From: "John Redman" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Unpaid Council Tax & Debt Collection
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:41:21 -0000


"Peter Lawrence"  wrote

> So why do councils sell their debts to collectors who are in the habit
> of misleading debtors into paying?  It does not go well with the
> honesty and transparancy required of  councils in other contexts.

If you look very closely at the letter of what they write, very often they 
technically are not misleading. Just because a letter arrives from a firm of 
bailiffs, that doesn't mean they're about to force entry and grab your 
stuff. Bailiffs sometimes do that after a CCJ, so the idea is that debtors 
will think that's what they always do, panic, and pay. They would no doubt 
argue that they have not misled, and since few debtors will have the means 
or opportunity to record phone calls or visits, they can be as obnoxious as 
they like in the course of those.

I'd reiterate that it's a different kettle of the proverbials if all this 
bailiff activity is further to an actual CCJ. That makes a big difference.