been raised before ( if it has i apologise for reposting)

I have always paid my council tax on time but for a period in 2011 i missed payments for about 7-8 months as i was in and out of country a lot. in april 2014 a letter came through from council saying debt has been sent to bailiffs. i questioned the outstanding debt and appealed but appeal was rejected and ended up paying the full arrears last week. the bailiff is are now that the full fee has been paid direct to the council and is demanding his fees of £300 plus and coming back tommorow.

i know the law has changed recently and want to know if the bailiffs can still make me pay these or do they need to go back to court?

[josephbloggs]

Re: Council tax arrears paid in full Bailiff fees outstanding... please help

The compliance fee is £75 thats the initial letter. When you pay the council they pass the money over to the bailiffs and that gets paid. The remainder of the money is split pro rata as a %age part council tax part £235 enforcement fee) so there will still be a balance outstanding to the council. The bailiffs have every right to continue to enforce the liability order for the remaining £300

[peacefullish]

Re: Council tax arrears paid in full Bailiff fees outstanding... please help

I rang the council (calderdale council) and asked if the account was up to date with nothing left to pay and the lady confirmed all up to date, my son had a similar issue a few years back and he paid the council in full at that time (in 2012) and the bailiffs at that time (phoenix) tried chasing their fees but son told them nothing will be paid to them.

is the %age part split a recent change as part of the 6thapril2014 legislation?

thanks

[Guest]

Re: Council tax arrears paid in full Bailiff fees outstanding... please help

Your case is definitely within the remit of the new regulations. This is how I see your situation:

The council are quite correct in keeping hold of the money that has been paid to them directly.

If you had paid the money directly to the bailiffs, then they would have been entitled to keep the £75 compliance fee as it could be taken out of the proceeds. Paying the creditor directly means that there are no proceeds (from the actions of enforcement). Regulations permit a bailiff to recover their fees but do not allow for them to enforce for them. In any case, as long as there is no car that they can get hold of, they can't do anything anyway, even if they were to attempt to enforce for fees only. They would effectively throw good money after bad.

There are a lot of "examples" floating around the internet at present which are supposed to be "crystal clear". These examples originated from a private CIVEA notice board. In the eyes of CIVEA, I'm sure it is crystal clear, just like the right to charge under Head H was.

The truth is, nobody knows for certain as there have been no precedents. With regards council tax, it is certainly questionable whether you can still be classed as "the debtor" once the debt has been paid in full. certainly under the old regime, once the debt was paid (minus fees), the person was no longer classed as the "debtor" which would explain why your son was not pursued.

[Wombats]

Council tax arrears paid in full Bailiff fees outstanding... please help

ST has posted one potentially valid view. The link below gives another equally valid view, and the one to which I concur. In fact, only tonight on another forum, a debtor got their MP involved with this and HMCTS reinforced the view in the link I have posted in their reply to the MP.

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ion-under-TCGR

[Guest]

Re: Council tax arrears paid in full Bailiff fees outstanding... please help

Actually the regulations are quite clear about the fact that fees are always due when enforcement action is entered into, nothing to say that they disappear once the action is discontinued (if they do)though, just that payment of all costs are required in full. Kind of makes sense, anyway the bailiff will keep calling , keep levying goods if he can until they are paid.