Swift Bailiff and traffic offence

[paul26may]

I have received a visit this morning from a bailiff. Banging on the door and shouting through the window etc. I got a PCN in November from Oxford City Council for driving in a bus lane. The fine was £130 approx and I came to an arrangement. Due to a lack of money coming in I was only able to make one payment and there has been £100 outstanding for several weeks.

 

The bailiff today wanted £400 and because I couldn't pay clamped the vehicle which was parked on our drive. We then phoned the police who of course said they couldn't get involved. I resorted to having to ask my Dad for help and he very kindly paid the £400+ on his credit card.

 

Do I have any rights in this case? I believe that the bailiff should not have clamped the car as it was on private land however we didn't get a photograph although there are 4 witnesses including myself. The fees also appear extortionate.

[ploddertom]

Moved to Bailiff Forum

[tezza1234]

you will probably have a case to be able to reclaim some of the fee's but im no expert so will let the experts intervene lol

[ploddertom]

Have you requested a breakdown of the fees he charged? What paperwork were you left? Clamping on private land can still be undertaken by those who have Lawful Authority - you will find the Bailiff has this.

[paul26may]

Have you requested a breakdown of the fees he charged? What paperwork were you left? Clamping on private land can still be undertaken by those who have Lawful Authority - you will find the Bailiff has this.

 

I have a receipt for the £430 but it's not a breakdown of what I have been charged. Nothing else.

[Peterbard]

[YOUR ADDRESS]

[DATE]

 

 

To:

[Insert Name and Address of Bailiff Company]

 

Ref: Account No: 123456

 

Dear Sir,

 

With reference to the above account, I would be grateful if you could provide me with a breakdown of all charges incurred.

 

This includes, but is not necessarily limited to the following:

a the time and date of any bailiff action that incurred a fee or charge.

b the reason for the fee or charge.

c the name(s) of the bailiff(s) that attended on each occasion a fee was charged.

d the name(s) of the Court(s) at which the Bailiff(s) was/were Certificated.

e the date of certification.

f the initial balance, and any amount currently outstanding on the account

 

This is not a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act S7 1998 so does not incur a fee of £10. You are obliged to provide this information.

 

I require this information within 14 days.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Sign

 

[PRINT NAME]

[paul26may]

[YOUR ADDRESS]

[DATE]

 

 

To:

[Insert Name and Address of Bailiff Company]

 

Ref: Account No: 123456

 

Dear Sir,

 

With reference to the above account, I would be grateful if you could provide me with a breakdown of all charges incurred.

 

This includes, but is not necessarily limited to the following:

a the time and date of any bailiff action that incurred a fee or charge.

b the reason for the fee or charge.

c the name(s) of the bailiff(s) that attended on each occasion a fee was charged.

d the name(s) of the Court(s) at which the Bailiff(s) was/were Certificated.

e the date of certification.

f the initial balance, and any amount currently outstanding on the account

 

This is not a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act S7 1998 so does not incur a fee of £10. You are obliged to provide this information.

 

I require this information within 14 days.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Sign

 

[PRINT NAME]

 

Thanks for that davyly. I will send that off today. Forgive my ignorance as I haven't been faced with this kind of issue for a long time but what is the purpose of sending this letter? What do we ultimately hope to achieve?

[Peterbard]

Bailiffs are notorious for charging fees which are over and above those which should be charged. If we get their breakdown, you can post them up here and we can ascertain which are and which are not legitimate.

[paul26may]

Thanks. Will do!

[sajeel]

A lot of bailiffs companies are operating out of conduct, but because the police and even judges do not understand bailiff law and rights correctly they let them get away and sometime even support them in their illicit activities, they should have bailiff law training courses lol

[paul26may]

Bailiffs are notorious for charging fees which are over and above those which should be charged. If we get their breakdown, you can post them up here and we can ascertain which are and which are not legitimate.

At long last have just received today a breakdown of their fees.

