Use of Bailiffs for LA PCN's |
Use of Bailiffs for LA PCN's |
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 - 15:41
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 11,094 Joined: 24 Aug 2007 From: Home alone Member No.: 13,324 |
#StopTheKnock is a campaign mainly to reduce and control the use of Bailiffs to collect government and LA debt. Every two years they do a mammoth FOI request for the numbers.
Link is https://www.stoptheknock.org/wp-content/upl...or-website.xlsx Type: No of referrals Council Tax : 1,417,736 Parking Fines: 1,079,119 Housing Benefit overpayment: 39,470 Business rates: 79,899 Commercial rents: 3,665 Other debt types: 26,521 Total bailiff referrals: 2,646,410 What is mind numbing is that the second largest referrals to bailiffs is PCNs and they have grown at 10% per year over the last 4 years. And if my memory serves me, this is 1 in 6 of all PCN's issued. Someone can correct me on this. Given that 1.4mn referrals for Council Tax is causing concern in government circles, the 1mn for PCNs gets no more than a shrug. |
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Fri, 25 Oct 2019 - 15:41
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Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 11:20
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 900 Joined: 8 Aug 2006 Member No.: 7,035 |
Why shouldn't the council use bailiffs to enforce unpaid debt? Just like any other private company can. If they didn't send bailiffs then I'm sure the amount unpaid would go up massively.
Just as an example, Birmingham City Council are owed £111m in outstanding council tax. QUOTE Across England, councils have £3.0 billion worth of council tax arrears - including £944 million from the financial year 2017/18.
To put that in perspective, £3.0 billion would be enough to pay ALL unemployment benefits for 18 months. This post has been edited by peodude: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 11:21 |
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Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 11:27
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 26,656 Joined: 6 Nov 2014 Member No.: 74,048 |
There is no reason why the council should not use bailiffs to collect debt, but for PCN's there needs be a review of the law or council procedures. We have an ongoing case wher the council sent out a PCN. It was returned by the post office as undeliverable (the address was incorrect) They then sent out a CC then OfR both returned to the council. They knew the documents had not been served but made a declaration to the court that they had been. The case then went to bailiffs, who had no trouble finding the OP and clamping his car to enforce a vastly inflated sum for something the council knew they had no knowledge of
I rare but not isolated case -------------------- All advice is given freely. It is given without guarantee and responsibility for its use rests with the user
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Guest_Charlie1010_* |
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 13:13
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#4
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Guests |
A long time ago the borough council here employed bailiffs to recover a community charge from me for a friend with whom I had previously shared a flat.
They made the assumption that my friend had moved into my new property which was not the case. I had to explain numerous times that he didn’t live at my new address. But they didn’t believe me. I visited the council personally and refused to leave citing harassment until they cancelled the action. They had written to the previous address and because they didn’t get a response made the incorrect assumption. I informed the previous landlord who told them but they didn’t believe them either. The council asked me where the friend was living and I told them truthfully that I didn’t know and it wasn’t up to me to find out. |
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Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 13:59
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 25,726 Joined: 28 Jun 2010 From: Area 51 Member No.: 38,559 |
There is no reason why the council should not use bailiffs to collect debt, but for PCN's there needs be a review of the law or council procedures. We have an ongoing case wher the council sent out a PCN. It was returned by the post office as undeliverable (the address was incorrect) They then sent out a CC then OfR both returned to the council. They knew the documents had not been served but made a declaration to the court that they had been. The case then went to bailiffs, who had no trouble finding the OP and clamping his car to enforce a vastly inflated sum for something the council knew they had no knowledge of I rare but not isolated case Any review needs to get a grip on TEC procedures as well. Not cut and dried that they always reject Out of Time if the council object but it often seems that way. I would query Emanresu on the 1 in 6 pcns end up with bailiffs. Not a clue what the figure is but 1:6 seems very high |
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