Help please urgent advice needed

[WendyB]

Re: Help please urgent advice needed

CR is usually the amounts you've paid, which are credited to your account, as opposed to DR which are amounts debited to your account. I'll have a look later when I'm not on my phone. Might be as well if you had different threads for the different debts, as all these mentions of different bailiffs for different debts is confusing.

[superman123]

Re: Help please urgent advice needed

Thanks wendy appreciate that and lkewise when not on phone will do multiple threads

[CleverClogs]

Re: Help please urgent advice needed

Ok B&S update. Have received a statement and an e-mail both posted below

Dear Sir,

RE: Outstanding Council Tax due to Walsall Council

We acknowledge receipt of your email, the contents of which have been duly noted.

Please find attached a full statement of your account showing all fees incurred in accordance with The Council Tax (Administration & Enforcement) Regulations 1992 (as amended) which we trust is sufficient.

Please contact us if you have any further queries in regards to this.

Yours faithfully,

Mr S Clarke
Recovery Officer
Bristow & Sutor

It is most interesting that Mr S Clarke seems to believe that card payment fees are lawful and permitted under The Council Tax (Administration & Enforcement) Regulations 1992 (as amended) - PDF link - as I can see bugger all reference to them in the current regulations and, if asked, one might expect him to have similar difficulty. That probably won't stop him blustering, though.

It is also interesting that they seem to imagine a valid levy could be made on someone's goods and chattels merely by peering through a window, even though centuries of case law states that they cannot. For this reason alone, the levy was improper or invalid and all other fees imposed thereafter should not have been charged. Those disingenuous b:censored:ds are entitled to receive the payment of £43 for the two visits and that is all they can legally charge.

As you can see the debt was for £655 and I ended up paying £1172 plus £32 in card fees. If cr means credited I never received any of that money back. Am I entitled to request the refund and how would I go about it?

As you have been defrauded, I suggest that you should deal with them in the same way one might if a tradesman had charged you for a new drive, having only painted the old drive or sprayed it with used engine oil to make it seem new - report the slimy s:censored:s to the plods and/or Consumer Direct (0845 4 04 05 06)

[WendyB]

Re: Help please urgent advice needed

You paid 655 in council tax, 32.00 in card fees, and 485 in bailiff fees.

If they never gained entry to your property, then the levy/walking possession fees are invalid. It therefore follows that any fees charged after this are also invalid, as, with no valid levy in plae, the van visits should not have taken place anyway.

I would suggest that you send a full SAR, which will not only get the info regarding fees, but also copies of any WPO and levies etc. You need to write to B & S detailing the error of their ways and demanding the return of all nefarious fees paid. If I were you I would also write to the council pointing out that the bailiffs employed by them have been acting illegally and collecting fees to which they were not legally entitled. The council are vicariously liable for the actions of the bailiffs. As this debt is now paid, and B & S are already in possession of large amounts of your money, you will have a fight on your hands to get it back, but persevere.

I had a bit of a set to with B & S and Walsall council myself recently, on behalf of a friend, have a look at this thread Shell v B S and two Councils - Legal Beagles Consumer Forum

If you PM me your email address I'll forward you copies of the letters sent, you can adapt them to suit your case.

Come to think about it, I've had a run in with Equita too, for a different friend. Not to mention B & S for myself But in my case they're now history. You must be local to me, I would think?