Arrears £97

Letter fee £13.44

For removing goods, or attending to remove goods where no goods are removed £306

Levy fee £33.60

[unclebulgaria67]

Don't think they can charge the attending to remove fee. It is just the letter fee and then 28% of the original PCN that can be charged. But wait for someone more knowledgeable on this to confirm. I think the attending to remove fees can only be charged, where they can make a levy and have goods they can take away.

[ploddertom]

Have they given you the dates these charges were made on?

[paul26may]

11th April for first letter and the other 2 were both on 12th July.

[ploddertom]

11th April for first letter and the other 2 were both on 12th July.

 

And what goods has he levied on? Has he left a Notice of Seizure (Form 7)?

[paul26may]

There was no notice of seizure just a receipt. He clamped my car on our property for which I have complained to the Polizei about but they duly knocked that back.

[ploddertom]

Are you saying he has clamped your car but gave you no paperwork?

[ploddertom]

And is the car still clamped?

[paul26may]

And is the car still clamped?

No. He clamped the car to stop me from moving it after he had informed me that if I didn't pay the £400 he was demanding he would have it towed away. We paid him the money and he unclamped the car and left.

[tomtubby]

A bailiff cannot charge a fee to clamp a car and the way in which this particular company appear to have gotten around this is to attempt to charge a simply EXTRAORDINARY huge sum (£306) which they try to say is for "attending to remove". I have never ever before seen any local authority allowing any of their bailiff providers to charge a fee as large as this and I would strongly suggest that you make a Formal Complaint to THE COUNCIL.

 

Was this the 1st visit?

 

Most importantly, you were very fortunate indeed to be given the opportunity to discharge the debt by way of a monthly payment arrangement (which is very rare indeed). Due to financial problems you could not keep to the payment terms. Did you contact the bailiff company by letter or email and if so...what was their response?

 

If you failed to advise the company of your financial difficulties then they in the absence of payment they will no doubt consider that you are refusing to pay.

 

PS: Was the car a new car or old. What is the rough value?

[paul26may]

A bailiff cannot charge a fee to clamp a car and the way in which this particular company appear to have gotten around this is to attempt to charge a simply EXTRAORDINARY huge sum (£306) which they try to say is for "attending to remove". I have never ever before seen any local authority allowing any of their bailiff providers to charge a fee as large as this and I would strongly suggest that you make a Formal Complaint to THE COUNCIL.

 

Was this the 1st visit?

 

Most importantly, you were very fortunate indeed to be given the opportunity to discharge the debt by way of a monthly payment arrangement (which is very rare indeed). Due to financial problems you could not keep to the payment terms. Did you contact the bailiff company by letter or email and if so...what was their response?

 

If you failed to advise the company of your financial difficulties then they in the absence of payment they will no doubt consider that you are refusing to pay.

 

PS: Was the car a new car or old. What is the rough value?

 

I contacted them by phone to explain my circumstances and they agreed to allow me to pay thirty odd pound a month. One payment was made and then I missed the next one due.

 

The car is 11 years old and worth about £600.

[paul26may]

I contacted them by phone to explain my circumstances and they agreed to allow me to pay thirty odd pound a month. One payment was made and then I missed the next one due.

 

The car is 11 years old and worth about £600.

 

Yes it was the 1st visit. Is there a template for a letter of complaint available?

[tomtubby]

Next April the government will be introducing new regulation regarding the bailiff industry and within the next couple of weeks they will also be releasing a copy of the new fee scale. So many bailiffs companies are now charging an "attending to remove" fee to an account at the initial visit and it is extraordinary that the LOCAL authorities are allowing their agents to do this.

 

If you are considering issuing an N1 Claim Form you need to ensure that you have all of the information to hand before taking this course of action and for this reason, you need to write to the local authority and ensure that your letter is headed Formal Complaint.

 

The following is a rough draft which can be changed or amended as you wish:

 

.

.

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

Re: Formal Complaint. PCN number

 

I am writing with regards to the above parking charge notice. From your records you will see that a warrant of execution was obtained and passed to your bailiff provider to enforce. I received an initial letter from xxxx and immediately contacted them to explain that I have financial difficulties and it was agreed that I could repay the debt at £30 per month. Unfortunately, given my financial circumstances I was only able to make one payment and as the account then defaulted your bailiffs made a personal visit to my property to enforce the warrant of execution.

