Collectica - Notice of Enforcement

[bustthematrix]

Hi All

 

I have just received a 'Notice of Enforcement' from Collectica Enforcement Services (CES). I got it in today's post but notice it's issued 2nd of May?

 

Anyway, apparently, I owe £10 to HMCTS.

CES have now added a £75 'Compliance Stage Fee' thus raising the 'debt' to £85 now due for payment. The Notice states I have until May 15th to 'pay or agree a payment arrangement' with CES.

 

I am OK to pay the £10 but DO NOT agree with having to pay the £75 and would like to challenge it.

 

THIS notice from CES is the first time I am being made aware of this shortfall.

The £10 debt is nothing but a shortfall from a court fine from July 2013. I had setup an instalment payment arrangement by DD with the HMCTS payments company to pay the fine in monthly instalments which I 'd been doing up until about Jan/Feb when the full amount was cleared (or so I thought).

HMCTS setup the monthly payment arrangement AMOUNTS to clear the debt, not me. I assumed they knew what they were doing and that payments would be taken until the debt amount was cleared in full.

 

Around March/April (have to check not sure), I stopped the DD payment setup on my Online Banking as I had waited until they stopped taking the payments for about 2 months - assuming that the balance had been cleared in full. I originally owed £400, and paid £100 July 2013 and £50pcm from August - January to clear the balance.

 

I am now minded to send a £10 cheque to Collectiva (or direct to the court??) for the O/S £10 I was unaware of whilst challenging the £75 'stage fee' as this is the FIRST I am hearing of the fact that it was oustanding.

 

Surely I should have been notified, as a compliant payer, that there was a £10 shortfall and given the opportunity to clear it rather than straight to a Debt Collector with further charges added on?!? Absolutely not right.

 

Kindly please offer your thoughts on how best to go about this.

 

Regards

Btm

Edited May 9, 2014 by bustthematrix
Clarity

[ploddertom]

In my view they have not given you a clear 7 days notice. If dated the 2 May it would be deemed to be delivered on the 2nd business day after posting. Seeing as the 2nd was a Friday before a Bank Holiday weekend then the earliest it would be deemed to be delivered is Weds 7 May. The first clear day is Thurs 8 May, Sunday cannot be included so the 7th day clear day should be Thurs 15 May which then means nothing more can be done until the Friday 16 May. They are well out in terms of timing.

 

Before the Enforcement Co became involved did you receive any notification from the Court you were in arrears? If not then you should contact the Fines officer to find out what is going on. it appears to me that the Court have not followed procedure and should take this back and let you just pay the £10. If however it can be proved they have complied then unfortunately you may be saddled with the Compliance Fee.

[ploddertom]

How was the Notice from Collectica sent - 1st or 2nd class via Royal Mail or via another mail carrier?

[HCEOs]

It does seem strange as to why it has taken so long to get to you so you should contact CES today and ask for the date of postage. If it was posted on the 2nd you will have to pay all of it by the 15th.

 

If you do not pay, they will send out an enforcement agent and this will add a further £235 to the bill.

 

This is perfectly lawful and it is therefore better that you make payment of the £85 as soon as possible.

[bustthematrix]

They are well out in terms of timing.

Seems so to me, not sure what my rights are if they are though??

 

Before the Enforcement Co became involved did you receive any notification from the Court you were in arrears?

Absolutely nothing. As I said above, the sum was being paid via a DD arrangement that THEY setup for that very purpose. Having checked my online banking just now, I notice that their DD arrangement is in fact STILL ACTIVE.

If not then you should contact the Fines officer to find out what is going on. it appears to me that the Court have not followed procedure and should take this back and let you just pay the £10. If however it can be proved they have complied then unfortunately you may be saddled with the Compliance Fee.

Please see comments.

 

I most certainly have not had ANY reminders or warnings of any kind. What procedure are they supposed to follow?

[bustthematrix]

How was the Notice from Collectica sent - 1st or 2nd class via Royal Mail or via another mail carrier?

Not sure based on the envelope. The stamp bit says "Delivered by Royal Mail C9 10002" if that helps?

[bustthematrix]

It does seem strange as to why it has taken so long to get to you so you should contact CES today and ask for the date of postage. If it was posted on the 2nd you will have to pay all of it by the 15th.

