Help with letter from Marstons regarding baliffs

bluestarlight

My boyfriend received a letter from Marstons this morning, saying that we have been ignoring previous letters and they are now going to send the baliffs round to our house if we dont pay £900 within 7 days.

It doesnt give any reason for the fine, just that it their client is 'HMCS'. We are guessing this is the courts. He has never been fined or arrested and we honestly have no idea what this might be for. From google searches it seems that a lot of the queries are DVLA related? £900 seems alot for a parking ticket though! We dont have any significant debts, no missed payments etc.

We have lived at our present address for 18months, he has been on the electoral roll etc here for that time so any letters should have been sent here, but this is the first we've heard of it. The only thing I can think of is his driving license still has an old address on it, although the car is registered to our home.

Of course the Courts and Marstons are closed today (and probably tomorrow), he is worried sick so Im trying to help him relax a little as its going to be a few days til we can sort this out.

Any help appreciated! Thank you.

camuk81

HMCS I presume is the court. Has he any debt anywhere he can think of? Are you sure all bills were moved when you moved?

camuk81

Try the following link for some advice

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/d_bailiffs.pdf

But he needs to track down what the debt is

king100

Ok 1st thing 1st you need to check your credit file, do you have any debts that you are aware of?

This could just be a debt and they are lying about the bailiff issue. It has been known. You also will need to check Trustonline to see if your partner has a CCJ registered against him. This is the only way that bailiffs can be introduced. If he has a CCJ and you were unaware then you can apply for a set aside and this is will take it straight to the beginning.

Find out this 1st then if we can figure out what the debt is we can sort out what to do....I say this as it has been known for DCAs to use ambiguous wordings or bailiffs instead of debt collectors, they then can be reported for this. But as stated you need to find out what this debt is....

bluestarlight

Thanks for all the replies.

The wording is:

"we are in possession of a Magistrates Court Order as a consequence of non payment of the above fine" (It gives no other details except the amount and that their client is HMCS)

It then says bailiffs will attend to 'levy distress and remove goods' and they will sell our goods by public auction.

He has a recent car loan, and a loan which has a year left to pay, but they are all up to date and taken by direct debit. He earns a good salary so we arent struggling to pay at all. I will get him to check his credit file when he gets back though, and also do a CCJ search thats a great tip I didnt know that was possible.

I dont have any debts, and I look after all the household stuff so all the bills from the last 18 months are totally paid and up to date. When he moved last time it was in with me, he lived with a friend before and he says he told council tax etc and everything was up to date and paid, but I guess it could be something to do with that. His friend has not had any letters we checked this morning.

Thank you again for all the help, I will have him do the searches and let you know.

camuk81

http://www.trustonline.org.uk/search-yourself

Try having a check and see what happens on here

bluestarlight

camuk81 wrote: »

http://www.trustonline.org.uk/search-yourself

Try having a check and see what happens on here

Nothing registered for Fine Defaults or Orders and Judgements. I didnt do any of the others just the two.

camuk81

Have he got access to his credit file.

It may be worth if you want to investigate today registering for one of the free services and see if that throws anything but.

Please remember to cancel it after the trial period and also to be aware there are 3 credit agencies what shows on one may not show on all 3!

bluestarlight

No i dont have access to that info, I will wait and get him to check later when he is back.
Sorry if I seem to be panicking but we are buying a house this year and I want our mortgage application squeaky clean so this worries me!

camuk81

Totally understandable.

Try the following two

http://www.experian.co.uk/

http://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/credit-report.html

You'll need most of the info you needed for trust online to fill in. I have to admit my husband when we got together did the same with council tax bills and stuck his head in the sand. I got the shock of my life when he told what had happened. Fortunately we managed to sort it straight out and resolve it but he didn't half teach him a lesson!

king100

Ok this sounds odd....fine implies road tax, insurance driving penaltys along those lines. Does it give you any info concerning the court that is was issued in...might also be tv license. If it has court details you can ring them on Tuesday as ask details concerning this?

You could also google CAG and post in bailiff forum when you have more info....alot of knowledgable people in terms of setting aside judgement and what to put down. They might know what a fine could have been for?