 

During the visit my car was clamped and I was forced to borrow a sum of xxx to secure its release. The amount paid is made up as follows:

 

PCN:

Letter fee:

Levy/Attending to Remove:

 

The basis of this formal complaint is that your agent has charged me an "attending to remove" of approx at the very first visit. From enquiries made it is my understanding that the statutory fee scales provides fixed fees for up to three attendances (to levy upon goods) before an "attending to remove" fee should be applied.

 

As you will of course be aware a bailiff cannot legally remove goods unless a prior valid levy is its place and naturally, a bailiff cannot "assume" in advance that I would either be at home or that I would refuse to pay. Accordingly, there can be no legal basis for allowing your agent to charge an "attending to remove" fee to my account. Furthermore, you may care to note that my vehicle is 11 years old and, if sold privately would raise approx £500. If however it was at sold at auction the sale value would not in any way even cover the "attending to remove" fee.

 

Unless your agent refunds to me the "attending to remove" fee I will be seeking recovery either by way of a N1 County Court claim or alternatively, by way of a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman. With this in mind, could you please respond to confirm whether your Contract with the bailiff company allows for them to charge a removal fee at an initial visit and if so, does the contract specify an amount that can be charged.

 

Please note that depending on your response, I may well be writing further to make a Freedom of Information request for a copy of the contract.

 

Yours sincerely

[paul26may]

Next April the government will be introducing new regulation regarding the bailiff industry and within the next couple of weeks they will also be releasing a copy of the new fee scale. So many bailiffs companies are now charging an "attending to remove" fee to an account at the initial visit and it is extraordinary that the LOCAL authorities are allowing their agents to do this.

 

If you are considering issuing an N1 Claim Form you need to ensure that you have all of the information to hand before taking this course of action and for this reason, you need to write to the local authority and ensure that your letter is headed Formal Complaint.

 

The following is a rough draft which can be changed or amended as you wish:

 

.

.

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

Re: Formal Complaint. PCN number

 

I am writing with regards to the above parking charge notice. From your records you will see that a warrant of execution was obtained and passed to your bailiff provider to enforce. I received an initial letter from xxxx and immediately contacted them to explain that I have financial difficulties and it was agreed that I could repay the debt at £30 per month. Unfortunately, given my financial circumstances I was only able to make one payment and as the account then defaulted your bailiffs made a personal visit to my property to enforce the warrant of execution.

 

During the visit my car was clamped and I was forced to borrow a sum of xxx to secure its release. The amount paid is made up as follows:

 

PCN:

Letter fee:

Levy/Attending to Remove:

 

The basis of this formal complaint is that your agent has charged me an "attending to remove" of approx at the very first visit. From enquiries made it is my understanding that the statutory fee scales provides fixed fees for up to three attendances (to levy upon goods) before an "attending to remove" fee should be applied.

 

As you will of course be aware a bailiff cannot legally remove goods unless a prior valid levy is its place and naturally, a bailiff cannot "assume" in advance that I would either be at home or that I would refuse to pay. Accordingly, there can be no legal basis for allowing your agent to charge an "attending to remove" fee to my account. Furthermore, you may care to note that my vehicle is 11 years old and, if sold privately would raise approx £500. If however it was at sold at auction the sale value would not in any way even cover the "attending to remove" fee.

 

Unless your agent refunds to me the "attending to remove" fee I will be seeking recovery either by way of a N1 County Court claim or alternatively, by way of a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman. With this in mind, could you please respond to confirm whether your Contract with the bailiff company allows for them to charge a removal fee at an initial visit and if so, does the contract specify an amount that can be charged.

 

Please note that depending on your response, I may well be writing further to make a Freedom of Information request for a copy of the contract.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Many thanks for your help! I will get on with this today and send Recorded Delivery on Monday.

[sajeel]

hi, sorry for delay, from my experience they will not do anything with your letter.

The courts do not understand bailiff law you should have never paid them in first instance and since you have paid, you have accepted liability and its going to be a hard battle to get refund, i am going to email you some legal documents.