Bailiff attached car

[Spelunkerer]

Can someone advise me please.

I had a bailiff from bristow & sutor knock on my door this morning saying that my council tax bill has been handed over to them. Having read some threads on here previously, I told him that I would not deal with him or his company and that I will be sending a payment plan to the council to deal with the matter.

He was quite arrogant saying that they will come again and I will have to pay their charges and he would get an arrest warrant against me.

Anyway, about an hour after his visit, I went to collect my car from a garage and drove home - I stopped in the road outside my house and was looking through some documents when the 'vulture' knocked on the car window and said that he had attached my car and I have 5 days to pay.

I laughed at him and said no way - he then walked to my house and posted a slip through my letter box which claims that he has attached the car (without my signature)

 

What are my legal rights here?

I have spent the last 3 days off ill but should be going back to work tomorrow. I work 20 miles away from home and there is no way I could use public transport as I start at 7.30am and 3 busses would take well over 2 hours.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated please.

Thanks in advance.

[hallowitch]

the bailiff taken walking possession of your car (is the car on finance or HP)

 

this gives him more power unfortunately and means that if you don't make an arrangement with the bailiff to pay this debt he can remove and sell it

[ploddertom]

I assume he's given you a Notice Of Seizure and listed on that is your car - are the details correct, has he listed the charges he has applied? This is a common occurrence and he does not have to have your signature. At present there is a real threat your car could be lifted unless you pay up - do you know how much you owe.

 

PT

[Spelunkerer]

the bailiff taken walking possession of your car (is the car on finance or HP)

 

this gives him more power unfortunately and means that if you don't make an arrangement with the bailiff to pay this debt he can remove and sell it

 

Thanks for the reply - No, I own the car, it's old (P - Reg) and not worth very much. Unfortunately, I need it to get to work.

[Spelunkerer]

I assume he's given you a Notice Of Seizure and listed on that is your car - are the details correct, has he listed the charges he has applied? This is a common occurrence and he does not have to have your signature. At present there is a real threat your car could be lifted unless you pay up - do you know how much you owe.

 

PT

 

The debt is £819.00

[ploddertom]

Thanks for the reply - No, I own the car, it's old (P - Reg) and not worth very much. Unfortunately, I need it to get to work.

 

What sort of value would you put on it?

 

PT

[Spelunkerer]

What sort of value would you put on it?

 

PT

 

About £250.00

[Spelunkerer]

As a thought, is there any way I can prevent them from taking the vehicle? Without it, I would face serious hardship in getting to and from work.

[ploddertom]

About £250.00

 

If you owe £819 and at auction the car may only realise £50 I would argue that his levy is invalid for the simple reason that if they took it it has to realise all the Bailiif costs of removal, the auctioneers costs and a proportion of the debt owing. This simply is not going to happen in your case as he appears to have levied to gain a fee advantage for himself and his company.

 

PT

[fluffy_bunny]

which council is this for?

[Spelunkerer]

which council is this for?

 

Dudley Council

Edited March 10, 2010 by Spelunkerer
typo

[Bubbles67]

just been reading, I had the bailfis turn up and leave me a message on my phone saying that If i didnt call back they would come back and take goods from my house (even though never let them in or meet them).... but at no point have they mentioned the car that was was listed about 6 weeks ago ........ confused .com!!!!!!!!!! was that a legal levi a few weeks ago ?? im going bankcrupt in a few days , and at the moment trying to get the coucil to take back the debt so the bailifs have no hold over my car ....

Any one has any help

[tomtubby]

If you owe £819 and at auction the car may only realise £50 I would argue that his levy is invalid for the simple reason that if they took it it has to realise all the Bailiif costs of removal, the auctioneers costs and a proportion of the debt owing. This simply is not going to happen in your case as he appears to have levied to gain a fee advantage for himself and his company.

 

PT

 

Excellent answer.

 

A LETTER needs to be sent to the bailiff co to advise them of this.

[Spelunkerer]

Thanks for the replies. I will post something here on Saturday to show what letters I'm sending. They will NOT get the car. I will park it away from the house to protect it in the meantime.

[Spelunkerer]

Apologies for this, but I'm going make a few posts here to update and ask some questions.

 

Here is the letter I sent to bristow & sutor;

Further to a visit by your bailiff on Wednesday 10 March, I enclose a copy of a letter sent to Dudley Council with a payment and future payment proposal.

