Philips Bailiffs - Fine for no TV License - Fake Visit? - Advice Needed

adouglasmhor

glasgowsaver2011 wrote: »

even the police cannot get entry to your house without a warrant

That depends, they just have to say they believed evidence would be destroyed or moved if they waited and they can get in.

Equaliser64

These leeches are really winding me up with their ridiculous charges and scaremonger tactics.

I've had dealings with both Phillips and Bristow and Sutor, let me tell you what happened. In summary NOTHING!!!!

1. Had a magistrates court fine for a motoring offence (£150), went to court for non payment, got an extension then lost my job. I fell behind with a couple of payments so paid double payments and caught up again. My last payment was rejected, but on contacting the court, I was told it was too late the fine had gone to the bailiffs (PHILLIPS). Pleaded with the clerks office and they insisted the bailiffs were handling it now, it was too late. So by now, I had paid £120.00 direct to the court

2. About three weeks later get the 1st letter from PHILLIPS telling me that the fine with their costs was now £130.00 (YEAH RIGHT, IM GONNA PAY THAT....NOT!!!) Letter went on to say that if I didnt call them and make an arrangement, they would attend my property and take my goods

ACTION I TOOK = I IGNORED THE LETTER

3. Three weeks later, another letter arrives telling me that their agents will call at my house if I do not telephone them within 7 days BALANCE £160.00

ACTION I TOOK = I IGNORED THE LETTER

4. Three weeks later, on a Wednesday, I got home to find a personally delivered hand written letter, with a time and date of attendance written on the front of the brown envelope. The letter stated that the bailiff had attended and the matter had been passed to their removals team for further action BALANCE £360.00

ACTION I TOOK = I IGNORED THE LETTER

5. About two weeks later, I get another letter saying that the removals van would attend and force entry to my house without further warning, and seize my goods. Mmm, a little worrying, were they serious, could I take that risk??? BALANCE £415.00

ACTION I TOOK = I IGNORED THE LETTER

6. Two weeks later their latest letter arrives. Dear Mr Naive, as you have chosen to ignore our requests for payment of the outstanding balance, we have now passed the file back to the magistrates court. An immediate arrest warrant will be issued and you could be arrested on sight and subsequently jailed. In order to prevent this action, please call our offices to make an arrangement to clear the balance. BALANACE £415

7. GOT A LETTER FROM THE ORIGINAL COURT WITH A SUMMONS TO APPEAR FOR NON PAYMENT. WENT TO THE COURT AND PAID £30.00 (THE ORIGINAL BALANCE OWING)

A lesson here : I am not suggesting people will get off paying their fines and debts, my advice is pay your fine or debt and keep up the payments or at least let the court or finance company know if your'e struggling to pay,they will try and help. I got to the bailiffs stage because I was daft and didnt keep the court informed of my circumstances.
If it goes to the bailiff, LOCK ALL DOORS AND WINDOWS,GARAGE DOOR,GARDEN GATE ETC. NEVER,NEVER CALL THEM OR LET THEM IN FOR A FRIENDLY CHAT. Once thery cross your threshold peacefully, they can force entry in the future. I'm not sure what the situation is if you have already made an arangement with them and have started paying them, but I would probably take the same course of action above from here on in, because they will keep piling their charges on. The debt will eventually go back to the original court if they cant recover the debt fully. As a rule of thumb, a bailiff has 90 days yto recover a debt, then it can only enter your property by peacable means (I.E thru an open window/door or you or someone else has let them in, so =dont be afraid of them. Read the forums for advice and help, take no notice of the posts telling you they will break the door down. I held my cool, now I'm free of them and my debt is paid. Happy new year to all, and don't let the bailiffs ruin it.!!!! :-)

Josie64

Hi Equaliser 64,
just found this post after a google search, my son is going through the same, threatening letter from Philips, they want £390 in 7 days, as I suspected they are just bullying tactics but my son is now panicking and is going to pay them! I've told him that these letters are just threats but he seems convinced that he has to pay £390 immediately!

Equaliser64

Hi.under NO circumstances communicate with these people in any way whatsoever. Do not offer any form of payment and most importantly DO NOT LET THEM IN. They will try all kinds of tactics to gain access to your house (I.e) they will talk to you nicely and tell you that they just want to.help you, they may tell you that they will force entry, they may even threat threaten to come back with a van, DON'T FALL FOR IT!! They have no power of entry, only by peaceable means and that means you must let them in of your own will. If you have let them in already or they have indeed crossed your threshold, then they have the power to enter forcibly. Your sons debt WILL be returned to the court and the court will accept the original fine inBy the wa installments. Forget the bailiffs charges, they WILL BE QUASHED. By the way, my debt rose to £750 and eventually after 3 of their so called visits, it was returned to the court .
You will get a couple of letters saying their van will be calling, then they'll send. A letter telling you that it's being handed back to the court and you will be arrested on sight!!! That letter will give you peace of mind knowing that it's over and your debt will be returned to the court minus their charges.
Please do not worry, lock your doors and windows, you will win this, trust me.

RobertoMoir

Equaliser64 wrote: »

Hi.under NO circumstances communicate with these people in any way whatsoever. Do not offer any form of payment and most importantly DO NOT LET THEM IN. They will try all kinds of tactics to gain access to your house (I.e) they will talk to you nicely and tell you that they just want to.help you, they may tell you that they will force entry, they may even threat threaten to come back with a van, DON'T FALL FOR IT!! They have no power of entry,

Depends on the type of debt. For some fines, they can force entry.

only by peaceable means and that means you must let them in of your own will.

