I am just wandering are local authorities not reading these boards ? As if they were they would be taking notice of what certain bailiff companies are upto. Also do they not notice how many complaints are made against companies ? As i am just curious how would the taxpayer react if he was to discover that authorities are having to pay lots of money back to people who have been at the mercy of bailiffs that they incorrectly instructed ? As a example go through the cag bailiff forum. You have thousands and thousands of complaints. Are they falling on deaf ears ? Or are the authorities to much into collecting and cannot or will not notice the amount going out ? As a rough estimate. It costs 26p to post a ticket 2nd class. A envelope as well 5p and then 20 minutes deciding a appeal Around £2.00 plus again 2nd class postage 31p. then if it goes to appeal paper work that needs to be copied 2 times @ 5p a sheet. Depending on how many sheets upto £5 per bundle plus 30 minutes of someone sitting down and putting everything in order . Then when a appeal is allowed them again having to sit somone down and manually cancel the ticket. I work this out to be approx £15.00. What do they get in return ? £30/35/50/. then when this goes to the bailiffs just the basic parking fine is trebled and their £5 court registration fee. Bailiffs creme off their money in fees. Then when the debtor comes back the money comes out of the council coffers. Am i the only one who is picking up on this ?

Well, my experience of councils taught me that our political system is no different than any other in Europe, we are simply more subtle and polite about it.

How would you go about getting the contract?

How would you make sure you keep it?

I know how I'd do it.

With the amount of news about council cock ups surely some one must be following this ?

Why should they?

How would they benefit from following these posts?

With the amount of news about council cock ups surely some one must be following this ?

Civil servants don't give a stuff what others think of them. Put yourself in their shoes, you work at the town hall in tax and parking enforcement. You follow regulations and process cases passing them out to the bailiff company whose director paid you the biggest bung or brought the prettiest girls to their office christmas party. You wouldn't care diddly-squat what anyone thinks of you on some internet forum.

Been there done that.

Couldn't agree more!

Hi there,

No, the council don't follow these forums, and even if they did they wouldn't do anything about it.

The council guy I spoke to earlier about a problem I have with bailiffs taking my property (illegally - i didn't know it was illegal at the time), but then susequently not selling it at auction, and charging me additional fees for doing this then returning an even higher bill to the council who are now filing for my bankcruptcy because I can't pay the whole bill off in one go.

I explained about the above and his reaction was "that's your problem" - nothing to do with him or the council. It's taken almost two years of pursuing Merton Bailiffs to get nowhere... I have an inflated bill and the bailiffs have got away with stealing my property and flogging it off on the sly (or whatever they've done with it, they don't have any records of an auction sale so something underhand must have taken place).

Sorry, I'm in rant mode. They make me so mad. I was one of those poor souls who were bullied terribly by these people - there's no reasonning with them or assistance with sorting out a mess they created. It's just a sorry state of affairs all round.

DevastedButHopefull x

Hi there,

 

No, the council don't follow these forums, and even if they did they wouldn't do anything about it.

 

The council guy I spoke to earlier about a problem I have with bailiffs taking my property (illegally - i didn't know it was illegal at the time), but then susequently not selling it at auction, and charging me additional fees for doing this then returning an even higher bill to the council who are now filing for my bankcruptcy because I can't pay the whole bill off in one go.

 

I explained about the above and his reaction was "that's your problem" - nothing to do with him or the council. It's taken almost two years of pursuing Merton Bailiffs to get nowhere... I have an inflated bill and the bailiffs have got away with stealing my property and flogging it off on the sly (or whatever they've done with it, they don't have any records of an auction sale so something underhand must have taken place).

 

Sorry, I'm in rant mode. They make me so mad. I was one of those poor souls who were bullied terribly by these people - there's no reasonning with them or assistance with sorting out a mess they created. It's just a sorry state of affairs all round.

 

DevastedButHopefull x

Your not the only one !!!

How do you know your laptop was taken illegally? and how do you know your laptop wasnt sold? Did it contain information of intellectual property in the meaning of the Patents Act 1977? If so thats probably worth a lot more than the laptop it was stored on. Intellectual Property is not tangible and cannot be subject to levy. The council said "thats your problem". That couldn't be further from the truth because councils are liable for their contractors - in this case a bailiff and the council is liable for putting things right. File a simple claim against the council in the small claims track (as litigant in person) for £4999 to recover your losses of your laptop and its content. If you can be more specific with the fees Merton charged you, you can file a claim to recover them if they exceed the prescribed maximum. Section 8 of the Distress for Rent Rules 1988 gives you the right to file a complaint before a judge sitting at the bailiffs certificating court. You have a number of avenues for claiming of compensation, the Local Government Ombudsman because the council is being vexatious. Two judges, your small claims judge and the judge considering a complaint against the bailiff both have power to award you compensation. Dont file both claims concurrently otherwise a bailiffs solicitor can contend Double Jeopardy and have both claims struck out.

