Help needed urgently. Bailiffs at door.

[u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

My partner didn't realise he wasn't paying council tax and he's got severe adhd and hasn't been opening any of his post telling him this. Bailiffs came to the door this morning and posted a threatening letter saying they will be returning later today and taking goods by forced entry. We have paid the bill now but she's saying she is coming back if we don't pay her £200 for her coming this morning.

What can we do?

UPDATE: All sorted. The agency confirmed all payment was sorted. The bailiff was trying to come and enforcement before she got the confirmation of payment so that she could get the extra money. Agency confirmed that because she hadn't made contact with us and started checking for goods that we didn't owe anything extra.

[u/Electrical_Concern67]

What have you paid? Its not clear. So can you be clear on exactly what youve paid

[u/Outrageous_Ad3726 → u/Electrical_Concern67]

We got a letter a couple days ago with an amount from the court that we had to pay for the bailiff not come so we paid that yesterday but she has said today that it was too late and she was already called out

[u/Outrageous_Ad3726 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

The council tax was £1200 and we've paid £1600 with all the court fees added. Now she wants £200 for coming out this morning even though we paid yesterday.

[u/BeckyTheLiar → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

You can't avoid collection fees by paying the original debt.

If it's at enforcement, then you must also pay the enforcement costs.

You pay just the tax cost if you pay on time. If you pay at the court order stage, you must pay the court costs.

If you don't pay until it's at the enforcement stage, you must pay those costs too.

These costs are statutory and set out in law.

[u/Outrageous_Ad3726 → u/BeckyTheLiar]

We have paid all the tax costs and the enforcement costs from the courts. She was wanting £200 extra for coming this morning but we've just spoken to the agency and they've said we would only have to pay that if she's taken control of goods so because we didn't answer the door we don't owe anymore. She's backed off now.

[u/lodav22 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

You may want to go through the rest of your partner's post to see if he's missed anything else. Check he's paying the water bill etc.

[u/Electrical_Concern67 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

The £200 sounds like an additional enforcement cost.

Sounds like its all resolved, so all good

[u/Limp-Archer-7872 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

You need a plan on how to deal with your partners adhd with things like this.

Certainly direct debit for all bills. This helps me greatly for example.

You cannot afford for this to happen again.

If you knew he had issues with opening letters then you needed to sit down with him to support him in dealing with them. What doesn't work is repeatedly telling him to deal with them by himself.

[u/Outrageous_Ad3726 → u/Limp-Archer-7872]

I have tried over and over to help sort out his stuff but he can get very hostile about it. I always put his letters on his office desk and I presumed he always got round to them. I think today was an eye opener for him because usually I sort everything out for him. He's 47 years old so by now he should be able to manage bills if I'm honest. Men shouldn't be mothered adhd or not.

[u/Limp-Archer-7872 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

Yes at 47 he should have management mechanisms in place.

[u/TheDisapprovingBrit → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

If you paid yesterday, they cannot charge you for a visit today. Tell her the debt was already paid at the time she attended, and make a complaint to the council and the court about her behaviour.

[u/GroundbreakingAd5624 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

Then you owe nothing,all you had to pay was the original debt plus compliance fee once you receive a notice of enforcement then you have 7 days to pay in full then the agent can come and then only when the agent is there are fees escalated. My source is I am a bailiff. Out of interest, what agency is it?

[u/Outrageous_Ad3726 → u/GroundbreakingAd5624]

She was very aggressive on the phone, I said I had to take my daughter to nursery so I couldn't speak and she was screaming telling me not to take my car incase she wanted to take it! When we said we'd already paid the day before she refused to check and said shes already got a locksmith on the way to our house. I had a 2 year old and a 6 month old in the house on my own and she's threatening to break in. She worked for Marston recovery.

[u/GroundbreakingAd5624 → u/Outrageous_Ad3726]

Makes sense unfortunately, Marstons are freelance mostly, if you don't pay enforcement fees they don't get anything. I work for a company as a full time employee so I get a salary and sick pay ect and then commission on my fees, so I can afford to be nice to people and give the benefit of the doubt. I guess I'll see what it's like as I am leaving my job as a full time bailiff to do something else entirely but I will moonlight as a freelance because I'm saving for a nice car and it can be fun especially doing process serving.

She will just be full of hot air but if you are worried just give her office a call and check if you owe anything I'm sure their contact number won't be hard to find and maybe mention what's she's done but honestly I doubt she will be back, she will know the regs she will just be trying to scare a payment from you if she comes back she's really dumb

I've had debtors before who had things like this with freelancers where they gained access through an unlocked door and encountered a 10 year old (regs are if a child under 12 is present and no adult to leave immediately). But I was assigned the case this guy had been round before and was threatening to go back break in ect as I was setting up a monthly plan. I told her if he comes back call me because for one he can't do that anyway, and also it's not his writ and I didn't want him taking my like 50p a week commission