Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

[pepe62]

Dear Sir/ madam,

I know I should have dealt with this after it happened but one needs time and energy to deal with these corrupt Bailiffs and Councils.

My car was clamped on the 13th June 2013 on my front drive at around 6:00 am by Bailiffs. They did not call previously or send first letters etc. And they did not call at the door before clamping the car. I noticed the car clamped as I was leaving to go to work at 7:15. As we lived on a main road with rush hour traffic building up I did not want a drama on my door step so wanted it removed asap. I called them and they duly turned up within 10 minutes and charged £659.27 to remove the clamp for a PCN parking fine. I paid by card and they removed the clamp and left.

I took the matter up with the local authority and was fobbed off that it was a private matter and should take legal address with the Bailiff. As I was concerned they were agents of the local authority and so the Council were responsible so I went through their complaints process which also fobbed me off. It was the manager who was responsible for the Bailiff contract who dealt with my complaint and my stage three was not dealt with independently so I was referred to the ombudsman. Unfortunately I ran out of energy at that stage and did not contact the ombudsman.

So my question is since I was clearly defrauded with illegal practices and overcharging am I out of time to do anything about at this stage ?

many thanks

[ploddertom]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

You will need a breakdown of the charges applied to see if there was anything wrong.
Did you know about the original ticket?
Did you get further notifications from the Council it was still outstanding?
Did you move at any time between committing the offence & Bailiff turning up?

[Guest]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Dear Sir/ madam,

I know I should have dealt with this after it happened but one needs time and energy to deal with these corrupt Bailiffs and Councils.

My car was clamped on the 13th June 2013 on my front drive at around 6:00 am by Bailiffs. They did not call previously or send first letters etc. And they did not call at the door before clamping the car. I noticed the car clamped as I was leaving to go to work at 7:15. As we lived on a main road with rush hour traffic building up I did not want a drama on my door step so wanted it removed asap. I called them and they duly turned up within 10 minutes and charged £659.27 to remove the clamp for a PCN parking fine. I paid by card and they removed the clamp and left.

I took the matter up with the local authority and was fobbed off that it was a private matter and should take legal address with the Bailiff. As I was concerned they were agents of the local authority and so the Council were responsible so I went through their complaints process which also fobbed me off. It was the manager who was responsible for the Bailiff contract who dealt with my complaint and my stage three was not dealt with independently so I was referred to the ombudsman. Unfortunately I ran out of energy at that stage and did not contact the ombudsman.

So my question is since I was clearly defrauded with illegal practices and overcharging am I out of time to do anything about at this stage ?

many thanks

I would take the local authority at their word, and copy them in on your letter before action as the are equally responsible for the bailiffs actions.

I don't see any reason why you could not commence a small claim for this in your local county court against the bailiff firm. The time limit for this would be covered by the SOL and be 6 years from cause of action.

I would start the process with a letter before action to the bailiff giving them 14 days to pay, it may have results in itself.

[pepe62]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

You will need a breakdown of the charges applied to see if there was anything wrong.
Did you know about the original ticket?
Did you get further notifications from the Council it was still outstanding?
Did you move at any time between committing the offence & Bailiff turning up?

Yes I knew about the original ticket but did not receive any letters that the matter was passed to a recovery agent or bailiff. I also had an ongoing dispute

As above I was not notified by the Bailiffs that they were now ordered to collect the outstanding amount of £110. They made not attempt to contact me before clamping

The breakdown of their fees:
Council debt £110
First letter £11.20 - not received
HPI check £20
Enforcement fee £235
Levy fee £65.69 - no levy issued
Schedule 1 section B - £35
Cancel tow fee: £90 -- car was clamped for less than 3 hours
card payment fee - £1
VAT - £91.55
Total £659.44
Paid £659.27 --- This was the amount on original bill so their breakdown did not match it

I have just been reminded myself of the Council's response to my complaint. It is interesting to note that they believe what the Bailiffs tell them.
ie


The Bailiffs confirmed to the Coiuncil that they did post a letter on the 4th June -- 9 days before clamping. Since they did not receive notification of that being returned by Royal Mail as undeliverable then they were satisfied that the letter was legally served ?!


I said that the warrant was never issued or shown when asked. They said the Bailiff would have been more than happy to ptrint off a copy of the warrant. When I asked him he said he did not have one. ( bare in mind I was a bit naïve of the process as it was the first time this had happened)

I said there was no levy issued. They said the Bailiff would have left a levy form at the property or hand delivered it.. But they did not

I said the bailiff did not call at the house before clamping the car. The Council said that the Bailiff is authorised to immobilise a vehicle immediately and is not required to knock on the door, Given that the debt was not forthcoming prior to the debt being referred to the Bailiff they are well within their rights to immobilise the vehicle to ensure the unpaid debt is recovered.