Hi Burp,

To answer all your questions...

Well after the bailiffs took my laptop, I went to see the CAB and they told me that taking a tool of trade was illegal, and also the way they went about gaining access and taking the laptop when it wasn't on a previous inventory list was illegal. The CAB rang up the bailiffs manager in front of me and explained the situation - the manager after a lot of arguing eventually conceded that it was an active tool of trade (i had two unfinished websites on it, which I had received part payment for - this was something they could check so they couldn't deny it was a tool of trade as opposed to my personal laptop). There was a also a database of 2 million member records (containing addresses and personal information) and tons of business stuff I had amassed over my years as a company director.

The bailiffs said they would not give me back the laptop, but would allow give me access to their warehouse and allow me to copy the data to another medium. When I turned up, they said they knew nothing about it and that the laptop had been sold. They came up with lots of stories in fact depending on I talked to - first I was told it was sold off at a local public auction house. I rang up all of these but no one had sold a laptop. Then I discovered CAG, and TomTubby hassled them on my behalf and then it emerged that there was no record of the laptop being sold or even brought in. Till now I'm not 100% on what exactly happened. The bailiffs are covering up something, and they haven't put anything into writing, even though I have written loads of letters to them, cc'd the CAB and council as well.

They just ignored me basically, and the council don't want to take any responsibility for it. The guy in charge at the council tax office said that the bailiffs were not in-house, and that any complaints I had about them had to be taken up with them directly and not via the council - which I did, but got nowhere.

The actual physical value of my laptop was £4k - including the upgrades (it was a hardcore development machine for producing websites and high-res graphics & multimedia). The value of the software and licenses on it was well into the £50k region - I had nearly everything you could think of on there. The value of the 2 databases on there was infact 100s of thousands at the time. I did tell the bailiffs that there was sensitive information on there, and that I would need to delete/remove it before they took it - they didn't let me. My baby's photos and so many other items of sentimental value were on there - things I had kept safe for over 7 years. That to me is priceless, something that cannot be replaced.. if I could only get that stuff back I also had a back up disc of everything but that was in the laptop cd drive so was lost when they took the laptop, but like I said they wouldn't give it back to me once they'd grabbed it.

Literally they came in, spotted it and then they left a receipt and were out the door. The receipt is the only proof I have they took it - otherwise they would probably deny that to.

Well that is exactly what is happening around the country. the councils are not paying any attention as long as they get their money.

You will need to file a claim in the county court - against the council that instructed the bailiff and reclaim the cost of your laptop, cost of re-acquiring all the data stored on it and your software licenses. Software licenses are not transferable so a bailiff using your laptop for his own person edification is in breach of the licensing terms because its is a contract between you and the software manufacturer. If i have time later I can write a particulars of claim and i'll treat your posts as fact. I dont act in any professional capacity on this forum.

Hi Burp,

I'm going to write everything up again this weekend, like I said I've sent this to the bailiffs and council before, but received no response.

So this time round, should I re-send the letter to the bailiffs and request a reply within a certain time or something? I'll register it so that can't deny receipt, then if (or rather when) I don't receive a reply file a claim at the court - I've never done that before, so someone will have advise me on it

Is it okay to post the letter on here for someone to look at (I won't put in the bailiffs names)?

You dont need to send it registered, the Interpretation Act does the job. You can post letters here if you want - only if you and the forum police are OK about it.

I do know a lot about this case but the one point that needs to be remembered is that the local authority and the bailiff company are the same.

The bailiff "company" are actually the in-house bailiff department of this particular local authority.

Merton's bailiffs still need to be certificated and have the same liabilities and responsibilities as a contractor. How does your comment help DBH and his laptop issue with MBC? Another impertinent comment.

Merton's bailiffs still need to be certificated and have the same liabilities and responsibilities as a contractor. How does your comment help DBH and his laptop issue with MBC? Another impertinent comment.

well they are bonded like all certificated bailiffs.

Was the laptop on when taken ?

goods in use couldnt be taken as far as I remember. probably changed since as I havent read the law for years .