Do I Have To Pay Council Tax To Phoenix Commercial Collections?
By
HuutiMoney
If you have received a letter from Phoenix Commercial Collections and are wondering if you have to pay your council tax dues to them, you will find guidance in the following blog post regarding the role of a debt collection agency as Phoenix Commercial Collections and your responsibility towards paying your council tax debt to them.
Do I Have To Pay Council Tax To Phoenix Commercial Collections?
Yes, you have to pay council tax to Phoenix Commercial Collections. They are a debt collection agency that can be asked by local council authorities to collect outstanding council tax amounts from residents when local councils have not been able to recover the amount on their own.
Council tax debt is a priority debt which should be paid to local councils on an immediate basis. If someone has not been able to pay their council tax on time, the best option for them is to come to a mutually agreed payment plan with their local councils.
In the other case, local councils will first send reminders to the debtors and if their efforts don’t yield results, they will contact enforcement agents or debt collectors such as Phonenix Commercial Collections to contact council tax debtors and collect the due amount.
If you have received a letter from Phoenix Commercial Collections, you should first confirm if the debt is your own. Secondly, you should check if the outstanding amount of council tax debt is correctly stated in the letter. If there is an error either in the amount or the fact that you don’t owe the council any money, you should have evidence to support your claim.
Otherwise, you will need to agree to a debt repayment plan with the enforcement agents from Phoenix cOmmercial Collections when they visit your house to collect the amount.
If you are unable to afford the entire amount of your council tax dues in a lump sum payment, you can discuss it with the enforcement agents and work out a repayment plan. This can either be based on making a partial payment when they visit you and agreeing to monthly instalments for the remainder of the amount or you can choose to pay the amount back in instalments over an agreed period.
If your council tax debt is more than £1,700, you can also op to pay back the amount through an Individual Voluntary Agreement or IVA. In this case, you will be required to agree to a monthly instalment which will be paid to the enforcement agency over five years. Any amount remaining beyond this time will be written off by them.
Can Phoenix Commercial Collections Send Enforcement Agents To My House?
Yes, Phoenix Commercial Collections can send enforcement agents to your house to collect your council tax dues. However, they will first inform you of this in writing.
In addition to this, enforcement agents have the following rights of authority to exercise when they visit a council tax debtor to collect the due amount:
- Visit your house for debt collection as per a time and date communicated at least a week in advance.
- Use reasonable power such as a locksmith to enter your house to collect the said items (this can only happen if they have visited you at least once before and given you time to pay your dues).
- Collect valuables from your house.
- Sell the collected valuables to recover the amount of debt you owe.
However, they cannot perform any of the following actions:
- Force entry into your home.
- Visit your house from 9 pm to 6 am.
- Visit your house if there are vulnerable household members or children under 16 years old alone at home.
- Use any other mode of entry than the door (e.g. use the windows to enter your house).
What Should I Do If Phoenix Commercial Collections Sends Enforcement Agents To My House?
If Phoenix Commercial Collections send enforcement agents to your house, you should follow the below steps:
- Ask the visitor to provide you with proof of their identity. Bailiffs are required by law to carry a badge, ID card or enforcement agent certificate that they show to residents to confirm their identity when they make house visits.
- The next thing you should ask them is the name and contact details of the company that they represent. You don’t have to open your door to check their identification and can ask them to show them through the window or pass them through the letterbox.
- If you are not satisfied with the identification documents they provide or they are unable to provide them, you should immediately call 999.
- On the other hand, if you are satisfied with their identity confirmation, you still don’t have to open the door and can continue talking through the door, a window or step outside of your home to talk to them.
What Can Happen If I Don’t Pay Council Tax Debt To Phoenix Commercial Collections?
If you don’t pay back your council tax debt to Phoenix Commercial Collections or any enforcement agents for that matter, they can collect valuable possessions from your property which can be sold or auctioned to recover your council tax debt.
You must understand that if enforcement agents have contacted you to recover your council tax debt, it is only after a Liability Order is issued by the Magistrate’s Court at the request of your local council and a series of failed attempts to recover the amount from you.
If you are still unable to pay your dues, the council is authorised to have deductions made from your wages, welfare benefits or bank account; and in extreme cases, there can be a prison sentence of 3 months for council non-payment of council tax debt.
If you are not in a position to pay back your council tax debt, you may need the professional guidance of a debt advisor. There are debt charities in the UK that offer these services for free. You may consider contacting StepChange or Citizens Advice for further advice.
Conclusion:
Based on the above discussion, it is safe to conclude that when someone is contacted by an enforcement agency such as Phoenix Commercial Collections, they will have to pay their council tax debt to them or at least agree to an instalment-based repayment plan to clear their dues.
References:
Phoenix Commercial – Bailiffs – Help, Stop Them Today
Do You Owe Money to Phoenix Commercial Collections? Stop Bailiffs Now