Hello all I've read a lot of conflicting information about HCEO charges, some of it seeming debatable. I had a CCJ for £1228 plus costs (total due £1440.61) for an unpaid electricity bill. This went to the High Court for Enforcement and I was visted by an agent/bailiff from HCE Ltd. I was not in at the time, I live in a third floor flat and I did not sign any form of paperwork. I have not been visited subsequently. I did know about the CCJ and although I returned paperwork to offer payment arrangement, I heard nothing until the warrant from the bailif. After writing to them with an income/expenditure and stating that I was prepared to go through the Court for a stay of execution etc, a payment arrangement has been accepted (without going to Court). I also requested details of their charges as the amount due had risen by over £600 with no breakdown of costs. I have had details of their costs. I don't want to do any long convoluted challenge but is anybody able to help me identify if all of these costs are permissible if there was no access to my home, nothing was removed, no vehicle to levy. HCE Fees £ 49.27 Poundage £ 2.40 Seizure Fee £ 4.80 Enquiry Fee £ 60.00 Mileage £ 92.54 Valuation Fee £ 21.00 Daily possession fee £ 210.00 Administration Fee £ 132.80 Financial Management Fee £ 50.00 Arrangement Fee £ 622..81 Total due to Fees to date of writing (wording and layout taken from their letter to me, including extra decimal point. Maybe they'll charge me for that too). I know at one stage the maximum mileage was £50, is this still true? If they did not have sight of inside of my house never mind removed goods, how have they determined a valuation fee or a seizure fee or a possession fee. I understand that a lot of the fees may seem excessive but I just have to accept it. I don't want to risk Court action which will potentially result in even higher costs to me. I have bad depression and anxiety and the issue of Court just makes me feel super nervous and and would like to (finally) deal with the debt with minimum fuss. I am now paying £250 to clear the debt, but if I can legitimately have some of the costs removed, that would be a help. Can anybody help?

Had a visit this morning from a HCEO, he left a note saying it was regarding my sons unpaid university fees, he left early to get a job and they are chasing him. Problem is he is now working abroad until at least June, and doesn't live with us anymore. Can they still enforce any order, we havent spoken to them or let them in yet.

Hi , I n need of some advice . A HCEO came to my address just before xmas , my partner told him he was unemployed and he said he would post out a means form with just having xmas not had chance to fill it in and send it back . Today they turn up again and say unless we pay £320 today they will seize the car , and given us a walking possesion agreement , The car is my partners dads which we told him and he said he would hold off taking it if we payed the £320 and he will go back to the claiment and ask if we could pay installments , which we were origanally doing but we had a prob with our account and closed it down and the direct debit was never set back up again and the paperwork he gave me was lost , dont know if i should also mention the debt is for nursey fees and the owner stopped taking the payment from my account and when we realised it was almost £1000 in panic I told her I would pay her back although not all in one go as she assumed . We then moved house and money got tight and i stopped paying her this was back in 2008 we have moved 3 times since this and the first I knew of it going to court was in 2011 when the first hceo came to visit , My partner was working then and i was pregnant and had a 9 month old aswell , I told him I didnt know anything about it but again panicked and said we would pay £40 per month , he said we have until wednesday to get a letter of proof that its my partners dads car , we have not had any breakdown on cost and the total is now £3000 can anyone help dont want to loose the car and cant afford to pay the debt , thanks

