a bailiff is coming today for a £10 debt

Hiddenidenity

tammioliver wrote: »

Just to inform I have rang swift credit who say they have not received the letter from the MP so they gave me a direct fax number and name and it will be sent at 10am this morning again, do you think this will hold her off coming round today, I will not be opening my door when she comes do u think she will get a locksmith thanks all agagin x

Im sure someone will be along to help who knows real soon, All I can say is make sure all windows and doors are locked, Keep your car away from your property as far away as possible xx

hallowitch

not to good with magistrate court fines but

did you receive a further steps notice from the court?

Iam assuming you received this notice way back at the beginning when you didn't set up the standing order and you were threatened with bailiffs (I'm not sure whether you should received another one this time)



did you receive a letter from swift before the bailiff turned up at your door as it would appear you have been charged a fee for this letter
they are allowed to charge £75/85 for this letter and £200/215 for the visit

as i understand it swift would need to go to the court and ask for a warrant of entry to use a locksmith

the best advice you have been given so far is from taffy056

tammioliver

So, I called swift back at 11.30 and they had received correspondance from my local MP and they have put my acc on hold for 1 week untill my MP has had chance to speak to the courts, I no tho that the courts will say the debt still stands and the bailiff will come back so I paid £50 which is all I have and ill pay 50 again next week so it shows I'm paying and hopefully fingers crossed all will be fine xx

robpw2

tammioliver wrote: »

So, I called swift back at 11.30 and they had received correspondance from my local MP and they have put my acc on hold for 1 week untill my MP has had chance to speak to the courts, I no tho that the courts will say the debt still stands and the bailiff will come back so I paid £50 which is all I have and ill pay 50 again next week so it shows I'm paying and hopefully fingers crossed all will be fine xx

i wouldnt have advised paying them if the mp speaks to the courts and gets them to take the £10 back you will have paid mr x baliff £100 quid for nothing , it would have been better to save the money in an account and wait

tammioliver

Ahhhh good thinking I have paid 50 so next week I will save it thank you and everyone else here for ur help and advice xx

sgtbush

hallowitch wrote: »

they are allowed to charge £75/85 for this letter and £200/215 for the visit

as i understand it swift would need to go to the court and ask for a warrant of entry to use a locksmith

The distress warrant you were sent would quote paragraph 3 of schedule 4A of the magistrates court act 2004 and the DVCV act 2004, which means a bailiff CAN force entry by any means into your property to do a diligent search either for the debtor or any assests belived to be the debtors for removal.

magistrates court fines allow bailiffs to force entry even on the first visit

sgtbush

just some info

the courts wont deal with this unless its returned to them as un-enforcable by way of a monthly pay plan which pays the debt off in the COURTS time-scale, the bailiffs dont make up the repayments, its worked out on what time scale the COURT is prepared to wait
the fees are not excessive- they will have charges about £85 admin and £215 attendence, this is in line with the magistrates agreed rules.
Remember that if you owe a magistrates court fine the bailiff CAN force entry, you are lucky nothing was levied on the spot, but you wouldnt of had to sign a form 7 anyways, you can refuse but all the bailiff writes is refused to sign

WAYS FORWARD
you will have to pay the bailiffs charges, the courts have allowed them to do this as you defaulted on the original fine, you paid 10 quid short.
Remember a magistrate court fine is ment as a punishment and an alternitive to a custodial sentance

so----
try to make a monthly payment plan with the bailiff
if you cant then make voulentary payments as a token for when its returned to court as un-enforcable
If the courts get it back as un-enforcable the worst thing they can do is issue a warrant of commital for you and you would be arrested and brought before a judge to find out why you have not paid.
Remember the bailiffs fees are set out by the court and now are part and parcel to your original fine
Sorry for any bad news but their is no use to sugar coat replys, you need all the facts

Herbie21

I have the Bailiff Advice Online service and frankly, this problem is VERY common indeed and if of great concern.

Firstly, as some people may know, when you have a court fine, the Magistrates Court do NOT send out statements and simply expect that the debtor keeps a note of payments made. There is NO OTHER creditor that I know of that has a system like this !!! It is nonsense.

Secondly, there is NO telephone number where a debto can call to make enquiries concerning the balance left on an account and once again....there is NO OTHER creditor that this would apply to.

Thirdly, although there is a blance of £10, surely there should be a system in place to STOP small balances such as this being sent to outside debt collection company in particular given, that HMCS are very much aware that they have agreed in the contracts with these companies that they can charge an admin fee of £85 followed by an "attendance fee" of £210. It is clear that these fees are WHOLLY DISPROPORTINATE to the amount of the debt.

Finally, there is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT that the court MUST first send to you a Further Steps Notice to advise that you are in default of a court fine and that unless the default is remedied (payment of £10 made) that a Distress Warrant would be issued. Did you receive this Further Steps Notice?

Lastly, the bailiff company are obliged to send you an inital letter . Did you receive this?

tammioliver

There was no further steps notice from the court but it was only agter the attendance of the bailiff and I realised I had unopened post that I found the 1st letter from the bailiff, x

RAS

susie

Please start a new thread (click button at the top left of the thread list on the front page) - Muck hall are not bailiffs, so highjacking the wrong sort of thread will not get you the advice you require.

And search for "statute barred"