Need advice, bailiff collecting tomorrow

ally663

You seem to have resigned yourself to him coming in your property. He may not. If all he thinks he's going to get is a £20 TV he'll probably just try other tactics. If thats all the TV is worth I wouldnt even look at at it as any kind of leverage. There isnt any, apart from standing your ground, let him have what the levy says he can and tell him what you can afford, and a clear idea of the when and how the rest is coming, and then let him know its a take it or leave it situation. If you cannot get funds from parents (which I wouldnt advise by the sounds of their situation) and you have no spare income untill next month when your circumstances change and all you have to your name is £20 TV, a car with no Levy (YET) and a computer with no Levy (YET). If thats the case why let him in? Do any discussing of deals via email or letter. That way you have it in writing at least. If he wants to attempt break in for a £20 TV then open the door, just make sure any other items of worth have been moved out because you can bet your life he'll walk right past the £20 TV and look around. You know you can sell your goods that are not on a Levy to a trusted friend (for say £1 each) and keep receipts for a bailiff to see what you do or do not own. You wont appeal to a bailiff's good nature because when in the bailiff clothes they do not have one, it is about getting the money by any means they can get away with. Some will try to get away with tactics outside the law and some are pretty law abiding but what none of them are is interested in you or your situation. But if they can see getting anything other than a TV and a fresh offer is going to be blood from a stone they may just have to take your offer. Im no expert and its just a personal opinion.

DDme

Currently in a bailiffs debacle myself, I have found the 'screw the bailiffs' website quite useful. It contains information applicable to most situations. Google it(can't post the link)

These laws are archaic and easily abused. Our council tax bailiff blackmailed us, and took over £200 in fees, all before 'collection day' - they did not ever come out to our house! The debt was only £250! We are just now realising, we got screwed.

FlyingHigh_3

hi ally

thanks for that, my one question is... all this talk of my current car / computer etc. being levied.. does that not require my signature and some kind of agreement from me? I know they can try and blag their way around it, lie to me, etc. and claim whatever they like (which means I have to stand my ground, tell them I know it's complete BS and they're only entitled to take what's on the levy)

I mean, how can something be levied and taken / clamped / towed etc. if I haven't agreed to it on the original agreement? otherwise, what's the point of the agreement in the first place?

At the moment, my plan is pretty much that.. stand my ground, let him take the TV if he insists (he claimed that there was nothing he could do at this point, it was either collect the goods or I pay up in full, the latter of which I can't do and the former won't even net him a fraction of the debt)... as I understand it, his job is to collect money, regardless of how he gets it, if I stand my ground and convince him the telly is worth nothing, offer him a £40 payment up front (all I can afford at the moment) and offer a repayment plan instead then he has to either give in and accept my demands... OR be a stubborn oik and take the telly. I'd rather it was the former, as I've mentioned before, I will be more than able to begin repayments again from the start of next month but until then I can't offer him anything more than

I just need to know 100% that this is right:

He can only take what is on the levy, currently my old car and my tv. If this is the case then I know I can stand my ground and ignore any lies he tries to pull to let me let him take more than he is allowed to.

If that is 100% true then I know what to do

FlyingHigh_3

Just one small thing, on the subject of fees... the £90 fee was added, according to the letter I have in front of me, because...

"You should note that if we do seize and remove your goods it is unlikely that the further costs will be less than £90.00"

....they never came and seized my goods else I wouldn't be here posting about the threat of them coming and seizing my goods!!! Definitely going to ask for a breakdown of their fees and I'm very tempted to phone the bailiffs offices now too.

FlyingHigh_3

Can anyone confirm if I'm right on the fact he can absolutely only take what's on the levy? Even if I'm not there? I'm going to move my computer / car / etc. tonight before he comes around tomorrow so that my flat will have nothing but a big stack of books and lots of tat in it but I'd rather not have to.

edit: and just to confirm, my old car and tv are the only items on the levy from the previous payment arrangement

FlyingHigh_3

Little update, might as well use this thread as a place to keep notes for myself and to help others if they read it I guess

I've contacted the council and explained the situation to them, they say there's unfortunately no way they can get the debt back from the bailiff until the bailiff hands it back to them but I think it's on record that I'm more than happy to repay the debt.

Also tried contacting Jacobs directly (rather than the bailiff) to try haggling with someone in authority there and ended up sitting listening to the phone ring... and ring... and ring... and ring... to no avail. the gits.

Now I'm torn, should I contact the bailiff now and talk him through my situation again (and to try and get him to see reason) or should I just wait for the knock at the door tomorrow morning?...

bellrooster

Grrrrr Jacobs, I have had dealings with them..

I wish I had some good advice for you but I don't. I've tried talking to both Jacobs head office and their bailiffs but I didn't get anywhere.

I think that it's always worth a try though, just explain and explain your situation. maybe it might be worth writing a letter to jacobs telling them that you are willing to pay the debt, and send a copy of the letter to the council so it's on their records too. (if you decide to do that do it recorded delivery). I know it won't get there before the morning, but it shows your trying to settle your debt.

good luck!

FlyingHigh_3

thanks bellrooster think I'm going to need some luck!

I'm just on hold to national debt line at the mo, didn't realise it was a free call (and even better, doesn't seem like O2 are charging for it!) hoping they might have some encouraging words for me but I'm going to move the most of the valuables out into the car and park the car somewhere out of the way... my desktop computer will be taken apart (I'm posting this from a laptop which is technically a 'tool of the trade' - I'm a web designer) and spread around the flat.. there's plenty of computer related debris to hide it all in, I can't imagine any bailiff wanting to sift through a bunch of motherboards and graphic cards to work out if there's any value there!

Fingers crossed for tomorrow anyway thanks for the words of encouragement bellrooster, I'll be sure to keep posting here to let you all know what's happened.

FlyingHigh_3

Sorry, just one more thing I remembered... when I spoke to the council, they said the debt was for £329.77, and not £444.27 as Jacobs are claiming. Just one more thing to hold onto as ammunition I guess?

ally663

Hi, sorry I havent logged on for a few days. I am having my own battle at the moment. Well by now you may have had your visit but for your sake i hope not. You were totally right to take precautions to protect your other possessions. This is probably out of date now for you but hopefully national debt line confirmed that the bailiff can not take what is not on the Levy. The reason he might still insist on visiting is not for your offer of £40, it may be becasue it means he can start charging you more. . . .vans etc. You see untill a bailiff has been in the property once and levied goods, they can only ever charge you £24 for one letter/visit and £18 for the second, £42 per year the bailiff is in receipt of the debt. This is why the advice is NEVER let them in. But it is hard to live in fort nox and they can creep up when you least expect them. If you can, post an update, I would be interested to hear what happened. I hope you held your own, quoted the law/rules and got him to accept an offer and not your possessions. All the best.