Drakes Baliff I dont have long need help fast.

[DrPepper]

Hi all

I got a Letter threw the post this morning from Drakes Baliff with

 

FINE - £120

Baliff Fee's - £50

 

Total Ammount Due - £170

 

The fine is a police fine. An old from of mine paid drakes for his fine a while ago and he said you can dispute the baliff fee's and dont have to pay them, can someone clerify this with what actually needs paying.

 

Also this is a letter and have not been out to my house, i have phoned them up and extended it to extra 28days.

 

many thanks in advance

[alexteh]

What was the fine for? How old?

[DrPepper]

Fine was from - 23rd January 2007

 

Fine was theft.

Paid for items at B&Q but still had box of lights in my hand as i walked out forgetting that i was carrying them. But the security didnt seem to think so. I explained why would I pay £140 for goods and try and theive something costing £8 rather than pay it.

 

Well police called and fined. Didnt pay the fine as i totaly forgot about it. Now have Drakes asking for above.

 

So i need to know can i just pay Drakes £120 covering the police fine and dispute the baliff charges?

[alexteh]

Probably not. If it works like council tax bailiff fees do, what you can probably do is call the court or whoever and pay the fine directly and then the bailiff has nothing to collect and therefore can't charge you. The difficulty is that as it was a criminal fine, the bailiff has different rights including (I believe) the right to break into your home and remove goods to the value of...

 

What your best bet might be is to just pay up and chalk it up to experience, I'm afraid...

[DrPepper]

If you said that to everyone No one would claim or just deal with Charges

 

There must be a law saying i can either just pay the £120 or i have to pay it in full

 

This is a "Magistrates Court Order" Fine or Baliff thing.

[lookinforinfo]

Your friend is wrong. The bailiffs do not work for nothing. You had the chance

to pay the Court and avoid dealing with the bailiffs. Now that they have been

instructed by the Court to collect the fine they are entitled to charge for

the collection.

What you could query was if they had overcharged. If you look on Drakes

website you will find their list of charges and £50 sounds about right if they

have sent you their standard letter. Exorbitant I would agree, but it is legal.

I suggest you pay it since they can add further charges to their bill.

[DrPepper]

Anyone with EXPERIENCE?

[harrythehawk]

Dr Pepper, you have had some sound advice on here and I suggest you take it on board instead of shouting and balling, also your forgetfulness has cost you twice now so maybe paying this now while you remember and then looking at the fairness of the costs afterwards would be wise.

[DrPepper]

yep some good advice but I have not got £170 or will be able to get it in 28days time.

 

But I could scrape £120.

[alexteh]

I've done some digging and there is a very useful site which explains your situation. I suggest you have a look at the bailiff advice online.co.uk site (sorry not allowed to link here I don't think).

 

It states the following:

 

Can the bailiff force entry into my home?

 

If the bailiff is pursuing you for an unpaid fine of a criminal nature…then the answer, unfortunately, is yes. However, this is more of a threat, and during the past year, bailiffs forced entry into a home on less that 10 occasions.

The right for bailiffs acting on behalf of the Magistrates Court, the power to “enter and search any premises” for the purpose of executing a Warrant of Distress, was granted under Paragraph 3 of Schedule 4A of the Magistrates Courts Act 2004. This provision was also then inserted into the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 which was introduced last year.

The right to force entry however only applies to the collection of unpaid fines which are criminal matters.

 

I can't afford to pay my Magistrates Court fines

 

If you cannot afford to make the payments due under a fine and you are not receiving benefits, you must contact the Magistrates Court immediately and the court will require that you attend a very simple hearing where you will have to complete a list of your Income & Expenditure. It would be for the Magistrate to consider your circumstances and set a payment arrangement that is affordable. For a hearing such as this, there is no fee to pay, and normally you will just be able to turn up at the Magistrates Court without an appointment.

 

Following the hearing, the court will advise the fines office of the arrangement that has been agreed and this should ensure that bailiff action will cease…..you must keep to the payment arrangements.

If you're on benefits, you can apply to the court for nominal repayments to be deducted direct from them.

 

Basically the gist of it is, as it is a criminal fine issued by a Magistrates Court, the bailiff fees are payable and you have to pay!

 

By the looks of it, your best bet is to contact the court to arrange a hearing. It is possible that by paying the £120 to the bailiffs they will be more likely to give you a little time to find the rest but they are perfectly within their rights to break into your house and remove property.

 

Bear in mind how it will look to the magistrate that you have ignored it for so long and then figure out how you want to proceed but my advice would be to pay what you can now and ask for some time to come up with the rest as the bailiff is unlikely to be overly sympathetic. It might help to put a realistic budget together to show the bailiff that you are paying him all you can afford.

[PizzaMaker]

The fine is £120 and the letter (admin) charge is £50. So £170. I would advise you to pay this within your agreement. If not it will be assigned to a bailiff with further costs of £100, making fine £270.

 

Pay the fine on time if you have an agreement to save yourself another £100.

[lookinforinfo]

Dr Pepper, I am sorry my post was not what you wanted to hear.

Experience wise-as you can see I have been contributing to this site for over

a year, plus I have been to Court 4 times. I lost once, drew once and won twice-including winning against Drakes, as well as passing the odd legal exam.

 

I will be surprised if Drakes do give you 28 days, so whenever you go out, make sure your doors and windows are locked. Suggest you write to them

confirming that they gave you 28 days to pay [send by recorded delivery]

otherwise they may pay you visit in the meantime incurring you in extra

costs.

[DrPepper]

thanks for help, i didnt mean to sound rude. I allways record my phone calls when dealing with matters like these. So i have it on my phone and computer now as a recording about the 28days.

Anyway, think i will just pay it as it doe'snt seem like i cant just pay £120 and then dispute the Drakes fee's.

[jontah 2006]

ADVICE PLEASE.one of my now distressed friend, on benefits and disabled, did not pay her penalty for parking ticket.the bailiff left a letter for £500+.i do not really know what to advice.please help.thank you

[tomtubby]

You should start a new thread so that you get the right advice otherwise your query will be caught up with this current question.

[alexteh]

jontah: I think you probably need to speak to the CAB and/or the issuing authority. If you look in the Parking / Traffic Wardens forum here then you will find lots of information on parking tickets specifically. Depending on what type of ticket it is and who issued it, your options may vary but it may well be worth sending the bailiff a letter explaining that your friend is a vulnerable person on benefits and that you would like a complete breakdown of all of the fees (it seems a little high to me). If it is a court appointed bailiff then you should probably go back to the court as I suspect it's similar to the message I posted where it describes "I can't afford to pay my Magistrates Court fines" higher in this thread.

[jontah 2006]

thank you.i will pop over there this pm to actually see the letter.i have read the advice on here.i will follow it to the letter.this site is just fantastic..if i, family or friends need official advice, this CAG is now my first point of call.thank you all so much.