Hi, I am a complete novice when it comes to both forums such as this and dealing with High court enforcement officers and would appreciate any advice on the following. In 2010 I signed an agreement with an estate agent with regard to the sale of my house. At the time the Home Information Pack inspection was still required and I signed to pay for a discounted rate of £99.00 which was to be the total I paid provided the sale went though with that company. If I withdrew for any reason there would be an additional charge of £399.00 + VAT The estate agent put through a total of 4 or 5 offers from prospective buyers at different times which we accepted. All of these eventually fell through as a result of all of the 'cast iron' prospects not having the finances for various reasons. For example: One self employed buyer presented accounts which the estate agents mortgage department accepted until they asked for some further documentation and were presented with a totally different set of books by his accountant. Having been told that there would be absolutely no problem selling my property, relations between myself and the estate agents went down hill. The branch manager and his assistant were removed from the branch and I refused to accept any more viewings unless the buyer could prove to the estate agent that they had the means to purchase. During this I became ill and was finding it harder to make arrangements for people to view. As the house had been staged to be presentable to buyers a lot of my property was in storage and costing me a fair bit so I decided to bring it home. The estate agent contacted me for a viewing which i refused due to being unwell. This happened again and eventually they asked if I was refusing to accept viewings. I explained that I was unwell and that we would have to put viewings on hold. They asked if I wanted to take the property of the market, i said no. I heard no more until they sent a letter saying that they would take me to court for the £399.00 + VAT. Being unwell and not not in a good place mentally, I ignored the letter. I heard no more until I got a Form 55 notice of seizure posted through my door yesterday. The form states that I should contact the enforcement officer as a matter of urgency. I was at home at the time. Nobody knocked, they just posted the form which states that the require at total of £1444.71 and that they have seized goods including 2 cars parked outside my house one of which is registered to my wife, although I'm the registered keeper, and is under an HP agreement, I think the other one belongs to an elderly neighbour. Whilst I'm not functioning at my best and I have memory problems, I'm sure I would have remembered getting a date for a court hearing. If not me, my wife definately would have!! I would have liked to have had my say of even made some sort of counter claim if possible. I have no knowledge of anything coming from the court although the enforcement officers letter has a District registry claim number. With the Form 55 is a Walking possession agreement that says I have to sign it to say the officer can take my stuff! Do I have to sign this to get any idea of when they may arrive? Do they have to give notice of when they expect me to hand me property over? Do I have to let them in? Do I have to prove, as they have requested, that these cars that I don't own aren't mine? Is there a posibility that I could pay the claimant what they are owed plus their judgement costs? As much as it grieves me, they do have my signature on a form to say that I would. Sorry for rambling on. Any help would be much appreciated.

received a notification of seizure on 30th November for a debt to a supplier. I have every intention of paying the debt, and always have kept them up to date with my situation. Today I received a 'formal notice', stating that under the writ he has the power to seize my goods etc, the standard letter i presume from searching other posts. I set up in business a year ago, im a floor fitter, carpets vinyl, wood etc, and have a van, and a load of tools to do so. Welanded a few big jobs at the start, and as a result needed office space and storage, so we rented a little shop unit. Since then, the unit is now a fully retail operation, although currently not paying me a wage. One of my suppliers gave me a credit account with a limit of £1000, although I preffered to pay cash/ chq/ card on delivery, that way im not tempted to think i have more money that i do. Unknown to me, this supplier was collecting cash/ chqs/ card etc upon delivery, i would recieve with the goods a delivery note with a brief description of the customers order, and a request for the amount due - i assumed this was the amount due for what i was signing for, however it transpired that i was only paying part of the cost, and the rest was being put onto my account. Pretty rapidly after a busy month or so, I had built up a debt of the £1000 and was told i couldbt oredr until it was paid. i checked it all out and discovered the previous mentioned scenario. At first they agreed to accept 20% on top of my order value each time I ordered, and I offered to pay extra when I could afford it. Seemed good so far, then after a few quiet weeks, I couldnt pay anything, then started again as and when I could. To cut a long story short, I broke my leg in the summer - usually the 'busy period' in the flooring trade, this slowed me down alittle, although I did stil go to work fitting carpets with one leg in a cast. Then a few weeks after this, the family suffered a really tragic loss of a close family member and i took a week off to grieve. At some point in this period I was apparently sent a court form, the type that apparently gives you time to respond and enter a defense,although I have no recollection of receiving one, the result was a ccj, the first I learned of was when one of the many companies rang offering their services to help me deal with my finances, the next confirmation was the notice of seizure on 30th nov. I called the HCEO and explained, he said that he was instructed to collect and had a warrant so would be returning to remove goods. I explained that I will not allow this, and would use any means to prevent this happening. Now I have this 'formal notice' stating that he will be returning with a van to remove goods. dated 11th dec. As yet he has had no access to our home. Any advice as top what i should do/ say

