BAILIFF TACTICS.

With many people now suffering financial difficulties as a result of the recession, it is important to recognise the tactics that some of the less reputable bailiffs and their companies are using to enable them to charge additional fees to your account. Mainly, this will be by trying to charge either an "Attending to Remove/Van Fee or "Enforcement Fee" and in many cases this fee will be in excess of £200 per visit !! We are detailing some other tactics below:

Sending letters by second class mail:

Despite many contracts with local authorities stating that letters must be sent by first class mail, many bailiff companies are sending letters by either 2nd class mail or even by TNT mail (which can take 3-5 days) to advise that they will be visiting a property unless the debt is paid within 5-7 days!!

If this were not bad enough, in many cases we are also finding that the actual letter in the envelope is dated up to 5 days before the date of posting. This tactic will ensure that a bailiff visit will be made which will of course attract an addittional fee before you have had the opportunity to either pay the amount required or reach a payment arrangement with the bailiff company before a visit is made.

Hand delivered letters:

A bailiff company can only charge a letter fee of £11.20 when collecting an unpaid parking charge notice. For outstanding court fines, there is also an admin/letter fee(details are in our Downloads area), but for the collection of council tax the bailiff cannot charge a letter fee. It is now commonplace for bailiff companies to hand deliver letters that are entitled "Removal Notice" and for which a substantial additional charge has been applied. We have a separate section on this subject which you will find on the left hand side of our home page.

Liability Orders (council tax):

The Magistrates Court do not send out copies of Liability Orders and because of this, many people do not actually know the amount on the Liability Order. We would advise that you contact the council to ask how much the Liability Order is for. The reason for this is that we have seen so many cases where the amount being requested by the bailiff company is not the amount on the Liability Order. and in many cases can vary between an additional £24.50 for an "apparent first visit", £42.50 for two such visits and even a van visit of between £100 to £200. The inclusion of van fees is more common when the debt is for a large sum of money as the debtor will very likely not notice this charge. When questioned, many bailiff's will try to justify the additional amount stating that it must be the court fees !!   

Setting repayments too high:

A bailiff will try to charge an "attending to remove/van fee" if you have defaulted on a payment arrangement.The simplest way to ensure that you default, is for the bailiff to insist on a repayment rate that is clearly not affordable. Predictably, the first payment is made on time, and the second or third payment is late. You need to be aware that if you make a payment arrangement either with the bailiff or his office on for instance the 10th day of the month, the bailiff companies computer system will automatically generate a "removal notice" and bailiff visit if you are just one day late with your payment. This is a very common tactic, in particular when the payment date falls on a weekend or bank holiday. For this reason, if you have to agree to sign a Walking Possession then you should agree before signing what amount you can pay. Your agreed payment should be made by debit/credit card to the bailiff company at least 3 days before the payment is due.

Making your monthly payment by cheque:

We have had so many queries where a payment was sent by cheque to the bailiff company who claim to have either not received the payment or received it late. As a result, this will also mean that the account has defaulted.........with a "removal notice/van fee" being charged !! Unless you have no other means of making your payment, we would advise that you avoid paying by cheque.

Receiving a bailiff visit for an unpaid PCN...never received the ticket:

This is probably the most common query we receive and normally comes to light if a bailiff company has located and clamped a car after detecting it by use of their ANPR equipped vehicles. Not surprisingly, the owner of the vehicle is adamant that they have no knowledge of ever receiving a parking ticket. Only by contacting the Traffic Enforcement Centre do they discover that in fact the PCN, and all the subsequent documents had been sent to a previous address or that the address was incorrect in some way. As the bailiff has a copy of the warrant on his computer he would be well aware of the address where all of the documents had gone.......but will not tell you this !! If this has happened to you, you will have grounds to file an Out of Time late Statutory Declaration..... even if you have previously had to pay the bailiff. You will find more on this under our ANPR section. In such cases, you may wish to contact our office for more in depth advice.

"Levying" on a vehicle that you do not own:

This is now also becoming commonplace with "less reputable" bailiffs, in particular when collecting for unpaid council tax. How it works is this:

The bailiff will make a visit to your premises with "a view to levying distress" (this is the legal term). He can charge just £24.50 if this is the 1st visit and you are not at home and no levy is made. In order to generate more income for him and his company,the bailiff will instead post a form through the door to say that he has attended and "levied" upon a vehicle either on your driveway or on the road outside. The bailiff will then charge both an additional "walking possession" fee and a "levy fee". The bailiff knows that there is case law that provides that he can "assume" that the car is yours and that it is up to you....not him..... to prove otherwise ( details of this case can be found in the Legal section of our Downloads area). Many times these vehicles are owned by sons/daughters/friends/even tradesmen etc. If this does occur, and the bailiff company refuse to accept that the vehicle is not owned by you and refuse as well to remove all charges associated with this supposed "levy" then a Statutory Declaration will need to be sworn by the owner of the vehicle. and a request made that all fees and charges associated with this "levy" are removed. Again, you may wish to contact our office for assistance in completing this Statutory Declaration.