Marston Bailiffs - payment plan?

[Beth777]

Hi there,

 

In November I recieved a fine from the courts for an IN10 offence. I didn't have the money to pay it, and stupidly stuck my head in the sand. After getting a new job in January, I started to sort out my finances.

 

I wrote to the courts asking to make a payment plan and detailing my full finances to them. I received a letter back in the last couple of weeks saying that it was out of their hands.

 

Today I received a letter from Marston Bailiffs saying that this is my final warning and I must contact them to pay £495, in full, immediately (the original fine was £110) or else they will send round the bailiffs with a locksmith to take my belongings.

 

I cannot pay £495 in full, that's more than a months wages, but I really want to set up a payment plan. I know someone who had contact with Marston before and they wouldn't accept any talk of a payment plan, but there is no way I can get that kind of money together.

 

What can I do here? Can they just come in and take things, even when I am more than willing to set up a plan with them? I live at home with my Mum and the majority of things here are hers, excluding my clothes etc, my phone and my old laptop, which I doubt they would get anything like £495 for!

 

I'm looking for any advice on what to do next, thank you so much for reading this

Beth

[tomtubby]

Beth,

 

You say that you offered a payment plan to the court. It is important to know whether your payment proposal was on receipt of a Further Steps Notice and whether you made the offer of payment within the time scale provided on that document (within 10 days) or whether you only contacted the court on receipt of the letter from Marston's.

 

A few questions if you don't mind:

 

I assume that you are single..is this right?

 

Are you working?

 

If you have a car, please be careful as this may be removed.

 

PS: Unfortunately, I will be away until Sunday but you will get excellent advice from others on here.

[Beth777]

I will be honest here and say that I virtually ignored all the court letters and stuck my head in the sand, until I had a job. I contacted the court way before this letter from Marstons, and while it wasn't in response to a Further Steps Notice, I couldn't say whether it was before or after this was received (or even if I received it at all, I have looked through the letters I have since and I can't find this one). The Marston's letter I got on Friday morning, I contacted the court in January.

 

I don't mind in any way answering questions.

 

I am single, I am working part time. I don't have the car any more, when I got the 6 points I assumed insurance would be out of the question and as it was a very cheap runaround anyway I gave it to my Dad.

 

I am going to try to call them in the morning, but I want to know if there is anything in particular I should say? And if they are likely to slam the phone down more or less and refuse to negotiate? Thanks for your help