Marston's have taken my car - unpaid mersey flow toll charge (I have ignored it until this point).

[jaynej]

Marston's have taken my car today after being made aware my daughter is disabled, I have a baby and I'm on benefits , which in my understanding means I'm vulnerable.

My car was bought last year for £3500 , the debt is for £491 unpaid toll charge (I have ignored it until this point). 

The debt collector did not care about me being vulnerable, didn't offer to set up a payment plan,  just I pay the full amount or my car would be towed.

She blocked me in ,had another bailiff with her and rang the police to attend who took their side. 

Is this not theft?

I want my car back! 

[honeybee13]

Hello, welcome to CAG. I hope we can help you.

Could you tell us which toll you didn't pay please? It might help us to understand who instructed Marstons.

Best, HB

 

[jaynej]

It's for mersey flow

[unclebulgaria67]

You need to contact Mersey Flow  about this, as Marston are following their recovery instructions.

The circumstances you mentioned  would not stop them taking the car and selling it to recover the amount.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jaynej]

What will contacting mersey flow do at this point? 

This is from mersey flows website 

What happens if a debt is passed to Marston Holdings?

At this stage, the debt is now handled by Marston Holdings.

Anyone receiving a Notice of Enforcement from Marston Holdings will need to pay their debt to them, not to merseyflow.

[dx100uk]

correct 

so why did ignore everything and not pay the £2 fee.

being vulnerable is not a magic bullet against bailiffs.

why did you not simply pay the toll, you would of had months of letters about it.

thread title updated.

did you get the original PCN from Mersey Flow?

 

[jaynej]

I completely forgot to pay it at the time, it's a pay online one.

I honestly can not remember getting a PCN and the bailiff started maybe two weeks ago.

I have 4 kids so alot going on ,I didn't think it would come to this.

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes as you say you ignored it all to this point, you cannot go back to Mersey Flow.

If the PCN was not received, you could go through the appeals process

Merseyflow - Traffic Penalty Tribunal

WWW.TRAFFICPENALTYTRIBUNAL.GOV.UK

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Merseyflow PCN / Appeal Process Merseyflow PCN / Appeal Process Find out what happens after you have received a Merseyflow Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) issued by

If you received the PCN etc, if you want the car back, you will have to pay Marstons the amount that is now due.

You could try to contact Marstons head office to make a complaint

 

Marston customer complaints form - WordPress on Azure

WWW.MARSTONHOLDINGS.CO.UK

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Customer complaints form Contact us To pay online

 

[Bailiff Advice]

You also mention that your daughter is disabled and that you have a baby and that you are on benefits and therefore believed that you are 'vulnerable'. You also say that you were not offered a payment arrangement. 

It is sadly the case, that the word 'vulnerable' is used so very often when it comes to the recovery of any debt. With bailiff enforcement, it is vitally important that any person receiving correspondence from an enforcement agent should contact the company straight away and outline their 'vulnerability'.

I should make clear that when it comes to vulnerability, it is for YOU to outline in detail HOW your vulnerability affects your ability to make payment. In this case, you should have been contacting the company to outline that you are on benefits and a payment arrangement could have been agreed. You would of course need to provide an Income & Expenditure. 

Most important, is your mention that you had not received any correspondence from Merseyflow. You clearly have two Merseyflow PCN's totalling £381 and it would appear that the enforcement company have added an additional £110 for the removal of the car (bringing the total to £491)

If you had not received correspondence, then you need to check your V5C (Log Book). Have you moved address? Did you update your records with DVLA?

It is your choice at the moment, but I would urge you to see is there is any way that you can raise the money to collect the car. My reason behind this is that every day, storage charges are added to the debt. 

Please do post back once you have ascertained whether the log book has the correct address. 

[jaynej]

I completely forgot to pay it at the time, it's a pay online one.

I honestly can not remember getting a PCN and the bailiff started maybe two weeks ago.

I have 4 kids so alot going on ,I didn't think it would come to this.

It was for one PCN not two and from last July so a long time has passed.

I ended up paying for my car to be released and checking with Mersey flow if I had any other pcns which I did 

I've managed to get them sorted too. 

I had been in a wacky head space and this has been a wake up call.