Bailiff advice,bailiffs,parking charges,bailiff fees,congestion charges,fines,anpr,csa,council tax

WHAT IS A CONGESTION CHARGE?
The Congestion Charge Scheme in London is enforced by Transport for London and requires that any motorist, who uses or keeps a vehicle on any road, within the Congestion Charge Zone during its hours of operation, to purchase a ‘licence’ (a Congestion Charge).

Payment of the daily charge of £8, allows you to enter, drive around, and leave the charging zone as many times as you wish, on that particular day. There are no tollbooths enabling you to pay….instead you must pay to register your vehicle number plate for your journeys within the charging zone.
There are currently 702 cameras at 203 locations, both static, and in mobile vans which patrol the Zone.

They include:
• 198 PTZ colour cameras
• 59 fixed colour cameras
• 435 monochrome cameras mounted on columns
• 10 mobile cameras in vans and Mercedes Smart Cars

These cameras will read your registration number as you enter the charging zone and it will check this against their database to see whether you have paid or are exempt from paying the fee. If this applies to your vehicle, your details are automatically wiped of the database.
Figures recently released show that 60,000 vehicles incur Congestion Charges each day!!

HOW MUCH IS THE CONGESTION CHARGE?
The daily charge is £8. However from Monday 19 June 2006, an additional day has been allowed in order to pay the congestion charge. There are, however, a number of conditions which apply and you should read these carefully. You can now pay the charge at £10 until midnight on the next charging day after you have travelled in the zone.

Charging days are Monday to Friday, and exclude weekends, Bank Holidays and the three working days between Christmas and New Year. This means that if you forget to pay the charge on a Friday at £8, you can pay on Saturday, Sunday or until midnight on the Monday at £10.
Please note, there are only two ways to pay for the previous charging day. These are either online, by either credit or debit card on Transport for London's web site (www.cclondon.com)

or:

By telephone: using a credit or debit card through the Transport for London Call Centre on 0845 900 1234 which is open from 6am till 12:30am Sunday to Friday and 6am till 10pm Saturday. You will not be able to pay this charge through retail outlets: such as shops or newsagents, nor through self service machines, mobile phone (text messaging) or by post. If you are planning to drive into the Congestion Charging Zone on a regular basis, you may find it more convenient to purchase either a monthly or an annual charge.
The monthly charge would cost you £136 and this entitles you to 20 consecutive charging days (this is a saving of £24 i.e. the equivalent of three free days). The cost of an annual charge entitles you to 252 consecutive charging days and the cost is £1,696 and this will save you £320 i.e. the equivalent of 40 free days.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I FAIL TO PAY THE CONGESTION CHARGE?
If you have not paid the £8 daily charge by midnight on the day of travel or the £10 charge by midnight on the next charging day after driving in the zone, a £100 Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) will be sent to the registered keeper or hirer of the vehicle. In exactly the same way as parking tickets, this amount is reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.

The following are the formal notices which we are describing in more detail below.

Penalty Charge Notice.
Notice of Acceptance .
Notice of Rejection of Representations .
Notice of Appeal Form.
Charge Certificate.
Order for Recovery of unpaid Penalty Charge Notice.
Statutory Declaration.
Warrant of Execution.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I FAIL TO PAY THE CONGESTION CHARGE?
If you have not paid the £8 daily charge by midnight on the day of travel or the £10 charge by midnight on the next charging day after driving in the zone, a £100 Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) is sent to the registered keeper or hirer of the vehicle. The notice should show the date and time of the alledged contravention. In exactly the same way as parking tickets, this amount is reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days and no further action will be taken by TfL.

