Please help- Bailiffs collecting non-domestic rate

[ploddertom]

Also the' bailiff ' that came round does not appear to be certified - is this a legal requirement to enforce a liability order?

 

I have also called up the County Court Bulk Centre on 0845 4085302 who confirmed xxxxxx is not on their certified register or the list of names for Jacobs bailiff

 

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/enforcement-officers

http://certificatedbailiffs.justice.gov.uk/CertificatedBailiffs/

 

Firstly can you edit your Post to remove the Bailiff's name.

 

For him to be able to levy distress on your (or anyone elses) goods the Bailiff must have a current Certificate issued by a County Court. neither the online Register or the Bulk Centre's files are 100% accurate, you must find out either from the Bailiff or his Company which Court he is puporting to be Certificated at and contact said Court for them to confirm he held a Certificate on the day he performed the levy.

[rebecca12]

Thanks will do

[tomtubby]

Given the responses, if this was my debt I would be writing to the council to advise them that I was not at all satisfied at their response to your formal complaint and that you would now wish for your complaint to be considered as a Stage Two complaint and that if the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction that you will be considering referring to matter to the Local Government Ombudsman. The basis of the complaint is:

 

A bailiff enforcing a Liability Order may attend the address to "levy" upon goods to secure the debt and charges. The bailiff would therefore need to first gain entry into the premises in order to "levy" and it goes without saying that UNTIL entry in made and items inspected the bailiff would have NO IDEA AT ALL whether:

 

There are any goods in the property that can be levied upon.

 

Whether the goods are owned by the debtor.

 

Whether the goods are of sufficient value to cover the debt and charges.

 

Therefore, a bailiff would need to first gain entry in to the premises....and levy upon goods. Accordingly, a bailiff may NOT charge an "attending to remove" fee. This has been made very clear indeed in the LGO Report against Ealing Council.

 

Next point, the charging of a "Head H" (redemption of Goods fee).

 

In your complaint you must refer to the highly critical Local Government Ombudsman's report against Blaby District Council and where the Ombudsman made a finding of Maladministration causing injustice against Blaby for allowing their bailiff provider (Rossendales Ltd) to charge a Head H fee.

 

Always remember that the local authority are wholly responsible for the levy and fees charged by THEIR AGENTS and serious questions need to be asked of this council as to why they are permitting their bailiff provider to charge fees that have been so heavily criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman

[rebecca12]

hi

 

I am giving the bailiffs one last chance to fix this as i'm hoping this it will prevent prolonging my case- see email below,

Regardless of the outcome I will be raising an official letter of complaint on why they deal with a firm that disregards statutory laws and procedures

 

-------------------------------------

 

I can confirm I have received a letter from yourself dated 13/03/13 which contains factual inaccuracies, a summary is below:

 

1) Mr xxx did not meet with me in person. He initially spoke to the one of my staff after which he briefly spoke to me over the phone to confirm payment details.

 

2) Your statement that I refused to sign a Walking Possession Order is 100% false. This is a pure fabrication, at no point was my staff or myself informed of a Walking Possession Agreement let alone sign it.

 

3) Your justification for charging £120 bogus 'Waiting Time' fee by claiming that Mr xxx was at my premises for over 2 hours is a blatant exaggeration and deceitful.

- Mr xxx was at the premises for approx 1 hour & 10 mins

- of this nearly half an hour of this time was wasted by Mr xxx himself as he incorrectly processed the credit card payment with the wrong address

- This is something you have failed to acknowledge or make mention of in your response letter.

- Your claim that I was made aware by Mr xxx of your credit card fees which make up a bulk of your total charges (~20%) is again not true.

 

4) Your response that "our Bailiffs are unable to specify what the total charges will be in advance of the action taken" doesn't mean or prove he did not make this claim.

This is something he categorically stated during his visit and prior to making payment.

 

5) Regarding the van charge this is something you are now back tracking on as regulation clearly prohibits this and it is not possible to charge for van charge and at the same time charge a levy fee; but it is manifest on your statement sent on 07/03/13? Why is there a change of stance now?

 

6) A levy charge is applied to goods seized or if a levy was actually carried out there should be a list of goods that the bailiff drew up - where is this?

As neither of this occurred and I made my intention to pay in full clear then why I am I unfairly being charged?

 

7) The Local Government Ombudsman’s view is that bailiffs should not charge a ' Sch 5 Head H' fee when a debtor makes an arrangement and no goods are actually taken - why has this been applied?

 

Your firm is a member of CIVEA who agree to abide by their Code of Practice (see attached). I can point out of a number of practices that were not followed for example "Enforcement agents will on each and every occasion when a visit is made to a debtor's property which incurs a fee to the debtor, leave a notice detailing the fees charged to date, including the one for that visit".

From my experience it is clear that your bailiff did not have appropriate training to ensure that they understand their duties and are able to act within the bounds of the relevant legislation or simply was acting in an unprofessional manner. In light of all the above, I give you a further opportunity to review this case thoroughly with a senior partner or a legal adviser to rectify the situation immediately.

 

I understand that there will be charges for the work you carried out and I am happy to pay this but this must be compliant with the statutory laws and regulation. The charges you have applied are not only excessive, they are out of scope and more disturbingly made up.

 

I will await your response and if it outcome remains unsatisfactory I will have no option to file a Form 4 with the courts and get in touch with my councilors, CIVEA and escalate this matter with senior council officials to decide on my next course of action.

 

Kind regards

[tomtubby]

You need to ensure that a copy of this email is sent to the local authority as well.