No. While "peaceable entry" is a good rule of thumb, even where it does apply it doesn't mean "you must let them in of your own free will."

Now I've gone back and read your previous post, I'm glad things worked out well for you, but please don't make the mistake of assuming that is how it ends for everyone. Ignoring bailiffs can work but depending on the type of debt and depending on the bailiff concerned it is potentially risky advice.

vee-licious

Hi, just to update on what happened, we paid all of the money minus the £200 in dispute. They did offer to knock £75 off which we refused. As the fine itself was then paid and the remaining balance was their fees, they stopped sending letters and could not refer it back to the court coz as far as the court are concerned, the fine is paid. I am so relieved that headache is over! Thanks for all of the advice and good luck to all going through a similar thing! xx :beer:

sgtbush

just remember the attendence fee was added correctly, as priorty goes the bailiffs are paid 1st then the fine is paid- you will find that you still have an outstanding balence on the court fine

on someones elses post saying DO NOT LET THE BAILIFFS IN

does not apply, no tv licence is a magistrates court fine and under the magistrates court act 2004 and the dvcv act 2004 they can force entry to recover court fines

sgtbush

Equaliser64 wrote: »

Hi.under NO circumstances communicate with these people in any way whatsoever. Do not offer any form of payment and most importantly DO NOT LET THEM IN. They will try all kinds of tactics to gain access to your house (I.e) they will talk to you nicely and tell you that they just want to.help you, they may tell you that they will force entry, they may even threat threaten to come back with a van, DON'T FALL FOR IT!! They have no power of entry, only by peaceable means and that means you must let them in of your own will. If you have let them in already or they have indeed crossed your threshold, then they have the power to enter forcibly. Your sons debt WILL be returned to the court and the court will accept the original fine inBy the wa installments. Forget the bailiffs charges, they WILL BE QUASHED. By the way, my debt rose to £750 and eventually after 3 of their so called visits, it was returned to the court .
You will get a couple of letters saying their van will be calling, then they'll send. A letter telling you that it's being handed back to the court and you will be arrested on sight!!! That letter will give you peace of mind knowing that it's over and your debt will be returned to the court minus their charges.
Please do not worry, lock your doors and windows, you will win this, trust me.

two points-- its a magistrates court fine and they can force entry

and the courts will just issue a warrant of commital, which means mr nice bailiff will come round your house, force entry, levy goods, possibly remove on site if he/she thinks they could be in jepordy, or accept payment in full for outstanding balance, or arrest you, take you to the nearest police station and you will see a judge in the next session available, prob the next working day

Foundry

Firstly, I believe that the bailiff has to obtain another separate 'right of entry warrant' to force entry into your property. I understand that very few of these have ever been granted. But I could be wrong (?)

Anyway, this is what I did..... long story short....

I moved house unaware I was being prosecuted for TV licence. 18 months later I start getting threats from Phillips.

My TV licence fine was £250, so in order to just make Phillips go away, I phoned the court and paid in full with my card, making sure to note my payment reference number. Two weeks later I got a cheque from the court for my £250 and a letter saying I had to pay the bailiff instead of the court.

After cashing the cheque I thanked them for the return of my money and told them that I had a payment reference number from them and as such my obligation to the court had been satisfied - once I've paid my fine it's none of my business what the court chooses to do with the money - in this case they chose to give that money to me - thanks very much indeed, we had a nice weekend away with that.

Two years later, I have not received any more letters from Phillips OR the court - I guess they realised how stupid they would look if they took it any further.

Another thing you can do is pay Phillips the EXACT amount of the original fine. Bailiff companies collecting unpaid magistrates courts fines MUST first clear the fine BEFORE taking their charges and fees, (which is why they're so keen to take full payment straight off and not enter into payment arrangements).

Once you've cleared the amount of the fine, you simply tell Phillips to f*** off. The magistrates court CANNOT enforce the bailiffs fees and charges - that's illegal - your fine has been satisfied, so the magistrates court can no longer be brought into it - no 'arrest', no court appearance, no forced entry, nothing. So your 'debt' to the bailiff company for their fees and charges must then be pursued through the County Court and they're not likely to do this because it means their fees and charges (which are often unlawful) would be open to scrutiny by a court.

Job done

ValHaller

Foundry wrote: »

Once you've cleared the amount of the fine, you simply tell Phillips to f*** off. The magistrates court CANNOT enforce the bailiffs fees and charges - that's illegal - your fine has been satisfied, so the magistrates court can no longer be brought into it - no 'arrest', no court appearance, no forced entry, nothing. So your 'debt' to the bailiff company for their fees and charges must then be pursued through the County Court and they're not likely to do this because it means their fees and charges (which are often unlawful) would be open to scrutiny by a court.

Job done

It is an interesting take on the matter. But too many people get into these scrapes in the first place because they don't really have a good handle on their rights, their responsibilities and the way things work. So for these people, this advice might get them deeper into hot water.

Now, if you are on top of issues, it could work. But before you go down this path, you really need to be sure that the bailiff fees are unlawful and would not stand up in court. And you need to be prepared to pay such fees as are lawful.