philips and the invisible bailifs

[regmcm]

Hi there.

 

I had an unpaid speeding fine of £60 which was passed onto Philips collection services for payment. they added on another £120 for their fees - fair enough i thought, so i paid £60 by switch and arranged to pay the remaining £120 on line a month later.

 

 

This i did (or thought i had!) however about a month later i get letter from philips saying that the debt had increased to £196 as a bailif had been sent twice to my address to collect the unpaid fine! No Bailif has ever been anywhere near my place as i work from home and there is a concierge on reception at all times.

 

 

I checked my bank account and the 2nd payment had not been made. When i checked the letter from philips they had my name spelt incorrectly - i am assuming that this is why the on line payment had not gone through.

 

I rang up immediately but the most arrogant unhelpful person on the phone refused to listen to my story and just kept insisting that "payment must be made in full".

 

I said i was willing to pay £120 - £100 there and then and another £20 at the following month. She took my payment and then still insisted that there was another £60 to pay!

 

I asked to speak with a supervisor and this was refused. I was told to write - but in the meantime a bailiff would be sent out and i would be charged another £50. I asked her to suspend the account until i had written in but she refused! So i emailed them with the details but got no reply.

 

I then started to get 2 to 3 text messages every day asking me to pay the debt in full.

 

I rang again today to pay the final £20 to be told that i had to pay in full and this had now risen again by another £50 (now back up to £110) as a bailiff had visited. Again no bailiff has been anywhere near!!!

 

I cannot speak to anyone other than the rude collection agent to get this resolved, they refuse to put me through or even to discuss payment in part! I have been told that a bailiff will be calling again tomorrow and the debt will be increased to £170! so that's £320 from a £60 fine!

 

I am at my whits end with this and don't know where to turn?

 

So a few questions:

 

 

1 my surname is spelt incorrectly on all of their correspondence - is this a loophole i can exploit?

 

2 No bailiff has visited - yet they keep adding £50 to my account

 

3 I have tried to make payment in full, but their on line systems seems to have had a teddy with my surname -

 

4 I am refusing to pay anything other than an additional £20 but they keep adding bailif fees - can they do this?

 

HELP !!!!!!!

Edited November 27, 2008 by regmcm

[regmcm]

bumpy

[letsmakeamark]

I would suggest that you pay what ever they areasking you pay. Borrow it from somewhere. Then send them a sar. Once this is done issue a small claim once they have responded to the sar. You will get your money back.

[tomtubby]

You can make a formal compliant. Each area of the country have their own HMCS Contract Manager . If you let me know the area of the country yu ar in I will post details on here. By area I mean: London, south west, north east, north west etc.

 

All three companies with HMCS work would not want any complaints because all of their contracts are currently up for renewal!!

[regmcm]

Hi Mate

 

I live in Leeds, but i think the speeding fine was from Humberside or East Yorkshire Police?

 

Regards

[regmcm]

I would suggest that you pay what ever they areasking you pay. Borrow it from somewhere. Then send them a Subject Access Request. Once this is done issue a small claim once they have responded to the sar. You will get your money back.

 

 

Sounds good in theory but i am not willing to part with any more cash and then have to wait weeks or months for a refund! These people are basically extorting cash with menaces! Also how can they charge for a Bailiff visit that does not actually happen?

 

Cheers

[odds]

I would suggest that you pay what ever they areasking you pay.

 

Why on earth would you pay somebody money that you do not owe them. Especially to a company that are obviously adding underhand charges at will. As you have a concierge, do visitors have to go through him to gain access or can they just buzz a bell outside for you to let them in ? do you also have CCTV ? I know it seems a bit over the top but it would put them in their place if you did and you could get the dates and times of alleged visits.

 

Pete.

[letsmakeamark]

This is a tried and trusted method. You must keep proof of any payments you have mde etc and then sar them. You will get your money back with interest. It depends if you want the aggro before paying or give them aggro after paying ?

[regmcm]

Hi

 

What is a subject access request?

 

Also seeing as i have paid the original fine in full plus Philips original

charges, (they are now chasing me for the additional bailiff fees)

 

would this now not be a civil case? IE would their power of entry now not be vailid?

