Local Authority Council Tax Debt Unproven in Bankruptcy - Insolvency Service ensures they get their choice of Trustee ?

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,

Local Authority Council Tax Debt Unproven in Bankruptcy - Insolvency Service ensures they get their choice of Trustee ?

Please be good enough to confirm if the following practice is widespread amongst local authorities ( councils) and the insolvency service to ensure that the council do not have to prove their debts and will receive the Trustee of their choosing.

So basically can you confirm if this is the process they follow.

The Official Receiver does not bother to call a meeting of the creditor's and will file confirmation of this with the court and (automatically became the Trustee) so in effect the council do not have to provide proof of their claim of a debt.

Neither will the Official Receiver need to refer to the Secretary of State because any Trustee appointed at this stage would be required to be appointed from the Secretary of State's rota list.

Of course this would suit the council not to have to prove their debt because they have no court sealed liability order from a magistrates court (this would require a court of record with a seal) although they may be using some version of an 'ancient court of common pleas' a civil court of equity not law.

The Official Receiver will have conveniently become the Trustee who can then soon afterwards apply to the Secretary of State to appoint the council's external solicitors choice of joint trustees.

Thereby getting around the Secretary of States rota.

Is this the reason why council's are instructing outside agencies from outside their area's and whose details are being omitted from being endorsed on the bankruptcy orders and are not being gazetted by the Official Receiver.

Under the FOIA please provide me with a list of all Official Receivers from each Insolvency district who have followed the above process from at least 2014 -2016 and prior years if cost effective.

(a) the name of the council and the date the Official Receiver was appointed Manager and Receiver by the court; name of the court that made the appointment.

(b) the reason the Official Receiver is not gazetting the council's solicitors details and ensuring that they are contained in the bankrutpcy order.

(c) the date each Official Receiver was appointed Trustee (date of filing NNM with the court).

(d) the date each Official Receiver once appointed Trustee applied to the Secretary of State to appoint joint trustees of the council's choosing; names of joint trustees and date of appointment.

(e) the name of and date the council's joint trustees gave notice in the Gazette of their appointment by the Secretary of State.

Yours faithfully,

Deb Williams

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Dear Ms Williams,

Thank you for your request of 02 December 2016 below.

The Insolvency Service are the most appropriate section of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to respond to your request and will be responding accordingly.

Kind Regards,

Information Rights Unit

1 Victoria Street, London SWIH 0ET
www.gov.uk/beis | https://twitter.com/beisgovuk

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