Bailiff charges

Jockanory

I'm looking for advice with regard to an ongoing issue with bailiff charges from a company called Newlyn PLC.
In November 2011,my daughter who lives and works in London, one evening found her car clamped with a note attached to the windscreen with a mobile number,which she rang and spoke to a bailiff who said that she had an unpaid PCN on her vehicle and that she would have to pay( from memory)a sum of about £900 to get it released.
After an exchange of phone calls,she refused to pay that amount and he refused to remove the clamp,she was unable to go to work and contacted him again in the morning, she eventually paid him £250 to get her vehicle released mainly because she needed to get to work that evening.
The PCN relates to a motoring offence of parking for just over one minute in a taxi rank,which was captured on CCTV approximately 12 months ago.
My daughter was unaware of the offence(she was house hunting at the time and it happened in an unfamiliar London borough).
Anyway as she had never received any correspondence about the PCN,as being a student at the time she had moved addresses,she appealed and won her case,she still paid the PCN charge but now the bailiffs are refusing to refund the £250 release fee.
She has written to them and received a letter from their complaints officer stating that they were acting lawfully and had incurred administration charges of £48 so they will not be refunding any money.
She has now written to them again asking for a full breakdown of all charges and what was the £202 for and will this now be refunded?
Anyone had a similar experience and where should she go next IF they continue to refuse to reimburse her the balance of the release fee(I have googled Newlyn PLC and I am aware of their company history).

give_them_FA

You are wasting your time with the bailiff company. Yet another bunch of scammers. I believe it has been held that the instructing Council are liable. Need more details. Why did it proceed to bailiffs if she won the appeal?

Kite2010

give_them_FA wrote: »

You are wasting your time with the bailiff company. Yet another bunch of scammers. I believe it has been held that the instructing Council are liable. Need more details. Why did it proceed to bailiffs if she won the appeal?

It sounds like the bailiffs arrived before she managed to win the appeal.

give_them_FA

Also says she paid the PCN. This one needs sorting. Maybe by "appeal" you mean she made a stat dec and had the process set back to notice to owner? If the Council instructed the bailiffs when they shouldn't then they bear the resposibility, as they do if the bailiffs impose excessive fees. More details needed, OP.

peter_the_piper

Go and post this on pepipoo.com as well. A contact with bailiffadviceonline would not go amiss (small charge but the best resource there is)

Jockanory

Thanks for all the replies.
Sorry If I didn't make it clear,the bailiffs were instructed by the council before my daughter even knew about the alleged offence.
I can clarify that she did make a statutory declaration and they cancelled all of the added on charges but she still had to pay the PCN fee.
I will get her to speak again to the council who have been very reasonable so far and see if they can assist any further.
thanks

give_them_FA

Yes clearly the council's fault and it should be them to refund you if the bailiffs refuse.

Coupon-mad

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Go and post this on pepipoo.com as well. A contact with bailiffadviceonline would not go amiss (small charge but the best resource there is)

The Council won't help you, I am certain.

I second PTP's advice, go to pepipoo (a free advice forum, specialists in PCNs):

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

and BAO (costs a tenner to get advice about what baliffs can/can't do - and I think to step in for you with a phone call/letter if applicable)

http://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/

HTH

give_them_FA

I'm not sure. It would depend to some degree on the facts and the timing. The bailiffs are the Council's agents to collect a debt (allegedly) due to them and as principal the Council bears the responsibility for its agents' actions. (Just like a landowner and a PPC, lol!) If the council was aware that the PCN charge had been rescinded (as it should have been) but failed to call off the agent then they are responsible. Of course if the two events happened very close together...

Original poster, can you tell us what time elapsed betweem the cancellation of the charge by Northampton, and the clamping of the vehicle?

give_them_FA

Sorry, OP, silly question upon re-reading your original post.

Clamping came first. Had been a long day!!!

Disregard and go back to previous poster. Doh.

give_them_FA

Anyway I take this from the website of the Local Government Ombudsman:

We may consider complaints where a penalty charge notice has been cancelled but bailiff charges have not been refunded.

This appears to suggest that if the bailiff action was, in the event, unnecessary, the Council is the port of call to refund the bailiff charges.