A question about : Equita & Croydon Council Tax Apr to Aug 2007 URGENT HELP PLEASE
I moved in with my girlfriend earlier this year - after Easter.
A letter arrived today from Equita Bailiffs re Croydon Council Tax. There is no dates or figure quoted.
I think it relates to April to August 2007. In August 2007 my house was repossesed & I moved into a friends - also in Croydon for a brief period. I believe they have sent the odd letter to her chasing it over the years, but she returned not at this address. I had a falling out with her recently & I think she has given them my current (& girlfriends) address, because of the letter.
The letter says
To date we note there remains a balance on your account and we must advise you that the filw has now progressed to the enforcement stage.
However as we are approaching the season of goodwill, we are prepared to instruct our bailiffs not to call at your property before Christmas, provinding you make a substantial payment towards your debt. The level of payment required will vary depending on our clients specific payment parameters so we wold urge you to contact our customer contact centre to discuss options.
As the bailiffs are operating in the area at present, it is paramount that you contact our offices prior to their visit. Unfortunatly, we will be unable to offer you this oppertunity if a baliff has already attended your premises & any arrangement would have to be discussed with them.
We trust that you find our proposals fair & look forward to hearing from you shortly.
HELP?
I'm worried that its a huge amount as they haven't mentioned money in the letter & I'm worried they might have thrown in 6 years of interest, charges & fees!!!
Do I contact them?
Can they enter my girlfriends house & sieze her belongings? Her car? My car? We park on the drive in front of the house.
Are the charges likely to be huge? I'm scared that if I contact them to find out how much I owe I will open the floodgates & have to pay thousands.
I've suggested to my girlfriend I move out & carry on avoiding it.........
Please advise.
Best answers:
- Hi Robert1966, thank you for your query regarding Council Tax
I am not clear from this post if you dispute the debt or not but if the council tax bill was incurred after the property was repossessed and it was empty I would suggest you contact the council and explain this and see if you can have a backdated exemption but it will depend on the circumstances of the case so I cannot advise you fully on whether you would be entitled to that.
If you are not disputing the debt and cannot pay it in full then I would suggest you complete a detailed income and expenditure and make an offer of repayment to the bailiff or the council tax recoveries department (whether council tax recoveries will negotiate with you depends on the local authority) if they will not accept the offer then I would suggest you seek assistance from a debt adviser. You can find your local Citizens Advice Bureau at www.citizensadvice.org.uk and you can find more information about bailiffs power, completing a budget and negotiating with creditors at www.adviceguide.org.uk.
Regarding the bailiffs powers, for council tax arrears they cannot force entry unless they have already gained entry and levied on goods and they can only take goods that belong to you solely or jointly but you may want to complete an inventory of the property and gather any receipts for goods your girlfiend does have.
Hope this is of assistance.
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