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    • further polished WS using above suggestions and also included couple of more modifications highlighted in orange are those ok to include?   Background   1.1  The Defendant received the Parking Charge Notice (PCN) on the 06th of January 2020 following the vehicle being parked at Arla Old Dairy, South Ruislip on the 05th of December 2019.   Unfair PCN   2.1  On 19th December 2023 the Defendant sent the Claimant's solicitors a CPR request.  As shown in Exhibit 1 (pages 7-13) sent by the solicitors the signage displayed in their evidence clearly shows a £60.00 parking charge notice (which will be reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days of issue).  2.2  Yet the PCN sent by the Claimant is for a £100.00 parking charge notice (reduced to £60 if paid within 30 days of issue).   2.3        The Claimant relies on signage to create a contract.  It is unlawful for the Claimant to write that the charge is £60 on their signs and then send demands for £100.    2.4        The unlawful £100 charge is also the basis for the Claimant's Particulars of Claim.  No Locus Standi  3.1  I do not believe a contract with the landowner, that is provided following the defendant’s CPR request, gives MET Parking Services a right to bring claims in their own name. Definition of “Relevant contract” from the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4,  2 [1] means a contract Including a contract arising only when the vehicle was parked on the relevant land between the driver and a person who is-   (a) the owner or occupier of the land; or   (b) Authorised, under or by virtue of arrangements made by the owner or occupier of the land, to enter into a contract with the driver requiring the payment of parking charges in respect of the parking of the vehicle on the land. According to https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/44   For a contract to be valid, it requires a director from each company to sign and then two independent witnesses must confirm those signatures.   3.2  The Defendant requested to see such a contract in the CPR request.  The fact that no contract has been produced with the witness signatures present means the contract has not been validly executed. Therefore, there can be no contract established between MET Parking Services and the motorist. Even if “Parking in Electric Bay” could form a contract (which it cannot), it is immaterial. There is no valid contract.  Illegal Conduct – No Contract Formed   4.1 At the time of writing, the Claimant has failed to provide the following, in response to the CPR request from myself.   4.2        The legal contract between the Claimant and the landowner (which in this case is Standard Life Investments UK) to provide evidence that there is an agreement in place with landowner with the necessary authority to issue parking charge notices and to pursue payment by means of litigation.   4.3 Proof of planning permission granted for signage etc under the Town and country Planning Act 1990. Lack of planning permission is a criminal offence under this Act and no contract can be formed where criminality is involved.   4.4        I also do not believe the claimant possesses these documents.   No Keeper Liability   5.1        The defendant was not the driver at the time and date mentioned in the PCN and the claimant has not established keeper liability under schedule 4 of the PoFA 2012. In this matter, the defendant puts it to the claimant to produce strict proof as to who was driving at the time.   5.2 The claimant in their Notice To Keeper also failed to comply with PoFA 2012 Schedule 4 section 9[2][f] while mentioning “the right to recover from the keeper so much of that parking charge as remains unpaid” where they did not include statement “(if all the applicable conditions under this Schedule are met)”.     5.3         The claimant did not mention parking period, times on the photographs are separate from the PCN and in any case are that arrival and departure times not the parking period since their times include driving to and from the parking space as a minimum and can include extra time to allow pedestrians and other vehicles to pass in front.    Protection of Freedoms Act 2012   The notice must -   (a) specify the vehicle, the relevant land on which it was parked and the period of parking to which the notice relates;  22. In the persuasive judgement K4GF167G - Premier Park Ltd v Mr Mathur - Horsham County Court – 5 January 2024 it was on this very point that the judge dismissed this claim.  5.4  A the PCN does not comply with the Act the Defendant as keeper is not liable.  