A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Apparently, my son got a parking ticket (in MY car) in Rossendale on Dec 3 2008 :rolleyes: (free parking if you display the disc, he didnt), I got a letter dated May 11th may, delivered on 14th May, from Marston's Bailiffs, I tried to ring the number given for the council parking 4 times, the only option given is to pay over the phone, so I emailed them because on the day, I was elswhere, in my van, hadnt realised my son had the car, they sent me a photo of the car, complete with parking ticket on the windscreen, so I duly asked her indoors to sort out the payment, and she forgot :eek::rolleyes:, the payment at that time had gone up to £87, including £11.20 for the letter!, so, settled down for the footy last night, knock on the door, h.i. went to answer (whilst carrying the baby in her arms), I heard some chatting, then a panicy shout of my name, I responded immediately to find a huge bloke (a bailiff) pushing my pertner, and the baby, back into the lounge, my reaction was one of which people who know me would expect, that is to say, I escorted him back to the front door, as he got to the door, he manhandled me trying to push me back in, which resulted in him promptly ascended the 4 steps at the front, and hurtling over the top of the wheelie bin! (The neighbours at this point were ever so slightly giggling), he rang the police, and yours truly was accused of assaulting the bailiff, Now, here's the important bit, the policeman who later shook my hand, informed me that, even for a parking offence, the bailiff can enter and remove goods, using reasonable force, and doesnt even have to show a warrant!! They used to have no right of access without permission, and could only make notes of your belongings, in case you dont pay up after the visit, but now can just remove goods if you dont pay on the spot, by either cash or credit/debit card (for which you are charged another £1.00.), as I furnished this lovely chap with the debit card, he informed me that the bill was £327.66. the moral is... park legally, dont ignore the fee, oh, and dont lend your kids the car!!

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

yep labour the party for the people gave bailifs these new rights to abuse and cause even more suffering on people who are already struggling , granted your case as over a parking ticket but they abuse these new powers and apply them to every case.Bailifs have been operating on a basis of lying and were before these new laws actualy barging in when they wernt allowed and taking things they shoudlnt like things belonging to other people or on hire purchase etc , labour just made them legalised burgulars.

hope your child wasnt hurt when he pushed your partner out of the way and i dont blame you for swinging for teh sod

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Cheers AM, he obviously had a good night, because he arrived with 2 tyres slashed on his car! Nobody in the house was hurt, dont think he was either, just dent his pride more than anything, cheered me up to see him go over the bin, papers and bluetooth all flying in different directions. :D

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

yeah there ok at pushing women with babys out of teh way but they tend to struggle a bit when a fella gets involved, is there anyone you can report him to becaue if your partner had fallen things could have ben a lot worse for her and your child

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Glad no one was hurt Derek and not surprised you punched him. These thugs are preying on people who are vunerable most of the time and being thuggish about it. Another moral to the story could be try and pay as soon as possible to avoid ridiculous costs!!

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

We have obviously had a conversation about paying the fee when I asked her to, and avoiding the extra costs, and hassle, I didnt punch the guy though, I wasnt quite that angry, it was more a forearm smash! :eek:

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

my sister a single mum of 2 kids had the bailliffs at her door this morning, they did not get in which is a good job because they would have taken the furniture, they said they were coming back with the police so i paid the £278 bill for council tax to stop it getting any worse.
they are right and we are worng as it is us that will end up with a record.
i dont know if it was the same bloke, hope it was, nice to know he went flying.
and i am glad you, your partner and your child were not hurt.
and which side are the police on?

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

unfortunatly the police have to enforce the law and because labour made these new laws enableing bailifs to act like nothing more than burgulars and muggers the police have to enforce it no matter how wrong they think it is personaly

like most laws these laws got passed under teh table so teh public were mostly unaware of teh changes and found themselves getting into trouble because they thought the bailif was in teh wrong and they didnt know any different

councils use bailifs and set bailifs loose on many people who cant afford their extortionate council tax yet if teh council recognised that people needed more help with council tax and that leaving people on benefit with some still to pay was in a lot of cases unmanageable they wouldnt have to use them in teh first place

i know people who have had to go without food just to pay bailifs sent by HBC so that tehy dont loose what meger possesions they have

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Discracefull, just who do they think they are. I wouldnt even allow a police officer in my house without a warrent.

I cant believe they are allowed to do that.:mad: I would be taking it further.

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

What changes?

ISTR that you needed a court judgement against you before the bailiffs were able to force entry.

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Bloody hell Derek what a bummer mate £327.66 for a parking fine, bet your son got some serious earache. Pity somebody didn't get a film of the bailiff going A over T across your bin, but isn't it typical of rip off GB these days

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

what a knob

i'd have hit him, if your gonna get done for something you may aswell do a proper job of it

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Does reasonable force include assauly on a woman and child. What a tough man :eek:

Surely reasonable force means pushing the door open not manhandling people ?

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Bailiffs and debt collectors : Directgov - Money, tax and benefits

Gives government information on what bailiffs can & cannot do.

I'll say again - what new powers?
I cannot find anything online.

Read this.

and this where it mentions the powers.
The ONLY bailiffs that can break your door down are those that are acting on behalf of the local magistrates courts after a CCJ has been issued.

Hence what happened was "illegal" and you have a right to complain about this guy. I would.

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

council appointed bailiffs have more powers than private ones i belive and i got stung for parking the same way, supposed to of got a ticket for parking on willow street 10 minutes to long but some kind soul removed the ticket :(

id split up with wife and she wasnt forwarding anymail to me so i eventually got chased for £280 :( wasnt happy at all

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

I was parked in Burnley a few weeks ago and saw I had a parking ticket when I came out 15 minutes late to move my car. It was a fair cop- I thought "Oh well, no point shifting it now" and went back to my shooting.

