Thread: Information needed please - urgent (council parking fine)

I recieved a £35 parking fine that i was unable to pay. It went to £70 and then £105. I rang the council when it was at £105 and was able to pay but they told me they had already passed it on to "someone else" who would be in touch with me shortly.

My car was registered at my mums address, i no longer live there.

I recieved 2 letters from equita saying that they would call round and remove my vehicle if i did not pay £185. As i no longer lived at the address they had i ignored them.

Today my mum recieved another letter and opened it. She was not happy with it saying they could call round and remove goods so i (stupidly) called equita.

They gave me a mobile number for a bailiff. I called the number and he asked for my address, i told him the address was my mums but he didnt reply. he read out my car registration and i asked him how much they wanted me to pay. he was very aggressive in his tone and said £385. I said there was no way i could pay this amount and he just said "ok then, see you later"

This has got me worried now. I dont want them knocking on my mums door and i dont want a CCJ but i just do not have enough money to pay £385 for a parking fine.

Please please please help.

Thanks, Carl.

The law prescribing bailiffs fees for collecting unpaid parking tickets is Schedule 1 et-al of the Enforcement of Road Traffic Debts (Certificated bailiffs)(Amended 2003) Regulations 1993. If you have been overcharged then you have a right to reclaim them. Broadly speaking the law provides:

Letter Fee £11.20. If letter arrives after first visit is made then £0.00
Levying Distress up to £100 (excluding bailiffs fees but including court fees) - £28
More than £100 - 28% for the first £200 then 5.5% on everything over £200.
If no levy is made then bailiffs can charge fees for a maximum of three visits.
Multiple fees cannot be charged for simultaenous unpaid ticket collections.

The law does not provide for a bailiff to charge a fee to fix or remove a wheelclamp to a car or sending a tow truck or a van to an address. The law provides "reasonable costs" for attending an address with a view to transporting goods in a van, if no goods are transported in the van then the van fee is £0.00. Culligan -v- Marston Group Ltd et-al, no. 8CL51015 the court ruled that because the Bailiff produced no Breakdown of his charges, he is unable to show that it is reasonable costs. Therefore, van fees, tow truck fees and attending to remove fees = £0.00. More

If you think you have grounds to appeal against the ticket then speak to a parking tickets expert and call the Traffic Enforcement Centre on 08457 045007. More: Info about - county court Bulk Centre - Traffic Enforcement Centre

Phone the bailiff on his mobile and tell him you are filing a Form 4 complaint against him for dishonestly obtaining a money gain by defrauding you with his fees and you may be reporting him to police under the 2006 Fraud Act. Ask him for the name of the court that issued his bailiffs certificate and quickly end the call. If the bailiff refuses to disclose it then phone the Ministry of Justice Public Register of Bailiffs on 020 3334 6355 and ask which court issued his certificate. Download the complaint form to make an official complaint against the bailiff http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/c...form4_0606.pdf and send the form to the certificating court enclosing supporting evidence such as the bailiffs document showing the bailiffs fees he is trying to charge and any amounts paid.

Hi. Thanks for the repy. Im thinking about paying the debt in full on a credit card and then trying to get the fees back through the consumer credit act. I dont have my own credit card...would it be ok to use my girlfriends and try to get the charges put back on that one or does it have to be one in my name?

I just dont want bailiffs knocking on my mums door. The bailiffs name is John Pugh. With the debt increasing from £185 - £385 im sure they must be claiming that they have visited my mums house already but there has been no attempt at all, no card left or anything, just letters saying they will be coming.

Also could someone point me in the direction of a template letter to equita asking for a Breakdown of the charges added to the debt.


Thanks in advance, Carl.

No need for a template to ask for a Breakdown of charges.

Ring them up and they will be happy to provide it. When you use threatening official templates, they tend to be ignored.

Also, if you want to pay via credit card, Tell him you want to pay now, but, ask the bailiff if he can lower the amount as you dont have the full balance available on the card. Appeal to his better nature, its a case closed for him even if its slightly lower amount.

He can do this but it will depend on the bailiff himself.

BLF
I bet you have a garden full of beautiful roses and a shed full of giant mushrooms

Seems to be a lot of conflicting information here. I dont mean to go on but could someone please answer the following questions i have, HC if you could do it then i would be very grateful.

1. Is paying the full amount on a credit card and then trying to get a refund of the charges a good idea? And if so would i be able to use a card thats in my girlfriends name?
2. Is there a template letter i could use to send to equita. I have rang them and they said i have to put it in writing.
3. If i dont pay by credit card is there any way of setting up some kind of payment plan?
4. Will this already show on my credit rating and how long before it could turn into a CCJ (as i am planning on applying for a mortgage in the next 12 months)

thanks again, Carl.

I wouldn't pay via credit card they charge yyou for that too....

Contact Tom tubby via private messageing on here she is the bailiff expert and will put you right....... Happy Contrails always gives good advice..

