i am having a really awful day!
i have the bailiffs coming tomorrow to levy on my goods!
i owed council tax from wales when i was living with my now  ex-husband
he was in charge of bills i payed the mortgage
it seems he didnt pay some bills and as they cant find him i have to pay!
i am on 90 pounds a week and they want 10 pounds of that off me!
i would have to phone them every week to pay it over the phone by card and pay a charge ontop of it!
or send a postal order which would be 12 in total!
i have told them over and over i cant afford to pay 10 pounds
and they said basically its tough luck its either that or lose your stuff!
i dont know what else to do!
the CAB is shut and they dont open til tomorrow morning which is when they are coming to levy!
i just wanted to let off steam!!!!

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm#searchbox
You should be able to ring someone if you put your details in there.
Good luck
Lea xxx

Oh you poor thing.
Was going to advise speaking to citizens advice lea beat me to it!! It doesn't cost anything :-) and they give really good suggestions. I've used them before and they are really good. It's worth a try.x

Bailiffs have no right of entry & you do not have to let them in, they need a court order & then & only then can they enter your premises

>Can a bailiff force his/her way into my house?
>Most bailiffs do not have the right to force their way into your home to seize your goods. The only exception is that bailiffs from the Collector of Taxes (Inland Revenue) can get a warrant to force entry, but this is very rare.

>All other bailiffs have a right of peaceful entry only. This means that they cannot use force to enter your home, for example, by breaking a window or a door. However, they can enter your property through an open door or window (front and back) and can climb over fences and gates, but cannot break them down. See also ''If a bailiff does gain peaceful entry to my house, what will they do?''

>You do not have to let a bailiff into your house. A bailiff cannot force their way past you if you answer the door. If all your doors and windows are securely closed they will not be able to gain peaceful entry to your house unless you let them in.

>Bailiffs are well aware of their limited powers and may use a variety of different means to gain entry peaceably. They may attempt to walk in as soon as a door is opened. They may ask if they can use your telephone to check if an arrangement is satisfactory with their office. They may simply ask you if you would prefer to discuss matters inside. You do not have to go along with any of these methods.

Have a look at this website There's a free phone number on the site BTW

Oh dear not good :-(

Why not phone a solicitor as you normally can get the first appointment for free and then I would have thought you would be able to get legal aid as well :-)

Lucy
xx

Or try this website Again there is freephone number.

Thankyou so much for all your help
Lea i called the citizens advice and have been on the phone to them for the last half hour
one of the other links gives this advice
If bailiffs are collecting unpaid council tax it is often difficult to negotiate instalment payments with the bailiff or the local authority until the warrant is returned or withdrawn from the bailiff. However, you should try to negotiate instalment payments with the local authority and encourage them to withdraw the warrant from the bailiff. It is important to make clear that although you are unwilling to let the bailiff in, you are willing to make instalment payments at a rate that you can afford.

another paragraph states i shouldnt let them in! so i wont!
i have tried and tried to negotiate with both the council and the bailiffs and neither will budge so we go back to court!
which i didnt know would happen as they are not very forthcoming about your rights ...
Thankyou so much for all your help you are all amazing and have done more for me than i can tell you
so once agaoin a massive thankyou x

Am pleased your feeling your feeling happier :)
I hope your able to get it sorted asap and in a amicable way with them :)
Sit down, have a cuppa and relax again :)
Lea
xxxx

Thankyou Lea
its a good job i dont smoke anymore or i would have had a packet by now!
as i dont smoke i dont drink either as its a trigger which is a blessing!
plus i cant afford to!
well im off to make a brew and have a scone!!!

Glad it turned out ok. And hopefully it's your only debt so you never ave to go through this again :-)

Glad you are getting things sorted.  If it does go to court again, once you have a date, go to the CAB with all your income/expenditure details and draw up with them a budget and how much (if any) you can afford to pay.  Even a token £1.  Then when you go to court, take this form with you and explain any mitigating circumstances to the court that you have sought advice from the CAB and produce your income/expenditure budget forms.  They will then be able to see how much disposable income you have left and hopefully come up with a payment plan that way.

The courts will want to see that you are trying your best to repay this debt and by seeking advice on the matter and working out a suitable budget is a tick in the box.

HTH
Kerri x

It is worring the Council Tax office's are the worsed.
As long as you always pay somethink and never default, they will find it difficult to do a lot to you.
I would go back to court, there should be an adviser outside the court room who you can ask to see, They will need to be told your income and outgoings. Then it can be put before the judge.I would ask them if you can pay a little extra a month untill it is cleared. Tell them you are not refusing to pay, also half the bill is your x husbands, you just havn't got all the money now!
Best of luck the City Council Tax department are ********* vile.

The council tax people have been excellent with me I now pay £5 per week off my arrears and my usual for the year, we got into a right mess whilst my husband was off with depression for 6 months.  Good luck.

Linda

Just a thought but if you are divorced was there anything in it to say about the financial arrangements as if you have joint liabilty just because they can't find your ex is no reason to why you are soley liable ?

