What happens if the bailiffs have
been instructed?
Under Council Tax legislation, the bailiff collecting Council
tax arrears must by law be a Certificated
Bailiff is he levies on goods. This means that he if he
gains entry into your home, and lists
items on a Walking Possession Form, he must, by law, be Certificated.
This would apply also where he listed a vehicle etc that was outside
the house. However if you pay the bailiff the outstanding amount due,
together with his fees, without a Walking Possession being signed
he does not need to be certificated. In these circumstances, the bailiff
can only charge a “fee for a visit where no levy takes place”. A copy of the statutory fee scale can be found under the Bailiffs Fees section in the Downloads area.
It is important to be aware that there are certain procedures
that the Certificated Bailiff must follow when he visits your home or business.They must have with
them:
• Proof that the bailiff is a “Certificated Bailiff”.
You must ask to see his Certificate…not his ID card!! ( See:
Facts about Bailiffs section )
• Written authorisation from
the Local Authority.
• A breakdown of the charges the bailiff is allowed to
make for each visit.
If you are unable to pay, you may well be able to enter into
acceptable payment arrangements with the bailiff….however,
it is important to note that bailiffs do
not have to accept any offer. This is because they are
acting on an Order from the Court,
and in this, their role is to seize goods
under the order.
In our experience however, nearly always, the
bailiff will only agree repayment proposals if he first can get
you to sign a Walking Possession. You need to be very careful indeed about signing this and we would advise you to read our seperate section entitled Walking Possession.
Please also note that from any sums paid to the bailiff….he
can firstly deduct his fees before
paying monies over to the local authority.
It is vitally important to ensure that you do not allow the bailiff
if possible to gain entry into your property, as by doing so,
the bailiff will then levy on your goods, and if a suitable payment
plan cannot be agreed, the bailiff
is legally allowed to remove those goods that he has levied upon
immediately. The bailiff can only gain entry into your home by
what is called “peaceful entry”, normally by being
invited in.
Due to the many problems with Walking Possessions,
we have dedicated an entire section to this which can be accessed
from our front page.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:
When a Liability Order has been granted, you will not be sent a copy by the Magistrates Court. With both a summons and court costs having been applied, many people are unaware of the true amount on the Liability Order. Because of this confusion, we are finding many of the less reputable companies are applying extra charges to your account as soon as they have received the instruction from the council....and before any visits have ever been made. This is now very much "industry practice!!!
The extra charges vary between an "apparent" first visit of £24.50 , two "apparent" visits of £42.50 through to "apparent" van fees up to £200. We therefore advise that you receive confirmation ....not from the bailiff company....but from the council.... of the actual amount of the Liability Order.
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