Bailiff Coming This Weekend - Please Help Me!

Poppy9 · 27 August 2005 at 2:22AM

MacabreDee wrote:

I did appeal but was rejected, still gets me in a rage now :mad:

I know how you feel. In one of my earlier posts on another thread I have been hit for a congestion charge while visiting London. I submitted my appeal last October and it still hasn't been heard. They have no idea when it will be heard as there is a huge backlog. I sent a cheque for the £50 initially under protest, without accepting liability and pending my appeal.

crystal_clear · 27 August 2005 at 2:26AM

Hi there
Not wishing to alarm you but moving the car is a must to keep it safe but if they get no joy today then they could sit in wait for movement then pounce so what you going to do about the car keep it out of site forever and a day ??? Also they may not at present know you are the keeper as you said the fines are on another car reg. So they lay in wait see you go off down the street get into a car Hmmmmm two secs later they have done a so called check on the registration number and you are linked to the car as its owner??????
You say it belongs to OH then why not take less chance of it being taken and change registration document to person paying HP or OH and just inform insurance company no details changed regarding drivers just changed registered owner that shouldnt change a thing,only the level of risk involved in keeping your/ OH car in your favor

MacabreDee · 27 August 2005 at 2:36AM

poppy, maddening isn't it, but keep ur chin up, my dad won his congestion charge appeal!
it just annoys me that i have to pay a ticket for parking in my own street, changed cars, council f****d up sending me new permit "we don't seem to have received your application, we'll send you another form" issued 3 tickets in 2 weeks, at appeal explained situation politely - rejected! but i know of other ppl who have just written in & said "ooops forgot a permit" and the council cancelled the ticket as a "gesture of goodwill" - UNBELIEVABLE :mad:

crystal, i would happily change car to mother in laws name but i thought insurance companies insist that you are the registered owner :question:

thanks for your suggestions :beer:

nemo183 · 27 August 2005 at 3:45AM

Pretty certain insurance companies don't insist you are the registered keeper. But, in any case, strongly suggest you move the car, and don't use it for the moment when you leave the house.

Re: Bailiff. If you have a case for not paying the money, when they arrive, don't under any circumstances open the door AT ALL. They have no right to force access unless accompanied by the police with a court order. So, just don't let them in the house. If you open the door, they are allowed to enter and price up your possessions in order to pay the debt.

Your best bet is to deal with them by phone, and to their head office, not any mobile number they leave. A mobile number suggests they could be waiting round the corner......

When/if they arrive, just have no contact with them at all. It doesn't even matter if they know you are in - just don't speak to them, and DON'T open the door to them.

Even if they decide to park and wait, as long as you leave this house by the back door, even if they see you in the road, there's nothing they can do, so long as you don't head for the car.

Good Luck!!!!

PS - £420 per ticket sounds very expensive - how about appealing to the better nature of the issuer - presumabley your local council? - with just about any half-beleiveable story?

daveboy · 27 August 2005 at 6:54AM

I remember a similar thread to this earlier this year in which I suggested changing the name of the registered keeper of the car.

A response was given by another member in which they said that this could be deemed as a method of fraud, but that they would have to prove it was deliberately done to get round them taking the car.

I don't wish to scare the OP - I'm just passing on something from the past. Whether it is in law accurate I cannot say.

In this scenario I would have sought legal advice before it got to this stage. If this is in your own street it certainly appears you have good grounds for these tickets to be withdrawn.

Bossyboots · 27 August 2005 at 7:39AM

While there might be good grounds for the tickets to be withdrawn (and I am not sure there are, we are only hearing one side of the story), it sounds to me like the fees include a substantial amount of bailiffs charges implying that not only were the original fines not paid, but that communications from the bailiffs have been ignored as well.

While I take on board the comments about not letting the bailiffs in, which is sound advice, surely ignoring the bailiffs when they call is simply going to increase the debt. This is not simply going to go away. The appeal has been refused and unless that is reversed quickly (not something councils are known for), the OP is going to just get into more and more debt.

The OP says that they have dealt with this bailiff firm before. That indicates to me someone who persistently flouts parking restrictions and then ignores the consequences. I think you need to face up to this now, before the situation gets any worse.

MacabreDee · 27 August 2005 at 11:06AM

Morning All,

Appreciate your comments so far.

I would however like to point out that I am not in the habit of flouting parking restrictions, the situation is as follows:

About a year and a half ago the council introduced resident only parking in my street & surrounding streets, most residents are not happy about this but we have to live with it & get on with it.
We have 2 cars - expensive one is OH's car, cheap banger is mine, but as I have loads more no-claims than OH we put both cars in my name & I insure both!
I had a couple of tickets issued to mine when permit fell out of view, appealed, lost appeal, paid fine, end of matter. My OH had some tickets issued, got angry refused to pay them, didn't deal with them when I passed the letters to him - they ended up in hands of bailiff in my name which is how I ended up in difficulty with them myself before.

Then I took my banger off the road for a while (I was going to sell it) as a neighbour was selling their car cheaply which I bought, I applied to the council to get a new permit with the new vehicle reg, waited for a while, got no reply so contacted them re this, they said they hadn't received my application & would send out a new one, i got this a few days later, filled it in sent of relevant docs & waited again, a week later I got letter from council saying they needed permit out of old car back before could issue me with a new permit. While this had been going on I had received 3 tickets on new car.

At this point I had decided to keep my old banger after all & sold the newly aquired one, so informed council accordingly.

I then appealed against the 3 tickets & asked that on this occasion they be cancelled & explained the circumstances, they rejected it, I wrote again but was ignored, was told over phone that ones appeal is rejected they wont look at it again.

Now, I do freely admit that I have been STUPID from there on in, I do realise that ignoring it won't make it go away.
I want to pay it to get rid, but there is no way on earth that I can do it all in one go as they insist.

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to explain the situation & make it clear that I don't deliberately flout the rules & ignore the consequences!

Thanks Again. :wall:

MacabreDee · 27 August 2005 at 11:11AM

Just another point, I see your point re the changing name on car thing, but I always had it in my name as I was led to believe that you had to be registered keeper to insure the car, this was the only reason car was ever in my name at all - it is his car, he pays for it & he drives it. My insurance company has advised my otherwise so I am signing car over to OH.
I would hope that this is not classed as fraud as it is just my partner protecting HIS property from MY mistake!

crystal_clear · 27 August 2005 at 12:56PM

Hi again
Sorry hun I am not trying to pick fault truly i am not but have you still got a car each as you said in another post ???
If so OH can be registered keeper of one as its theres but changing what you call the old banger might well be deemed as fraud should the matter go any further. Like you can justify the change on OH car but cannot justify a change of keeper on old banger aswell.

daveboy · 27 August 2005 at 6:47PM

OP posted at 1.09am on 27.08.05.

I am assuming, perhaps wrongly, that in saying 'tomorrow' towards the end of the post, she actually meant today (Saturday). [I suppose baliffs do work Sundays though, people are more likely to be in].

Please let us know what happened!

Bailiff Coming This Weekend - Please Help Me!

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