Enforcement action on hold, bailiff refusing to take off the clamp - Car on finance

[Elhernan]

Hello,

My car is on finance HP, Marston clamped my car yesterday morning. I told them the car is on Finance, they gave me their typical answer that they are allowed to clamp the car but not to take it... I called local council, they repeated the same. I filed for an out of time statement yesterday, they notified the council today. Early morning I asked the council to removed the clamp, I told them they haven't received the notification for TEC regarding my Out of time application (T7 & T9). Council told me they will suspend the action for 7 days while they wait for the notification, the council asked the bailiff to unclamp the car around 12:00 PM. Bailiff said he won't unclamp the car today that he can do it tomorrow morning. I asked bailiff ( always through text messages) to unclamp the car, he said he agreed with the council to release the car tomorrow morning.

I called the council at 5:00 PM, they confirmed that they received the notification from Traffic Enforcement Centre and that the enforcement action is on hold, contacted bailiff, he is bullying me telling me to call the police or go to court but that he won't release the car today, writing in capital letters etc....

Can I call the police? I don't want to wait until tomorrow, all the action is on hold. What can I do? any suggestion? If I call the police what should I tell them, of what offence can I accuse the bailiff?

Thanks

[ploddertom]

You will have to wait unfortunately - he has not committed any offence.

[Elhernan]

I always thought that to clamp a car on finance (HP) was illegal, the enforcement action has been suspended from 11:30 am, and the bailiff wants me to wait almost 24 hours to release the car, if that is legal then some people in this forum are completely wrong because I've read that they can't clamp cars which are on finance.

Thanks

[ploddertom]

They can clamp until proved otherwise but release may not be immediate if at all. There are instances of cars being immobilised but usually these are for those who have multiple tickets against them. You are permitted to remove a clamp yourself providing you cause no damage to it & can advise the Bailiff where it can be collected from. It could be if you do this you can be accused of theft - the vehicle belongs to the Court now, so be very wary if contemplating this - even a small scratch can be classed as criminal damage.

[Freedom2020]

How can the vehicle belong to the court? It's on finance.

Quote Paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007:

(1)Using the procedure in this Schedule to recover a sum means taking control of goods and selling them to recover that sum in accordance with this Schedule and regulations under it.

As the car cannot be sold, it should not have been clamped. You can also quote Paragraph 10 of the same schedule:

10 An enforcement agent may take control of goods only if they are goods of the debtor.

The car does not belong to the debtor until the final payment has been made.