I will ask that you pass this account back to the council as I will deal with them and them alone. I will not enter into further correspondence with your company with regards to the council tax bill.

Furthermore, your bailiff has posted a Notice of Seizure upon my vehicle. I would like to point out the following;

This is an old vehicle with a value of less than £150.00 which may raise less than £50.00 at auction. I believe that this levy is invalid as your agent has levied only for fee advantage for yourselves and there no realistic chance of the debt being reduced at all.

Furthermore, the vehicle is my only means of transport for employment purposes and, given that my place of work is over 20 miles away from home and cannot easily be reached by public transport, any removal of this vehicle would render me unemployed.

I will not voluntarily hand over the vehicle to you or anyone appointed by yourselves and will not accept any liability for any fees you may incur. I am willing to, if necessary, approach the court to have your seizure notice overturned should you be unwilling to accept the extremely difficult position that such intended action would place me in. However, I trust that such a course of action with associated additional costs will not be necessary an I look forward to your response in this regard.

Below is the letter I sent to the council;

With reference to the above account under liability order number 1981902 to the amount of £817.41, I would like to make it clear that it is not my intention to avoid this payment.

 

Due to extremely difficult circumstances I am unable to pay this in 1 payment and would like to advocate the following payment schedule;

Payment now of £97.41 followed by 10 payments of £72.00 to be paid on the 28th of each month commencing on 28 March.

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 enclose now a cheque for payment of said amount and propose to submit cheque payments to you each month prior to the 28th.

I trust that this proposal is acceptable to you.

 

On to the next post......

[Spelunkerer]

On Friday morning, I phoned the council to check for progress, I was told that they had received the letter and cheque and that it was with the recoveries team. I was also told that I would be contacted by them within the next few days to discuss the arrangement. I am still awaiting that call.

 

With the post on Friday came B&S's reply - 'Notification Prior to Sale of Goods!' Giving me until the 24th to pay them.

 

I contacted the National Debtline for some advice in this matter and read the contents of my letters to the agent. They said that I had a valid point regarding the 'Inappropriate' seizure of the vehicle (and a very big thank you to Ploddertom for pointing this out) but that the usage of the vehicle for getting to and from work was a 'legal grey area' - he also gave me some advice on what to do further.

 

On Friday afternoon, I checked the bank and noticed that the cheque payment sent to the council had been taken off my account. (Does this mean that they are going to accept the proposal?)

 

1 more post to come....

[Spelunkerer]

Final post for now....

Here are letters which I intend posting tomorrow to continue the saga...

Could I ask for any thoughts, opinions or advice on the wordingsplease?

 

First is the letter going to B&S

 

To whom it may concern

Further to your ‘Notification Prior to Sale of Goods’ dated 17 March 2010, as well as my letter to you dated 14 March 2010, I would like to advise you as follows;

Following legal advice given to myself, I would like to point out that your levy on my vehicle is Inappropriate and request that you formally discontinue your claimed interest. The reason, as pointed out in my previous correspondence, is that due to the low value of the vehicle, your actions indicate that you are levying solely for the benefit of your fees with no real prospect of the debt to the Council being reduced at all.

Such conduct is unscrupulous and inappropriate and should you not discontinue your interest with immediate effect, I will raise a formal complaint with your governing body.

Furthermore, I have submitted a payment plan and payment directly to the Council and can confirm that cheque payment has been processed. Therefore, I propose that you resubmit this account back to the council as I will deal with them and them alone with regards to this matter.

I furthermore require you to provide me with a statement of charges levied by yourselves. Be aware that should I find any unwarranted or fraudulent charges, I will make further formal complaints against you.

Finally, I repeat what I stated in my previous correspondence; I will not hand over this vehicle to you nor will I accept your additional charges.

A copy of this letter will be sent to the council as well.

 

Next is a copy of the letter going to the council...

 

To Whom It May Concern

Further to my letter dated 9 March.

I enclose a copy of a letter sent to your agents, Bristow & Sutor regarding their conduct in making an Inappropriate levy as well as a copy of the letter sent to them on 14 March.

I would ask that, due to their conduct, you take this matter back into your own hands as I will not deal with that company.

I notice that the cheque sent to you in my previous letter has been processed by my bank and funds have cleared to yourselves. I enclose a further cheque for payment on the 28th as promised in my previous correspondence.

 

 

Any advice please?

 

Thanks