Help with Rundles.

[lestat1uk]

Hi,

I had a debt with thanet district council for £158 in November of last year. I then got a letter through the post that they had passed the debt on to Rundles. I then got a letter from Rundles requesting the debt be paid up and they had put on a compliance fee of £75. When my payday came on the 16th December I contacted thanet district council and paid the £158 in full. I then received a hand delivered letter on the 19th January requesting I pay £310 (compliance and enforcement fee) or they will start removing goods from my flat. I phoned them to tell them that I thought the fees were unjust as I paid the council directly and they had nothing to do also that I would not pay there £235 enforcement fee as they did nothing but push a letter through my door. I then got angry and hung up on them.

Could anyone advise on this matter please? I really don't like the idea of paying these vultures any money.

Thanks
Tony

[Big Al]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Assuming this is for council tax, the bailiff cannot force entry and can only enter through an unlocked door, nothing more.

If you have anything of value outside (car, bike etc), this is vulnerable. If you have nothing of value outside, put your feet up and wait for the bailiff to get bored, and he'll return the warrant to the council and nothing more will be owed.

[lestat1uk]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Assuming this is for council tax, the bailiff cannot force entry and can only enter through an unlocked door, nothing more.

If you have anything of value outside (car, bike etc), this is vulnerable. If you have nothing of value outside, put your feet up and wait for the bailiff to get bored, and he'll return the warrant to the council and nothing more will be owed.

Thanks for your help Big Al. Yes it is council tax. I don't own a car or a bike. Nothing outside is vunerable.

[Big Al]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Then as long as you never let the bailiff in, there is nothing they can do. End of story!

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Hi,

I had a debt with thanet district council for £158 in November of last year. I then got a letter through the post that they had passed the debt on to Rundles. I then got a letter from Rundles requesting the debt be paid up and they had put on a compliance fee of £75. When my payday came on the 16th December I contacted thanet district council and paid the £158 in full. I then received a hand delivered letter on the 19th January requesting I pay £310 (compliance and enforcement fee) or they will start removing goods from my flat. I phoned them to tell them that I thought the fees were unjust as I paid the council directly and they had nothing to do also that I would not pay there £310 enforcement and compliance fee as they did nothing but push a letter through my door. I then got angry and hung up on them.

Could anyone advise on this matter please? I really don't like the idea of paying these vultures any money.

Thanks
Tony

Unfortunately they are correct in that you now owe the £310 compliance and enforcment fee. You may find that they will refer the account back to the council, but they would have done that if you had paid nothing at all and they have plenty of time to pester you before they do.

My advice would be to contact the bailiff and make an arrangement to pay at a level you can afford to repay the balance, of course do not let the bailiff in your property under any circumstances and do not leave anything of value outside until the matter is settled.

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Unfortunately, as Andy has stated, it makes no difference whether you paid just the arrears (as you have done) or nothing at all-The bailiffs will still harass you.

You have three options. Firstly, pay them, as Andy says. Secondly, don't pay them as Big Al says, or thirdly, you could write, stating that you consider the enforcement fee to be harsh, given the circumstances. Advise that you would be prepared to pay the compliance fee, in a one off settlement. Alternatively, you shall refuse bailiffs entry and shall wait for the warrant to expire in 10 months time.

Let us know which method you refuse and we should be able to advise further.

[josephbloggs]

Re: Help with Rundles.

£75 fee automatically taken out of payment you made to council, and remainder split between the enforcement fee and council tax. Therefore you still owe some council tax until the final penny is paid and the enforcement agents xan still proceed with the issued liability order.

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Not necessarily. The vast majority of councils are not passing compliance fees on (quite correctly IMO). In fact, I'm only aware of a couple who threaten to but don't actually do so.

Your post does however highlight one of the pitfalls of paying the council direct, when attempting to avoid fees, as does the OP.