HI , recently i was made aware of a CCJ that had been passed to HCEO for enforcement. The CCJ was obtained when i was recovering from illness and I failed to file a defence. The debt was from EON for about £450 however the balance on my account was only around £360. HCEO have been in touch and i explained my situation then sent an I & E form to them offering £20 / month as this was all i could afford. I setup a standing order for this amount. After about 2 weeks i received a letter saying that the client did not accept £80 of expenditure on my form and decided i need to pay £100 / month. Next HCEO were at the door again saying that i owed £80 on my arrangement and needed to pay immediately. This was not possible and the Officer left. The letters i get from HCEO have no court numbers on them but are made to look like court letter, the only ref number is a HIG number with the Claim number blank. Since my first offer my situation (financial) has worstened. Can anyone advise me of how to deal with this as the HCEO is wanting an urgent phone call from me over the £80. Nic

Hi, I ran a briefcase company for some time now which slowly fell into debt. THe debt reached about £3000 and as a responsible director I stopped trading as I didn't want this to go any further. Having not traded for quite a few months and having been takend to court (the lImited Company), it how has a CCJ. Since then I had a HCEO appear at my residential address? (Which is nothing more than a postal address for the company) with a letter stating that they wanted to gain entry. Luckily enough, she was a nice woman, and we stood outside speaking in the rain and she made it clear that she could not gain entry anyway as it was a residential address. Anyway, I explained to her that I personally was unable to afford liquidation formalities as these will dig the company a few more 1000 into the red so I explained this to her and she was on her way. The next day I contacted herfirm and explained this to them too, they acknowledged this and left it there. Yesterday whilst I was out, I received ANOTHER unstamped letter (hand delivered I assume) stating that I have 48 hours to pay or they will FORCE (in red) entry and retrieve salvageable property. Can they do this? 1) None of the goods in my house belong to the company at all? 2) It's a Limited Liability Company registerd at my accountants, not here at home, this is a POSTAL address 3) There are no assets which belong to the company apart from a rickety old printer I have in the cupboard somewhere and a bit of stationary? This was my reply to them today (via email as requested in the letter): What else can I do? It's coming up christmas and the last thing I need is to go away to my family worrying that some 'above the law' company will break in and clear my house of everything :-/ THanks adridude

Marston have visited with a final notice for my ex-partner, who no longer lives with me, for unpaid court fines£698, said they would return with police as there is also an arrest warrant. My ex tried to arrange a payment plan back in May and Marston said no. He was unemployed, obviously could not pay in full. He started working a couple of weeks back, but does not have the money to pay this all in one go. What can he do? Mine is his last known address, so I am worried as to whether they can take my possessions? My main concern is for advise for my ex.

Hi all, just a quick question I have a payment plan with a hceo for a ccj, i have missed 4 months payments and have recieved a letter asking them to contact them to recommence payment plan if i dont contact them then they will send baliffs round etc . I own a van (used solely for work and is parked away from my home address at the moment just in case ,) however we do have a family car, the log book is in my wifes name and has always been in her name but there is a finance agreement on it in my name. i just want to know if things go bad and the baliffs visit can they seize her car as i dont have a garage in which to hide it ! p

