Bailiff letter for a parking ticket we never got

jahcub

Hi all sorry that this is a first time I have posted but I am pretty worried about this and the advice here seems so good.

A couple of days ago I received a letter from some bailiffs. It was for a parking ticket from over a year ago for parking outside my girlfriends mothers house. We checked and she drove my car that day and that road is horrendous for parking tickets so it is entirely likely that the car was ticketed. However we never got the ticket, some horrible kids on that street so it is possible one of them took the ticket off or something, but either way we never got it. That is fine, that is why they send out letters. However we never got one of these either. A couple of months after the date of the ticket we moved house but have heard nothing from the council about it until this bailiffs letter.

The letter says we owe £240 with no explanation as to why it is so high and it threatens that they will have bailiffs round here after 7 days (which will be this Wednesday - the 10th of June).

The company is called Excel Civil Enforcement Ltd. I have looked online and have found no nightmare stories about them so have no reason to assume they are not legitimate (happy to be told otherwise though).

There are a couple of things on the letter that concern me, other than the general threatening language which includes the phrase 'warrant of execution'. Firstly it is a crappy printed/photocopied letter, would have thought that a legit company would want to make them selves look legitimate with properly headed paper but I guess they might just be cheap so cant jump to conclusions about this.

Secondly they describe themselves as 'Certified Bailiffs and Sheriffs Officers', having looked up the various types of bailiff it seems that sheriffs officers is a term no longer used (based on the bailiff advice online site, can't post link but it says that High Court Enforcement Officer is the proper term now). Do people still use this term?

Thirdly, though I have just noticed they accept cash payment, the easiest way to pay is credit/debit card. If I do pay I would rather pay cheque as I would not like to trust them with my account details. I generally try and avoid putting account details on paper to pay things so I am not sure what they usually ask for but this asks for the security number (the 3 digit number on the back) is it usual to ask for this on forms?

If it is all legit I do not mind paying it if we genuinely do owe it, though I would be pretty bitter about how high it is and that the council made no effort to contact us.

Sorry this is long and rambling as I am sure you can imagine I am pretty worried about this!

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice that anyone has to offer.

James

Neil_B

Ok drop all the stuff about tatty letter and titles, etc. irrelevant at the mo.

Contact Northampton TEC (issuer of the warrant) and explain. Thye will send you forms to make an 'Out of Time Statutory Declaration' on the basis 'No Notice to Owner received'.

This returns the matter to NtO stage and you appeal as normal.

Get the Stat Dec witnessed for free at your local Cty Ct and do not sign until in the presence of the Court Officer.

Do this IMMEDIATELY. No reason you should not be able to get it sorted tomorrow morning.

Contact Council and Bailiff to inform them of your action. Once the Stat Dec is received at TEC all bailiff action will be put on hold.

An OOT Stat Dec can be opposed but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

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What is timing of the PCN in relation to your change of address? Have you informed DVLA?

Which Council is this?

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jahcub

Hi Neil

Thank you so much for your reply and advice! I will make sure I do all these tomorrow morning and will post again to let you know how it goes.

In response to your questions the PCN was approximately 2 months before we moved house so there should have been ample time for a letter to arrive. I also informed the DVLA as soon as I could about the change of address. On top of that the landlord of the previous address knew me and lived above the property and although I am sure he has not forwarded junk mail he would have done so with important looking letters so I am 100% sure that there is no way we received any letters about it. The council that issued it is Neath and Port Talbot County Borough Council.

Thank you again for your help.

Coblcris

Content deleted. I mis-posted.

Neil_B

Ok good. Now I've got you on board we cover some things to make sure we get it right.

To make the OOT Stat Dec you can download forms from the TEC site I believe. It may be safer to check with them so you use the correct ones.
There is good info about this and other aspects on the advice site you have already viewed - but now you know what to look at.

You will need to know the PCN number and the bailiff has probably conveniently forgotten to mention that! Get it from the Council.

When you phone the Council, apart from asking them to contact bailiff to suspend action, put them on notice that you will require all previous correspondence they have sent and the PCN. You will need this later when we appeal. (later)

Why do I say appeal? Although you seemed to think that locals may have removed a PCN - errr we see a lot where the Council never actually served them. It will be down to them to show they did. But that is all later. Stat Dec first.

maninthesouth

Just checked the web and it appears that Excel Enforcement is a partner with High Court Enforcement Limited