I too need to do something about my secured loan with Kensington. In 2008 I got into arrears and although I had an agreement in place to pay they charged me £50 a month arrears fee on top for quite a while. I am aware they were fined and don't understand why I haven't been refunded. Am going to go through all my loan statements and see what I ought to be reclaiming. Since they have been given a hefty fine one would hope they will pay up without too much hassle, but then again it is Kensington we are dealing with!

Just to update. With much assistance from someone on this forum I fired off the following complaint letter to the bailiffs ten days ago: I refer to your letter dated 18th February 2009 which attempted to explain why your bailiff came to my property on 17th February to remove my vehicle. At the time of this visit the balance outstanding was £39.70 and a charge of £100 was made for this visit I find it absolutely shocking that you have confirmed in writing that the purpose of this visit was to remove my car. In the first instance the vehicle that your bailiff levied upon was worthless and had neither tax, insurance or MOT and had been SORN registered with DVLA. You will be aware that with my payment of £75 dated 7th February I had included with it a note to question the outstanding fee balance and this note was not to complain at the fee, merely to clarify the amount due. Your company should simply have provided a response to me and instead I believe that your bailiff was looking at a way of gaining additional van visit fees at my expense, which is a disgrace bearing in mind the current recession. I wish to advise your firm that I am divorced and work part time and have a large mortgage to support and I will simply not tolerate a bailiff who is representing a local authority to be able to charge a fee such as this when at the time of the visit the onus was on your firm to confirm the amount outstanding by me. Finally, can you please confirm the amount of the Liability Order passed to your company. This is important. In addition, I require a full breakdown as the local authority have advised me that they are now showing a balance of £114.70 in their books which is very confusing. I enclosing a cheque of £39.70 which I believe is the amount due to your company to settle this matter. I shall also be forwarding a copy of this letter to the Council. To date I have not heard anything from the bailiffs! I shall now be writing a complaint letter to the Council.

What I somehow need to clarify is whether the £100 was lawfully applied, accepting of course there is a difference between what is legally right as opposed to ethically. As I had queried the fee (which was by way of a post-it attached to my last cheque and which they acknowledge they received), which was not a refusal to pay, and they did not clarify but added another £100, do I have grounds for a complaint to the council?

Have just phoned the Council. They are showing a balance of £114.70 outstanding on my account.

Thanks for that extract. I am still a bit confused (or thick!) It confirms I need to pay the £39.70 but what does this mean regarding the extra £100 they want?

Chris600 UK - I have paid the amount on the Magistrates Liability order (£480). The issue concerns the bailiff fee. Just to clarify the questions asked: I have had two visits from the bailiff. I was not at home either time. The first was when he left me a 'Notice of Intention to Levy Distress', and ticked the box saying he had 'attempted to seize the goods specified in the inventory below' and had entered my car registration. The car was not roadworthy as I had registered a statutory off-road notice with the DVLA whilst deciding what to do with it (no tax, insurance or MOT). His notice was for £480 plus £39.70 fees. £480 subsequently paid as per my earlier post. So Liability order satisfied but not bailiff fee as I had queried it. Second visit was about seven days after my final payment and query about their fee, to which they had not responded. The document is headed 'Attendance to Remove Goods' and demanding £139.70. This is when I complained about their not responding but adding £100. The notice has the standard wording about failing to respond to previous notice/not honouring payment arrangements. As stated I did not make any payment arrangement with them, just sent cheques approx one month apart which they accepted. For both visits, I was not at home. Their written response to my complaint does not say why they did not respond to my query, or how the additional £100 on top of £39.70 is calculated. I will send them £39.70 - it is the additional £100 I am wondering whether they can demand when only their fee is outstanding. I have read elsewhere that as I have satisfied the amount of the Liability Order they cannot levy for additional fees - this is what I am trying to confirm.

I know how you feel. I was issued with a Liability Order for making payments in the right month but a few days late (no more than 2 weeks) as I was on a low income. I paid online so therefore in theory I had contacted the council as I had a receipt for payment. My payments were actually up to date at the time of the Magistrates hearing but I didn't realise it was just a rubber-stamping exercise and they wouldn't allow for my payments. Next thing I have bailiffs knocking on the door with their extra charges. The whole system sucks when they pursue people who are paying regularly but might be a bit late. It's not as if I was several months behind in payments. Its nothing more than legalised robbery.

In a nutshell:- Received liability order re council tax. Amount incorrect as a payment made to council before L/o issued. Bailiff calls, not at home. He leaves notice of intent to levy distress with car registration on it. Settled corrected balance direct to bailiffs via three cheques at approx 1 month intervals (without having agreed any payment arrangement, just sent cheques off). All cheques cleared OK. Did not pay bailiffs fee as queried whether this should reduce as L/o amount incorrect. Query sent with final cheque. No response from bailiffs to my query but one week later he leaves notice of intent to remove goods with further £100 charge added on top of his outstanding fee of £39.70. Having complained now understand that fee was correct as based on amount of L/o regardless of any other sums paid, so will pay his original fee. Bailiffs did not give explanation of extra £100, just referred to their scale of charges, and demanding £139.70 by tomorrow (23 Feb). QUESTION - As the amount on the Liability Order was settled, can the bailiff pursue me for fees on top of fees when they did not respond to my query? They state I have broken a payment arrangement but I did not enter into one. Rather than confirm initial fee was correct they just turned up and lumped another £100 on - is this legal? Do I just pay the £39.70 or do I have to pay the whole lot? I no longer have the car they levied on (they can go to the scrapyard and put it back together if they want it!), now have a better one and am worried this will be at risk. Advice please - many thanks.

