Guidance to stop councils getting "contractual kickbacks" from bailiffs: Pickles

New guidance will “stop the dodgy practices where town halls collect contractual kickbacks from bailiffs that will do almost anything to make money”, the Communities Secretary has claimed.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said the guidance – Council Tax: guidance to local councils on good practice in the collection of Council Tax arrears – would:

• Put a stop to ‘phantom visits’: where some bailiffs charge inflated fees for putting a letter through a door, while not actually making any realistic attempt to speak to people or negotiate payment plans. “Any such practices should be grounds for termination of a contract with fraudulent activity reported to the police as a criminal offence”;
• Make it clear that it was inappropriate for councils to receive extra payment or profit-sharing from the use of bailiffs and the charging of fees. “Contracts should not involve rewards or penalties which incentivise the use of bailiffs where it would not otherwise be justified”;
• Require bailiffs to provide the debtor with a contact number should they wish to speak to the billing authority;
• Ensure local councils remain responsible for the action of bailiffs they have contracted;
• Mean in-house bailiffs have to explicitly state that they are part of the local authority;
• Require councils to publish their standard scale of fees on their website, “to allow public scrutiny and highlight unreasonable practices”; and
• Encourage councils to sign up to a good practice protocol.

The DCLG cited research by Citizens Advice which found there had been a 38% increase in complaints about private bailiffs over the last five years.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “It is unacceptable for councils to employ burly bailiffs with heavy-handed tactics like kicking down doors, making phantom visits or charging excessive fees – it is unfair and damages a council’s standing in the community.”

The guidance – which replaces the previous Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) Guidance, ODPM Council Tax Collection Good Practice, published in 2005 – says: “Enforcement is a necessary and important part of local authority activity. Every penny of council tax that is not collected means a higher council tax for the law-abiding citizen who does pay on time.

“However, it is important that councils are sympathetic to those in genuine hardship, are proportionate in enforcement and do not overuse bailiffs.”

It adds: “A big part of this is about how local authorities engage and deploy enforcement agents – but it does go wider than that and includes how local authorities interact with bill payers throughout the process - as they begin enforcement action, before instructing bailiffs and whilst bailiffs are acting.”