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I had an old council tax debt from a property I lived at with my ex husband in 2010, a bailiff from Rossendales called at my new home last July 2014 to collect a sum of £385.68, which I believed to be the total outstanding sum for the council tax for the small period of time we lived at the property (9 months), as we had also paid some direct debits whilst living there. The Rossendales Bailiff left me with a receipt, with the amount owing saying NIL, so I beleived that was the end to the situation.
During January 2015, I have had another bailiff from Rossendales, who has called twice and on both occasions left a letter stating that I owe £1052.64. I sent them a copy of my receipt from the payment made in July 2014, and did not receive a response. So I wrote to the council who were chasing the debt via Rossendales. Their response was as follows:
Thank you for your email in respect of the above Council Tax which you were liable for from 13 March 2010 to
22 November 2010 (the date you provided on the form when you left the property but did not give us a forwarding address)
By this time we had already passed the £81.18 bill for 2009/2010 (your liability from 13 March 2010 to 31 March 2010 ) to Rossendales in August 2010 but it appears that they have had difficulty in contacting you as you have moved properties several times. With our costs and their charges added on they eventually collected £385.68 for this charge from you in July last year.
We did receive 2 direct debit payments from you totalling £346.48 for 2010/2011 whilst you lived in the property but as the charge for the period you were there was £1040.02 there was still a balance of £693.64 when you moved out. The Council proceeded with recovery against this amount and eventually £778.64 was passed to Rossendales on 13 April 2011 to collect.
As you can see the responsibility to collect this payment has been with the Enforcement Agents for some time so any issues with what you were told at the time you made a payment in July will need to be addressed by them.
I trust this information is sufficient.
The advice I am asking is, should I pay the Liability Order amount £778.64 directly to the council, or will Rossendales continue to chase me for the full £1052.64?
I don't understand why Rossendales left it so long to chase the other amount and failed to even mention it, the first I knew about it was a hand delivered letter through my door.
During January 2015, I have had another bailiff from Rossendales, who has called twice and on both occasions left a letter stating that I owe £1052.64. I sent them a copy of my receipt from the payment made in July 2014, and did not receive a response. So I wrote to the council who were chasing the debt via Rossendales. Their response was as follows:
Thank you for your email in respect of the above Council Tax which you were liable for from 13 March 2010 to
22 November 2010 (the date you provided on the form when you left the property but did not give us a forwarding address)
By this time we had already passed the £81.18 bill for 2009/2010 (your liability from 13 March 2010 to 31 March 2010 ) to Rossendales in August 2010 but it appears that they have had difficulty in contacting you as you have moved properties several times. With our costs and their charges added on they eventually collected £385.68 for this charge from you in July last year.
We did receive 2 direct debit payments from you totalling £346.48 for 2010/2011 whilst you lived in the property but as the charge for the period you were there was £1040.02 there was still a balance of £693.64 when you moved out. The Council proceeded with recovery against this amount and eventually £778.64 was passed to Rossendales on 13 April 2011 to collect.
As you can see the responsibility to collect this payment has been with the Enforcement Agents for some time so any issues with what you were told at the time you made a payment in July will need to be addressed by them.
I trust this information is sufficient.
The advice I am asking is, should I pay the Liability Order amount £778.64 directly to the council, or will Rossendales continue to chase me for the full £1052.64?
I don't understand why Rossendales left it so long to chase the other amount and failed to even mention it, the first I knew about it was a hand delivered letter through my door.
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