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

JB is correct the compliance fee(£75) will have been debited from your initial payment to the authority, as this is a guaranteed payment to the EA, so the liability order will still be active.
I cannot imagine that the EA will negotiate a reduced payment , however they must consider a payment schedule based on an assessment of ability to pay. As said this is the action I would recommend.

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

If you contact your local authority, I think you will find that the £75 has not been deducted and that they will tell you that the debt is now settled.

The EA may, or may not negotiate a reduced payment. If they fancy their chances going for the full fee total £310) with no access to the property and no car outside, then good luck to them. From a purely business sense, £75 is better than nothing, which is what they'll get if they fail to take control of anything within the next 10 months. No harm whatsoever in asking and if accepted, and certainly better than Andy's idea of paying the whole amount before even checking if the reduced offer will be accepted.

I would personally not pay a penny more and wait for the account to be returned but it's horses for courses and the OP should do whatever he/she feels most comfortable with.

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

If you contact your local authority, I think you will find that the £75 has not been deducted and that they will tell you that the debt is now settled.

The EA may, or may not negotiate a reduced payment. If they fancy their chances going for the full fee total £310) with no access to the property and no car outside, then good luck to them. From a purely business sense, £75 is better than nothing, which is what they'll get if they fail to take control of anything within the next 10 months. No harm whatsoever in asking and if accepted, and certainly better than Andy's idea of paying the whole amount before even checking if the reduced offer will be accepted.

I would personally not pay a penny more and wait for the account to be returned but it's horses for courses and the OP should do whatever he/she feels most comfortable with.

BY all means contact your authority, but I think you will find that you still owe the total amount(including fees), this is always the case, there has been endless requests querying this and the results without fail prove this. I do no know why LBizy should give you this incorrect information TBH

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

I think you may be getting confused between requests regarding magistrates courts fines and requests regarding councils.

This debt is for council tax, not for a court fine. The requests to councils have come back stating that fees will not be passed onto bailiffs if money is paid directly to the authority. Indeed, in many answers, it was stated that it is actually written in the contracts between councils and bailiffs, that the council would keep ALL monies paid directly to them.

It is pointless debating this further with you. The debtor now has 3 options available, as mentioned above. If the debtor requires further advice on how to proceed with any option, I will gladly respond. Failing that there is little more to be gained.

[Guest]

Re: Help with Rundles.

I think you may be getting confused between requests regarding magistrates courts fines and requests regarding councils.

This debt is for council tax, not for a court fine. The requests to councils have come back stating that fees will not be passed onto bailiffs if money is paid directly to the authority. Indeed, in many answers, it was stated that it is actually written in the contracts between councils and bailiffs, that the council would keep ALL monies paid directly to them.

It is pointless debating this further with you. The debtor now has 3 options available, as mentioned above. If the debtor requires further advice on how to proceed with any option, I will gladly respond. Failing that there is little more to be gained.

Frankly it is a mystery to me why you continue with this, too be clear no authority has ever said that fees are not deducted
Your purpose in stating this is merely to disrupt this thread and possibly this section of the forum

[bizzybob]

Re: Help with Rundles.

I think that it changed on April 6th 2014, the fees remain payable and payments even if paid direct are allocated pro rata. to bailiffs and council. Even the £75 fee at the Compliance Stage is still due if the account is recalled due to vulnerability .

[Milo]

Re: Help with Rundles.

Not necessarily. The vast majority of councils are not passing compliance fees on (quite correctly IMO). In fact, I'm only aware of a couple who threaten to but don't actually do so.

The fact is that you are incorrect and you can check for yourself by viewing the responses that are received on a daily basis on the What Do They Know website.

Over a quarter of all local authorities are dealing with constant FOI's on this subject and almost all of them have responded confirming that they apportion payments made direct to them in the correct way or that they forward the payment to the enforcement companies.

Sadly, in cases where the local authorities confirm that they deal with payments according to the new legislation the person making the FOI's requests asks for the an Internal Review. I have so far seen just 2 local authorities (out of over 70 FOI requests) state that they keep the money.