thanks dx the council say they wont take it back - im hoping if i can prove marstons are acting illegally that they will be forced to

hi all, advice required re: council tax being collected by Marston’s group. Basically, I owe £4300 and Marston’s turned up with a 'Removal Notice'. I rang their bailiff (I’ve checked, he is certified) and told him I knew my rights, i wasn’t about to let them in, then sent them the following letter: I understand the Council has appointed you to recover my Council Tax Liability arrears for 2007/8, 2008/9 and 2009/10 of £4358.18. Firstly I would like to make you aware that I am fully aware of my rights and you will not gain entry to my home under any circumstances to levy goods and I know the fees allowed under statute and when these fees can be applied. Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay this in one payment. I am a full time student and my wife does not work, so our income is meagre. I advocate a payment schedule of 36 months with 35 months payments at £121.06 and the balance of £121.07 to be paid on the 36th 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 actual hardship. I am able to pay the above amount on the 15th of each month. Please advise how you would like future payments made. My personal preference is payment by Standing Order. 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. Please also send an itemised statement of account that clearly shows what charges have been added and what for, you are required in statute to supply this information and I look forward to this within 14 days. I am sending the council a copy of this letter and requesting that it be filled with my account for further reference. I hope the above meets your approval and I look forward to your timely reply by letter. Just spoke to the bailiff again now they’ve received my letter - he says they will accept my offer if i pay 10% of the debt up front. However, they have stuck fees on top of £316.16. I challenged him on this, as he has not been in my house to levy distress and therefore he can in my understanding only charge me £24.50 1st visit / £18.00 2nd visit. He insists that he doesn’t need to enter my premises to Levy on goods, I disagree.[/font] So, firstly, where do I find the Statutory Instrument that says what constitutes levying distress? [/font] I am minded to go to war with them on this - they must rip off thousands of people every year with their scare tactics.. They won’t be doing it with me. Any advice greatly appreciated!

ive recently finished a scrap with BCT after they tried to repo my car for unpaid 'charges' - see my thread below Good luck! http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/vehicle-retailers-manufacturers/35936-court-case-re-hire.html

A number of the letters I recieved from BCT were charged at £75 each - these were 'Notices of Termination' letters (I got 3 for the one contract!) I was a bit puzzled about your comments about the penalties - surely you can only reclaim penalties that youve paid anyway, so they would be included?

A number of the letters I recieved from BCT were charged at £75 each - these were 'Notices of Termination' letters (I got 3 for the one contract!) I was a bit puzzled about your comments about the penalties - surely you can only reclaim penalties that youve paid anyway, so they would be included?

In principle, the fact that you paid the charges doesnt make them legal. I suppose you would need to approach it in a similar fashion to the method for reclaiming bank charges.

I had a couple of occaisions when they had agents contact me to arrange for me to 'voluntarily' hand back the car, I managed to keep them at bay by telling them in , shall we say, very clear language that I knew my rights. It sounds to me as if the car was repossessed by one of these; they are essentially private firms that are contracted to repossess the cars, and i suspect they get a good fee if they manage to do so - theyve probably taken it back on this basis, BCT would then defend the repo as they stand to lose out if they admit its illegal! I had a deal of difficulty getting account info from BCT also, even though they were taking me to court for the repossession. In the end, I rang them direct and told them i was considering settling up, but said i needed a statement to tell me what id paid already; they sent it the next day. Almost £900 of the amount they claimed from me was for late payment letter charges. They have effectively admitted that these are unenforcable in accepting my offer that did not include these fees. Stick to your guns and keep battling, it sounds like youve got a good case! Dont worry that youve not kept the correspondance theyve sent you, in my case every single letter i received from them throughout the entire account history was marked 'without prejudice', which means that legally you cant use them as evidence in court anyway. Good luck, PM me if you want any more info on BCT Parasite swatter

hello fareclare ive recently had dealings with BCT, see my thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/vehicle-retailers-manufacturers/35936-court-case-re-hire.html#post464728

Ive got a result! Ive been preparing myself for court on the 24th January; I sent a detailed reply to the Claimants breakdown of the 'Late payment and administration charges', in which I admitted the claim in part, as I couldnt see a way around paying the additional interest accrued on installments which I was late in paying. I wrote and offered to pay £290, which was the amount of this additional interest accrued on the account, but not the letter charges. The solicitor for the Claimant, British Credit Trust has written accepting my offer as full and final settlement. Alls well that ends well!

