advice on bailiff's fees for parking ticket

canyouhelp

If anyone has any advice for me I would appreciate it. I will be calling Bailiff Advice tomorrow...

I was woken up yesterday morning to be told that my car was clamped for an unpaid parking ticket. I haven't had any tickets to my knowledge, so I was a bit confused.

I phoned the bailiffs (Newlyn) who told me the place and date, which was in March, when I pulled over to pick up a passenger on the way to work. At most I wait for her to come downstairs for a couple of minutes, although usually she is already outside. Also, I had thought that the place I pull up is privately owned by the building where she lives, although you have to pull across a bus lane to get to it.

I didn't have a ticket on the windscreen, however (this bit is my fault) I had moved house and only got around to updating my registration details for the car in July, so I'm assuming the ticket would have gone to my old address. However, the car has been registered at the correct address for 1.5 months and I've received nothing in the post. Also of course they found me yesterday so they must have updated their information but didn't use it to send me any last minute warnings.

As they were about to tow the car away and the charges would then have gone up I paid them £700 to take the clamp off. The man on the phone said I would have to take it up with the council on Monday, it would probably have only been £50 if I had received the ticket but I don't think I should have received it in the first place.

However as I didn't know what the incident was and it was my mistake not updating my registration in time I didn't have the confidence to let them carry on and wait until Monday. Now I know there were other things I could have done but at the time I didn't.

I have put my problem to another web forum and they have all said that by paying the fine the case is closed.
If anyone has any experience or advice I would really appreciate it, I'm a new driver and I already feel like selling the car and forgetting the whole thing!!

Thanks

Fergie76

Get yourself over to pepipoo and post there, they are the real experts for this kind of thing.

landmark

canyouhelp wrote: »

If anyone has any advice for me I would appreciate it. I will be calling Bailiff Advice tomorrow...

I was woken up yesterday morning to be told that my car was clamped for an unpaid parking ticket. I haven't had any tickets to my knowledge, so I was a bit confused.

I phoned the bailiffs (Newlyn) who told me the place and date, which was in March, when I pulled over to pick up a passenger on the way to work. At most I wait for her to come downstairs for a couple of minutes, although usually she is already outside. Also, I had thought that the place I pull up is privately owned by the building where she lives, although you have to pull across a bus lane to get to it.

I didn't have a ticket on the windscreen, however (this bit is my fault) I had moved house and only got around to updating my registration details for the car in July, so I'm assuming the ticket would have gone to my old address. However, the car has been registered at the correct address for 1.5 months and I've received nothing in the post. Also of course they found me yesterday so they must have updated their information but didn't use it to send me any last minute warnings.

As they were about to tow the car away and the charges would then have gone up I paid them £700 to take the clamp off. The man on the phone said I would have to take it up with the council on Monday, it would probably have only been £50 if I had received the ticket but I don't think I should have received it in the first place.

However as I didn't know what the incident was and it was my mistake not updating my registration in time I didn't have the confidence to let them carry on and wait until Monday. Now I know there were other things I could have done but at the time I didn't.

I have put my problem to another web forum and they have all said that by paying the fine the case is closed.
If anyone has any experience or advice I would really appreciate it, I'm a new driver and I already feel like selling the car and forgetting the whole thing!!

Thanks

---

Hello there

Sorry to hear you got ripped off by £700.

From what you have stated I can see that it was not private land you were on but public if what the bailiffs stated to you was the truth.

If you are subsequently found to be not guilty, or have paid too much, you can sue the council for the relevant amount in the Small Claims Court (*read my article about suing the council for refund of bus lane fine)

You need to get all the evidence that you were NOT guilty of committing a parking violation i.e.: -

1. the original PCN either issued by a parking attendant or a camera
   
2. copies of the subsequent court order/warrant enabling the bailiffs to clamp/tow away your car
   
3. inspect the signs where you had waited with your car in order to see that they have fulfilled all the legal requirements for signage. Either take notes or even better still take photographs of the signs and where your car was stopped at the place of the alleged offence.
4. A statutory declaration

When you have all this evidence, report it here and we can discuss whether you are entitled to a refund.

Kind regards;)

canyouhelp

Thanks Landmark
I have sent off the TE7 and TE9 today and will go back and take some photos (on foot this time!)
Will let you know what happens...

Coupon-mad

canyouhelp wrote: »

Thanks Landmark
I have sent off the TE7 and TE9 today and will go back and take some photos (on foot this time!)
Will let you know what happens...

Have you started a pepipoo thread as well? You will need it.

I seem to recall that the standard response to a TE7 and TE9 is a refusal (every time) which forces you to pay £75 to file another form to get it set back to NTO stage. I think this is the case but you will get specific info on pepipoo forums:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

HTH

canyouhelp

Yes I have also started a thread there, they are the ones who said there's not much chance of getting it back... They said it would have been better to have let them tow it away and then sort it out.

However as I a.) didn't know if I had done something wrong or not and b.) hadn't updated my correct address, and c.) panicked, I didn't have the guts to do this and risk it going up even more.

Anyway Sheila at Bailiffs Advice Online was a bit more encouraging and has assisted me with the wording of the forms. Apparently local authorities are supposed to assume that the address was incorrect if the bailiffs find a different address for the person.

The final warrant was sent to my old address despite being after I had updated my address with the DVLA, as they only use the original one they find on the records even if it's updated in the meantime.

We'll just have to see what happens...

canyouhelp

Good news, just had a letter from the council agreeing to cancel everything, they've told the bailiffs to give me a refund, not sure how I managed to do it but it seemed to work! Thanks for your advice!