MAKING A REPRESENTATION.
If you feel that a mistake has been made in issuing the Congestion Charge, you should write to TfL outlining your complaint. This process is referred to as making a representation. In the first instance, you make an informal representation. Our advice is that it is certainly worth making an informal complaint/representation. We say this because, in 2003/04 there were 42,339 appeal registered at RUCAT, the Adjudicator responsible for hearing Congestion Charge appeal. This figure has been drastically reduced down to 16,583 appeals being registered for the current period 2005/06. RUCAT themselves state that one of the reasons for this is that Transport for London ( TfL) now have to pay a fee for the cost of the appeal. As soon as the Notice of Appeal is received at RUCAT, Transport for London are charged a fee of £28.63 per case. If your arguments are sufficiently good, and that you would possibly win at the adjudication stage, it makes sense for TfL to settle your complaint early, instead of them having to pay £28.63 to RUCAT and wait for a further 6 months before the case is finalised at RUCAT with the possibility that you would win. As you can see, if you appeal, TfL are now having to pay for you to do this…

In order to avoid the situation being very stressful, you may wish to pay the Congestion Charge and still make representation. You are able to do this. You have just 28 days from the date of the notice in which to make your representations. Transport for London will then consider your complaint and they must write to you with one of the following two formal notices:

NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCE.
This is a formal notice issued by Transport for London to let you know that they have accepted what you have written and the matter is closed. You do not need to take any further action. If your vehicle was clamped and/or removed and you paid to have it released, then Transport for London should refund this to you.

NOTICE OF REJECTION.
This is a formal notice issued by Transport for London when they do not accept the formal representations that you made concerning the Penalty Charge Notice. You must either pay the penalty charge or appeal to the Adjudicator within 28 days

A four-page appeal form should accompany the ‘Notice of Rejection’. If this form is not enclosed with your ‘Notice of Rejection’ you should request one from Transport for London as soon as possible.

NOTICE OF APPEAL.
This is the name given to the 4 page form that Transport for London will send to you with their ‘Notice of Rejection’. If you still believe that you should not have received the Congestion Charge and you wish to take the matter further, you will need to complete the Notice of Appeal which will need to be sent to the Road Users Charging Adjudicators (RUCAT) within 28 days. See RUCAT below for more information. It is important that you submit this form to RUCAT to avoid a Charge Certificate being issued.

CHARGE CERTIFICATE.
A Charge Certificate will be issued by TfL, increasing the penalty charge by 50% to £150 if the following apply:

• A ‘Notice of Rejection’ has been issued and you did not pay the penalty charge within 28 days or
• No appeal to the Adjudicator has been registered within 28 days after TfL had issued you their ‘ Notice of Rejection’.
• An appeal has been refused by the Adjudicator and TfL has not received payment within 28 days.
• You have informed the Adjudicator that you intend not to proceed with the appeal but do not make a payment within 14 days of your appeal being withdrawn.

The effect of the Charge Certificate is that the penalty charge increases by 50% to £150. Transport for London can now apply to register the charge as a debt at the Northampton County Court, in which case further charges will apply.

Registration of Debt and Order for Recovery
This is a formal notice. If after 14 days of a charge certificate being issued, the penalty charge is still not paid, you may receive this notice. The debt is then registered with Northampton County Court Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) with the debt then increasing to £155 to include a £5 court fee.

When the debt is registered, Transport for London will send to you two documents: a ‘Notice of Debt Registration’ and a Statutory Declaration form. You now must either pay the outstanding penalty or immediately lodge the Statutory Declaration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre. See below for details.

WHAT IS A STATUTORY DECLARATION?
A Statutory Declaration is a formal legal declaration sworn under oath. For Congestion Charges there are only 3 grounds on which you can dispute the charge. These are:

• That you did not receive the Penalty Charge Notice;
• That you made representations to Transport for London within 28 days of service of the notice to owner, but that you did not receive a rejection notice or that:
• You received the Notice of Rejection from TfL, and appealed to the Road User Charging Adjudicator (RUCAT) as instructed, but that you have not received a response to your appeal.
Making a false declaration is a criminal offence.

