Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

[Billus]

We were phoned up yesterday to be told that 2 of our vehicles outside had been clamped and unless we paid £1200 to JBW Bailiffs immediately, they would be towed away and further costs would be incurred.
The £1200 is due to three unpaid Congestion Charge fines on one of the vehicles in March, May and June last year. This is the first we knew of the fines as the vehicle had been registered to an old address.
If the fines were valid and we had known about them we would've obviously paid.

We have settled the bill so as to retain use of our vehicles but are now desperate to take some sort of action to recover these costs and to highlight the grossly disproportionate action taken by the bailiffs.

Who can please tell us the correct legal complaints procedure?

Thanks
Will

[Caspar]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

I can tell you from a Council Tax point of view as I've just done it. I SAR'd council and bailiffs, identified all incorrect fees and wrote and asked for them back if they wanted to avoid legal action. They sent me what I asked for.

They know they're charging unlawful fees when they do it, they just hope you don't, and by the time you find out you think, "oh I wish I'd known at the time."

You're doing the right thing - fight back and get YOUR money back.

[WendyB]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

Have a read of this, which will answer your questions. Bailiff Guide - Legal Beagles Consumer Forum. If you need any further advice, just ask.

[Billus]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

Thanks for this. What does SAR the council and bailiffs mean/ involve?

[Caspar]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

SAR = Subject Access Request. It gives you (for £10) everything they hold about you. It's just a case of sending a template letter which we can direct you to with the payment, then they have 40 calendar days in which to respond. Job done.

As Wendy says, read Amy's Bailiff thread though, it is extremely good!

[wiccaqueen]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

contact the Traffic Enforcement Centre by phone Tel: 08457 045 007 . and advise them that you have received notification from JBW that you have outstanding congestion charges that all statutory notices had been sent to my previous address they should tell you to fill 2 forms TE7 & TE 9

this reverts the charge back to the beginning you then can claim bailiff fees back from JBW and the council

because the warrant of execution has your previous address JBW have acted unlawfully

[Caspar]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

This may be a silly question, but don't you then lay yourself open to litigtion by the DVLA for not informing them of a change of address?

This is not a reason not to do it as when I was done by the DVLA for this it was something around the £80 mark, so you'd still have saved money. Just thought it might be worth mentioning - I haven't looked into the fines for a long time.

[Amy]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

contact the Traffic Enforcement Centre by phone Tel: 08457 045 007 . and advise them that you have received notification from JBW that you have outstanding congestion charges that all statutory notices had been sent to my previous address they should tell you to fill 2 forms TE7 & TE 9

this reverts the charge back to the beginning you then can claim bailiff fees back from JBW and the council

because the warrant of execution has your previous address JBW have acted unlawfully

Much as I dislike bailiffs, you really cannot blame them for this if the vehicles have never been re-registered at the new (current) address.

[Billus]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

Thanks for all this. It looks as if I can't fill out the TE7 and TE9 forms as I have none of the PCN details. JBW just turned up, gave 3 dates of the contraventions and demanded the money. I have never seen any paperwork regarding these alleged fines.

I suppose I revert to the SAR route, sending it to JBW do I? Is there anything specific I need to say or do I just follow the format of the example SAR letter given in this site's Bailiff Guide?

Thanks again.

[Caspar]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

Send the one in the Bailiffs Guide. Obviously read through it to make sure it fits the circumstances and makes sense. As it's bailiffs, it's worth sending recorded delivery so you have proof of receipt. Technically, for the courts, all you need is proof of delivery which costs nothing, receipt is assumed.

[delta33]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

almost exactly the same thing happened to me----except i refuse to pay the baliffs the extortionae amount of money and fought through filing a stat dec via the TEC. in the end i didnt have to pay but hd my clamped for ages.

in your case, because you have already paid i recommend the following:
firstly you need to ask the bailiff for a "breakdown of fees" so you can see what ridiculous things have been charged for--chances are there will be phantom visits on there and charges that are not enforceable.

then i would recommend writing to the local authority who they were acing on behalf of and detail your complaint and ask for a refund for the fees that you beleive are over and above reasonable. --call this a "letter before action" saying that if oyu dont hear from them before x days, you will pursue via small claims court.

quick question...........when u say old address----had u updated ur address with the dvla? did u have access to ur old post?


btw because of this disgraceful behaviour by councils/bailiffs --i have set up a petition-- http://www.petitiononline.com/dbcc33/petition.html

would be grateful for any support.....

good luck!
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
sorry i've just read all the other messages.....

you dont actually need to request a subject access requst from the bailiff---just a breakdown fees (this doesnt require payment)......

re: the te7 te9 forms, it's still worth doing as you can get the warrant revoked--i had the same problem as you --u can get the pcn numbers from the bailiff or the council

[Naz123]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

We were phoned up yesterday to be told that 2 of our vehicles outside had been clamped and unless we paid £1200 to JBW Bailiffs immediately, they would be towed away and further costs would be incurred.
The £1200 is due to three unpaid Congestion Charge fines on one of the vehicles in March, May and June last year. This is the first we knew of the fines as the vehicle had been registered to an old address.
If the fines were valid and we had known about them we would've obviously paid.

We have settled the bill so as to retain use of our vehicles but are now desperate to take some sort of action to recover these costs and to highlight the grossly disproportionate action taken by the bailiffs.

Who can please tell us the correct legal complaints procedure?

Thanks
Will

Hi Will (Billus)

Argh the EXACT same thing has just happened to me this morning..only I had to pay £1600!!! I am wondering how your situation has come along and what advice given to you has been useful.

I would really appreciate your reply- I really have no idea about any of things and just cannot believe I had to hand over the money to stop the situation from escalating.

I also did not make dvla aware of address change (I had no idea we had too!)..have you found that this will now trip you up in any legal precedings?

bw

Naz

[Billus]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

We are waiting on some paperwork from our book keeper to verify that we def hadn't paid the cong charge on the specified dates. If we are in the wrong we will follow the advice in the thread above by doing a SAR and/ or a fee breakdown from the bailiffs.
We fully intend to follow this through so let's stay in touch.
We did re-register our vehicles a couple of months after m oving because we remebered to, not because of any fines turning up out of the blue.

I'll keep you posted,
Will

[Billus]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

We sent our SAR on 4/3/11 recorded delivery to JBW and we have had no reply yet. Does the 40 days refer to just 40 working days or does it include week-ends too? If we hear nothing from JBW, what is our next course of action?
Thanks.

[Amy]

Re: Stung for £1200 by JBW Bailiffs. Where do we go from here?

It's 40 days + 2 to allow for postage, which I make next week.

Send them this reminder.

Dear

Re: Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request

On (date you wrote the SAR) I sent a formal Subject Access Request and included the statutory maximum fee of £10, according to the above Act, which was received by your office on *********.

I have attached a copy of my original letter of (date you wrote the SAR) for your convenience and would suggest that you attend to my request as a matter of urgency.

This letter has been sent by first class post and therefore should have reached you by (calculate the date) and the date of receipt will be indicated by Royal Mail's service audit. I have no doubt that you will be aware, as of this date your statutory 40 days for compliance will be almost expired.

I am prepared to accept that the lack of information sent thus far is a genuine oversight on your part and look forward to receiving the information I requested. However, should the statutory deadline expire without receipt of the information that I have requested, I will be left with no alternative but to commence a County Court action under s.7 and s.15(2) of the Data Protection Act 1998 when I shall seek a Court order obliging you to comply together with damages at the discretion of the Court and without further notice to you.

Furthermore I will escalate this matter into an official complaint to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely