Hel with bailiffs

[Lennox]

Hi all

, there was someone on there in a very similar situation to my girlfriend and I was wondering if you could help.

Basically her tv license ran out and she couldn't afford to renew it for two weeks and in the mean time got investigated and taken to court and fined £870.00


This was around 6 weeks ago and on receiving the letter my girlfriend rang the tv license to set up a payment plan, they said it was out of there hands and a court matter, there was no number for the courts only a email so she emailed them twice and had no response back.

In the original letter there was a paying in slip to pay the full amount but as she's a single mother of one paying that sort of money was unreasonable .

She never heard back from the the courts and today received a letter from martston demanding £870.00 by Wednesday or they are going to use a locksmith to enter her house and take her belonging.

What I want to know is do they have the power to use a locksmith to do this?

How do we set up a payment plan?

Please find attached a photo of the letter

Thanks for taking the time to read this

Thanks

Danny

[Milo]

Re: Hel with bailiffs

Danny,

There are quite a few 'gaps' that need filling.

You say that your girlfriend could not afford a new TV licence and 'got investigated' and fined £870. This is not how the system works at all. What has to happen is that a TV Licence Enquiry Agent would need to visit her to take an interview. She would have been asked to sign a statement and following this she would receive a Court Summons.

With the court summons would he a Statement of Financial Circumstances form . The information provided is used by the court when determining the court fine. Following the hearing (which I assume she did not attend) she would be sent a Notice of Fine/Collection Order. At this point she could have offered to pay the fine to the court at an affordable payment rate.

If she fails to contact the court then before considering issuing a warrant of control the court must by law sen her a Further Steps Notice giving her a final opportunity to contact the court to make payment arrangements.

She should then receive a Notice of Enforcement from the bailiff company. A compliance fee of £75 is added to the debt. I assume that this is the letter that she has received.

What is very worrying here is the amount being requested. I am assuming the £870 includes the £75 fee but even so...this is a huge sum to be fined.

PS: As you can see from above, there should have been a lot of correspondence before getting to the stage of bailiffs.

Did she receive all the notices?

Can you check the amount that is being requested?

What are her circumstances? (single/single mother/on benefits/ 'vulnerable' circumstances etc)

[Lennox]

Re: Hel with bailiffs

She did receive a letter and she emailed them to set up a payment plan originally and never heard anything back

i assume it was the court that she enailed

she hasn't received any other letter atal and did have the interview which she signed something.

she is a single mother of one and receives tax credits and other benefits.she is struggling finalicily and we do not live together. She is very worried about her stuff being taken and cannot get the money together atal

i have said I will pay the original fine of £560 but not will to pay this amount the bailiffs £870

how do I pay the original fine? Can I simply do it online and use the account number?

[Milo]

Re: Hel with bailiffs

She did receive a letter and she emailed them to set up a payment plan originally and never heard anything back

i assume it was the court that she enailed

she hasn't received any other letter atal and did have the interview which she signed something.

she is a single mother of one and receives tax credits and other benefits.she is struggling finalicily and we do not live together. She is very worried about her stuff being taken and cannot get the money together atal

i have said I will pay the original fine of £560 but not will to pay this amount the bailiffs £870

how do I pay the original fine? Can I simply do it online and use the account number?

Thank you for your speedy reply.

New bailiff regulations were put into effect on 6th April last year and provide that from any payments made, the Compliance Fee of £75 is deducted at source and the balance is distributed on a 'pro rata' basis between payment of the court fine and bailiff fees. Accordingly, unless payment is made of the 'amount due' (which includes bailiff fees) ....enforcement can...and will continue.

A further difficulty is that if you make payment to the court or online HMCTS will simply forward the payment to the enforcement company so that they can deduct the fees in accordance with legislation.

What your girlfriend needs to do is to call the court to ask the reason why she had not received a Further Steps Notice. She also needs to find out why she had not received the Notice of Enforcment from the bailiff company. Given that she is stating that she had not received the letter from the court or from the bailiff company it is possible that there could be an error with her address.

She needs to make these enquiries right now.