Sorry I should have made it clear in my initial post that the cheques I sent cleared the amount due under the Magistrates Liability order, but not the charge added by the bailiff. When I sent the final cheque I queried the bailiff charge as the amount due for council tax on the Liability order was incorrect, but instead of receiving the courtesy of a reply the bailiffs turned up just over a week later demanding another £100 on top under a notice of attendance to remove goods. This is what I complained about. Their letter of reply stated their fee is based on the amount due under the Liability order regardless of any other amounts paid. If this is so then fair enough I will pay the £39.70. What I am objecting to is the additional £100 they have added on without any explanation, merely stating that I have their scale of fees. I do not know how they arrive at this figure or why I should pay it, unless this is what they call 'Reasonable costs and fees incurred'. Does this mean that because I have paid the total due under the Liability order and the only thing outstanding is the separate bailiff fee they cannot now impose charges on charges even though they have levied on a vehicle which I no longer have? My inclination is to pay the £39.70 and tell them to get stuffed as far as the £100 is concerned and complain to the Council about the actions of their agents. It might only be £100 and is small compared to some amounts people on this forum are asked to pay, but it is the principle and the unethical way they just turn up and demand more money without prior contact/response to my query. They are the type of crooks who would come and take my current vehicle so I need to know what to do please.

Thanks for your prompt response. I have paid all the Council Tax and liability order fee due. I am only concerned with bailiff charges now so don't have anything to pay to the Council.

Can someone please advise me whether I am being charged an excessive fee. I am dealing with a firm of bailiffs who are well known locally as unethical bully boys. I received a liability order from my council having been late with some payments. Due to personal problems at the time I did not deal with the council as I should have done, so got contact from bailiffs. I received notice of intention to levy distress from the bailiffs dated 17.11.08 of an amount outstanding of £480 plus £39.70 fee, total £519.70. They put the registration of my car on the notice (I no longer have this vehicle) I had one week earlier on 10.11.08 made a payment online of £135 direct to the council, so the amount outstanding was actually £345 plus charge. The council had not informed the bailiff of the payment, but did so when I queried it. Although I initially advised the bailiffs I did not want to deal with them, the Council advised me it was out of their hands and I would have to pay the bailiff. I subsequently sent two cheques to the bailiffs for £135 on 24.11.08 and 29.12.08, and one cheque for £75 dated 7.02.09. I attached a note to the £75 cheque stating that I had not received advice of any amended charges from them relating to the revised amount owed, as I assumed that the £39.70 charge should come down to £34.30 based on standard scale. I did not receive any response from the bailiffs about the charge. However, 10 days later on 17.2.09 I come home to find a notice of attendance to remove goods posted through my door, with a charge of £139.70 and demanding payment within 24 hours. I have complained to the bailiffs querying why they had not responded about the charge and merely thought fit to turn up and add another £100, and how the £100 figure was arrived at. Their written response received today says that the charge of £39.70 is calculated on the amount of the liability order, even if I have made payments. They did not explain the £100 charge, merely saying that I have their scale of fees, but I cannot reconcile this amount. This firm are well known for their bully boy tactics. I can accept the explanation that I still owe £39.70. Do I have grounds for further complaint to whomever that it was reasonable therefore to expect them to have advised me this when I sent the query with my last cheque, instead of turning up on the doorstep and demanding another £100. I have had run-ins with them before a couple of years ago when I was going through divorce and business closure and struggling to pay my bills. At that time I was self-employed and they took my vehicle away and I had to pay a lot to get it back. I think I need to look again at what they charged me as I think the fees were excessive. In my experience they never contact anyone to give notice of amounts owed, they always just turn up with more charges added. Their response to my complaint does not state why they did not respond to my note about the charge and they are still demanding £139.70 by 23rd February. Advice on what to do would be appreciated please. I intend to make a complaint to the Council. Can they just add this extra charge on top of a charge without advance notification and should I pay it? What about my current vehicle - is that under threat now?

Update - Apologies for the delay with this update. At the court hearing on 28th March I successfully applied for a stay of the eviction. I have been granted three months to either sell the house or find myself new employment to enable me pay the mortgage. I am tryng to do the latter although I obviously don't have a lot of time. I have had a couple of job interviews where I have made the last three but not successful and each job application will take about two weeks to resolve. I just hope I can sort something out quickly as just prior to the hearing I received a letter from the mortgage company saying they were still prepared to come to some satisfactory arrangement, but on my part-time income at present I can't do anything about it. I now need to look at reclaiming the monthly admin charges the mortgage companies are applying. I will have a search of this site for an appropriate letter or can anyone point me straight to a link please? Many thanks.

I have a court hearing scheduled for Friday 28th March at 10am.

Ell-en, Yes, thank you for your assistance with this for which I am extremely grateful. I have just completed the N244 with minor amendments and will be taking it to the court this morning.

Bona, thanks for that. I had been thinking along those lines so I will definitely do that.