By law, we must send a bill for collecting business rates to a responsible person at every property. If you do not pay us, we will send you a reminder notice. If you still don’t pay, we will apply to the magistrates’ court for a summons to be issued. At the court hearing, we will ask the magistrate to grant a liability order against you for the amount you owe us, including costs.
The liability order gives us the legal authority to get back the money you owe.We can use bailiffs, take insolvency action, or apply for you to go to prison. We will use bailiffs to begin with if you do not agree a payment arrangement. This will add more costs to the amount you have to pay.
The bailiffs get back the debt you owe by taking and selling your goods. The bailiffs will normally send you a letter asking you to pay the money you owe immediately. If you do not reply to their letter, the bailiffs will visit your property to take your goods. They can take goods up to the value of the money you owe, including their costs. The goods will then be sold at public auction. If you ask, the bailiffs must give you a receipt for all the goods you give them.
The bailiffs have the right to come into your property to remove goods as long as they do not use force to get in. The bailiffs are not allowed to break open a door but may go in if a door is open, or closed and can be opened without using force. They can also go in through an open window. Once the bailiffs have got into a property, they can force doors inside that are locked.
The bailiffs can take any goods that you own. If you pay your debt, including all costs, before any goods are taken or sold, the seizure or sale will be stopped.
You can keep your goods in your property if you do one of the following things.
Bailiffs will come to your business premises with a removal van and remove any of your furniture or belongings (these can include cars and bikes). They will put them in secure storage before they are sold at a public auction.
If the bailiff cannot collect the business rates and there are not enough goods to remove, they will tell us and the magistrate’s court so that we can start insolvency proceedings or start applying for you to go to prison.
If you don’t think that the bailiffs have followed the process set out above, you should contact us.