URGENT advice very much needed please - Parking fine distress warrant issues on PREVIOUS ADDRESS - ONE DAY left

[UnitedFront]

Hi all, this issue is really above my head at my current stage of learning and although I've been doing research on this all day, I really need some help if possible;

 

Basically two friends of mine moved house last year and sold their car after less than a week of moving - so the V5 was never changed to their current address.

 

On 2nd June 2010 a Bailiff came to their current address demanding payment of over £300 - this was the first they'd heard about this matter because no ticket was ever put on the car (or may have been taken off by the local yobs?) and they never heard anything about it as they had moved and then the car was sold.

 

It turns out that there was a magistrates distress warrant issues in absence of my friends knowledge; obviously meaning they had no chance to represent themselves of pay the fine.

 

Now the bailiff is saying that they will be coming with a locksmith to levy goods on Friday. My friends partner, whose name this is in, is over 8 months pregnant. We have informed the Bailiff of this and the company who he works for (Marsdon Group) - the company said they spoke to the bailiff and that my friends partner should phone him to arrange for him to attend to confirm she is pregnant and then the account would be suspended. She phoned the Bailiff - only for him to say "tough" and that he would give them until Friday and no longer and that he still intended to execute the warrant on Friday regardless.

 

We phoned back the company who said not to speak to the Bailiff again and that the issue would be suspended for 35 days after she gives birth.

 

I've looked around and done some research and I think there's a good chance we can get this distress warrant set aside on the basis that it was issued at a previous address and so my friend and his partner were not aware of it.

 

I am uncertain, however, on the exact procedure on how we would do this. I know my friends partner would need to swear a statutory declaration stating that she was unaware of this matter until the Bailiff came on the 2nd June - but is this all we need to do?

 

Is there any other paperwork or forms we need to fill out?

 

Should my friend and/or his partner take this statutory declaration to the court and give it to the fines officer?

 

Should we include a covering letter? Should the fines officer give them some kind of receipt to show that this has been received?

 

I'm worried because I've seen that they only have 21 days from the date they became aware of the matter to take this action - and this time limit runs out in 2 days!!

 

Any advice and/or guidance on this matter would be very much appreciated.

 

Cheers

UF

[RaeUK]

Hi,

I'll let others advise about set aside et al as that is beyond my scope...

In the meantime, your friend needs to consider the following:

 

Department for Constitutional Affairs - Enforcement - National Standards for Enforcement Agents

 

Those who might be considered vulnerable include the following:

the elderly;

people with a disability;

the seriously ill;

the recently bereaved;

single parent families;

pregnant women;

unemployed people; and,

those who have obvious difficulty in understanding, speaking or reading English.

 

Marstons are familiar with this and will take note. Simply write to the bailiff company and include confirmation of pregnancy - I would expect she has had interaction with her GP and Midwife as she's in her final trimester. The bailiff himself is simply trying to trick his way in to levy and increase fees. He is not required and his presence will be detrimental to the expectant Mum and unborn child.

I would email the company and add that a hardcopy and evidence of condition will follow at your earliest convenience.

 

If your friend gets a negative response or hassle from the individual bailiff than severe and Formal Complaints will be due all round!

 

Best wishes

Rae

[UnitedFront]

Hi thanks for the quick response; I stumbled across those guidelines earlier today much to our relief and this is why we really pushed the fact that she has about 2 weeks left until her due date!

 

This Bailiff is, as far as I can tell, a disgusting excuse for a person who has broken every rule in the book. He has refused to give details of what warrant he has, any breakdown of the amount he claims is owing - and even gave us a FAKE NAME THREE TIMES (the same fake name)!!!! He even continued to use this fictitious alias even when I repeated it back to him to ensure I had heard him correctly!!

 

With all of this in mind, I think we'll be complaining to everyone and anyone who will listed about this horrible man - and to be honest we'll probably even complain to those who won't listen!!

 

Thanks again for the reply, very much appreciated

 

Cheers

UF

[RaeUK]

No worries UF, happy to help. It irritates me greatly because pregnancy - at whatever stage - has its own inherent dangers and your friends partner needs all the support and protection she can get at this time.

