Bailiffs and fee's! please help!

[stufiboob]

Ok, so this is my first post on here and it comes after the worst day Ive had for ages.
Story goes, my wife, 3 kids and I used to live in the Welsh Valleys during 2005, fell on hard times and I declared myself bankrupt...council tax was on there.
We moved down to Somerset, giving Council our new address to forward a bill. Bill came for roughly £300 in my name only. I said I was bankrupt, so they said it was a mistake and I owed nothing. I asked if it meant my wife owed anything. We were told no. Didnt understand that but it came from the council so we just left it.
Moved house again, and apparently council sent court letters etc to previous address for the money my wife owed... strange as we were told she didnt owe anything, but hey.

Bailiff comes down from the Welsh valleys this afternoon... open door, he says he's recieved a warrant from the court this morning to collect debt. If we cant pay now he has a van waiting on standby to take goods from the property today to go straight to the local auction.

I INVITED HIM IN THINKING WE COULD SORT IT OUT AS I HAD A FEW HUNDRED QUID I COULD GET MY HANDS ON.

He came in and sat down...told us the bill was £761!
I said we didnt have that kind of money. He said if I didnt pay it now he would take the goods and car, and the auction place would add on an extra £250 to cover their own costs (car is only worth a couple hundred quid). We panicked, got my mother in law to pay by card over the phone, bill for some reason got reduced to £671.

He wouldnt take a payment arrangement. He wouldnt take part cash, part card. He wouldnt wait 2 days.
Just to make it clear, I now think he should have given us 5 days to pay. At the time I didnt know that, and he said it was either payment now or the goods and car, despite the fact that the car is in my name.
Also, he said the warrant was in both our names which I thought was really strange being bankrupt.

Now having looked at the council website etc Im not disputing that my wife owed Council Tax becuase we thought she did anyway.
Im not disputing that it went to court and there would be court fee's involved etc.
However, I think that everything else he said was bull.
He has left us 2 letters. One is titled "Notice of Seizure of Goods and Inventory" and the other one is a reciept for money paid.

On the Notice the inventory includes 3 items...TV, TV stand and Fridge/Freezer (by the way, I have a 12week old baby). This would in no way cover the costs as the total cost from new was only about £600!

The fee's he has written down are...
Amount due to Authority £281.25
Levy fee to scale schedule £30
Attending with a vehicle with a view to removing £110
Removal Fee £250
Total £671.25

Have phoned Swift Credit Services Limited and they said the Levy fee is for the yellow bit of paper of "Notice of Seizure"
Attending with vehicle is the car he turned up in, although no way could he fit my stuff in it, let alone tow my car!
and £250 removal fee is actually his attendance cost written in the wrong column

They also said that they had given us notice to pay...it was today when he turned up! Dont see how that counts as notice seeing as they've had our address and phone number for the past 4 months!

This was his first visit aswell...he told us that.

What I would like to know is are these fee's realistic.
Im quite happy to pay the Council Tax and court fee's, and even a £27.50 first attendance fee, but what about the rest?

Any help would be much appreciated. If im told he's right, then I'll leave it alone and take the financial hit.
If he's wrong I'll quite happily be a pain in the backside till I get my fee's back.

Many thanks

Stuart

[MARTIN3030]

lots of info Welcome to the site.
Will move this to debt forums and delete other duplicated post.

[Saffronflowers]

SB - I am really sorry but I am a little tied up right now ( no help to you) but will reply to you fully tomorrow.

Firstly breather and the troops will be in to help you through this.

One the welsh council tax were you the only person named or was it joint liability - have you spoken to the OR regarding this

Take care and hopefully you mind will be put to rest soon if not will give a full reply tomorrow

SFx

[stufiboob]

Hi saffron,Think we were jointly liable (being husband and wife) but when I went bankrupt (it was only me, not my wife) I was told by the CAB that my share of the Council Tax (50%) was declared on my bankruptcy so I didnt have pay it, but my wife would still have to pay her half.This has now been confirmed by the Council, but I still dont know why he said it was a "joint warrant"...and yes, these were his exact words.Me thinks he was lying!!!

