Nelwyn Baliffs - unpaid PCN

[bobbieg]

Hi this is my first post, so hello everyone!

I'm currently being persued by Nelwyn with regards to an unpaid PCN.

Briefly, the story goes like this:
My dad was involved in a road traffic accident and airlifted to a London hospital, i had drove my car there, parked in a back road and paid £7 by telephone to park in this space for 2 hours. Upon returning to my vehicle i have been issued with a PCN, the space i had parked in was business users only, i'd read the sign applying to the wrong side of the street. I put the ticket to one side, intending to appeal it but my dad died a few days later and to be honest i forgot about it.

I recieved a few letters from Tower Hamlets council which i ignored as i did intend to appeal but never got round to it. They then sent it to Northampton county court. Upon reciept of the court papers i contacted the council and spoke to a guy and expleined it was a genuine error on my behalf and he said that i should contact the court, fill in a form N35 and see if i could make a late appeal. I did this and the reply from the court was that it was not allowed.

This debt has now been passed over to Nelwyn Bailiffs. They contacted me stating that i owe £543.63. I called them and said there was no way that a single parking fine would have gone up that much and they sent me a breakdown :
Debt £185
First letter £11.20
visit fee 1 £55.00
enforcement fee £105
visit fee 2 £65.00
visit fee 3 £69.00

I have accepted that i will have to pay the fine of £185 now, and tried paying direct on council website but it wont let me and when i called them they said there is nothing they can do and i need to sort it direct with bailiff.
I dispute all of their visit fees, all ihave ever had is letters through the door, even when i was in i recieved a hand delivered letter, no one knocked, can they really charge a visit fee for that? I do have a copy of warrant of execution from the traffic enforcement centre at northampton county court which had been enclosed in one of the bailiff letters.

I am currently 7 months pregnant, a single parent & i work part time, I cannot afford to pay them in full and i dont appreciate their threatening letters so whats the best way to get them off my back?

I have read through the bailiff advice page on this site but it seems to me that as it has gone through courts they would just be able to clamp & tow my car or break into my house and take goods if i dont pay up?

Any help much appreciated, thankyou x

Sorry i should add that the car that the original PCN was applied to has since been written off (thanks white van man!) and i have a different vehicle now, can they still clamp & tow this vehicle?

[Amy]

Re: Nelwyn Baliffs - unpaid PCN

If you dispute all of the charges, then have you written to tell them this?

[bobbieg]

Re: Nelwyn Baliffs - unpaid PCN

Hi there,
no i havent written to them at all yet, this is what i am trying to do now but wanted to get my facts straight first!
Having read up a few things on the net am i right in saying that they cannot add an enforcement fee? also i am going to claim that they have never visited, i dont believe they have & there are lots of claims on internet that this is a strategy that they use, so i shall be asking them to scrap these fees.
I understand that i can write to the council and ask them to recall the case from the bailiff as they have tried to defraud me by adding an enforcement fee, is this correct?
as i said, i have now accepted i will have to pay the £185 to the council but dont want to pay the extortionate bailiff fees !

[exbailiff]

Re: Nelwyn Baliffs - unpaid PCN

Hello

The 1st Letter Fee will be the fee that the bailiff company charge for sending a letter by post to you, upon receiving the instruction from the council. Lots of bailiff companies do not actually send this letter, although their systems will show that they did, and you cannot prove otherwise!!

Visit fees can be charged when a visit is made to try and collect the debt, even if there is no answer, did they leave letters on all three of these visits? If not you could argue that you have no proof that all three visits were made.

The enforcement fee (Attendance to Remove/Van Fee) is a grey area. This really only can be charged if they have actually attended with the intention of seizing goods, etc. It is unlikely that they would be justified in charging this on the first visit, unless they actually enforced (ie clamped your car, etc)...if they did a first visit and did not get a response then they would up their game, and so the stakes increase, they could then argue that as you had not responded then their absolute intention was to execute the warrant to the full, and so, they would probably get away with charging it on a second visit, even if no contact was made. This is not ethical, but from their point of view everytime they call it costs them money. Personally I would never have operated like that.

They can (and will) clamp/tow your car if you do not pay. I assume that the car is registered to you and not on finance. However, if the car is old and worthless then they probably wont tow it....but they could well clamp! They CANNOT break into your house, unless you've previously let them in and signed a walking possession agreement. However, if you leave a window or door unlocked, then they are legally allowed to let themselves in....and believe me, many will!

Trying to get them to remove fees will be like trying to get blood from a stone, however, you could try calling their bluff. Find out the dates and times of the so-called visits, then get back to them the next day saying that your neighbour has CCTV which also covers your path, and that on the dates/times in question it shows nobody at your property. Tell them that you will use this time/date marked footage in support of a form 4 complaint to the county court, unless you can agree a mutual way forward.

I would suggest offering to pay the warrant amount (£185 I think you said) + letter fee + the 1st Visit Fee....shows a bit of good will on your part.

TOP TIP: If your car is worth a little bit then change the DVLA registration details into a family member's/friend's name/address....this way you don't own it, so any attempt to seize it would be unlawful.

Alternatively, speak to Newlyns.....explain your circumstances and maybe (and it is a big maybe) they will agree a short term payment arrangement. It really does depend who you speak to, some are more helpful than others.

Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Rich