When I came out the ticket had gone. I queried it the following day and sure enough a ticket had been issued. I waited 'til the last minute before paying, as it occurred to me that there's no mechanism in place to protect people from tickets blowing off or being removed maliciously. I was lucky as I'd seen the ticket, briefly. I didn't get anything by post in the two weeks between getting the ticket and paying that told me the ticket had been issued.

It used to say on tickets that it is an offence to interfere with them (probably still does) but that's no good if the offender isn't caught interfering. their guilt transfers to the oblivious parker...

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

personaly i think its disgusting to be charged to park anywhere public , we pay road tax

also toll roads are disgusting and also use of those roads comes under road tax as well as far as im concerned

i believe tickets should be given for parking offences like on yellow lines etc but to cahrge for parking on a public road is ludricous and also if they must fine you they should not be allowed to add charges and involve bailifs

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

I agree with not charging to park on the road. I also agree with limited parking times to stop people who work in town parking all day so shoppers can't park for 1/2 an hour. You have to have fines to prevent people from over staying but I do not agree to using bailiffs because of the ridiculous charges they add. The Council should have their own enforcement team to issue and collect these fines and not use private thugs.

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

If that bailiff is a registered 'accredited person', he has police powers as shown in the police Reform Act 2002
http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/polici...20apr%2007.pdf
Page not found | Home Office

The Police Reform Act 2002 (“the Act”) introduced a system whereby persons who are not police officers may exercise certain police powers. Under Section 40 of the Act it is stated that the Chief Officer of any police force may, if considered that it is appropriate to do so (for the purposes set out in Section 40(3) of the Act), establish and maintain a scheme to be known as a “Community Safety Accreditation Scheme”(CSAS).


(1) Any person who assaults: -

(a) a designated person in the execution of their duty,

(b) an accredited person in the execution of their duty, or

(c) a person assisting a designated or accredited person in the execution of their duty, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on, summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both.


(2) Any person who resists or wilfully obstructs: -

(a) a designated person in the execution of their duty,

(b) an accredited person in the execution of their duty, or

(c) a person assisting a designated or accredited person in the execution of their duty,
is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on, summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale or both.

(3) Any person who with intent to deceive: -

(a) impersonates a designated person or accredited person

(b) makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is a designated person or accredited person,

(c) makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he has powers as a designated person or accredited person that exceed the powers that he actually has, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both.


1984

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

It looks as though the links I have given don't work
They were pdf files accessed from the home Office police site after googling
Police Accreditation Scheme
Citizen-Focused Policing | Home Office

The links work in my post in the other thread
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...tml#post717335

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Thanks for all that Mattylad and Margaret, I will peruse these later, Studio 25, your post, together with my experience, makes me beleive that they purposely dont inform you, that way the charges automatically increase without your knowledge, and because they dont register the post (even though they charge £11.20 for the letter), they are bound to make more money, Neil says he thinks the council should use thier own bailiffs, I beleive they tried this once, but the council office was inundated with the complainants, in person, at the counter because there was no other way of contacting them, and I think the council still get a large percentage of the proceeds. I am glad I started this thread, it is getting interesting.

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

I appear to be about £1.50 out, however, these are the charges ... they wll have charged you a further £11.20 letter charge plus VAT for Marston's letter too :-

Marston Group - Debtors help - Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) - Magistrates' Courts - Distress Warrants - Schedule of Fees and Charges

Bailiff's charge:-

£225.00, letter from bailiffs £11.20 + VAT = £13.16 + £87 fine + £1 debit card payment = £326.15. Can't find the other £1.50 ? .. even if the VAT on the first letter had not been charged which would have been £1.96.

Still what's £1.50 eh ?

If you have a complaint against this particular guy, then it is best to go straight to Marstons as recommended :-

7. How can I complain about Marston or one of their employees?

People may be unhappy that they have had to deal with a bailiff company and/or an Enforcement Officer however this is not a reason for complaint. The option to deal direct with our client (the creditor) is always available prior to the debt being passed to ourselves.
Our aim is to collect the debt on behalf of our client in a professional, polite, discrete and effective manner. If we fail to do this then we want to hear from you. If you are unhappy about the way in which you were treated by one of our staff, or if our communication(s) did not get the message across clearly, then we want to hear from you as soon as possible. We are trying to provide the best possible service to debtors and to our clients and listening to your concerns (and acting on them) is one way of improving our service.
We would prefer that you complain to us in writing so that we are able to have the fullest details for our investigation. If this is difficult then we will take the details over the phone however it may be harder for you to remember all the details and therefore we may have to contact you again to ask you for more information.
All complaints are recorded and, if we are not able to address your complaint at the time, are subject to a full and thorough investigation.
Written complaints should be sent to the Customer Care Manager, Marston Group Ltd, PO Box 308, Waltham Cross, EN9 1ZN, or emailed to [email protected]
Following our investigation you will be sent a detailed response that, where relevant, will include what actions we have taken/intend to take.
Please note - making a complaint will have no effect on the debt that you owe or the charges that you have incurred

Best of British ... x

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Thanks Kate, you are a gem! x

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Just remembered VAT is 15% now.. LOL, so this is nearer if they hadn't added VAT to the first £11.20 ... still .10p out .. still, would never have made an accountant... :rolleyes:

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Ya but you make up with it in other ways kate :D

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Steady Jaysay, dont over excite the lady.... you couldnt cope! :D

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

I'd risk one lung derek:D:D:D

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

:rofl38: Nothing but respect for that post Jaysay. :D

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Its the way I tell um:D

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

I'd be gently Jaysay ... LOL.

Re: A heads up, parking tickets and Bailiffs!
 

Your such a lady kate:D