[Screw The Bailiff]

Originally Posted by stufiboob

I INVITED HIM IN THINKING WE COULD SORT IT OUT AS I HAD A FEW HUNDRED QUID I COULD GET MY HANDS ON.

Hindsight's amazing!

Originally Posted by stufiboob

He came in and sat down...told us the bill was £761!
I said we didnt have that kind of money. He said if I didnt pay it now he would take the goods and car, and the auction place would add on an extra £250 to cover their own costs (car is only worth a couple hundred quid). We panicked, got my mother in law to pay by card over the phone, bill for some reason got reduced to £671.

Hope that was a credit card, heres some food for thought.

Originally Posted by stufiboob

He wouldnt take a payment arrangement. He wouldnt take part cash, part card. He wouldnt wait 2 days.
Just to make it clear, I now think he should have given us 5 days to pay. At the time I didnt know that, and he said it was either payment now or the goods and car, despite the fact that the car is in my name.
Also, he said the warrant was in both our names which I thought was really strange being bankrupt.

Now having looked at the council website etc Im not disputing that my wife owed Council Tax becuase we thought she did anyway.
Im not disputing that it went to court and there would be court fee's involved etc.
However, I think that everything else he said was bull.
He has left us 2 letters. One is titled "Notice of Seizure of Goods and Inventory" and the other one is a reciept for money paid.

You let him in and that allows him to charge the prescribed walking possession fee of £10+VAT. Thats the maximum the law allows & its prescribed in Regulation 45(2) Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992

Originally Posted by stufiboob

On the Notice the inventory includes 3 items...TV, TV stand and Fridge/Freezer (by the way, I have a 12week old baby). This would in no way cover the costs as the total cost from new was only about £600!

Bailiffs arent interested in taking your gear, its worthless on the 2nd hand market. He is pressing you into finding the money.

Originally Posted by stufiboob

The fee's he has written down are...
Amount due to Authority £281.25
Levy fee to scale schedule £30
Attending with a vehicle with a view to removing £110

Nope, not allowed not prescribed and and its illegal.

Originally Posted by stufiboob

Removal Fee £250

No such fee prescribed in Regulation 45(2), no goods were removed.

Originally Posted by stufiboob

Total £671.25

Originally Posted by stufiboob

Have phoned Swift Credit Services Limited and they said the Levy fee is for the yellow bit of paper of "Notice of Seizure"
Attending with vehicle is the car he turned up in, although no way could he fit my stuff in it, let alone tow my car!
and £250 removal fee is actually his attendance cost written in the wrong column

They also said that they had given us notice to pay...it was today when he turned up! Dont see how that counts as notice seeing as they've had our address and phone number for the past 4 months!

This was his first visit aswell...he told us that.

What I would like to know is are these fee's realistic.
Im quite happy to pay the Council Tax and court fee's, and even a £27.50 first attendance fee, but what about the rest?

Any help would be much appreciated. If im told he's right, then I'll leave it alone and take the financial hit.
If he's wrong I'll quite happily be a pain in the backside till I get my fee's back.

Many thanks

Stuart

You might as well make something of it. Do the following in this order.

Check the bailiffs credentials, report back if you find an irregularity,

Send the bailiff a letter based on this template and wait seven days. Adapt the letter to reclaim the fees and cite Requlation 45(2). The fees should be: £43.77 inc VAT, £20 for the 1st £100, £7.25 for the remaining £181.25, £10 flat fee for the walking possession, Plus VAT £6.52.

File a Form 4 complaint, and run through this checklist to see if you can add any more grounds to your complaint. Dont be hasty this will put the bailiff in front of the judge to explain why he charged you all those fees and you could be awarded compensation. Have ducks in a row before shooting.

File a complaint against the bailiff with the police under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 using this letter. Use with caution, a bailiff loses his job if convicted of an offence.

[tomtubby]

These fees ARE TOTALLY WRONG !!.

If this bailiff does not know the mere basics of the fees scale for the collection of council tax he should not be working as a bailiff.

This is a disgrace !!