 

Regards

[regmcm]

Hi again

 

i sent Philips the template letter below:

 

DATE

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Re: [YOUR NAME + REF]: Opportunity to refund and compensate for fee error

 

I write following visits by your bailiff, however there appears to be an irregularity with your fees and I ask you to provide the following within fourteen (14) days:

 

a) The name of the certificating court and certificate number for the bailiff in charge

 

b) Written confirmation of your fees and charges

 

c) Truthfully confirm in writing they are lawful according to prescribed legislation

 

d) The name and address of the person or body you act for

They have written back with the following:

 

With ref to your recent communication regarding your outstanding arrears due to West Yorkshire Magistrates Court, i write to inform you that due to strict guidelines by our client we are unable to withhold any further action.

 

the balance on your account is £95 an i would be grateful if you could forward payment within the next 7 days to avoid any further action.

 

Should payment not be received at this office within this timescale further costs may be incurred

 

Could somebody please answer a few questions?

 

1 No bailiff has ever visited my premises, yet they continue to charge me £50 for every "visit" Can they do this? What can i do to get these charges dropped?

 

2 I have paid in full the original Debt of £60 plus philips fees of £120. They are now chasing me for an additional £95 for 2 Alleged bailif visits. As the original debt to west yorks magistrates has been paid, do Philips still have the right to enter my home to reclaim their fees?

 

3 They are continuing to spell my surname incorrectly - My name ends in EN they have it spelt AN. IF the Bailiffs do call and ask if i am Mr .......AN do i have the right to tell them that its not me?

 

4 what is the subject to access ?

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

Cheers

[regmcm]

HOOF

 

Really could do with some advice on this?

 

regards

[ambershadow]

Get yourself an out of time statuary declartion in place now, and this holds all enforcement on the debt for parking

[Osborn85]

i'v got this problem of invisibl bailiffs as well. furthermore i've also got invisible letters.. also are they [marston group ltd] allowed to charge £250 EACH [ther were 2 of them] for a doorstep call>?

 

Siorry if i intruded in your thread, but it's related and helpful for me too

[regmcm]

Get yourself an out of time statuary declartion in place now, and this holds all enforcement on the debt for parking

 

 

Hi Sorry if im i little ignorant here but i have no idea what this is or how to go about getting one?

 

Any help would be appreciated

[tomtubby]

THis debt is for an unpaid Magistrates Court FINE and Philips are allowed to charge a letter fee of £50 followed by a visit fee of £175 !! They cannot charge any more than this unless they were to remove a vehicle.

 

However, they cannot visit without first sending a letter. Did you receive a letter?

 

You say that you are in Leeds. Is this North East, North West etc ?

 

For unpaid Magistrates Court Fines you may only file a Statutory Declaration if you did not know about this fine or it had gone to a previous address.

 

The part about your surname will not be sufficient I am afraid.

[regmcm]

Hi Tom

 

SO far they have charged me:

 

£100 "registration fee"

£50 x 2 for 2 Bailiff visits which did not take place

 

I have so far paid the Original fine plus the £100 fee. I am refusing to pay

the Bailiff fees as:

 

1 there was a problem with their on line systems and my original payment did not go through.

 

2 No Bailiff has visited my Apartment - there is a 24 hour concierge who logs every visit.

 

Leeds is Norther East

 

Yes i did receive a letter - as soon as i received it i rang up to complain - which is when i found out that my original payment had not been processed. I offered to pay in full then but i was told it was too late as a bailiff had already been appointed and an additional £50 added to my bill.

 

How can they charge for bailiff visits that do not happen?

[regmcm]

This is a tried and trusted method. You must keep proof of any payments you have mde etc and then Subject Access Request them. You will get your money back with interest. It depends if you want the aggro before paying or give them aggro after paying ?

 

 

Hi mate - after getting absolutely nowhere i have now paid the deebt and all charges in full.

 

What steps do i need to take to claim this back? how do i subject access request them?

 

regards

[ambershadow]

I did the subject to request I didn't get an answer either they area law unto themselves and think they can get away with it

 

I must add the Bailiffs on my case were different firm to your's

[regmcm]

bumpy

 

could somebody give me some advise on the subject to access?

 

cheers

[chris600uk]

It's a Subject Access Request.

 

You are asking for any information they hold about the transaction you are asking about, ie your fine and the collection of it.

 

You are entitled to the information, but it will take time to get it.

 

I would do as has been suggested, if you were unlawfully charged fees, get the evidence from the subject access request and then using that evidence claim it back what you are owed (including reasonable interest and costs) using the small claims court.

[chris600uk]

There are template letters on site and on the net that you can use, you may have to modify them slightly for your purpose.

 

You may find that if they know that you are prepared to go that far, that they will return your dough to you - cos if you are 150% sure of your ground, it will most likely cost them more to defend the action than to pay you.