this is not exactly the same as above but i really really need help. i've broken my arm so typing is difficult but will do my best. had ET award for 4660, no payment from employer even though i went to see CO for friendly chat to try to do it amicably, did some research and spoke to county court baliffs for advice and also contacted an HCEO (they are HCEO members) company direct (say SH) and got what i thought was good advice, then decided that best route was HCEO. my understanding from SH was that due the process at NO TIME would my employers no the action. they said to write them a letter (should have been the proper form but makes little difference in the end) and send it with cheque for 60 and ET papers. that was 27/6. cheque cleared 2/7. i heard nothing but called several times which has added to my confusion but they seem to have made a bit of a mess of things so far because the county court sent my employers a N205C, or something similar, giving them 14 days to reply. obviously i am alarmed because i was told they wouldn't be told of my HCEO application. also i was told by SH that whole thing will take absolute max 6 weeks. i asked SH to send me all the paperwork i got this yesterday. i have N471 raised on 3/7 and certified on 26/7. N322 and N205C. i am really confused by all these and also what i have read up on. i called SH on 14th to ask what happens now, (at that time i told them that my employers were probably closing down within two weeks approx, i have since heard 8/9) which i thought before was application to high court, max 3 days, BUT SH said their solicitor will take this in personally NEXT TUES 21st and then they will go ahead and collect but would give me no actual time limit. finally i called HCEO office early lasdt week and was told someone would call me back, no call came. did same thing yesterday, 10am, told would send urgent message to advisers. called again 4.30 told same thing. sorry this is messy but hope someone can give me some help. there have been times when i thought i was going mad trying to work out all the different info including being, in my view, fobbed off by SH.

i will try and be brief on this one as baliff issues is not my thing an ex collegue at work has been having problems with HCEO he had a ccj for 6.5 k, with costs 7k the claimant set their dogs onto him via HCEO and all he is paying is £10 a month due to his employment status. HCEO are now saying they are going to start and charge INTEREST on the outstanding amount. the ccj judgement states judgement for the claimant and must pay 6.5 k (and interest to date of judgement) with £500 costs so my question is can HCEO charge post judgement interst when the ccj judgement is interest up to the judgement date and states nothing about post judgement intersts

When I went to sell my property a year ago I had to pay for a HIP which was financed through Close Brothers. The £623.85 was paid by direct debit on the 1st July 2011. Last Friday, over a year later, I had a hand delivered letter from Marstons HCEO stating that they were there to collect on their behalf £623.85 plus their costs (which added together came to over an additional £650) totalling over £1250. When I called to queery this I was advised that a CCJ had been put against me and I hadn't made any attempt to pay .When I contacted Close brothers they put me through to their "legal dept" Bluestones CM. I have sent them a copy of my bank statement which proves that the payment had been made but they have yet to respond despite calling and emailing them for updates. My primary concern is their incompetence at not acknowledging a payment that had been made Secondly they have raised a CCJ without contacting me or making me aware of how to pay. I am sure this will have an effect on my credit rating. Thirdly, I am now receiving threatening letters from their HCEO for a debt that had been paid when requested. My wife is at home alone with our young children during the day and we are concerned about the children playing in the garden in case these people come back. I will be complaining to them directly and the FOS once this has been resolved but I am not sure how to go about this. Any help would be gratefully received

