Notice of Required Financial Information.- bailiff on CTAX debt, already paying it!

[GemGem67]

Hi all my neighbour has received the following this morning, from a bailiff company.

 

 

Notice of Required Financial Information.

 

As you have failed to make payment arrangements on this account I am formally serving upon you a request to complete the enclosed financial information document.

 

This request is made under regulation36 of the council tax administration and enforcement regulations 1992 statutary instrument 1992/613.

 

You must complete and return the form within 14days of the date of this letter.

 

If you do not comply with this request, please take note of the INTENTION to PROSECUTE under regulation 56 of the above regulations because failure to comply with this request is an offence which on conviction carries a FINE OF UP TO £1000 and a criminal conviction.

 

If you fail to contact US to deal with this matter before the above date the local authority reserves the right to present this correspondence to the magistrate as evidence of your continued failure to pay your council tax.

 

 

 

Now, she has said she has checked, and she she does owe the amount they state, that isn't in disagreement.

 

She has ignored all correspondence from the bailiffs to date.

 

She spoke to the council and put it in writing that she is paying them through their online payment system,

although they haven't acknowledged this, as to do so would be agreeing it's a payment arrangement.

 

Her payments for this years council tax are around £25 per week, she is paying more than this to pay off the arrears too,

but as the arrears have the same account number, whatever she pays is automatically deducted from this years bill

and the arrears won't appear to reduce until that is cleared, if that makes sense?

 

She is worried that not filling in the income/expenditure form is an offence,

although can the council submit a letter which was sent through the post from an agent not themselves and certainly not "served" on her in person, as evidence?

 

To be honest, my first instinct was that they are chancing, hoping the threat gets a response,

but I've not seen or heard of, this kind of letter before.

 

I know the council say it's an offence to not fill in their requests for income/expenditure, but can a bailiff company claim the same

(the letter states "I" am serving, not "the council" or even "on behalf of the council"?

 

 

*edited* all I can find looking up the regulations, is;

Duties of debtors subject to liability order

 

36.—(1) Where a liability order has been made, the debtor against whom it was made shall, during such time as the amount in respect of which the order was made remains wholly or partly unpaid, be under a duty to supply relevant information to the billing authority on whose application it was made.

(b)the billing authority requests him by notice given in writing to supply it;

Thanks

 

Gem.

Edited June 15, 2013 by GemGem67

[unclebulgaria67]

Your friend must contact the council in writing by recorded delivery to advise them what payments they have been making online and confirming that their payments show that there is no refusal to pay any council tax liability. In the letter it can say that full details of income and expenses can be provided to the council on receipt of a written request from them, stating the legal basis for doing so. Advise in the letter that they will not deal with any bailiff and will not provide any financial information to any bailiff. Send a copy of the letter to the bailiff company by recorded delivery.

[josephbloggs]

Certain councils allow bailiff companies to serve attachments of earnings orders. It is against the law not to provide financial and/or employment information to the local authority when requested, and the council can fine you for not doing so. I guess it could be argued as a representitive of the council they can be included within the statement. Especially if these are outsourced

[GemGem67]

Thanks for both replies.

 

Joseph, my thoughts were, that as the regulations make no mention of the billing authorities agents, then the request would have to come from said billing authority and not an agent? If the bailiffs could request this information under the regulations, surely the regulations should state that? She cannot be breaking those regulations if the LA haven't requested her details? The accompanying letter makes no mention of it being a request from the LA. I also thought no-one had a legal obligation to deal with bailiffs whatsoever on these matters? That all they can do is eventually refer it back to the council? If they can cite the regulations and it then be a criminal offence not to give them the info, the wrong advice is being given when telling people not to deal with bailiffs. (The form is a crudely put together offer of arrangement form, with a note along the bottom declaring if the debt isn't paid in full, the charges as listed overleaf may apply, with said charges listed on the reverse, nothing like the actual forms our council uses.) Sorry, just a little confused.

 

My neighbour is writing to the council outlining the extra payments she is making weekly, stating that these are off the arrears but the system has been taking them off this years bill, that she is most definitely not refusing to pay, and that she is willing to send THEM a copy of income/expenditure if they request one in writing.

 

Gem.