Click the National Standards link - you'll need to scroll up - and see how a bailiff is supposed to behave. When writing complaints for people I always quote from them as the bailiff company, courts and councils are all aware of them.

When emailing / writing regarding pregnancy I always like to include this link for illustration:

 

Stress & Pregnancy, Fetal Affects, on MedicineNet.com

 

If you need any other tips just holler...

 

Best wishes

Rae

[Desperate Daniella]

Kelcou's advice should sort out Marstons.

 

I don't know exactly what you have to do for a set aside in a magistrates court but I can't believe it's that much different to a county court.

 

I would imagine there is some form you will have to fill in for the set aside and the court will be able to advise you which one. Get the statutory declaration done if you have been told you need this.

 

I'm not certain about addressing correspondence to the Fines Officer. I would have thought everything should be addressed to the Court Manager. Take everything to the Court, fill in any forms they direct you to. Have a covering letter - marked URGENT very obviously - and take a copy with you and get the person on duty to date stamp this copy so you have proof of delivery.

 

Call Marston and tell them that you have done this. Keep copies of the correspondence by the front door and should the bailiff turn up call the police.

 

I'm saying 'you' all the way through, even if I mean action by your friends, because you are obviously dealing with this on their behalf.

 

Do they have any other children, by the way, because if they do the bailiff cannot enter if they are at home and are under the age of 16.

 

Definitely complain to everyone you can about his behaviour. They do have to abide by the rules and threatening a heavily pregnant woman and causing her distress just stinks.

 

DD

[RaeUK]

... Definitely complain to everyone you can about his behaviour. They do have to abide by the rules and threatening a heavily pregnant woman and causing her distress just stinks. ...

 

Sorry, still miffed ...

Best wishes

Rae

[tomtubby]

Hi all, this issue is really above my head at my current stage of learning and although I've been doing research on this all day, I really need some help if possible;

 

Basically two friends of mine moved house last year and sold their car after less than a week of moving - so the V5 was never changed to their current address.

 

On 2nd June 2010 a Bailiff came to their current address demanding payment of over £300 - this was the first they'd heard about this matter because no ticket was ever put on the car (or may have been taken off by the local yobs?) and they never heard anything about it as they had moved and then the car was sold.

 

It turns out that there was a magistrates distress warrant issues in absence of my friends knowledge; obviously meaning they had no chance to represent themselves of pay the fine.

 

Now the bailiff is saying that they will be coming with a locksmith to levy goods on Friday. My friends partner, whose name this is in, is over 8 months pregnant. We have informed the Bailiff of this and the company who he works for (Marsdon Group) - the company said they spoke to the bailiff and that my friends partner should phone him to arrange for him to attend to confirm she is pregnant and then the account would be suspended. She phoned the Bailiff - only for him to say "tough" and that he would give them until Friday and no longer and that he still intended to execute the warrant on Friday regardless.

 

We phoned back the company who said not to speak to the Bailiff again and that the issue would be suspended for 35 days after she gives birth.

 

I've looked around and done some research and I think there's a good chance we can get this distress warrant set aside on the basis that it was issued at a previous address and so my friend and his partner were not aware of it.

 

I am uncertain, however, on the exact procedure on how we would do this. I know my friends partner would need to swear a statutory declaration stating that she was unaware of this matter until the Bailiff came on the 2nd June - but is this all we need to do?

 

Is there any other paperwork or forms we need to fill out?

 

Should my friend and/or his partner take this statutory declaration to the court and give it to the fines officer?

 

Should we include a covering letter? Should the fines officer give them some kind of receipt to show that this has been received?

 

I'm worried because I've seen that they only have 21 days from the date they became aware of the matter to take this action - and this time limit runs out in 2 days!!

 

Any advice and/or guidance on this matter would be very much appreciated.

 

Cheers

UF

 

 

This should be quite simple.

 

You friend has to file a Statutory Declaration with the Magistrates Court that issued the fine.