No Breach of Contract   6.1       No breach of contract occurred because the PCN and contract provided as part of the defendant’s CPR request shows different post code, PCN shows HA4 0EY while contract shows HA4 0FY. According to PCN defendant parked on HA4 0EY which does not appear to be subject to the postcode covered by the contract.  6.2         The entrance sign does not mention anything about there being other terms inside the car park so does not offer a contract which makes it only an offer to treat,  Interest  7.1  It is unreasonable for the Claimant to delay litigation for  Double Recovery   7.2  The claim is littered with made-up charges.  7.3  As noted above, the Claimant's signs state a £60 charge yet their PCN is for £100.  7.4  As well as the £100 parking charge, the Claimant seeks recovery of an additional £70.  This is simply a poor attempt to circumvent the legal costs cap at small claims.  7.5 Since 2019, many County Courts have considered claims in excess of £100 to be an abuse of process leading to them being struck out ab initio. An example, in the Caernarfon Court in VCS v Davies, case No. FTQZ4W28 on 4th September 2019, District Judge Jones-Evans stated “Upon it being recorded that District Judge Jones- Evans has over a very significant period of time warned advocates (...) in many cases of this nature before this court that their claim for £60 is unenforceable in law and is an abuse of process and is nothing more than a poor attempt to go behind the decision of the Supreme Court v Beavis which inter alia decided that a figure of £160 as a global sum claimed in this case would be a penalty and not a genuine pre-estimate of loss and therefore unenforceable in law and if the practice continued, he would treat all cases as a claim for £160 and therefore a penalty and unenforceable in law it is hereby declared (…) the claim is struck out and declared to be wholly without merit and an abuse of process.”  7.6 In Claim Nos. F0DP806M and F0DP201T, District Judge Taylor echoed earlier General Judgment or Orders of District Judge Grand, stating ''It is ordered that the claim is struck out as an abuse of process. The claim contains a substantial charge additional to the parking charge which it is alleged the Defendant contracted to pay. This additional charge is not recoverabl15e under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4 nor with reference to the judgment in Parking Eye v Beavis. It is an abuse of process from the Claimant to issue a knowingly inflated claim for an additional sum which it is not entitled to recover. This order has been made by the court of its own initiative without a hearing pursuant to CPR Rule 3.3(4)) of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998...''  7.7 In the persuasive case of G4QZ465V - Excel Parking Services Ltd v Wilkinson – Bradford County Court -2 July 2020 (Exhibit 4) the judge had decided that Excel had won. However, due to Excel adding on the £60 the Judge dismissed the case.  7.8        The addition of costs not previously specified on signage are also in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, Schedule 2, specifically paras 6, 10 and 14.   7.9        It is the Defendant’s position that the Claimant in this case has knowingly submitted inflated costs and thus the entire claim should be similarly struck out in accordance with Civil Procedure Rule 3.3(4).   In Conclusion   8.1        I invite the court to dismiss the claim.  Statement of Truth  I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.   
    • Well the difference is that in all our other cases It was Kev who was trying to entrap the motorist so sticking two fingers up to him and daring him to try court was from a position of strength. In your case, sorry, you made a mistake so you're not in the position of strength.  I've looked on Google Maps and the signs are few & far between as per Kev's MO, but there is an entrance sign saying "Pay & Display" (and you've admitted in writing that you knew you had to pay) and the signs by the payment machines do say "Sea View Car Park" (and you've admitted in writing you paid the wrong car park ... and maybe outed yourself as the driver). Something I missed in my previous post is that the LoC is only for one ticket, not two. Sorry, but it's impossible to definitively advise what to so. Personally I'd probably gamble on Kev being a serial bottler of court and reply with a snotty letter ridiculing the signage (given you mentioned the signage in your appeal) - but it is a gamble.  
    • No! What has happened is that your pix were up-to-date: 5 hours' maximum stay and £100 PCN. The lazy solicitors have sent ancient pictures: 4 hours' maximum stay and £60 PCN. Don't let on!  Let them be hoisted by their own lazy petard in the court hearing (if they don't bottle before).
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      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