HOW DO I FILL IN THE STATUTORY DECLARTION FORM?
In our secure Downloads section you will see that we have provided you with a copy of the Statutory Declaration with an example of the wording required to complete it. This copy can be adapted to suit your own particular circumstances. We have also provided details of how to access the forms online.
The Statutory Declaration should be completed and returned to the Traffic Enforcement Centre within 21 days although there are provisions whereby the court may allow a longer period of time. Our understanding is that you may have 36 days from authorisation of the warrant to submit a Statutory Declaration “out of time” but in any event no later than one month from the end of the 36 day period.

I AM GOING AWAY ON HOLIDAY AND REQUIRE MORE THAN 21 DAYS TO COMPLETE THE FORM.
If you require more time to complete your statutory declaration, you may apply for a time extension (either in writing or via the TEC Helpdesk). You will need to ensure that you quote your penalty charge number, how much time you will need, and the reason why you require more time. Please note that TEC can only grant an extension of up to one month

HOW DO I GET IT SWORN?
Once you have completed the Statutory Declaration, you can go to almost any High Street solicitor and ask at the reception desk if there is a solicitor free to swear the document. You may have to wait 5 or 10 minutes at most. Nearly always, a Junior Solicitor will deal with these matters, and he will simply ask that you swear on the bible etc, that the document is yours and that it contains your signature. There is a small fee of approx: £8 for this. Alternatively, you can just turn up at any County Court and go to the enquiries desk and you can swear the document there. The courts do not make a charge for this. Please note that TEC will refuse the Declaration if it has not been sworn correctly.

WHERE DO I SEND THE COMPLETED FORM?
The completed form must be sent to The Traffic Enforcement Centre, Northampton not Transport for London. The address will be on the Statutory Declaration Form.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
If the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton is satisfied that the Statutory Declaration has been properly made, it will usually make a Court Order cancelling the Order for Recovery and the Charge Certificate (and thereby cancelling the bailiffs) but the Penalty Charge will not be cancelled and will remain ‘live’. Transport for London is entitled to continue to pursue the Penalty Charge.
If the Statutory Declaration was made on the ground that:

1) you did not receive the original Penalty Charge:
• Transport for London should then send another copy of the Penalty Charge Notice to you and you will then have the opportunity to make representations against the Penalty Charge Notice and follow the usual appeals process.
If the Statutory Declaration was made on the ground that:
2) you made representations to Transport for London or appealed to the Adjudicator, but did not receive a reply:
• In this case, Transport for London is then under a duty to refer the case to the Adjudicator for further consideration.
The Adjudicator will then decide whether the case should proceed to an appeal hearing in the normal way.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DO NOT RESPOND
If you do not file a valid Statutory Declaration with TEC within 21 days of the date on the Order for Recovery, the Local Authority may enforce the Charge by requesting a Warrant of Execution. Once the warrant has been authorised by TEC, the Transport for London will instruct their certificated bailiffs to execute the warrant. The actual warrant is not produced at Northampton County Court. Instead it is sent electronically to Transport for London. It is now common practice for the warrant to be printed by the bailiff company

WARRANT OF EXECUTION.
The Warrant of Execution will be on a Form 9. If you have received notification from a Bailiff that they have a warrant in respect of an unpaid congestion charge, our advice is that you must immediately telephone the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court on : 0845 704 5007. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, you need to ask the exact date on which the Warrant was issued. This is because a Warrant is valid for only 12 months from the date of issue. The Traffic Enforcement Centre’s computer system will “automatically” mark a warrant as expired if one year and seven days has elapsed since the date it was issued onto the system. (The additional seven days is to allow for posting and drawing up of the warrant).

Unfortunately however this information is not given to the bailiff, and we are constantly hearing of bailiff’s attempting to enforce warrants that are in excess of this with some being 2 years old . This is illegal.

Secondly, and this is vitally important , the date of the issue of the warrant is crucial in that the Contracts between Transport for London and their bailiff companies clearly states that the bailiff is not allowed to make an initial visit to you for at least 20 days after the warrant has been issued. The exact details on this can be found in our secure Downloads section where you will find the document entitled Enforcement Timetable…Transport for London.

