I have recently sent them this letter regarding my problems with Jacobs, if it can help, feel free. Plus any comments too! Thanks. URGENT COMPLAINT Jacobs Certificated Bailiffs 4 Europa Boulevard Birkenhead Merseyside CH41 4PE Friday 20th May 2011 Dear Sirs, Re: Jacobs reference. ******** Authority reference. ********* Please read the following Notice thoroughly and carefully before responding. It is a notice. It informs you. It means what it says and is not from some wordsmith just trying to be clever. I am aware of my rights and I expect this letter to be treated very seriously by your company and not to be ignored! Legal advice has been sought in this matter. I refer to your recent hand delivered letter dated 19/05/11 informing me that your company have been instructed by East Riding of Yorkshire Council to enforce a warrant/liability order etc. against me, in respect of arrears of council tax. At no point have I expressed a desire not to pay this debt, but have expressed I am unable to pay this debt due to my personal financial circumstances. In your letter you state that you will be visiting or returning to my home, even in my absence if necessary, to seize or auction my goods unless full payment of £XXX.XX is made by return. The main purpose of this letter is to advise your company that I am in receipt of jobseekers allowance and am enclosing as proof, a copy of the letter from the benefits agency [hard copy in post]. I also enclose a Personal Budget Sheet outlining my Income and Expenditure for your records. I am informed that deductions can be made directly from my benefits to pay my arrears of council tax. This is provided for in the Council Tax (Deductions from Income Support) Regulations 1993. For this reason, I would request that this account be referred back to The East Riding of Yorkshire Council so that the relevant forms can be completed. I am also aware that once deductions are in place, Regulation 52 of The Council Tax (Administration & Enforcement) Regulations 1992 expressly forbids any enforcement action. A second purpose of this letter is to advise your company that I believe that also my circumstances fall within the category as contained within the National Standards for Enforcement Agents of “vulnerable situations”. The reason for this is that I am unemployed and actively seeking work and I have a lifelong condition of xxxxxxxx which is medication controlled. Accordingly, I would like to request that you do not visit my property as this would cause undue stress and anxiety related to my condition. Other points to consider are as follows:- The bailiff has an invalid levy because he is attempting to seize [model& make] motor vehicle registration **** ***belonging to a finance company [finance company name] under agreement numbered xxxxxxxxxxxx and the first bailiff, [name], indicated she can lawfully levy on the finance company’s goods in respect of my debt, I now understand the bailiffs made a factual error and cannot use the finance company’s goods as collateral for my debt, and by doing so the bailiff is committing an offence under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 and Section 12 of the Theft Act 1967. I have enclosed a copy [hard copy in post] of the finance document showing the vehicle registration mark and I confirm the final payment has not been made. Therefore this levy is voided by law [hard copy in post]. If you were to continue in the manner of this levy, I would then report the vehicle stolen and ask the police to attend the bailiff's address and recover it and return it to its lawful owner. May I re-iterate this fact; the bailiff is committing an offence under Section 12 of the Theft Act 1967. I will inform the Police if pursued in this matter!!! The levy is voided by law! I understand it is a criminal offence to defraud people, or make a gain, or obtain a money transfer for himself or his firm by making a false representation or by misuse of his position. I would therefore ask the criminal element of this matter is fully investigated as per Sections 1 to 5 of the Fraud Act 2006. I then would be happy to stand as a witness or provide a statement for the proceedings against the suspects in question. Any attempt to subvert or rebuke this notice will result in an invalid levy and I will automatically file at court a Form 4 complaint with an application for costs against the certificated bailiff without contacting you further in this matter. Additionally your fees quoted on your document appear to be inconsistent with prescribed regulations, please provide me with a breakdown of your fees so we can make a more informed decision on whether they are lawful. Your document appears to be computer-generated and indicates you (or your company) may be systematically and routinely overcharging with your fees and your company may be benefiting from proceeds. Hence your Bailiffs would not receive commission payments. For the avoidance of doubt that in your failure to provide me that breakdown in seven days, I will automatically pass the matter to the certificating court and to the police for criminal investigation under Sections 1 to 5 of the Fraud Act 2006. I have tried to seek an amicable resolve with the bailiff who rudely ignored my request. Your company’s Mission Statement states:- “To collect debt as quickly and efficiently as possible maximizing income for our Clients. To act in a firm but fair manner being both professional and sensitive to the circumstances of each individual case” HARDLY, me thinks. [name] is the Bailiff in question. On Thursday 19/05/11 I received a hand-delivered letter regarding my personal situation with Jacobs. The word processed piece of paper in nice red and black ink, is a REMOVAL NOTICE 24 HOURS. On receipt of this letter I immediately contacted [name] on the number. I had to leave a voicemail message with my private mobile number for a return call. I do not particularly care for giving out my mobile number to anyone, due to the privacy concerns. Ten minutes later he did return my call and I tried to explain my present situation to him, he proceeded to talk over me without showing any empathy, he was derogatory to my concerns, he insinuated that I was a trouble causer and didn't care, and he threatened me with imprisonment if I did not pay by tomorrow! (This is against the law, but I am sure your legal team will deny it as [name] will too) Where on earth an impoverished person like me is supposed to magic money from in that time scale, I’ll never know? I even offered to pay him what I could reasonably afford and he said that I was way out of time for that and I should have been aware of my obligations to him (???) sooner. I don't think because a person uses Sir to address someone constitutes politenes, when the content between is discriminating, harrasing and threatening. Then he quite rudely hung up on me, when I threatened to speak to my legal people. He also did not answer my call when I tried to return it. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he had been driving too, breaking another law! Although I have no proof of this? I hardly think a Bailiff knocking the outer door to my property, then posting a word processed and hand delivered piece of paper through a communal doorway before skulking back to his car with a big bottom lip constitutes any form of visit at all. In fact [name] has never returned any of my calls, apart from the one mentioned. I have never seen this man at all; therefore have never seen his written authority to collect this debt or indeed his proof of identity and there is no other evidence that he is who he says? Now I know that no-one deserves criticism for actually undertaking the duties of their job, but in this instance I hardly think the sympathetic nature of your Mission Statement, bearing in mind my personal circumstances, has been endeared to at all. There are laws and regulations to be observed here and I think this has been a failing on his/your behalf. Now in a fair world this situation has hardly been a matter of priority for Jacobs, being months and weeks in between contact. In fact there is minimal contact of any kind and I have indeed been re-billed by the local council for the full amount of arrears and in the processes of coming to a law binding arrangement with them for this debt, hence your obligation to hand back the details. (It is the Law) I have indeed investigated into the forum threads and case studies of Jacobs posted on consumer rights websites on the internet, these do make very interesting reading indeed! Some of the harassing, bullying and intimidation techniques used I’m sure would be of interest to the media and the consumer action groups, in total interest of the people. I will refrain from this course of action if satisfactory return to the local council and all processes by your company are dropped immediately. I would be grateful if you could confirm safe receipt of this letter in writing, and confirmation that this case has been returned to the local council. At no point should Jacobs, or any of its employees, contact me by telephone in this matter, as all contact in the future must be done in writing, of which any further charges which will incur, I will not be liable for. I am copying this letter to my local authority Council Court Officer, Local Constabulary and my Member of Parliament. As I have now made you aware of my circumstances, and provided proof, if your company continues with enforcement action, I will consider making a formal complaint about the bailiff’s and the company’s conduct to the County Court. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Yours faithfully, [my full name] Even though this is an e-mail I have posted hard copies of all relevent paper work by Royal Mail to confirm receipt. I do sincerely hope that this letter gets the relevant results! Please comment!!!