read the small print of your contract but the point is, if you didnt specifically negotiate your contract, the clause which says they can charge you may be an unfair term under The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 see the SI here, Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 2083

ive continued this thread in the main forum, see http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/vehicle-retailers-manufacturers/43445-court-case-re-hire.html

This is a continuation of an earlier thread posted elsewhere on the site, see link below http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/welcome-our-forum/35936-court-case-re-hire.html basically, Im the defendant in a case where the claimant, British Credit Trust, attempted to reposses my car through court action; I defended myself on the basis that the outstanding amount was made up largely of 'Late payment and administration charges' which I stated were illegal under The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, as they were disproportionate (as with bank charges!). The Judge refused the claimants application on the basis that I pay the amount outstanding under the agreement less the late payment and administration charges, which he directed the claimant to pursue via the Small Claims track, listed for a 3 hour hearing. I recived the papers from the court recently, The court have directed that ' the matter be referred to the small claims track with regard to the validity / lawfulness or otherwise of the late payment and administration charges claimed by the Claimant'. ....'The hearing will be on 24 January 2007 with an estimated length of hearing of 3 hours'. There is a list of other items on the papers relating to evidence / documentation etc to be circulated between the parties and the court; one of these is that the claimant must supply me with "a detailed breakdown as to how the sum of £1103.24, detailed as being 'late payment and administration charges' is made up, setting out each and every charge and the reason for it". The Claimant was given until 1 November 2006 to do this. Its now 3rd November, and the Claimant hasnt complied with this direction (Im writing to the Court to inform them of this). I have this morning recieved a letter from the Claimants solicitor offering to 'reduce' the charges to £600 if I pay this in 7 days; theres a veiled threat in the letter to come after me for the costs of the claim if I dont accept. I wont be accepting the offer.

I finally recieved the papers back from the court this morning. The court have directed that ' the matter be referred to the small claims track with regard to the validity / lawfulness or otherwise of the late payment and administration charges claimed by the Claimant'. ....'The hearing will be on 24 January 2007 with an estimated length of hearing of 3 hours'. There is a list of other items on the papers relating to evidence / documentation etc to be circulated between the parties and the court; one of these is that the claimant must supply me with "a detailed breakdown as to how the sum of £1103.24, detailed as being 'late payment and administration charges' is made up, setting out each and every charge and the reason for it". The Claimant has been given until 1 November 2006 to do this. I have an appointment for legal advice from my local university law school on 7th November, to try and source some case law documentation; ill keep you posted beyond this!

my court visit was yesterday, remember I am the defendant in this, not the claimant...I managed to stop the repo of my car on the basis of my argument! The judge warned me that case law was very sketchy in this area of the law, my head was spinning a wee bit so I didnt get a proper note of his judgement, but there were a lot of directions to the claimant about timescales and evidence etc that would be required for the case to go forward to the full hearing. Im half expecting the claimant, British Credit Trust, to contact me and offer to settle for a nominal sum...its likely to cost them a fortune in legal costs to go forward to a hearing, and i dont fancy their chances, so it would be better for them to make it go away really.. most of the charges relate to several 'Notices of Termination' that were sent to me when I was struggling to pay up...(I'd paid 90.5% of the sum due under the agreement). Ive got copies of three notices of termination, which they seem to charge £75 a go for, and Im sure there were a few more. So not only are they trying to screw me for the charges, the clowns have terminated the same contract about six times!

the charges are illegal under schedule 2 item 1e of the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999, which state that .."Indicative list of terms which may be regarded as unfair, item 1(e) Terms which have the object or effect of “requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation, to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation.” The charges are disproportionate in that they dont actually cost the amount charged, ie a computer generated letter dosent cost them £35 to send....thats my understanding, anyway!

I was in court yesterday as the defendant in a case brought against me for the repossession of my car due to arrears on a hire purchase agreement. I defended myself on the basis that the outstanding amount was made up largely of 'Late payment and administration charges' which I stated were illegal under The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, as they were disproportionate (as with bank charges!). The Judge refused the claimants application on the basis that I pay the amount outstanding under the agreement less the late payment and administration charges, which he directed the claimant to pursue via the Small Claims track, listed for a 3 hour hearing. I feel as if Ive done ok so far in getting the court to recognise that Ive got a case! Id appreciate any advice on further preparing myself for the hearing (all the information to put together for my defence so far was gleaned from this site) look forward to any replies