Collectica and Car tax fine - missed payments - help

[Steve McGill]

Hi folks,

 

 

just after some help if anyone is kind enough to give it:

 

 

my wife was caught on ANPR a few months ago driving with out road tax (she forgot to renew, was only 3 weeks out of date!)

and was sent a fine of £145.

 

 

As we are on a low income at present we made an agreement with the court to pay £5 a week back to pay the fine and costs etc which she did.

 

 

Got to around half way and our son was called into hospital for a vital operation

and she consequently forgot to pay the fine on the weeks she was in hospital.

 

 

We then, rather quickly got a letter from the court telling us that the fine was now in the hands of "collectica"

and that they would take over the fine from us.

 

My wife pleaded with the court to allow her to pay the balance off (we'd loaned some money from relatives £85.12) but they refused,

saying that Collectica would soon be in touch.

 

 

Weeks have gone by and no contact from them at all,

 

 

I realise that my wife should have contacted them but there you go!

 

 

Out of the blue, however, we have received a visit from the Bailiff and the fine has now gone from £85 to £385!!

 

As it happens my wife was at work at the time and I answered the door,

 

 

I told him that she would ring him when she returned.

 

 

She rang him and told him that she didn't get paid till the end of the month and that she'd have to discuss things then.

 

Now, at the end of the month she rang him, he wanted the total amount,

or he would visit again and take the value out of the house,

no compromises or otherwise!

 

 

My wife and I can neither afford or are willing to pay this new, inflated sum!

 

I have since spoken to both Collectica and the court and neither are willing to help,

 

 

enve spoke to the fines officer at the court and she has told me to write to Collectica about it.

 

we are on a very restricted budget and simply cannot afford this, what can we do?

 

any replies would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

The forum guys should be along later with advice for you, please bear with us until they're able to get here.

 

My best, HB

[ploddertom]

You say you receieved a letter from the Court - was this a Final Steps Notice and did it ask that you bring the account up to date?

 

Have you received any letters from Collectica prior to their visit?

[Steve McGill]

Hi there thanks for the reply,

 

Hand on heart, we received one letter and one letter only from the court

saying that the matter was now in the hands of Collectica and that they would be dealing with it from now on.

 

 

It was at this stage my wife rang them and asked them to take the payment in full (£85.12) and

they refused, stating that the fine was in Collectica's hands and they would deal with it.

Since then we have had NO communication from with either the court or Collectica

till the 18th of Aug when the Bailiff called with the "Removal order".

 

I rang the bailiff and he said that no payment scheme was acceptable

and that the "debt" needed to be settled in full within 3 days or they will visit and take goods.

 

Spoke to the court and the "fines officer" said that the debt was purely and completely in Collectica's hands

and that she had no power to do anything, she did, however advise me to write a letter to Collectica

to tell them of our circumstances (which I think will be a waste of time and paper tbh) and ask them to return the debt to the court.

 

Thanks

[ploddertom]

I'm concerned you appear not to have received the Further Steps Notice - this is a legal requirement. Also you should have received a Notice of Enforcement from Collectica inviting you to contact them to make an arrangement to pay. Dou you have any problems with your post?

 

I don't wish to pry but is there anyone within the household who is chronically sick or diisabled?

[Steve McGill]

Hi,

our post is often slow (we live in a sleepy seaside town in Northumberland) but we usually get our letters eventually

 

 

but as, said, only the notice of transferral to Collectica is the only correspondence we have received

(aside from the hand delivered note from the Bailiff).

 

 

Our son was born with a congenital birth defect which means he cannot eat and needs to be peg fed,

we are in and out of hospital regularly which places an additional burden on our finances (which are already stretched tight by our IVA).

 

 

Infact, it was when my wife and I were in Hospital with our son for tow weeks that two of the weekly payment were missed and the trouble started.

 

THanks again for your kind help!

[dx100uk]

urm..I wonder if vulnerability status plays a part here?

[dx100uk]

also whats this about an IVA?

 

 

start a thread in the general debt forum and tell us the story on that.

 

 

TBH that should be failed if you cannot afford to pay these priority debts

 

 

dx

[ploddertom]

urm..I wonder if vulnerability status plays a part here?

 

Quite likely.

 

To the original poster - are you using your real name as user name, if so you will be easily identifiable. If necessary we can arrange a change of name for you.

 

It would appear from what you say that your family is classed as potentially vulnerable. Have you advised the Enforcement Agent & Company of this, it will also pay to inform the Court as well. To do this you will need to provide some form of proof of the issues you have. Also follow dx100's advice and start a new thread about your IVA.

[Steve McGill]

Hi, yes, it is my real name, how could I change it? Thanks so much for your help folks, it really means alot!

 

I will post about my IVA, although it's probably the same old story, couple have kids, realise they can't afford to pay all the bills with the reduced income they now have, panic and take the easiest route to avoid Bankruptcy!

[ploddertom]

Give us a name to use & I'll see about getting it changed for you?

[tomtubby]

There appears to be some confusion here. There is no procedure in place at the Magistrates Court that provides for them to write a letter to advise that the debt has been passed to an enforcement company (in this case Collectica Ltd). The only letter that the court can send is called a Further Steps Notice which is effectively a notice of default and advising the debtor (in this case your wife) that if payment is not made within a specified period (10 working days) that the court can take ONE OR MORE of the 'further steps' listed. One of this 'steps' is to authorise a 'Warrant of Control' to be sent to a firm of bailiffs and additional fees of up to £310 will become payable.

 

I am therefore concerned as to why such a letter would have been sent. Also, the court need to be asked WHY they failed to send a Further Steps Notice.

 

Of further concern is that when the new regulations were imposed on 6th April there is a legal requirement to send a Notice of Enforcement to he debtor giving a further period to pay BEFORE a personal visit is made.

 

Before going any further can you check whether your address is correctly recorded as this could explain why mail items had not been received.

 

Secondly...and most importantly, if evidence can be provided of 'vulnerability' all enforcement companies are encouraged to 'rewind' the account back to the Compliance Stage. This will mean that the enforcement fee of £235 should be removed. The Compliance fee of £75 will however remain.

 

The important word here is 'evidence'. Given what you have written above I am more than satisfied that 'vulnerability' can be established. I also assume that yur son has been awarded DLA. Can you past back asap as it would seem that Collectica Ltd need to be advised of the 'vulnerability' as soon as possible. Advice can be given as to how this can be done.

 

PS: I notice the mention of IVA. Are you under an IVA yourself? Is the IVA a joint one.

[Steve McGill]

Hi, my wife caved in today and had to loan money from her mother to pay this fine as the bailiff has been round three times now. Yes, our son is on the Higher rate DLA and the IVA is joint between my wife and I. Spoke to Collectica about claiming the costs back as we are a vulnerable family and he poo pooed it, saying there was nothing that could be done now... Can something still be done as paying back this loan is going to be tough and I hate borrowing from family...

[tomtubby]

Collectica need to be made aware of the 'vulnerability' and hopefully they will agree to refund the 'enforcement fee' of £235. Have you managed to make enquiries as to why correspondence had not been received?