If the bills' were in his name they have no right to make you pay just because they can't find him.
20 odd years ago when I split up with my first husband, he hid from them as well. But because we were going to court to finalise custody etc, the Judge ruled that the money owed to the council was 'scrapped' (for want of the correct term) so no one paid the council what was owed them in the end and I just took over the bill paying from that day on. If they were in both names then I suppose they can claim it back from you?
My son left his flat a couple of years ago and they contacted me saying that if I didn't pay his council tax  they would send the bailiffs round to ME! I told them in no uncertain terms what they could do, that he didn't live here and no way was anything here his and then I threatened them with my solicitor if they pestered me any more. Never heard from them again.

Hope you get it sorted soon
x

Before they actually take your stuff the council bailiffs tend to go around and try to sort a payment plan out. They will then write down a list of goods and if you break the plan that is when they will remove goods.

if they really do get a warrant and come back, it might be wise to get anything of any value, including your dogs. away from the house a few days before hand :(

the council tax was in both our names as was the mortgage
i divorced him and walked away with nothing i didnt want anything off him!
it would have been nice for him to have owned up
i dont know where he is now although he was seen going into the labour ward of a hospital where my best friend works!!!
god help his next victim....

If he is still in the area he must be paying council tax of some sort but even so the Council saying he has vanished is a cop out as he will be on the Electoral Role http://www.theukelectoralroll.co.uk/

Or 192.com ;) I have found people on there before now :D If you sort of know the area he is living in, put in his name and towns, and you may be able to find him that way :)
That way might be able to hand over his address and hopefully they would persue him as they may get the money straight away, instead of over a long period :)
Worth a go :) :)
Lea :)

believe me Lucy he wont be on an electoral role!
i was married to him for 4 years and i found out after we split up that he has no driving licence
despite having a number of cars over the years! even his mother lied for him!
he doesnt live in my area any more as i moved to cheshire to start again
i am now seeing a great bloke Dave! he has 3 daughters and is paying 2 of them to go to uni! he also pays the mortgage on the 4 bedroomed family house his wife and youngest daughter live in!
he is a good guy but i cant possibly tell him how bad things got! dont ask me why.. i am a chicken
he has worked hard and led a blemish free life mainly in the Army
he really wouldnt understand half the things that went on while i was married to the idiot!
i feel it was my fault i married him so i have to deal with the fall out.
i called his mum earlier! she put the phone down on me!
i will try 192 but i have a feeling he will have changed his name! its something he used to say he wanted to do
i will let you all know if i find him

It is NOT your fault.
He sounds like a con artist to the end.
Tell Dave, tell him that the reason why you are telling him is you want to be honest with him. A guy like that will understand :)
I wish I knew your name as I would give you a proper hug instead of {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{HugZ}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Sounds like you have a great man now. let him in on it :)
Take care what ever you decide to do :)
Lea :)

im sorry lea my name is Michele or Chelle as in shelley x

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Not been as close as you are but nearly so can imagine the angst you are going throuigh.
I hope you are able to get it sorted asap :)
Lea :)

Thankyou lea im sure i will be fine i felt better after offloading onto here!

talking helps :) :)
Lea :)

If his mums been in cahoots with him , then I would damn well send the bailiffs round there!....the bailiffs will really want him and not you, so tell them that she knows where he is. Get them off your back.

Did you get it sorted yesterday?

Hi yes they came in the morning and i had been advised to let them in so we could do a financial agreement!
well they came and told me to pay 20 pound a week!
i explained i only had 90 a week and after paying for heating and electric i was left with 16.50
he said my offer of 5.98 was not enough and said to call the office on monday to make another improved offer! i did explain that there would be no more improved offers and he said he couldnt help! anyway i have an appointment at CAB on tuesday morning and they are going to talk to them and try to get it sent back to the courts as basically they cant have what i havent got! and as i have made an offer to them they cannot take my stuff!

Did he not fill a form in with you with all your outgoings and incomings to work out what you could afford? I think they are meant to. Sounds like the CAB have it all under control though thank goodness.

i had already written out my incomings and out goings and i had proof of income!
he asked for my national insurance number(i think so they can find out im not lying!)
he was a weird bloke!
he wrote down items of furniture! and then said he couldnt accept my offer!

Oh dear, because you let him in he now has the right to enter your home(even if he has to break a window or door)& take whatever he has inventoried.

Who advised you to let him in ? They need your National Insurance number so that they can possibly take money directly from your benefit.

The legal advice I was given by a Solicitor who is an expert in dealing with bailiff's was never to invite them in, negotiate with a third party present, sign nothing & contact legal adviser(can be CAB)asap

Did you sign where he wrote the list of your items down?

Hows it going???
Was the CAB able to help???
Lea :)

hi i went to the CAB yesterdfay but when i got there they had shut due to lack of staff. i went again today and the lady i saw phoned the council to ask them to take the debt back as there is no realistic chance of the debt being payed off through the bailiffs as they wont accept the offer made to them! but they refused and said its tough luck basically
so now i have to meet with another dept of the Cab on feb 26th, they advised me to just send what i can each week until then as they cannot take my stuff if i m showing willing by paying so i will be sending 6 pounds a week
thankyou for your advise it has been really helpful
chelle x