Our advice would be to also ask the Traffic Enforcement Centre to confirm to you that the warrant is in the correct name……there are endless mistakes being made on this point as well. !!

Under the Traffic Enforcement Centre’s Code of Practice, the bailiff must show you a copy of the Warrant.

Even more importantly, on the Warrant itself, it quite clearly states the following:

• “This Warrant can only be enforced by a bailiff carrying a certificate issued by a Judge under the Distress for Rent Rules 1988”.

If the warrant is out of date, contains the wrong name, or the bailiff is not certificated as required by law, our advice, would be to immediately contact both the local authority that instructed the bailiff, and the Traffic Enforcement Centre immediately.

Please ensure that you put your case in writing to all concerned including the bailiff company and remember……to keep a copy!!

HOW SOON CAN A BAILIFF ENFORCE THE WARRANT?
Transport for London (TfL) has provided our company with a copy of their contract with each of the 4 bailiff companies contracted to them for the collection of Congestion Charges.

Each of the contracts also contain an “Enforcement Timetable” setting out clear guidelines on steps which must be taken before a bailiff makes an initial visit to levy execution of the Warrant. For instances, the bailiff cannot make an initial visit for at least 20 days after the warrant has been issued.

Sadly very few of the cases that we are currently seeing comply with the agreement entered into between the bailiffs and Transport for London. For this reason, by visiting our secure Downloads section you will see that we have provided both a copy of the “Enforcement Timetable as contained in the contract, together with a letter that we have drafted that can be adapted to your own individual case in the event that the bailiff has not acted correctly as set out in the agreement.

HOW DO I FIND OUT IF A WARRANT HAS BEEN ISSUED?
You may contact the Local Authority or The Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) to find out if a warrant has been issued against you. But please note that a warrant is only valid for one year ……..this is why it is vital that you ask for details. Their telephone number is: 0845 704 5007

WHO DO I CONTACT IF BAILIFFS HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED?
As the Local Authority employs the bailiffs, any bailiff queries must be addressed to the Bailiff Company or the Local Authority. Our advice is always to write to both the bailiff company and the local authority that instructed them. TEC cannot suspend or cancel any bailiff action.

IF YOU HAVE THREE OR MORE UNPAID CONGESTION CHARGING (PCN’s)
It is vitally important to note that if you have three or more unpaid Congestion Charge Penalty Notices, your vehicle can legally be clamped or removed anywhere in the Greater London area using what is known as ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). The earliest that this can happen would be 28days after the 3rd Penalty Charge Notice has been issued. The vehicle will only be released on payment of all outstanding and related costs. This is now a very common occurrence in London with as many as 70-80 vehicles every week being removed and sadly, we are hearing many reports of bailiffs charging fees far in excess of those fees legally agreed by Government or by TfL in their Contracts.

If the release fee is not paid after 56 days the vehicle may be disposed of at auction or by scrapping. However in these circumstances the registered keeper will remain liable for any charges still outstanding including an £80.25 disposal fee.
We are very concerned, as are many other advice companies, over this method of enforcing unpaid Congestion Charges, in particular as the legal provisions do not put a cap on a figure for the value of any car that can be taken to enforce just 3 unpaid congestion charges of £155 each that total (£465)
Our company has been provided with copies of the relevant contracts between Transport for London (TfL) and their bailiff companies covering all forms of enforcement action to include ANPR offences.
We have also been provided with the copies of the contractual fees that bailiffs should be charging, which we believe have never previously been reported.
By clicking on the link below you will be taken to the relevant page in our secure Downloads section where you will be able to compare the charges that may have been applied in your own particular case against those fees that Transport for London have allowed the bailiff to charge.
It should be noted that there are Statutory Legal Charges that apply where the vehicle has been immobilised and also separate figures if the vehicle is actually removed from the road. There are many other pages that can be viewed in our Downloads section that also deal with this particular situation to include the Statutory Regulations that provide for immobilization and removal or a vehicle that has 3 or more unpaid Congestion Charge Penalty Notices.
Because of the huge increase in the use of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition, we have dedicated an entire section to this which can be accessed on our Front Page.

