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Am I out of time?
Hello Everyone,
I am new to this site & I am sure from reading a few posts that sound advice will come my way, so here goes.
I am not sure about the protocol for naming London Boroughs or Bailiff companies but this involves London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Marston Group Limited.
From time to time I work on the bank staff of a Careline Emergency service for LBHF, a response service for elderly and vulnerable folk in the borough. It is shift work and as such one night in July in 2010 I was working and ironically spent a bit of time going through my timesheets and payslips and found there was a shortfall in my pay that had accrued over a year or so of about £700,hurray! ( the irony will be explained in due course!)
Our office is on the ground floor in a residential area. At about 7am I looked out of the window and noticed two men looking at the back of my car and one of them putting on a wheel clamp. I was shocked and trying to think were there any suspended parking signs up etc that I had not noticed. I immediately went outside to speak to the men asking them what they were doing. I was asked if this was my vehicle and I was told they had a warrant to clamp and remove the vehicle unless payment of £731.05 was made.I told him I did not have that sort of money. He asked if I had a credit card or was there a family member who I could ask for the money. He said this would need to be paid as soon as possible as the car would be removed. I was baffled, just completely baffled as to what fine he was talking about. I went into panic mode because I had not been in a situation like this before. I had never received a letter or visit from a bailiff. They had allegedly been to visit me and leave letters at my old address. I explained that I was just finishing a night shift and that I needed my vehicle for work and to get home, I did not have £731.05, I had never had a visit from him as he must have been visiting my old address. All to no avail. I ended up calling my folks in Birmingham and my Dad helped me out by giving me his credit card details and that was that. I felt like I had been robbed. The amount of £700 that LBHF had underpaid me in my wages was gone by the morning back to LBHF and a bailiff firm as it turns out for unpaid parking fines in LBHF from 18th and 19th December 2006. One of these fines I disputed at the time as it was on my street and I was waiting for a new parking permit. I had had a parking permit for years, the traffic warden knew my vehicle and knew I was waiting for a permit. Of course no reasoning.
I don't know how they came to be at my place of work at 7am on that morning. There were lots of questions I thought of after the event and frustratingly having read about other people's experiences, I realised that there were a number of things I could have done at the time, if I had taken a step back from the situation and not panicked. They presumably were using a vehicle recognition device or could they have found me through my employer LBHF?
I spent a few weeks looking into how I could reclaim the fees which I thought were far too high.
Amount owing £155
Bailiff attendance costs £114.43
Attendance to remove/removal costs £175.00
VAT on Bailiffs costs at Standard Rate £50.64 Total £495.08
Amount owing £155
Bailiff attendance costs £114.43
VAT on Bailiff costs at standard rate £20.03. Total £289.46
Total £731.05.
The Bailiffs fees and costs £421.05.
I wrote to Marston's group for a Data Subject Access Request. They replied with a letter that stated there is no statutory right for me to have a copy of documents held by this company etc but that they had attached a schedule of the personal data held by their company about me. If I wanted specific documents in respect of my dispute I should apply to the Court for disclosure of such documents.
And there I left the matter put it down to a bad experience, something I could learn from etc. I was starting teacher training and working flat out for the last two years and hadn't thought about it. But it's reared it's ugly head again and there must be something I can do to recover those fees!!
Any advice please about how to proceed and this time I shan't be giving up!
I am new to this site & I am sure from reading a few posts that sound advice will come my way, so here goes.
I am not sure about the protocol for naming London Boroughs or Bailiff companies but this involves London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Marston Group Limited.
From time to time I work on the bank staff of a Careline Emergency service for LBHF, a response service for elderly and vulnerable folk in the borough. It is shift work and as such one night in July in 2010 I was working and ironically spent a bit of time going through my timesheets and payslips and found there was a shortfall in my pay that had accrued over a year or so of about £700,hurray! ( the irony will be explained in due course!)
Our office is on the ground floor in a residential area. At about 7am I looked out of the window and noticed two men looking at the back of my car and one of them putting on a wheel clamp. I was shocked and trying to think were there any suspended parking signs up etc that I had not noticed. I immediately went outside to speak to the men asking them what they were doing. I was asked if this was my vehicle and I was told they had a warrant to clamp and remove the vehicle unless payment of £731.05 was made.I told him I did not have that sort of money. He asked if I had a credit card or was there a family member who I could ask for the money. He said this would need to be paid as soon as possible as the car would be removed. I was baffled, just completely baffled as to what fine he was talking about. I went into panic mode because I had not been in a situation like this before. I had never received a letter or visit from a bailiff. They had allegedly been to visit me and leave letters at my old address. I explained that I was just finishing a night shift and that I needed my vehicle for work and to get home, I did not have £731.05, I had never had a visit from him as he must have been visiting my old address. All to no avail. I ended up calling my folks in Birmingham and my Dad helped me out by giving me his credit card details and that was that. I felt like I had been robbed. The amount of £700 that LBHF had underpaid me in my wages was gone by the morning back to LBHF and a bailiff firm as it turns out for unpaid parking fines in LBHF from 18th and 19th December 2006. One of these fines I disputed at the time as it was on my street and I was waiting for a new parking permit. I had had a parking permit for years, the traffic warden knew my vehicle and knew I was waiting for a permit. Of course no reasoning.
I don't know how they came to be at my place of work at 7am on that morning. There were lots of questions I thought of after the event and frustratingly having read about other people's experiences, I realised that there were a number of things I could have done at the time, if I had taken a step back from the situation and not panicked. They presumably were using a vehicle recognition device or could they have found me through my employer LBHF?
I spent a few weeks looking into how I could reclaim the fees which I thought were far too high.
Amount owing £155
Bailiff attendance costs £114.43
Attendance to remove/removal costs £175.00
VAT on Bailiffs costs at Standard Rate £50.64 Total £495.08
Amount owing £155
Bailiff attendance costs £114.43
VAT on Bailiff costs at standard rate £20.03. Total £289.46
Total £731.05.
The Bailiffs fees and costs £421.05.
I wrote to Marston's group for a Data Subject Access Request. They replied with a letter that stated there is no statutory right for me to have a copy of documents held by this company etc but that they had attached a schedule of the personal data held by their company about me. If I wanted specific documents in respect of my dispute I should apply to the Court for disclosure of such documents.
And there I left the matter put it down to a bad experience, something I could learn from etc. I was starting teacher training and working flat out for the last two years and hadn't thought about it. But it's reared it's ugly head again and there must be something I can do to recover those fees!!
Any advice please about how to proceed and this time I shan't be giving up!
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