The fees scale is clear and that you should be charged a levy fee as the bailiff has clearly levied. There can only ever be two van fees and for the second one goods actually have to be removed, but the first van fee is also not correct.

He should have only charge a levy fee. The idea behind a Walking Possession is to allow you time to pay. The tight time frame is also wrong.

Clearly this bailiff was looking at way to increase his fees....not at ways of gettting the bill paid.

Can you let me know by private message only the name of the bailiff who visited you so that I can check that he is certificated and can you let me know also which local authority.

[stufiboob]

Just a thought... knowing now that we should of at least paid by Credit Card we were told by the bailiff that he would advise Debit card as we only get charged £1 as appossed to paying with a Credit Card where we would be charged 5% of the total amount.Thought this was excessive at the time as you normally only pay a 2 or 3% charge.Thoughts on a postcard please...

[Screw The Bailiff]

Pay the cedit card fee, and reclaim it from the bailif in writing using this template, if no joy then make a complaint of fraud. The law does not provide for bailiffs to charge a card fee of any kind. Its also a criminal offence under Sections 1 to 5 of the Fraud Act 2006 & the law doesn't set a minimum to constitute a fraud.

It's 0%. The bailiff says ortherwise then tell that to his certificating Judge.

[PizzaMaker]

Originally Posted by stufiboob

Just a thought... knowing now that we should of at least paid by Credit Card we were told by the bailiff that he would advise Debit card as we only get charged £1 as appossed to paying with a Credit Card where we would be charged 5% of the total amount.Thought this was excessive at the time as you normally only pay a 2 or 3% charge.Thoughts on a postcard please...

Newlyns claimed i owed them £360 on a parking fine (Original fine £40, at letter stage £138.16), 2 visits and Attendance to Remove when they had never visited my address.

After speaking to the bailiff and asking him to quote my door colour and house type, he questioned why i was asking these questions. I told him that i was only willing to pay the outstanding fine at letter stage.................... ...to which he agreed.

I paid £138.16 on a DEBIT card but they charged me a further 3.5% = £143.

[Screw The Bailiff]

If that look place within the last six years yoiu might as well make something of it.

[PizzaMaker]

Originally Posted by Screw The Bailiff

If that look place within the last six years yoiu might as well make something of it.

Its not that i dispute the fine, as i agree i was in contravention, but it was the "ghost visit" fees they tried to charge but relented on. Its only the 3.5% which takes the pi......mickey.

[Screw The Bailiff]

Thats exactly what I meant, the 3.5% fee is not prescribed and the bailiff is not entitled to demand it from you. You can reclaim it - template, and if he doesnt refund you then you can execute chargeback on the whole transaction. You get all your money back and its debited straight out of the bailiffs bank account.

[PizzaMaker]

Originally Posted by Screw The Bailiff

Thats exactly what I meant, the 3.5% fee is not prescribed and the bailiff is not entitled to demand it from you. You can reclaim it - template, and if he doesnt refund you then you can execute chargeback on the whole transaction. You get all your money back and its debited straight out of the bailiffs bank account.

What makes you think its debited straight out of the BAILIFFS bank account. I think you mean the companies bank account.

[Screw The Bailiff]

Originally Posted by PizzaMaker

What makes you think its debited straight out of the BAILIFFS bank account. I think you mean the companies bank account.

Something like that, plus a chargeback fee, in any event you are refunded against the bailiff's will.

[PizzaMaker]

Originally Posted by Screw The Bailiff

Something like that, plus a chargeback fee, in any event you are refunded against the bailiff's will.

The money comes out of the companies account. The company have time to contest this. I know the banks are going to get tougher on chargebacks as their are so many.

[Screw The Bailiff]

The bailiff (I mean a bailiff or the firm that employs him) has 40 days to appeal against a chargeback, the banks can't get tough on chargeback, its the law. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 says the credit lender has joint liablility with the merchant (the bailiff) where fraudulent use or undue pressure was used to obtain a regulated money transfer. That was legislated to protect consumers from being fobbed off with excuses by the lender.

Always pay a bailiff with a credit card. Debit card's aren't so easy but still possible.