[sgtbush]

i know that previous years council tax refernces have slighty diff numbers, maybe she should make 2 payments totaling the amount she is paying per week to make sure some is coming off this years and some off the arrears.

 

but the fact that payments are being made would show the court ( and i very much doubt it would get to a commital hearing) that payments are being made.

the courts do have the power to jail people for non payment of council tax, but this is only used for people that willfully refuse to pay any, and payments are being mad.other people are have far more knolwage on CT matters than me, hallowitch i think has good knolwage on CT matters, im sure they will advise in time

[outlawla]

The £1,000 threatogram strictly speaking relates to where false information is provided. Just in case you need to fill in any gaps in this area you need to look at regulation 56 (5) and (6) in conjunction with regulation 36, which states:

 

56.—(5) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph (1)(a) or (4)(a) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale.

 

(6) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph (1)(b), (2) or (4)(b) shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

 

Level 2 fine goes up to a maximum of £500 whereas Level 3 can be up to a maximum of £1,000, according to the standard scale.

 

56.—(1) A person shall be guilty of an offence if, following a request under paragraph (2)(b) of regulation 36, he is under a duty to supply information and—

(a) he fails without reasonable excuse to supply the information in accordance with that regulation, or

 

(b) in supplying information in purported compliance with that regulation he makes a statement which is false in a material particular or recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular.

So failing to supply information can be fined to a level not exceeding level 2 (£500) on the standard scale. However, this can increase to a fine not exceeding level 3 (£1,000) in respect of where false information is provided.

[GemGem67]

i know that previous years council tax refernces have slighty diff numbers, maybe she should make 2 payments totaling the amount she is paying per week to make sure some is coming off this years and some off the arrears.

 

but the fact that payments are being made would show the court ( and i very much doubt it would get to a commital hearing) that payments are being made.

the courts do have the power to jail people for non payment of council tax, but this is only used for people that willfully refuse to pay any, and payments are being mad.other people are have far more knolwage on CT matters than me, hallowitch i think has good knolwage on CT matters, im sure they will advise in time

 

I had a similar problem last year, the number to input on the council's website to make payments, is exactly the same year-on-year. When this is put in, there are two balances that come up; this years balance and any arrears. Any payments made automatically reduce the 'this years bill' total and only reduce the arrears total if this years is at zero, regardless of separate payments made or not. I tried for months to get payments alloted to my arrears and not my current bill, without luck and had to resign myself to keeping windows shut during the summer, untill I cleared the bill and all subsequent payments went off the arrears.

The prosecution threat, is only in regards to not providing financial info, not for non-payment, but I know what you mean about commital proceedings being a rare occurence.

[outlawla]

...I tried for months to get payments alloted to my arrears and not my current bill, without luck and had to resign myself to keeping windows shut during the summer, untill I cleared the bill and all subsequent payments went off the arrears...

 

 

If the department deems this to be outside its powers to allocate your funds to the account of your choosing, ask that they seek the judgment of "Peter v Anderson".

"

A person who is indebted to another on two several accounts, may, on paying him money, ascribe it to which account he pleases.–and his election may either be expressed,-Or may be inferred from the circumstances of the transaction

.

 

In case your interested there's some background to the system's allocation rules here in this Internal Audit Report.

 

3.3.1 The collection and reporting of Council Tax income is straightforward when a tax payer pays their annual charge within that year. Complexities arise when a Council Tax Payer falls into arrears and owes the council money for past years as well as the current year. There is significant case law (for example, Peter v Anderson (1814)) however, put simply, if a person specifies which years debt the payment should be assigned it should be assigned to that years debt.

 

3.3.2 The council tax system has built in allocation rules to ensure that the law with respect to specified payments is met. For instance, if a customer has a payment plan for any year of debt and the payment they make matches the planned instalment then the money will be allocated to that year (this is known as “hard” allocation on the council tax system). If the system is unable to “hard allocate” then it will instead “soft” allocate and the debt will be used against the oldest debt unless manually adjusted.

 

 

[GemGem67]

Thank-you outlawla, that is extremely useful to know. I paid the arrears I had before this years bill cam through, but my neighbour can use this definitely.

 

Gem.