Bailiff turned up

[afcwben]

Yesterday I got a phone call from my 19yo son in tears.

 

a bailiff had turned up demanding £860

 

this relates to non taxing of his car that has worked its way through the court system to get to the point of a warrant.

 

My son claims he never has seen anything from the courts but this is another issue.

 

My question is this

 

I don't live at the family home anymore even though I pay the mortgage,

my son lives with his mother who wasn't around when this was happening.

 

I spoke to the bailiff (on the phone) to explain that the house belongs to my wife and me and the content are ours

 

the bailiff said unless we provide receipts to prove we own the effects he will take 4 times the value of the debt.

 

He will also call the police to force entry to the house.

 

I was left with no option but to pay the money after ringing round to borrow what I could.

 

I am somewhat aggrieved that I was forced to pay this to prevent my possessions being taken away.

 

My question is this,

 

is it too late for me to do anything about this now I have paid,

as I could request a chargeback from the bank as this was paid under duress,

and can I re-wind the court case for my son?

 

Thanks for any replies.

[dx100uk]

the short answer to both I think is yes.

 

you should have or need to get a statutory declaration done concerning the house and its contents.

 

sadly as they usually do,

the bailiff has somewhat 'exaggerated' what people like the police can/not do here.

 

THEY certainly will not and cannot force entry!!

 

you are going to have to relay the story of not getting any paperwork etc etc.

 

as if it was sent lets say to the wrong address etc

he to can get things moving on that front too.

 

however, if he moved and did not inform the court etc etc

then it could complicate matters.

 

bit diff to guess without the full story though.

 

dx

[afcwben]

Thanks for the reply

 

So the steps I should go through are

 

1) request charge back from bank

2) compile a statutory declaration about the contents of the house (do I need a solicitor for this)

3) ask the court to set aside as docs were never recieved

 

Grateful for replies

[dx100uk]

I would await the more knowledgeable ones to appear

 

to confirm my thoughts

 

dx

[unclebulgaria67]

If this was a court fine and your Son did not receive' further steps notice' of this being passed to bailiffs, he can swear a statutory declaration at Magistrates which will re-wind the process. I presume that if this is agreed that the bailiffs will then be instructed to refund anything in excess of the fine. Worth a try.

[afcwben]

If this was a court fine and your Son did not receive' further steps notice' of this being passed to bailiffs, he can swear a statutory declaration at Magistrates which will re-wind the process. I presume that if this is agreed that the bailiffs will then be instructed to refund anything in excess of the fine. Worth a try.

 

Thanks for the advice my son will doing the statuary declaration monday

[ploddertom]

Is it possible you can find out and post details of how this came about originally. I would hazard a guess this is the DVLA and it went to Court, without any input from your son in which case he will have been fined the maximum.

[afcwben]

Is it possible you can find out and post details of how this came about originally. I would hazard a guess this is the DVLA and it went to Court, without any input from your son in which case he will have been fined the maximum.

From what I have established this is the DVLA for non tax on a car, he did get a letter from them originally but as he was unemployed he asked for time to pay, he heard nothing further till the bailiff

[ploddertom]

That sounds about right for them. Would the original Court have been Cardiff/Swansea as then you should be able to make arrangements to do a Stat Dec at a Court nearer to you on the basis of not knowing proceedings had been issued.

[afcwben]

Update - Spoke to my bank this morning who said they will stop the transactiojn coming through and send me a new card in case they try and charge again. Son is doing the SD

[Ell-enn]

You should now do a statutory declaration regarding the house and it's contents - I have affixed a template which you need to take to a solicitor to have notarised (charge is £10 I think). Make sure you take a few copies of it and tell your wife/son to keep one near the front door - if the bailiff calls again post it to him through the letter box. You should also write to the bailiff company enclosing a copy of the stat dec - send by recorded delivery (with a covering letter) or there is a chance they could say they didn't get it.

[afcwben]

That's great thank you. For my son how does he do the statutory declaration is there template for not receiving court

Papers?

[ploddertom]

Should be your son is invited to Court to make one.

[afcwben]

ok, does he just turn up at the court to do it or does he make an appointment, the only reson I am asking is that he has been trying all day to get hold of the court and gets no answer

[tomtubby]

You need to be very careful to make sure that this is done correctly as it MAY be the case that a Statutory Declaration will NOT be accepted.

 

A debtor may ONLY do a Statutory Declaration in cases where it was not until a bailiff visit that he was aware of the conviction ( and this is what I am worried about).

 

You say that you son received something ( not sure what) and that he spoke to someone. You need to ascertain the following:

 

Did you son receive a summons?

 

Did he respond to it?

 

If so, did he plead guilty?

 

Did he receive a notice from the court to advise that a fine had been imposed?

 

If so...WHAT DID HE DO? If he spoke to the court at this stage then he will have great difficulty getting the court to accept a Stat Dec given that he knew about the fine and spoke to the court !!!

 

My personal opinion is that I would NOT have considered a chargeback at this present time. If the stat dec is accepted, the matter will be "rewound" and you will receive a refund in any event.

 

If the stat dec is rejected, the implication of doing a chargeback will almost certainly lead to a further visit by the bailiff.

 

Be careful for the moment. If you could respond to the above queries this would assist.