Can bailiffs take my car?

[labman]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

In effect, the latter part of PT's post achieves the same as my previous post - it will get the Means Testing needed.

[bluebottle]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

I wonder if we can go back to the beginning and fill a few blanks in?

Is this for only 1 fine or are there several?
At the time the case was heard did he attend Court or plead Guilty by letter or did he just play Ostrich and hope it would go away?
Was he Means Tested at the time?
Has he moved since?
Has he received a Further Steps Notice about this from the Court - a legal requirement?
What address is on the Warrant - the original and not the mocked up one from Marstons?
I assume the Bailiff has neglected to tell you that there is an agreement with HMCTS that allows them to accept payments over 6 months? In your case however because of your circumstances etc the Warrant should be returned to the Court and he should be summonsed to appear as to why he cannot pay and the chances are a good part will then be written off.

Thanks for reminding me about approaching HMCTS about that, PT. I have used Serif PhotoPlus to redact one of Marstons letterhead warrants before I submit it, along with a genuine MC Distress Warrant to HMCTS to see if they know about them. I have a gut-feeling they don't and aren't going to be too enamoured when they see conditions, endorsed on the genuine warrant are omitted from the letterhead version.

It is my understanding that the genuine warrant is emailed to the bailiff company as a PDF file and the bailiff company then print off as many copies of that file as required. If it comes back as I have a feeling it will, Marstons are going to be in for some serious stick, not only from HMCTS, but debtors, too.

[gemmalsmith]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

Hi, thanks for all this info.

To answer your questions, it is a number of different fines, he was homeless and drunk and taking drugs at the time, he can't really remember alot of details from that time, and it was 10 years ago. But assume he didn't attend court or contact them with a plea or have a means assessment. He was homeless and moving around for a few years after this and about 6 years ago moved back home with his parents when he cleaned up. Haven't heard anything from court or anything in the past 3 years that we have been living together at this address.

He has recieved a Further steps notice but it gets a bit complicated here: we are dealing with another fine that he got for driving an uninsured vehicle which we were trying to contest as we had sold the vehicle so we pled not guilty however they stated that it was our responsibility to inform the DVLA that we had sold the vehicle (the guy who bought it said he was in a rush and said he would sent the V5 off - we were naive and learnt from this) so they imposed the fine. Anyway, this eventually got passed onto marstons too we had some difficulty dealing with this, we kept pressing the fact that we were willing to pay and sent all our financial info proving income etc and offering what we could and they seemed to disappear, didn't return our calls etc. So when the further steps notice came through we thought it was this uninsured driving fine that had been passed back to the courts. However after investinging it etc we have discovered it isn't. So in short yes they did send a further steps notice.

We haven't actually been shown or given a warrant. He left a final notice stating the amount and just wrote (1x Warrant) next to it.

So, unless the bailiffs have an actual warrant from the court (not one that they have done themselves) they shouldn't be trying to force entry to the house? Am i right in thinking that what they would need to do now is if they can't get the money they would go back to court and ask for one of these warrants?

Thanks

[ploddertom]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

If he has had several fines in the past do you know if these have all been rolled into one? Otherwise it should be a FSN for each! You may need to check with the originating Court, and while on the phone to the Court ask which address is on the Warrant that they have issued.

[bluebottle]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

Forewarned is forearmed. Attached to this post are examples of a genuine MC Distress Warrant and one of Marstons letterhead warrants. As you will note, the Marston version omits pertinent information, i.e. the conditions attached to it by the court, and I have s very strong suspicion the letterhead warrants aren't worth the paper they are printed on. They are commonly-used to hoodwink debtors and police officers. More experienced police officers will ask to see a "proper" court warrant which really does pee off the bailiff.

[labman]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

Much as don't like to do so, we must attribute that to HC.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

HC?

[bluebottle]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

Much as don't like to do so, we must attribute that to HC.

At least you can see how police officers and debtors are mislead, LM. Btw, I agree with what you say in Post #14. If I may add to your advice, it might be a good idea for the OP to find out if a Consolidation Order has been made to "bundle" the fines together.

[gemmalsmith]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

Thank you so much for all of your advice on this. I have written a letter to HMCS and printed off a number of copies to post and take down to the court.
I have also written a letter to Marstons explaining that we have a DRO and therefore have less than £300 in assets so if he were to come to the property to remove goods, the value of it wouldn't be enough to cover the balance, and therefore a repayment plan would need to be put in place for the remained anyway. And then explained that I have written to the court to request a means-test and have asked that they hold of any further action until the court has made a decision on this.
Is this a good idea? Or is it likely that this may kick them into faster action to try and recover the amount before it possibly goes back to HMCS?

Thanks

Gemma

[charitynjw]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

How low can they get?

Pretty low!

"Bailiffs’ practice of threatening to take low value items and charging fees for doing so was criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman. A bailiff’s threat to remove a door mat and charge £230 fees was described as unreasonable. The report concerned a complaint against Slough Borough Council's bailiffs and the Ombudsman issued it as a matter of public interest, to send a clear message to other councils which may need to review their practices"

http://www.lgo.org.uk/complaint-outc...il-10-007-469/.

[bizzybob]

Re: Can bailiffs take my car?

How low can they get?

Pretty low!

"Bailiffs’ practice of threatening to take low value items and charging fees for doing so was criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman. A bailiff’s threat to remove a door mat and charge £230 fees was described as unreasonable. The report concerned a complaint against Slough Borough Council's bailiffs and the Ombudsman issued it as a matter of public interest, to send a clear message to other councils which may need to review their practices"

http://www.lgo.org.uk/complaint-outc...il-10-007-469/.

Problem is this is court fines not Council Tax, so the LGO has no clout in this case. the bailiff will act like a prat whatever.