 

If you do not pay, they will send out an enforcement agent and this will add a further £235 to the bill.

 

This is perfectly lawful and it is therefore better that you make payment of the £85 as soon as possible.

Please clarify on why this is 'perfectly lawful'?

I had and still have a valid payment arrangement in place. If in fact £10 was still owed as alleged, why did they not simply debit it along with the earlier Direct Debits?

Also, had I actually cancelled the DD mandate [which thankfully I haven't], should they not have notified me of the outstanding amount before referring it to a debt collector? There's been no refusal to pay or failure to contact/respond on my part so why should my costs have to increase?

 

Definitely seems far from 'perfectly legal' to me.

[HCEOs]

If the payment was missed due to a fault of your own then yes, it's perfectly legal. There is no prior warning, the Notice is your warning that an enforcement agent may attend.

 

If however it is their error then I'm sure you have a case to have the Compliance Fee removed.

 

It will come down to why the payment was not made.

 

Whatever the case, it is imperative this is resolved before the expiry of the 7 clear days.

[bustthematrix]

It will come down to why the payment was not made.

 

Whatever the case, it is imperative this is resolved before the expiry of the 7 clear days.

Assuming I'm not lying then, in light of what I've said about an ACTIVE direct debit arrangement STILL in place with HMCTS, what do you propose I do?

 

i.e. it's clearly their fault for not taking that last £10 and that's even if I actually still owe it.

I've not seen any schedule of payments for the fine since I started making them.

[ploddertom]

 

I most certainly have not had ANY reminders or warnings of any kind. What procedure are they supposed to follow?

 

You should have received a letter from the Court asking you to bring your account up to date.

[ploddertom]

Not sure based on the envelope. The stamp bit says "Delivered by Royal Mail C9 10002" if that helps?

 

We'll take that as being a 3rd party postal service. The timelines we alluded to earlier would be based on an item sent first class, for this I would add an extra 3 days.

[ploddertom]

Assuming I'm not lying then, in light of what I've said about an ACTIVE direct debit arrangement STILL in place with HMCTS, what do you propose I do?

 

i.e. it's clearly their fault for not taking that last £10 and that's even if I actually still owe it.

I've not seen any schedule of payments for the fine since I started making them.

 

You must contact the Court ASAP on Monday to try to establish what has happened.

[tomtubby]

There are a number of serious issues here.

 

Firstly, the date of the letter and the date when it is delivered has been a problem for many years and I clearly identified this problem in my response to the Consultation on bailiff reform.

 

Secondly, there is a serious matter here of 'proportionality' of issuing a Distress Warrant for just £10 in the full knowledge that the letter alone would cost 7 times the value of the debt and that if unpaid, would increase by a further £235.

 

Thirdly, with an unpaid court fines there is a legal obligation for the court to send to you a Further Steps Notice to advise that there is a default on the account and that unless paid within 10 days of the date of the notice that a warrant would be issued.

 

It is vital that you speak with the court in the morning. Please post back to let us know the outcome.

[tomtubby]

The code number (CP 10002) is applicable to TNT MAIL ( which is effectively a 'third class' postal provider. The following information has been posted on a forum dedicated to Royal Mail staff called Royalmailchat.c.uk

.

 

 

"Licences held by distribution companies, which consolidate and sort letters for their customers, and convey sorted mail to the appropriate Royal Mail mail centres:

 

The major players are UK Mail (C9 10001),

 

TNT Post (C9 10002)

 

and

 

Secured Mail (C9 10017) - the latter taking over DSA operations from DHL Global Mail in 2012.

 

The reference to 'Royal Mail' merely indicates that 'Royal Mail' were responsible for the last part of the delivery procedure.

[brassnecked]

Using these "Third Party" mail providers will almost certainly ensure Collectica can engineer no response from a debtor within the 7 days from the date on the letter therefore allowing them to add the £235 to the £75 for the letter. the whole thing stinks, they should be forced to send First Class.

 

As to tomtubby's illustration of proportionality, the powers that be would argue that £10 is owed to the State, therefore the application of enforcement fees that increase the debt by levels Wonga could only hope for is entirely justified as in the end justifies the means, and besides their entrepreneurial enforcement contractors need to turn a profit. Strewth I am cynical this morning, must be down to Eurovision....

[tomtubby]

Is there any update on this serious issue?