Hi everyone

I have a slightly odd query:

I have a client with 2 AOE waiting to be taken from his wages. Are the AOE still legal and recoverable if they were issued in the client's middle name and surname instead of christian name and surname.

thanks
Sarah

I have tried to find an answer to this one, as I have never come across it before.. I can see nothing in either of the books I have to say whether you have good cause to query this..

The person liable to pay the CT is the person in residence in a particular property.. He is liable but the name issue is not correct..

I would tread carefully with this one.. The client, is in arraers with CT, they have billed him, issued a liability order, bailiff action.. etc all in the same wrong name..

They would question why he has not altered the details before if they were wrong.. This is an issue which goes through the Magistrates (criminal law) rather than through the civil courts... The same rules do not apply..

Further, CT units should send a financial circumstamces form to 'debtors' prior to enforcement action being taken.. Again, had he filled this in, he perhaps should have informed them of the wrong name then.. The problem here is that CTUs have the option of adding penalties to 'debtors' if the financial circs form is not returned (however, many dont do this..)

So, you may open a can of worms here, as i dont know whether legally he can dispute this..My mind says probably not and if he does, the CTU will start legal action again straight away and may apply all the penalties they legally can.. which may make his bill increase..

However, I may be proven wrong in my assumptions.. As I said, I have never heard anything like this before and cant find anything about this in the relevant resources...

Presumably he has not disputed that the documentation (which - as Plumduff points out - would have been issued on quite a few occasions) refers to him. It seems to me that the error in the name is irrelevant - at most it is only a technicality. So he owes the money, know he owes it & it is best not to raise this issue in my opinion.

Generally, if an AOE is in sufficient form for an employer to comply with it then the courts will be very slow to interfere.