 

In this case it needs to along the following lines:

 

 

Statutory Declaration under Section 73(2) Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988

 

 

I, Mr Jo Blogs

 

Of: 1, High Street, Anytown, Anywhere

 

Do solemnly and sincerely declarae that:

 

With reference to a fixed penalty notice number: AB 12 34 56 78 issued on 1st January 2010 in respect of vehicle registration mark (enter vehicle reg) and to which the sum payable in default was registered as a fine on (enter date) by xxxxx Magistrates Court, I did not know of the fixed penalty notice until I received notification from a firm of bailiffs by the name of Marston Group Ltd

 

And that:

 

I did not receive any notices in respect of the above fixed penalty notice as I had moved from the address where the previous vehicle had been registered. As I had sold my vehicle shortly after moving I had not advised DVLA of my new address.

 

 

 

 

And I make this solemn declaration consciously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835.

 

 

Dated the:

 

 

 

Signature :

 

 

 

 

Declared before me:

[UnitedFront]

Thanks so much for the advice guys, once again you have put our minds at peace somewhat.

 

Tomtubby, thanks for stopping by and confirming that up for me; that's basically the process that I'd thought having done a lot of reading yesterday but I was worried that it seemed too simple haha - but that's superb.

 

I'll get them to do this today and I'll keep you all posted on any progress!!

 

Once again, thanks so much everyone.

 

Cheers

UF

[tomtubby]

Thanks so much for the advice guys, once again you have put our minds at peace somewhat.

 

Tomtubby, thanks for stopping by and confirming that up for me; that's basically the process that I'd thought having done a lot of reading yesterday but I was worried that it seemed too simple haha - but that's superb.

 

I'll get them to do this today and I'll keep you all posted on any progress!!

 

Once again, thanks so much everyone.

 

Cheers

UF

 

 

You will know that the statutory declaration will need to be witnessed in front of a solicitor. We normally advise that a copy is FAXED or hand delivered to the magistrates court that issued the fine. You will also need to ask the fines office to contact Marston Group to ask them to cease all enforcement.

[UnitedFront]

No problems mate; yeah I got them to go down and swear a statutory declaration yesterday to stop the bailiffs removing goods that didn't belong to his partner if the worst happened and the bailiff did return whilst I was getting all this sorted for them.

 

One last questions though; I see that S73(2) says that the declaration must be served within 21 days on the "proper officer" of the court - am I correct in thinking this is the fines officer or am I mistaken?

 

Thanks again for all your help

 

Cheers

UF

[Desperate Daniella]

Not certain. Ask the Court who should get the top copy - Court Manager or Fines Officer - and deliver a copy to the other one too.

 

What a rotten ******* that bailiff is.

[tomtubby]

No problems mate; yeah I got them to go down and swear a statutory declaration yesterday to stop the bailiffs removing goods that didn't belong to his partner if the worst happened and the bailiff did return whilst I was getting all this sorted for them.

 

One last questions though; I see that S73(2) says that the declaration must be served within 21 days on the "proper officer" of the court - am I correct in thinking this is the fines officer or am I mistaken?

 

Thanks again for all your help

 

Cheers

UF

 

You have 21 days from BECOMING AWARE of the matter but frankly I have seen many Statutory Declarations that have been accepted well outside of the 21 days.

[UnitedFront]

Ok - they've sworn the declaration and faxed it across to the court with a covering letter asking them to contact Marston to instruct them to cease all enforcement. They've also got a copy of the delivery report from the fax machine from the people in Office World (where they faxed it from) showing that 2 pages were faxed and that 2 pages were received by the court.

 

What will happen now exactly; will the court write to them stating that the proceedings to this point have now become void until such time as they are recommenced by the local authority? Or will they hear nothing until the local authority recommence the proceedings?

 

Many thanks, once again, for all the help, advice and support.

 

Cheers

UF

[RaeUK]

Hi UF, it would do no harm for your friend to email the bailiff company regarding his partners vulnerable status whilst they wait for this to go through. The bailiff should not be calling.

Best wishes

Rae

[cactuskid]

I might try a statutory declaration to get rid of these guys that pestered me today. God knows what I was babbling on about to them but it got rid of them temporarily:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k5h_rfdVgc

 

The distress warrant was apparently issued in 2008 for this action. I know there is a time limit for them to act on that warrant but cant remember, can anyone help me with that? Long story behind this visit, it goes back to 2005 where I was given an absolute dischare over the debt they are trying to get me for here. So much unlawfulness I dont know where to start

 

Chris