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Hi I am wondering if anyone could advise me

 

Back in August my council tax for 2008-09 was put into court and a liability order granted. Since September I have been paying a monthly amount directly to the council under their online payment system - I didn't ask if I could do this but presumed that as long as the account number and year it related to was on the payment reference that they would be able to tie it into my account.

 

In October I received a letter from Dukes baliffs stating that they had been instruced to collect the debt, but it was for the full amount on the liability order with no mention of the payments I had made to the council. Basically I ignored the letter and carried on making the payments direct.

 

On Tuesday I was off work and my car was parked in my driveway which is also shared with my next door neighbour. There was a knock at the door and I was upstairs and looked out of the window to see a man walking away from the door and getting into a white van (he must have only stood there for about 10 seconds, not even giving me time to get down the stairs to the door)

 

Anyway I got down the stairs and there was nothing put through the letterbox so I though it must have just been a salesman or something. About 2 hours later I went out to take my dog out and walked down my shared driveway, as I walked past my neighbours garden an envelope caught my attention, I picked it up and it was addressed to me and from Dukes saying that I still owed against the liability order, they have added on charges of £43.50 (which seems correct from what I read) and that I should contact them to arrange payment of the debt.

 

My questions are:

 

1 As my car was in the drive, is it possible that they have levied on it or do they have to leave paperwork to state this?

2 Can they take a note of the registration number and levy at a later date?

3 The fact that I found the letter in my neighbours garden, does this contravene Data Protection

 

I am still paying the council monthly payments and will continue to do so until the debt is paid off but my worry is that now they have seen my car would they be able to take it?

 

Any advice would be gratefully received.

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Hello,

 

I am not 100% certain regarding your car however should you not pay the baliffs then I would assume that they would levy against it.

 

As you have not made this payment arrangement with your local council I would suggest you do contact them and discuss the matter to see if they would take the account back at all-worth a try.

 

I am unsure weather the fact that they have kept monies paid to them could infer an agreement but am sure someone will be along to advise you further.

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I did think of writing to the baliffs with one of the template letters from here informing them that I was paying the council direct but wasn't sure which one to use.

 

Is it possible that the council would take back the debt or does anyone have any further advice in addition to miziwizzi in the fact that as they have not returned the money that it infers an agreement. Could anyone advice of any template letters that I could use to send to the council regarding taking back the account?

 

I have not had any acknowledgement from the council at all regarding the payments, but it is going directly into their council tax account as listed on their payment book with my account number and 08-09 added on after the reference

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By all accounts this letter usually does hole-in-one. Amend as needed.

 

Council Tax (Enforcements) Department

Invincible Borough Council

Address 1

Address 2

Address 3

Postcode

 

[DATE]

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Re: [YOUR NAME & ANY REF]: Visit by your bailiff on [DATE]

 

I have had an opportunity to seek advice and I write on the understanding that case law has ruled an authority is liable for its bailiffs.

 

On [DATE] I was visited by your bailiff collecting unpaid council tax. He left a document in a neighbours front garden and we were unable to reach an amicable resolve. The bailiff showed threatening behaviour and became defensive and vexatious in nature. He made unrealistic demands of money which are way beyond my means.

 

I now ask the Council to:

 

a) Take the case back from the bailiff.

b) Accept my original offer to pay £[AMOUNT] a week to clear the arrears

c) Pay me a reasonable compensation for my inconvenience and for my efforts in seeking discovery of information and

d) Receiving an over-zealous bailiff acting for you making unrealistic demands of money and defrauding me with his fees.

 

If you fail to satisfactorily complete the above I will automatically escalate the complaint to the local government ombudsman in fourteen days from the date of this letter. Please treat this letter as Stage 1.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay the debt as demanded by the bailiffs and I will make payment of £[AMOUNT] each month for [NUMBER OF] monthly installments with a final installment of £[AMOUNT]. This may seem a long time but it's all I can afford and allows me to pay future liabilities without falling into arrears. I confirm I am not refusing to pay this debt.

 

This letter is delivered by Royal Mail and I deem it to be served on you by the ordinary course of post in the meaning of Section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978. It is your responsibility and in your own interests this letter is handed to the relevant person within your organisation.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

[NAME]

Enc 1st payment.

 

 

 

Incase you get a bailiff, never open the door or speak to him. Hand this through a window and ask him to leave.

 

[DATE]

 

BY HAND

 

Dear Bailiffs.

 

Re: Your Reference

 

[NAME OF] Council appears to have instructed you to collect unpaid council tax.

 

This notice directs that you are not being given entry to my home or to levy goods contained within and your entitlement to charge a Walking Possessions fee stands revoked. Please be advised that if your fees are found to contradict Regulation 14(2) or Regulation 45(2) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 and you may be liable for criminal prosecution under the Fraud Act 2006. Without corresponding with you further I will also automatically file a Form 4 at court.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay the debt in whole and will make payment of £[AMOUNT] each month for [NUMBER OF] monthly instalments direct to the council.

 

These are the only payments I can afford and allows me to pay future council tax liabilities without falling into arrears. Please be advised it is not a "criminal offence" for me to deny a bailiff entry to my property and it is an offence to threaten me with breaking and entering with "locksmiths".

 

Please provide me with a breakdown of your fees, put it through the letterbox and quietly leave the property.

 

Yours Faithfully

 

 

 

YOUR NAME

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BURP.

 

I am very concerned at the type of letters that you are suggesting posters to send. In particular the one asking for "compensation" of £4,999.

 

It must be remembered that in the case of the bailiff company the letter will be going to somebody at a call centre and I am quite certain that this type of letter will be ignored.

 

In the letter that you have posted here there are further problems:

 

 

 

 

 

I have had an opportunity to seek advice and I write on the understanding that case law has ruled an authority is liable for its bailiffs.

 

On [DATE] I was visited by your bailiff collecting unpaid council tax. He left a document in a neighbours front garden and we were unable to reach an amicable resolve. The bailiff showed threatening behaviour and became defensive and vexatious in nature. He made unrealistic demands of money which are way beyond my means.

 

The poster has said that the bailiff knocked at the door and left after 10 seconds. How can this be making "unrealistic demands of money...or using "threatening" behaviour which was "defensive and vexatious"? Also she never spoke with the bailiff so how could there be a case where "we were unable to reach an amicable resolve".

 

I now ask the Council to:

 

a) Take the case back from the bailiff.

b) Accept my original offer to pay £[AMOUNT] a week to clear the arrears

c) Pay me a reasonable compensation for my inconvenience and for my efforts in seeking discovery of information and

d) Receiving an over-zealous bailiff acting for you making unrealistic demands of money and defrauding me with his fees.

 

a) This is almost impossible. It is very rare for this to happen.

 

b) As Karen has said....she had not made any agreement or offer to the council. She merely assumed that she could pay online.

 

c) This constant reference to compensation is silly. The maximum claim for a small claim action in court is £5,000. I believethat this is why you are stating in your many posts that the compensation that you are looking at is £4,999. However, it is NOT that easy to sue a bailiff company and you have the risk of losing and having to pay a bailiff companies legal costs. Also all that has happened here is that a letter was left outside.

 

d) This is dangerous and could get somebody into serious trouble. How can this one letter from a bailiff in any way be seen to be "defrauding me of fees".

 

If you fail to satisfactorily complete the above I will automatically escalate the complaint to the local government ombudsman in fourteen days from the date of this letter. Please treat this letter as Stage 1.

 

There are many rejections being made by the LGO on the basis that you must allow the council to fully investigate any complaint before sending it to the LGO.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay the debt as demanded by the bailiffs and I will make payment of £[AMOUNT] each month for [NUMBER OF] monthly installments with a final installment of £[AMOUNT]. This may seem a long time but it's all I can afford and allows me to pay future liabilities without falling into arrears. I confirm I am not refusing to pay this debt.

 

Local authorities are under instruction from central government (who have little money!!) to get their council tax revenues into their offices quickly. The local councils have instructed all of their relevant bailiff companies that the very maximum that a payment term can be agreed is 6 months but most require full payment within the tax year ie : by the end of March 2009 (5 months).

 

In addition, the council could not care whether you are not able to pay other debts as council tax is a priority debt.

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As far as getting the council to take back the account:

 

I have had this happen before, not hard, just one phone call, only thing I would say it depends on is the nature of the person taking the call, in any case, always worth an ask.

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Thanks for the replies - I have wrote a letter to the baliffs informing them that I have been sending payments to the council each month since September and would they refer it back to the council - not received a reply on that as yet but yesterday I got home and there was a letter in the post from them stating the following

 

'Your goods are now at risk'

 

Your case has now been allocated to my team to conclude. We are scheduling your case into our Removal Team's workload for immediate seizure and removal of goods. Your goods will then be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. Auctioneer and storage costs will be added to the above balance. In any event our Removal Team's attendance charges which will be no less than £95.00 will become payable by you also.

 

To prevent the above action you must telephone ******* immediately to arrange full payment.

 

In the absence of any contact, we shall have no option than to continue as above.

 

Does anyone have any advice?? I have never let anyone into the house or even spoke to the baliffs, my main worry was that my car could be taken - most of the time it is not parked at the house as I stay at my boyfriends most of the time, so hopefully it will be ok.

 

The reason that I hadn't paid my council tax dates back years to the fact that when I split with my long term partner I was left with many debts one being council tax and baliffs got involved and for the past 5 years I have struggled to pay the baliffs, then got in trouble with the next year's payment meaning that again it goes to baliffs - just when you think that you are getting on top of things everything goes wrong again.