YOUR CAR HAS BEEN CLAMPED AND YOU WANT TO COMPLAIN.

You should contact the manager for that service at the address below.
• Congestion Charging Vehicle Storage Pound
Depot Road
Off Wood Lane
White City
London
W12 7RP
However, if you wish to challenge the clamping and removal itself, this should be dealt with through the Statutory Representations and Appeals service which is detailed on the Penalty Charge Notice.

HOW DO I APPEAL A CONGESTION CHARGE TO THE ADJUDICATORS?
The Road User Charging Adjudicators Tribunal ('RUCAT') is an independent tribunal which decides appeals against congestion charging penalties in London. During the period 2005/06 they received 48,277 applications for appeals of which 28,121 were allowed, this resulted in the Congestion Charge notices being cancelled or if monies had already been paid, or vehicles clamped: refunds were given.
RUCAT is entirely independent from London local authorities and Transport for London.
Cases are decided by independent Adjudicators, each of whom are qualified either, as a barrister, or a solicitor with at least 5 years training, and is directly appointed by the Lord Chancellor. They decide each case impartially, applying the law to the facts of the case. They have their own website which is easy to understand and provides instructions on all of the stages of the adjudication to include details of key cases that may be relevant to your own particular complaint. For further information you will need to visit:
www.parkingandappeals.gov.uk/cchome.htm

WHAT ARE THE GROUNDS FOR APPEAL

The legal grounds under which you can appeal against your Congestion Charge Penalty Charge Notice are set out below:

• You were not the registered keeper in relation to the vehicle in question

• You had ceased to be the person liable before the date on which the vehicle was used or kept on a road in a charging area;

• you became the person liable after that date;
• that the charge payable for the use or keeping of the vehicle on a road on the occasion in question was paid at the time and in the manner required by the charging scheme;
• that no penalty charge is payable under the charging scheme;
• the vehicle had been used or kept, or permitted to be used or kept on a road by a person who was in control of the vehicle without the consent of the registered keeper;
• the penalty charge exceeded the amount applicable in the circumstances of the case;
• that you are a vehicle hire-firm and; the vehicle in question was at the material time hired from that firm under a hiring agreement; and the person hiring it had signed a statement of liability acknowledging his liability in respect of any penalty charge notice imposed in relation to the vehicle during the period of the hiring agreement.

HOW CAN I CHECK THE BAILIFFS CHARGES?

In relation to Congestion Charging, only the following companies have contracts with Transport for London to enable them to take enforcement action. These companies are:
3) Drakes Group Ltd
4) CCS Enforcement Ltd
5) Equita Ltd
The contracts expressly prohibits the bailiff’s from sub contracting the work, therefore, if any other company are seeking enforcement action against you, our advice would be to object immediately, and request proof of who actually is instructing them. Our advice would be to immediately contact Transport for London also with a copy of your objection, remember to keep a copy.
Sadly, it is a fact that when a bailiff is enforcing a warrant for collection of congestion charging or indeed other parking debts, it would appear that in many cases the amount that they are requesting is sometimes 3 or 4 times the value of the original debt, and there is no way of checking as to whether the amount being requested is correct or not.
So that we can provide accurate information on our site concerning the fees that the bailiffs are allowed to charge, we have spent many months in correspondence with Transport for London seeking this information.
We are delighted that they have provided us with copies of the Contracts with their bailiffs and also the scale of fees that the following bailiff companies are allowed to charge:
• Drakes Group Ltd
• CCS Enforcement Ltd
• Equita Ltd
We believe that we are possibly the only company to have been provided with this information, which will enable visitors to our site to compare the fees that they have been charged, against those agreed by their client: Transport for London.
A copy of the Scale of Fees can be accessed by visiting our secure Download section, where we are also providing details from the contracts that outlines the steps that must be taken before a bailiff visit. .
For instance: the contract clearly states ,that the bailiff cannot make an initial visit until 17 days after sending a first letter….which cannot be sent until 5 days after the bailiff company receive the Warrant.

