Being threatened with bailiff visit

[mickmackpaddywack]

Hi all

hoping i can get some advice with a rather complicated problem...

its a little long winded so please bear with me...

 

the problem involves a car that my brother in law used to own. and is further complicated by the fact that he is in the armed forces and has spent most of the last 2 years posted abroad. hense the reason that i am trying to sort this mess out for him.

the car in question was registered in my brother in laws name but at my address, as my wife is his next of kin (sister) and ours is his only none military address. so he has registered his car here as well as his bank accounts and other stuff requiring a perminant uk address. he has never lived at this address but does use it sometimes when he is on leave (but not always)

he sold this car to the cousin of his former girlfriend in May 2007 (a rather unsavoury charecter so i believe), and he assures me that he did send off the tear off slip from the V5 to inform DVLA of change of ownership of the car.

a couple of months after he had sold the car, my brother in law was contacted by merseyside police as he was still the registered keeper according to DVLA, and the car was suspected to have been involved in an armed robbery in Liverpool (his former girlfriend and her cousin are both in Liverpool, we are in the midlands). My brother in law was questioned about his whereabouts on a certain day, which of course he could prove as he was in Afganistan on that date. he informed the police that he had in fact sold the vehicle 2 months earlier and provided the police with the name and address of the former girlfriends cousin, this news caused great excitment among the police because apparently the girlfriends cousin is well known to the police and has previous form for armed robbery. the point i am making is that in august 2007, merseyside police, because of their investigating this armed robbery, where more than satisfied that my brother in law did no longer own the car and was in no way involved with any armed robbery.

in early December 2007 we started to recieve "notice to owner" reminders, all from Liverpool city council for offences dating from September 2007 onwards. there was a total of 6 tickets all arrived within a few days of each other, all for the car he had sold to girlfriends cousin.

 

by this time, Brother in law had gone out to Iraq, so i contacted him by email and informed him about these tickets and he asked me if i could contact Liverpool city council for him and deal with them on his behalf. this i did, i wrote to them informing them that brother in law did not own the vehicle any more and i even provided them with the name and address of the person brother in law had sold it to. i also asked them to update their database so that in the event of any more tickets being issued to this car, they would hassle the new owner and not my brother in law about them. to this date i have never heard any more about these 1st 6 parking tickets.

then in April 2008 we recieved 2 more "notice to owner" both from Liverpool city council again. i sent these both back to Liverpool council with a covering letter reminding them of our corrispondance over this car 3 monthe earlier.

i had heard no more from Liverpool city council about any of these tickets, until this morning...

in this mornings post there was a letter addressed to my brother in law from Marston Group, it is informing him that Marston Group has been issued with a WARRENT OF EXECUTION (death penalty over a parking ticket seems a bit harsh to me), issued by Traffic Enforcment centre of Northampton County Court. it referes to one of the 2 tickets issued to this car in April 2008.

they are saying that he must pay £122.88 "WITHIN 7 DAYS" or "BAILIFFS WILL ATTEND" it says "the warrent authorises our certified bailiffs to seize goods for sale at public auction"

i have 2 points to make to this letter...

1 there is no "public auction" at this address so there are no "goods for sale at public auction" for them to seize.

2 this is not my brother in laws address, he mearly uses it as a postal address for his official documents, therefore none of the goods at this address belong to him.

 

any advise on dealing with the bailiffs when they arrive or indeed how to sort this mess out with Liverpool council would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers Mick

Edited January 19, 2009 by mickmackpaddywack
spelling mistake

[adamna]

"the warrent authorises our certified bailiffs to seize goods for sale at public auction"

i have 2 points to make to this letter...

1 there is no "public auction" at this address so there are no "goods for sale at public auction" for them to seize.

I don't know if you were being serious, and perhaps ther should be a comma as in

"the warrent authorises our certified bailiffs to seize goods, for sale at public auction"

As they mean that the goods seized would be auctioned.

 

Made me laugh.

 

Can't be much help with the rest other than that a call to the issuing council would be a start. Don't know if DVLA would give you any information/entertain a conversation about property that wasn't yours.

[patdavies]

he sold this car to the cousin of his former girlfriend in May 2007 (a rather unsavoury charecter so i believe), and he assures me that he did send off the tear off slip from the V5 to inform DVLA of change of ownership of the car.

The seller sends off the V5.

 

The 'tear off strip' - presumably the new keepers section (green) is given to the new keeper.

 

If he mailed off the green slip and gave the new keeper the V5, then the DVLA would not have changed the registered keeper.

 

The Council has failed to issue formal letters of rejection to your NtO responses - which are perfectly valid grounds for appeal. A rejection letter is also required to provide you with details of how to appeal to the adjudicator.

 

You need to contact TEC at Northampton in order to get the warrants set aside - this will be complicated by the fact that the liability belongs to your BIL, who is not in a position to contact them for himself.

 

You should contact Marston and make it very clear, in writing , that your BIL is currently serving in Afghanistan; that he uses your address merely as an accommodation address as he has no permanent UK address of his own; that no property at the address belongs to him and thus there is nothing for bailiffs to sieze.

 

In case you are at all worried about your BIL's use of the address, don't be. As far as DVLA is concerned, the address needs only be one by which your BIL may be contacted - no offence has been committed by either of you in previously informing DVLA of your address as one where the previous RK (your BIL) may be contacted.

[mickmackpaddywack]

thanks for the replys...

 

adamna .. yes i agree there should be a comma, but there isnt, thus putting a totally differant interpretation on the sentance, one worth arguing i think.

 

pat.. i may have been slightly unclear, BiL is back in country now (at least for the next few weeks,) but is on a barracks not a permanant address. am i obliged to give Marston this address?

i will tell BiL to contact TEC @ northampton to see about getting warrant set aside, is it a simple "The Council has failed to issue formal letters of rejection to your NtO responses - which are perfectly valid grounds for appeal. A rejection letter is also required to provide you with details of how to appeal to the adjudicator." as the reason for asking to have it set aside?

i tried to speak to Marston on the phone today, but they said that "because i would not give them a forwarding address for BiL", that bailiffs would still be calling here and charges would be applied for the pleasure of it. i will write to them, but just want to be clear about having to give them any information about BiL.

cheers

mick

[adamna]

This will involve the new £75 N244 fee won't it?

[mickmackpaddywack]

hi all

just thought i would bring an update...

 

contacted BiL, who tried to contact Marstons 1st, but of course no joy there. totally unwilling to listen, only interested in where he lived and when he would be paying.

so he contacted Northampton court, explained the situation to them, they agreed to call the bailiffs off for a while to give him time to sort this out with DVLA and Liverpool city council.

he then contacted Liverpool City council, who confirmed that they had different details now for the cars registered keeper and if he could get confirmation from the DVLA of when the registered keeper details where changed from BiL, then they would cancel these court procedings.

he then contacted DVLA, and they have confirmed that his details where taken off the vehicle sometime in 2007, and they are sending written confirmaion of this.

this information from DVLA has raised another question about the proceadure Liverpool follow.

Liverpool "claim" they when these tickets where issued in April 2008 that they got BIL's details from DVLA as the reg keeper, now DVLA are saying that Bil's details where removed in 2007, so how have Liverpool been given them in April 2008? or is it that the vehicle in question was already in Liverpools system from the tickets issued between sept 2007 and dec 2007, and they have simpley decided to save themselves the fee's charged by DVLA, and just sent the "notice to owner" to the name and address already on their system.

BiL is phoning Liverpool today for an explaination.

[lamma]

they may have used old information to save the 2.50 fee to the DVLA.