 

I am so glad of this site as in previous years I have just paid the baliffs and their fees (Rossendales) and from what I have read on this forum it looks like they overcharged me by around £300 each year in fees, they were never let into the house but always the fees increased - now I am thinking that hopefully following the advice of some of the posts I can SAR them and get some of these fees back but in the meantime can anyone help me with the present problem?

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Hi Karen

 

My only advice is dont park your car anywhere near your home, keep your windows and doors locked and dont open the door to the bailiff. Eventually the bailiff will send the debt back to the council, if you havent signed anything or let the bailiffs in then they can only charge for 2 visits £24.50 for the first and £18 for the second.

 

Keep paying the council with regular payments, this way you are demonstrating that you are willing to pay your council tax. Perhaps you should put this in writing to them aswell. Remember to keep copies of all letters you send and receipts for your payments.

Edited by scatz1972
missed something out.
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As far as getting the council to take back the account:

 

I have had this happen before, not hard, just one phone call, only thing I would say it depends on is the nature of the person taking the call, in any case, always worth an ask.

 

why would they want it back. the op defaults every year & the bailff company have collected each year.

 

It really depends on your history with the council.

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Hi Scatz thanks for your reply, yes I do live on my own and yes I do claim the 25% discount but with everything else it is still a struggle.

 

Voxter, the only reason that the baliffs get it every year is the extortionate charges that they add extra to the account which makes keeping up to date with the current year difficult - I don't want to have to keep paying baliffs but the council are far to quick to bring baliffs into the equation and do not seem to want to listen to householders who are in difficulty. When this year's account went to court, I was 2 months in arrears with my council tax - I rang the council up to talk about it before the hearing date and the response I got was nothing can be done until the liability order has been granted, ring back after that date.

 

By the time it actually went to court I was only 1 month in arrears, I rang the council back the day after it went to court which was the 26th August and was told that it was now too late, the account had been passed to baliffs and there was nothing I could do about it, that was when I decided to start paying the council direct by internet transfer into their account and have done so ever since.

 

Sorry to rant but the council really get my back up!!

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I did get one from the council when I got the letter saying it was going to court, which I filled in and sent through to them offering that I paid another 10.00 per month on top of my monthly payment to bring the account up to date (which would have taken 13 months), but I never received any reply to that.

 

Come to think of it I didn't even receive a letter from the Court to say that a liability order had been granted

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can anyone tell me if the £95.00 attendance fee is a lawful charge please? I am just composing another letter to the baliff and wanted to make sure of my facts. I know that first and second visits are £24.50 and £16.00 but I thought that was all they could charge without a levy?

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Hi

 

No its not, there is a statutory fee scale that a bailiff HAS to adhere to when collecting unpaid council tax. Here is a link to the scale on national debtline, scroll to the bottom of the page

 

National Debtline England & Wales | Debt Advice | Factsheet 02 Bailiffs And Council Tax

Edited by scatz1972
mix up of words
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Thank you scatz - below is the letter that I am sending to the baliffs, from your opinion do I need to add anything to it?

 

Dear Sir or Madam.

 

Re: Your Reference ********

Client Reference:

******** Council appears to have instructed you to collect unpaid council tax.

 

This notice directs that you are not being given entry to my home or to levy goods contained within and your entitlement to charge a Walking Possessions fee stands revoked. Please be advised that if your fees now or in the future are found to contradict Regulation 14(2) or Regulation 45(2) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, you may be liable for criminal prosecution under the Fraud Act 2006. Without corresponding with you further I will also automatically file a Form 4 at court.

Since September 2008 I have been making payments direct to the Council through their online payments system and therefore the balance shown on your letters is incorrect.

 

Due to my circumstances I am unable to pay the debt in whole and will make payment of £**** each month direct to the council as I have been doing since September 2008. I have also asked that the council take back this account.

 

These are the only payments I can afford and allows me to pay future council tax liabilities without falling into arrears. Please be advised it is not a "criminal offence" for me to deny a bailiff entry to my property and it is an offence to threaten me with breaking and entering with "locksmiths".

 

I am willing to pay the fees due of £24.50 first visit and £18.00 second visit totalling £42.50 as these are lawful. In response to your threat of adding £95.00 attendance fee to my account may I refer you to the table below from the National Debtline. A charge for attendance can only be charged after levy has been made – in this case no levy has been made and therefore no charge can be added.

