Bailiff response letter re - attendance/van fee without levy for pcn

[tunz]

Hi

I recently complained to the local council & Bailiffs having been charged £267.44

(my o/h paid the bailiff in full over the phone) for a PCN.

 

I was questioning the 'fee's' as we did not speak to the bailiff face to face and no levy was made on any goods.

 

Eventually I received the breakdown of fees -

 

24th July 2012 - Debt - £112.00

21st Sept 2013 - 1st letter fee - 11.20

15th Oct 2013 - visit fee 1 - 35.00

15th Oct 2013 - attendance/van - 80.00

18th Oct 2013 - payment by d/c - 2.00

18th Oct 2013 - payment by d/c - 2.00 (my o/h paid 2 separate amounts as he borrowed the remaining balance from a friend)

+ VAT - 25.24

 

In my initial letter I questioned -

1. the 'attendance/van fee' as no levy was made

2. charging £2 to take each payment via debit card

 

The bailiff has responded with this -

 

In relation to your comment regarding the Attendance/van fee not being able to be charged due to no levy being made - This relates to local taxation regulations therefore, this is not applicable.

 

Our fees are as per the statuary legislation being schedule 1 of the Enforcement of road traffic fees (certificated bailiffs) Regulations 1993 (as amended)

 

The debit card transaction are able to be charged by us as the regulations only apply to matters subject to contract

 

I'm a bit unsure as to how to respond to this

- any help would be greatly appreciated

[dx100uk]

well what he has done is to put down the wrong reasons for the £35 & the £80

 

under the guidelines on council PCNS and bailiffs

 

they can charge those 2 sums, just not the right reason listed.

 

dx

[tunz]

oh…. I thought they have to levy goods first no matter what the debt?

[josephbloggs]

For council parking fines Upto three visits can be charged, and one van/enforcement fee can be charged regardless of a levy

Prior levy for a van fee applies to council tax and business rates

[tunz]

oh right…. isn't there something about the fee's not exceeding the initial debt or is that just in relation to council tax?

 

thanks for your help…

[lamma]

"and one van/enforcement fee can be charged regardless of a levy"

How so ?

[tunz]

I was under the impression a levy had to be actioned to charge a fee - lamma…

 

I am now very confused

[tomtubby]

This is by far the most "abused" fee that is charged by bailiffs.

 

With council tax the regulations state clearly that a fee for "attending to remove (where no removal is made)" may only be applied "following the levy".

 

For parking penalties the regulations do NOT state that the ATR fee needs to be applied "following the levy" and this is why bailiffs enforcing road traffic debts are able to exploit the weakness in the description.

 

My personal opinion is that charging of an "attendance to remove" fee at a 1st or even 2nd visit can neither be right or ethical.

[tomtubby]

Also of course District Judge Avent in the Detailed Assessment case of Culligan v Marston did NOT agree that a van fee can be applied !!!

[tunz]

thanks tomtubby could I just ask about another thing I've read… that is that the fee's cannot exceed the amount of the original debt? (i'm thinking it may only relate to council tax now... if at all)

 

I've read pages and pages on this subject on loads of other websites too and they all seem to be of the same opinion…. 'no levy, no fee'… so I'm glad I asked about this and I will put this incident down to experience on this occasion :/

 

(A basic summary page would be a great help (there may be one that I have missed somewhere) with a simple description of the do's & don't's and when fee's can/can't be applied etc )

 

Thanks again everyone… your help is much appreciated

[dementedfeline]

tunz, end of this LGO report has it summarized nicely rather than applying all the amendments to the original published legislation