And the other person posting here giving their advice is a bailiff probably sticking up for their own..


The charges are well over the top ....

Carlos, the people advising here are ANTI bailiff, probably because they have had a bad experience themselves, and, they are using the people asking for help on this forum as a tool to get back at bailiffs, by giving them the means to complain, form 4 etc...... without just.

Stick with me and you will be fine...

Originally Posted by BLF

Carlos, the people advising here are ANTI bailiff, probably because they have had a bad experience themselves, and, they are using the people asking for help on this forum as a tool to get back at bailiffs, by giving them the means to complain, form 4 etc...... without just.

Stick with me and you will be fine...

So your saying that you are a bailiff that say's" You don't have to pay me all those charges? you don't have to let me in? you don't have to sign a WPO?

Get out of it your the same as all of them and not everyone has had a bad experience Just people trying to protect other's from people like you

Im sorry BLF but im kind of anti bailiff myself. They have had my debt for only a few weeks and alread more than doubled it. They are aggressive and unhelpful when i call. they send very threatening letters to my house. They add charges illegally. To be honest i cannot believe that my local council would pass my debt on to such bullies. I dont want to argue about it though, i just want to know my rights. If you cant help me with that then please leave it for people who can.

Thanks, Carl.

Carols, good luck with it. Read my post above, its honest advice.

carlosmaderos, my brother has been in a very very similar situation to you. he moved out of my house, so i was still receiving his parking fine debt chasing letters from the bailiffs here. and guess what, they were in unsealed envelopes so i could read them. also, because i didn't know the law or my rights back then, i foolishly paid the bailiff on behalf of my brother (although he never asked me to) because of the threat of removal of goods etc. i paid a total of £899.48 for TWO parking fines. after doing a bit of research and also from some brilliant advice from here, i know that they were defintely overcharged.

my advice to you is DON'T pay the bailiff at all. if you do speak to him again then simply tell him that you have requested a Breakdown of charges from his office, and until you have received that breakdown then you will not be able to make an offer to progress the matter. don't be afraid of them or their empty threats. he will try anything and say everything to try and get you to pay. just ignore it.

secondly, if you don't want the bailiffs going round to your mum's address, then you've just simply got to tell equita your new address. don't be too worried about this though. for parking fines, they CANNOT break into your house by force. just make sure you lock all your doors and windows. and if they do come round then dont open the door. simple as. however, don't keep your car near your new address though, they can clamp it.

finally, just writing a simple letter to equita would suffice. just say that you understand that you have some PCN's outstanding to your name and car reg, and that you would like a breakdown of charges applied to the account/case. explain in your letter that you will not make a payment to either the office or the bailiff until you have received this information. send a copy of the letter to the council which issued the parking fine aswell.

then you'll just have to wait for their reply before you consider your next step...

Originally Posted by BLF

OMG, same lame advice. Carlos, please file a form 4 against the bailiff and let the judge deal with you for making false allegations against his/her character, as HC's info above is rubbish.

The bailiff is also able to take legal action against you for deformation of character, cost of investigation and loss of earnings, and, is probably in a better position to do so.

If you follow the above advice, You will end up owing alot more that the cost of a parking ticket my friend.

This is one of those beuties that only a complete moron could have put out. First of all no judge is going to ''deal with you'' for making false accusations. Secondly and most important, unless the bailiff in question or the moron who wrote this highly intellegent post, suffer from some form of serious deformity such as three legs or sixteen fingers or whatever external and obvious, could you be in trouble. Brain deformity is something else, though, it's not visual (unless your head is the size of a melon or shrivelled pea) and you cannot get in to trouble for that either.
listen to HC he knows and has experience.
GR

Thanks for the advice guys. I have used a template letter i found on here and sent it to equita by email and by post. The bailiff turned up at my mums address this morning, she told them i no longer lived there and didnt give a forwarding address. This is definately the first and only time they have been.

Will wait for the reply from equita and take it from there.

Thanks again, Carl.

Originally Posted by carlosmaderos

Thanks for the advice guys. I have used a template letter i found on here and sent it to equita by email and by post. The bailiff turned up at my mums address this morning, she told them i no longer lived there and didnt give a forwarding address. This is definately the first and only time they have been.

Will wait for the reply from equita and take it from there.

Thanks again, Carl.

Well Done Carl .... And sorry for highjacking your thread I just hate it when bailiffs come on here and try to give you wrong advice, Unfortunatley they are always looking in here to whats going on hoping that people don't get the advice they need or get to know their rights.

Originally Posted by ambershadow

Unfortunatley they are always looking in here to whats going on hoping that people don't get the advice they need or get to know their rights.

Not any longer, im now quite happy that you all havent got a clue what you are talking about, and if this forum was regulated, it would be closed down due to all the discrepencies in its advice....

You all carry on, im very happy with what i see

GOODBYE