Please Help!!! I have probably been a fool!!? I bought a vehicle with Santander some time ago, unfortunately came out of work and fell behind. They sold on the debt to CCM, where I was making sporadic payments as when I could, as I beleive I owe the money and should pay it back. They subsequentlty had a CCJ against me and took it to the High Court. I have since been visited by one of their officers whilst I was away on another dead end course for another dead end job! He spoke to my wife and really shook her up. I borrowed some money from my young son in an attempt to keep the vehicle and made two other subsequent payments though not to the total agreed as I couldnt afford it and had to pay the mortgage first which is in arrears and under agreement. Last Wednsday a Knock on the door at 7.00am - the HCEO telling me he had come for the vehicle. I explained I needed it for work only having just got back into construction and would be able to start paying the debt down. As it was early in the morning and I had two young children asleep in bed i didn't wann't to cause a row. Being in a state of shock and pannick not knowing what to I invited him in whilst I got dressed. Foolishly i now know!!! After again appealing. The HCEO was adamant that he was to enforce the Writ! I foolishly emptied my pssessions and gave him the keys!!! He then took the car to a place for pick up apparently!? He left no receipt, showed me no order, though I never asked either. The vehicle is being sold at auction and wont raise enough for the debt, It may not even be enough for the fees?? I now have no means of getting to work, my only saving grace at the moment is that the weather is so poor, the work has been postponed. Though I fear being let go for not turning up imminently.?? How am I supposed to pay any debts then!!?? I have let HCEO know this. What is the legal psition for this and 'Levy' should i have this in writng? I still have a key and the log books, I am tempted to just go and bring it back? Who now owns the car? Would I be stealing? My wife and I are in financial difficulties, I can't afford to apply for a 'Stay' Would it be successfull If we did apply?? My wife has a car which is registerd in my name but always has been for insurance purposes. She needs it for work and the children. The HCEO says he has a 'Levy' on this too? Again no paperwork. We did have that car for sale has it happens and were going to use the money to buy a cheap vehicle for me and use any surplus to pay our other debts, Don't know where this leaves us now?? Apologies for being long winded but if anyone can help......? I have been able to get an appointment with Citizens Advice but not untill Monday. Allas I think it will be to late if it is not allready..??? Very Much Obliged

HI I am new here but hopefully some of you can help me out withthis matter and maybe some of my life experience and knowledge may help others out in other areas. Basically Got CCJ from Eon relating to electric bill at a property I rented. Came down to being billed from incorrect meters and then 12 months later once accounts had been rectified, we argued, disputed and lost and got told I had to pay it. It was for about £750 but with costs CCJ went thorugh at £825. It was passed to company called High Court Enforcement who visited me one day with a writ and after having stern words they left me letter and came back 2 days later. As we couldnt pay it in full they insisited we complete some paperwork and sign up to £250 a month until debt cleared, told them unacceptable, she left forms for income/expenditure which we completed and then follwoing day she reappeared at just after 8 in morning. I handed over forms with proposal at time of £80 a month/£20 a week. She said no acceptable and that we had accrued over £200 this week in charges threatened everyone there started shouting her head off so my OH threw her off our land. Came back 30 minutes later with 2 men in van and before we realised they had taken car from property, this wasnt our car as already told them on another visit and that it was on a lease to us for 3 months. The 2 gentlemen then continued to place 2 clamps on vehicle and afterwards before my OH could get to them they drove off. HCEO cow then shouted out of window we'll be back. Only took 2 calls to police and solictor and they came 1 hour later and removed clamps After that had dealings with headoffice and then made arrangements for £80 a month. Basically been paying that for while now and only cam to light we had actually made more than it was for but as it was standing order it was our responsibilty to cancel. Basically now been told we still owe £2500 on it due to daily interest charges and everything else. Anyone any ideas what can do next. I was always under the impression CCJ was set it court and couldnt increase.

I have had a letter from Sherforce which includes their fees which are massive, about 2K. I have had a copy of the regulations that they say is related to certain fees and most of their fees are under "section 12 Miscellanious" does anyone know what this is. Also they are charging me for services that they have not carried out. Please help.

Hi All! ok, some advice needed please. Just had another letter though my door 'by hand' this morning from a sherforce body. it had no money amount on it but last time they were chasing over 16k from a 10k ccj. Now, this sounds a lot because it is a hell of a lot of money. but it isnt money I have borrowed and spent, it is for an alleged water leak from the property I manage to next doors hotel. I have had no receipts to make insurance claim and no visits from the hotel owner. just a court order which they gained 'behind my back' so as I could not defend. I have tried setting aside the order but the judge was very unpleasant to deal with and everything i seem to do needs more things to undo (certainly with the courts!) OK, first things first please. What can and will these sherforce people do?? ( I already had a notice of seisure from them 21 july ) Thanks, Nik