Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

[CleverClogs]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

So in short, a call to the courts, inform them i am outside Jurisdiction of any English/Welsh bailiff, and like magic they can call the fine back to be handled by them (even though was told last week this isn't possible, only Collectica could pass back to them)

Bailiffs tell lies.

[randomandy]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

TpnighClogs;405621]Bailiffs tell lies.[/QUOTE]

It was the courts that told me only the bailiffs could send it back to them, the bailiffs just lied and told me someone would be out to seize my belongings, when they clearly must have known they cannot do this!!

No kidding ploddertom, will actually sleep Tpnight, and has to be said, its ur advice thats enabled that... Thank you. And I hope this post will help other people faced with the same unfortunate predicament

[bizzybob]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

The bailiff would say anything to get you to pay, good result though. If the bailiff was stupid enough to venture to Scotland, and fetch up at your address it would be he that would be cooling his heels in Barlinnie, when the Scottish police arrested him and busted his sorry jive ass.

[randomandy]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Ok, not sure if i should be posting this here or starting a new thread, but it is all related to the same matter, so hoping someone here can be as helpful as you were back in January.

Basically my situation is this, I contacted the courts back in January, who were able to call back the debt and i had set up an agreement to pay them, they were happy with this and this was maintained until a about 2 weeks ago. approx 2 weeks ago, i lost my job, and as such i missed 1 yes ONE payment (my agreement was only for like £30 so this was daft on my part i admit that!!). and heres where i need the advice...

So i missed one payment, but called the following week and made a double payment, happy days i thought this would be fine, but last week a received a letter from HMCTS saying that due to missed payment, they have referred my account on to Marstons, who are debt collectors working on their behalf, so i have just phoned Marstons with an attempt to make this payment, only to be told that they will not now enter into an agreement, that i would have 7 days to pay £150 and clear the balance by July 8th 2014 (total balance is now only £527) but there is no way on gods green i can afford to do this, i have 3 children, one of wich is only 14 months old, and am expecting twins in approx 2 months.

I live in scotland, and previous advice on here was that a bailiff cannot attend in scotland as this must be done by a Sheriff Officer through the Scottish legal system, during my call with Marstons, i pointed this out and said it would be wise to enter an agreement with me as a bailiff would have no juristiction north of the border, only to be told that a review of the court and tribunalservice now means that they can enforce a bailiff officer to me..

What im wondering is: Is this true?? Do i now need to worry about a bailiff attending my my family home in an attempt to seize my goods??

In reality, what powers do Marstons have to enforce upon me and what action are they likely to take?? If i have to find the cash, i possibly could, but would end up costing me a fortune in the long run and probably end up putting me in debt that i couldnt afford to maintain, and begin the vicious cycle ive spent so long desperately trying to avoid any help would be most useful as im now again, panicking at what will happen to me and my family next :S :S

[bizzybob]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

As the Taking Control of Goods Regulations from the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 is for England and Wales only, and doesn't apply to Scotland AFAIK, the Marstons bailiff would be on shaky ground if he fetched up in Bonnie Scotland., Marstons bailiffs are amongst the most duplicitous and nasty Sassenach curs who ever lived so would lie through their teeth for a spare soo or groat.
Check this out for some background: quoted from Stepchange http://moneyaware.co.uk/2014/03/bail...-changes-2014/

" starting from April 6^th bailiff law in England and Wales enters the 21^st Century.
(Nothing’s changing if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland though. The laws there are nowhere near as convoluted as bailiff law in England and Wales!)"

In the light of that I think Marstons may be on a downer if they try to bully and threaten you with removal of goods, but no doubt other Beagles will know more.

[randomandy]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

I had read that very link before coming on here and asking advice, guess this just confirms what i thought, that they still cannot send one of their bailiff officers up to my house, and if they did, they still wont be getting their greasy mits on any of mine or my families treasured belonging (we dont have much that is worth anything anyway, and a lot of what we do have isnt owned outright by us anyway!!)

But with this being the case, I guess what i really need to and want to know is, WHAT CAN THEY DO?? what powers do they have to enforce up here in scotland, and what action, if any are they likely and legally entitled to take??

Its annoyed me because i still havent had a letter from Marstons themselves, i had got a letter from HMCTS saying the last payment i made will be forwarded to Marstons, and that my account has been given to them to recover the money owed, so being daft, i called Marstons to try and come to some kind of agreement, as stated before, i dont want this hanging over me, but it has to be affordable in order for me to be able to clear it!!! but was told by Marstons that from the day ive made contact (today Tues 13/05/14) i have 7 days now to come up with £150 or they will proceed with further action, despite that they stilll havent sent me a letter, and i was acting as the honourable citizen, contacting them of my own free will before they started dishing out the threats :S:S

So please if someone could perhaps basically let me know the following:

What powers does this company have in Scotland, and what action are they likely to take if i dont pay up the £150 in next 7 days as demanded by them??
What should i do in order to maintain paying this debt, small bit by small bit, in the meantime, in order to try and just put all this behind me??

