£200 for a visit

[stevo]

This cant be right surely? Its for a old council tax debt. Alexanders Bailiffs in WImbledon have charged me £200 for one visit. !!!!!

Can they ???

[Mumofthreeboys]

Originally Posted by stevo

This cant be right surely? Its for a old council tax debt. Alexanders Bailiffs in WImbledon have charged me £200 for one visit. !!!!!

Can they ???

I have an ongoing argument with Crichtons, they charged us £230 for a bailiff/porter/van plus 2 x £50 for bailiff costs!!! but nobody saw them

There is a special forum on bailiffs and DCA's now, check it out and have a good read MOTB xxx

[davefirewalker]

I'm having a go at jacobs for last year

Just sent a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) and asked for a complete breakdown of charges

look at Debt Basics - Bailiff Guide

and see what they can and can't do

also this from Debt Help UK : Bailiffs Costs | UK debt consolidation service with free help and advice

Council Tax and
Community Charge The Bailiff visits the premises but does not gain entry:
1st visit - £20
2nd visit - £15

The Bailiff gains entry, lists and takes "possession" of the goods (the goods are not necessarily removed):
Debt less than £100: £20
Debt more than £100:
20% of first £100
4% of the next £400
2% of the next £1500

The bailiff makes one attendance with a vehicle and intends to remove goods (where the bailiff has previously gained entry, listed, taken "possession" but not removed the goods):
Reasonable costs and fees: Around £50.

The bailiff removes and stores goods:
reasonable costs and fees.

The bailiff takes walking possession of the goods (the debtor has signed a walking possession agreement): £10.00.

Fines There is no proper regulation of the bailiff's charges, except that they are reasonable and not disproportionate to the size of the debt.


IF THE CHARGES SEEM EXCESSIVE-----QUESTION THEM AND COMPLAIN

here

CBA can be contacted by writing to:
c/o Ridgefield House
14 John Dalton Street
MANCHESTER
M2 6JR
tl: 0161 839 7225

ACEA can be contacted by writing to:
Chesham House
150 Regent Street
LONDON
W1R 5FA

t: 0207 432 0366
f: 0207 432 0516
e: sec@acea.org.uk
w: Association of Civil Enforcement Agencies

Dave

Originally Posted by stevo

This cant be right surely? Its for a old council tax debt. Alexanders Bailiffs in WImbledon have charged me £200 for one visit. !!!!!

Can they ???

Stevo you need a battle plan, before we can outline it for you please tell us if they entered your home.

If they have not entered your home and before we get your BP sorted as in the above post under no circumstances allow them into your house and keep sheds, windows ect locked as they can enter the home though opened entries, what they are not allowed to do is force entry without a walk in possession order, and if they did enter you home regardless if you signed anything they hold this order.

If the person on the warrant owns a car park it else where, until we start to sort things.

Also never sign anything when outside of the home and I mean nothing.

As a note.

Bailiffs often say they are going to return with a locksmith they can only do this if they have a walking possession agreement.

What they are doing here is being very clever with the law and using one letter fits all, the letter will have on it 'if appropriate we will return with a locksmith' or something similar I note they often underline this in red, I have over 100 from Jacobs that I have collected in my home town like this (with the help of the local paper) this is against the law and they have crossed over the fine line of one letter fits all if this is done without a walking possession agreement. IF, WILL and MAY are very powerful words in the law more so then most lay people realise and underlining them in red is a clear misinterpretation of their powers. I complained to my local council when I became aware of the practice and they said it was a isolated incident once the present rates period is over I am going to send them all to the council and my local paper.

To Sum Up

• If they have not been in your home they can not get a locksmith or the police.
• If they have been in your home they can get a locksmith and/or the police.

[stevo]

HI Ashley

Appreciate the response. No, i havent let them into the house. What i was intending to do is to carry on paying to fulfil the debt and then look at retriving the excessive charges for the visits. For example i know they didnt hire a van because they have their own. The journey from their premises to my house is 22 miles.


Thanks to everyone else on this thread for your advice.

Stevo

Here you go I think you will get the idea from the content but any questions ask.

Dear Sir/Madam,
Re: Your Reference

I understand XXX Council has appointed you to recover my Council Tax Liability arrears for 200x. which are £xxxx Council Tax Liability (principle) and £xxx your fess (fees).

1. Firstly I would like to make you aware that I am aware of my rights and you will not gain entry to my home under any circumstances to levy goods.
2. Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay this in one payment. I advocate a payment schedule of 24 months with 23 months payments at £xx.xx and the balance of £xx.xx to be paid on the 24th month to cover the principle. I understand this may seem a long time but this is a realistic offer that is affordable to me and will allow me to pay future bills issued for Council Tax without them falling into arrears. A greater amount would cause me real and factually hardship.
3. I am able to pay the above amount on the xx of each month, as an act of good faith I have included the first payment by personal in my name chq number xxxxxx. Please advise how you would like future payments made. My personal preference is payment by Standing Order; however I will make payments by any format *but am unable to be xxx xxx as I do not have excess to the amenities*.
4. It should be noted that I am not at any point refusing to pay this debt but only asking for a fair payment period considering my circumstances. And if you are unable to accept my offer I will place the money aside each month until such a time the council take the account back into their management, when I will make payment of the set aside money to the council.
5. Now I must turn my attention to the fees. It is my understanding that in a case where no levy has been made and where no entry is made you are only able to charge £22.50 for a first visit and then £16.50 for a second visit and after this no further charges for further visits are payable.
6. Your correspondence suggests that over £200 in fees have occurred where no entry has been made and a list of goods has not been made. I suspect that the bailiff has confused my account with a different account.
7. I request that you inform me in writing the true value of your fees within the next 7 days.
8. I will arrange the payment schedule for the fees within 7 days of getting the true value.
9. I am sending the council a copy of this letter and requesting that it be placed with my account for further reference.

I hope the above meets your approval and I look forward to your timely reply by letter.

Yours Sincerely,

[merlin617]

I have received a request from Jacobs bailiffs of Birkenhead for information about a tenant that has not lived here for two years and it reads:

We have recently been advised that the above named person no longer lives at your address. We are obliged to visit in order to establish this, however, if you can forward us a copy of a recent utility bill showing the names of the current occupier(s) and complete the details below, subject to receiving suffient proof, we should be able to stop the bailiff from calling. We appreciate your assistance in the matter.

The info they want:

• occupiers name
• date you occupied the property
• If the property was purchased or rented, could you let us have a solicitors or landlords name, address and telephone number.
• Forwarding address and telephone number of previous occupier.
• Is there any other information that may be of assistance in this extremely important matter?

Now the last one I would like to respond to but only to inform them that their licence to trade as bailiffs is about to be recindered!

On the one hand it bothers me that a former tenant has left this trail of correspondence at my door but I put that to one side for my complete intolerance of a clear threat to upset my life.

I want to know how I can pursue these people for harassment and intimidation.