EVENT

COUNCIL TAX CHARGES

POLL TAX CHARGES

For a visit to your home where no entry is made and a list of goods is not made

(i.e. a levy is not made)

£24.50 for a first visit

£18.00 for a second visit

No further charges for further visits

£15 for a first visit

£12.50 for a second visit

No further charges for further visits

For making a levy (i.e. where the bailiffs gain peaceful entry and make a list of goods)

£24.50 for the first £100 or less

4% for the next £400

2.5% for the next £1,500

£15 or 15%

For entering into a 'walking possession' agreement

Flat fee of £12

10p per day

For a 'close possession' agreement (e.g. bailiff stays with the goods)

£15 per day

10p per day

For one attendance with a vehicle with a view to recover goods after the levy has been made under this heading

Reasonable costs incurred

(N.B. only one charge can be made.)

For the removal and storage of goods

Reasonable costs incurred

For various items relating to sale or proposed sale of the goods (e.g. auctioneers' fees etc)

Various fees and expenses

 

Yours Faithfully

 

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Well "my" opinion is that you shouldnt put the bit about fraud. (Im sure others will disagree)

 

The main purpose of the letter is just to let them know that you know your rights.

 

Not sure about the locksmith bit either, did they actually do that?

 

It might be worth your while contacting your local MP, they usual run surgeries where you can drop in. Im concerned that your income/expenditure form and offer to pay in installments wasnt responded to, and im sure that the council is ment to give you atleast 2 weeks written notice of you account being handed over to the bailiff.

 

The resident expert on these boards for bailiffs is Tomtubby, hopefully she will look in and give you some more advice.

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why would they want it back. the op defaults every year & the bailff company have collected each year.

 

It really depends on your history with the council.

 

As my post stated its worth an ask, as for history with the council, I had mine taken back by them even though it was actually the 3rd year in a row we had had difficulty, the previous 2 being paid to Rossendales, so as I said before its worth an ask.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, yet another addition to this post.

 

I got home from work yesterday to find another visit letter from the baliffs, now stating that they attended with a view to removals and in order for no further action to be taken I need to pay them XXXXXX - an increase of £272.50 on top of my original council tax bill.

 

No mention at all has been made regarding the amounts that I have already paid over to the Council by bank transfer and no mention of a reply to my letter sent over a week ago.

 

Up to the last visit 11th November to which I responded with the letter, the fees charged were £42.00, so just like that another £230.50 has been added on. My boyfriend was actually at my house all day yesterday putting some lights in the garage and he said that no-one came near the house at all so it looks like they just added some more charges on and pushed the letter through the door.

 

Surely this is not legal, is it a right for a baliff to just add whatever they feel like on top of a bill. Also isn't it amazing that the signature on the letter is illegible!

 

Does anyone have any idea of what the extra charges could be and am I right in thinking that only the 1st and 2nd fee is legal & chargeable??

 

Can anyone advise on the next plan of action?? I have sent a letter to the council but as yet no response has been received but no way am I going to pay a baliff money for nothing, this is how I got into trouble with council tax as first a baliff gets involved, adds extortionate fees on top and after having to lend the money to pay these getting in trouble with the next year's bill and it starts all over again.

 

The last point on there letter is ' do not ignore this letter as we will keep on calling '

 

Sorry to rant on but I am so annoyed by these people - they know that people are struggling with money, else a person would not be in a position where baliffs are involved - why can't they be reasonable and then people would be reasonable back!!

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am I right in thinking that only the 1st and 2nd fee is legal & chargeable??

 

You are absolutely right, so long as no lawful levy has been made.

 

 

You are entitled to a printout of your account from the council which should show the payments you have made, as well as the amount shown on your original liability order.

 

I take it you have kept the email reciepts for each payment?

 

I don't think it would do any harm to include mention of fraud in the letters, if only to remind them that knowingly charging excessively is fraudulent as you offer them the opportunity to correct their records.

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What worked for me was sending emails of each letter to the bailiffs with a copy to the council tax dept as well as an email copy to the email address of the head of the revenues and benefits department. With hard copies to the bailiffs and the council tax dept.

They finally realised that I meant business and that my letters sounded sufficiently reasonable to be embarrassing if they were put in front of a magistrate as part of a form 4 complaint.

 

It's a marathon and you have to build a case brick by brick, or letter by letter.

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