I still have the reference number for the account at HMCTS and although they say they are no longer handling this and have passed it to marstons, should i continue to pay in the same way i was before??

All help very much appreciated!! thanks in advance for all replies guys!!

[ploddertom]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Unless you can record the calls, stay off the phone to Marstons. They know very well they cannot utilise a Bailiff north of the Border and are just trying to intimidate you. The thing you did wrong was not to contact the Court when you ran into trouble - should have done that first.

[randomandy]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Well i wont be contacting Marstons again any time soon, so my next call would be to get in touch with the court same way as I did last time?? suggesting that bailiff has no power here and see if they will recall the debt once again?? especially since it was only one missed payment??

[ploddertom]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Point out to the person that as you live in Scotland Marstons have no powers at all, they cannot even catch the No 9 bus. You do need to be speaking to the Fines Officer or Court manager though. To be on the safe side I would try & record the call.

[bizzybob]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Point out to the person that as you live in Scotland Marstons have no powers at all, they cannot even catch the No 9 bus. You do need to be speaking to the Fines Officer or Court manager though. To be on the safe side I would try & record the call.

Just for clarity PT, as there is no power for Marstons to visit, or do anything but bluff and bluster, would the fees laid down in TCGA be void and uncollectable HMCS not being lawfully able to pass the account to Marstons who have no power to collect from OP anyway.

[randomandy]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Just for clarity PT, as there is no power for Marstons to visit, or do anything but bluff and bluster, would the fees laid down in TCGA be void and uncollectable HMCS not being lawfully able to pass the account to Marstons who have no power to collect from OP anyway.

Ok so to clarify and as can be seen earlier in the post, this debt had already previously been forwarded to debt collector/bailiff company, collectica, a friendly call to the court informing them I was outside bailiff jurisdiction they recalled the debt, when they done this they did not recall collectica charges, only my original fine of 890, wich I have paying off and is now less than 500 I believe, so based on that I assume if the court service agaon took my account back, I would not have to pay marstons fees... This is just my assumption based on similar situation a few months back...

[ploddertom]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Well I have to agree with your summing up. It appears that someone cannot do geography.

[bizzybob]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Marstons will calll black wite and blue red if they think they can force a payment. It would make for interesting reading if they were silly enough to go to Scotland and tried it on. If the polis were called they cuid end up in the Barlinnie

[randomandy]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

So following on from yesterday, i called the Enforcement Business Centre for HMCTS, who after putting me on hold for nearly 10 minutes (calling an 0845 number, so costing me yet more money!!) she went away 'to speak with her manager' only to return and say they is nothing they can do, once they pass a debt on to a Collector, namely Marstons Group, there is nothing they can do, so i pointed out that only in January i was told this same thing, and that ini the end the court took the fine back and agreed for me to pay as there was no way of Marstons enforcing bailiffs to attend my home, her reply was, they will have other ways, Question #1: Does marstons, who are a debt enforcement agency for England and Wales, have any power to enforce in any way north of the border?? if so what enforcement procedure and power can they use?? I then made a call to the Magistrate Court who initially sentenced and fined me, and upon asking to speak with either a fines officer or court manager was told the a fines officer is only in on a Tuesday, and that there was no way anyone within the building could help anyway, not even a fines officer, as it is the Enforcement Business Centre that deals with all outstanding fines (particularly becuase this fine is now some number of years old!!) and was advised to call the Enforcement centre, or Marstons...

As I have said all along, i want to clear this, put it to bed, and just forget about it, no-one seems willing to let this happen, they are either passing the buck or in the case of Marstons asking for large sums of money that i just dont have, I cant give someone something if i dont have it...

so really what i need to know is:
What should my next course of action be??
Should i call Marstons and make small voluntary payments safe in the knowledge that they cannot send a bailiff to my house??

Thank you to all for your help with this btw, it really is a minefield and without the help and support of this forum, i dont know where i would be right now, particularly to Ploddertom, who has but fully helpful both back in January and now with current situation, thank you sooooo very much!!

[teaboy2]

Re: Notice Of Distress Warrant - But i live in Scotland :\

Are marstons acting as a standard debt collector or as court bailiff enforcement here - You need to find out because if they are acting only as a standard everyday debt collector then they have no power to force you to pay anything, and you should just keep paying what you can afford each week. Just don't cross the border into England or Wales till you have paid the full amount, as you may end up being arrested for non payment of court fine if you do.

If they are acting upon the debt as a court bailiff then challenge them to send a bailiff round and ring the police when they turn up, i doubt the Scottish government would be impressed with them trying to exercise jurisdiction on Scottish jurisdiction. Hell i can see an international incident in the making here lol

I'm not even certain if they can, as a standard debt collector, take the debt to sheriff court either. Especially since its for a court fine outside of the sheriff courts jurisdiction