COMPLAINING THAT YOUR CAR HAS BEEN CLAMPED.

COMPLAINING AGAINST A CONGESTION CHARGE NOTICE?

Since Congestion Charging started, there have been over 96,000 complaints, of which over 12,000 related to the fees charged.
The formal complaint procedure has three stages:
STAGE: 1.

If you are dissatisfied with a particular aspect of the service you should choose from one of the following 3 options to lodge a formal complaint about congestion charging.

Go online:
• By visiting: www.cclondon.com and click on Contact Us. Complete the Complaint Form and click Submit.
You may also telephone them on the following:
• Call: 0845 900 1234 (calls are charged at no more than four pence per minute from a BT landline.

STATUTORY REGULATIONS CONCERNING CONGESTION CHARGES.

The enforcement procedures are set out in the relevant legislations:-

• The Road User Charging (Charges and Penalty Charges)(London)
Regulations 2001.

www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si/20012285.htm

• The Road User Charging (Charges and Penalty Charges) (London) (Amendment) Regulations 2003. www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20030109.htm

• The Road User Charging (Enforcement and Adjudication) (London)
Regulations 2001 ( as amended)
www.opsi.gov.uk/Si/si2003/20030108.htm

THE ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1991.

The right to enforce parking regulations comes from Acts of Parliament. If you wish to register a complaint or make representations to the local authority, you may wish to quote the relevant part of the Road Traffic Act 1991 that is applicable to your own individual case.
The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 provided for councils to enforce certain parking acts. Parking offences however, were dealt with through the criminal court system. A considerable number of parking offences, primarily those concerning restricted (yellow line) parking remained the responsibility of the police and the police traffic warden service.
The Road Traffic Act 1991 made important changes to the 1984 Act. The most important being that, parking was made “decriminalised”. This meant that you were no longer committing a criminal act by parking incorrectly. This meant that the police no longer had to deal with matters of parking and instead this was given to individual councils to administer.
The first areas in the country to be decriminalised were the 33 London Boroughs during 1993/94. Since the late 1990s an increasing number of councils outside London have also taken up decriminalised enforcement powers.
Before any council can take up decriminalisation, they firstly have to submit a proposal to the Secretary of State for Transport for their approval. The legal power must be granted formally as an Order in Parliament, through what is known as a Statutory Instrument.
The Council has no legally authority to enforce parking themselves unless they have been granted the order which is called a Special Parking Area Order (SPA Order).
RELEVANT SECTIONS OF THE ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1991.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 66 and 77 authorises a Parking Attendant to issue a PCN is he has reason to believe that a parking contravention has occurred.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 66 requires every PCN to contain certain specified information. Although it is not mandatory, to follow the wording exactly, they must accurately convey the information.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 67 and 68 authorises councils to obtain payment of the PCN and removal and storage costs before releasing the vehicle.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 69 and 77 authorises immobilisation of vehicles (i.e. clamping) subject to exemptions as set out in Section 70.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 70 provides for the vehicle to be exempt from clamping or immobilisation if the following apply:
• a current disabled person's badge is displayed on the vehicle;
• not more than 15 minutes have elapsed since the end of any period for which the appropriate charge was duly paid at the time of parking; or
• not more than 15 minutes have elapsed since the end of any unexpired time (in respect of another vehicle) which is available at the relevant parking meter at the time of parking.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 71 sets out the keeper’s rights to make representations to the Council following clamping and removal, whether payment has been made or not.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 72 provides for the right to include an appeal to an independent parking adjudicator if the representation is rejected by the Council.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 74 provides for London authorities to set their own levels of additional parking charges to apply in London. They can set different levels in different parts of London.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 77 also authorises immobilisation of vehicles (i.e. clamping) subject to the exemptions in Section 70.

Road Traffic Act 1991: Section 78 this provides for the Lord Chancellor to issue regulations relating to the issue of: warrants of execution to certificated bailiffs.

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