The Council said that no prior visits were made as upon visiting my property the bailiffs located my vehicle which enable them to immediately immobilise it.

I was seeking compensation for the overcharging and illegal approach of the bailiff and the Council said that no compensation will be paid as they are satisfied the warrant of execution was enforced correctly. They wend on to say that if I consider I was over charged then I should take the matter up with the courts. As an agent of the Council I considered it was the Councils responsibility to deal with overcharging

regards

[pepe62]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

I would take the local authority at their word, and copy them in on your letter before action as the are equally responsible for the bailiffs actions.

I don't see any reason why you could not commence a small claim for this in your local county court against the bailiff firm. The time limit for this would be covered by the SOL and be 6 years from cause of action.

I would start the process with a letter before action to the bailiff giving them 14 days to pay, it may have results in itself.

6 years -- that is good news thanks

[wales01man]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

You may have to take the action detailed above seems the Council will not help

[pepe62]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

You may have to take the action detailed above seems the Council will not help

Thanks but can I not take the Council to task over this as it is disgraceful that they can get away with being so belligerent

[ploddertom]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Any complaint you make to any Council about Bailiffs usually results in them passing everything to the bailiffs to investigate themselves. Invariably the Bailiffs never seem to find any fault with themselves and when notifying the Council of their findings they (Council) always believe what the bailiff tells them - after all they are acting on Court instructions and would never do anything wrong, would they. Very few Councils have any prior knowledge of Bailiff matters pre 6 April 2014 and it can be part of a minefield to deal with.

If the Council give you the runaround then get in touch with your local Councillor(s) and ask they intervene on your behalf. In case the Council have forgotten they 100% liable for the actions & charges of their contractors.

Did you ever check to see what address including postcode the Council sent all notifications to? Please also note at this time the Bailiffs did not have to give prior notification of any visit.

[Guest]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Take em to court. If they do not pay set the bailiffs on em, how sweet would that be.
Seriously there is no reason why you cannot commence a small court claim on this, and you can name the council as joint defendant(being as they are the bailiff companies employers).
The council have already said that you must pursue this a a civil action so why not.

[Guest]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Looking at the fees, the first letter fee has been charged in accordance with the law. Simply stating that the letter was not received is not a viable argument. The vehicle would have been levied upon in order for it to be clamped. A small claims court relies on facts, not hearsay. The debtor will claim that the paperwork (notice of seizure, inventory) was not left, the bailiff will claim that it was. Certainly some paperwork was left as the debtor had the bailiffs contact details. Accusations, claims and counter claims are worthless in this situation-hard facts and evidence are what is required.

This leaves the £90 aborted tow truck. This can and should be challenged. We all know that a tow truck wasn't sent for & I doubt the council would sanction removal without the debtor first being given an opportunity to pay. The debtor should find out what policy the council had in place regarding affording debtors a reasonable time to pay, prior to removal. I normally do this by way of FOI.

If going ahead with the claim, I would be more inclined to argue that the levy was invalid as it was carried out in the debtors absence. The bailiff should have knocked the door and explained the purpose of his visit. This would have also given someone who was already in debt the opportunity to settle (as he did a few hours later in any case) without needless fees being added. Fees that have only seemed to have been implemented in order to maximise the bailiffs commission from the visit.

To summarise, forget about the letter fee, there are no grounds for complaint. Forget about arguing that no paperwork was received for the levy (this may well be only deemed a technical error even if it could be proven that no paperwork was left. No losses were caused by this technical error and the validity of the levy would not be affected. Challenge the levy on the basis that I outlined above. The aborted tow truck fee should also be challenged.

I'd have one last go at the CEO in the LBA and also the bailiff company, straight after that, I'd head for small claims. Remember, it will be a lot of time, the bailiffs are unlikely to roll over and this will drag on for some time. You will have moments along the way when you will doubt the strength of your claim and will worry about costs being awarded against you. This will be stressful. My point is that it won't be an easy ride and you should weigh up what you stand to gain, against the aggro to get it.

[Guest]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Just to stop you at your first paragraph, a small claim court depends on balance of probabilities not facts per-say

[Guest]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Rest of it I broadly agree with though

[Guest]

Re: Timeframe to reclaim illigal Bailiff charges

Why are you telling me this?

Do you mistake me for someone who craves your approval?

The letter was deemed delivered under S7 of the Interpretation Act regardless of probabilities.