Here on the discussion section of the forum there have been various threads that have touched upon the matter of 'in house' bailiff enforcement. For those unfamiliar with this term....this is where local authorities are setting up their own 'in house' bailiff operations. The decision to do so is mainly a financial one spurred on by the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 which provides that enforcement companies may charge a 'Compliance fee' of £75 when sending a statutory Notice of Enforcement to the debtor. If payment (or a payment proposal) is not made within the 'compliance stage, an enforcement agent may make a personal visit. An enforcement fee of £235 is chargeable. To assist with discussions on this subject, it may help to read the view of 'in house' bailiff enforcement from the perspective of the enforcement industry (who are naturally opposed to local authorities taking bailiff enforcement 'in house'). The following is a word copy of an article that featured in a trade magazine a few months ago.

I have lots of problems finding where to start a new thread so end up joining someone else's every time… I know when I have asked before I'm told there's a button in the top left hand corner which states "Post New Thread" but on my computer this doesn't appear … Is there anything i can do, please?

Good day to you all. This is a little unusual but I hope someone can advise me on my legal position? About a year ago I started a Facebook group, it turned out to be quite popular and so I appointed some members as administrators to help me run it. One of these administrators asked me if it would be OK for him to design a new header/logo for the group to which I agreed. He designed it using a proprietry computer program, used public domain and royalty free images, the name of the Facebook group and also the accompanying website that I also registered the domain in my name. He has now left under a bit of a cloud and has sent me several messages regarding this logo, he has claimed it is his copyright and I have no right to use it. I told him to go take a running jump and continued to use it. He has now threatened legal action and has said I will be hearing from his legal representative. He has made the same threat to the remaining administrators, holding them jointly responsible. . The simple thing to do would be to change the logo but unfortunately we had it turned into a bumper sticker as well and several members have purchased one, they would quite rightly be a little miffed if we changed it. . So in summary, am I in breach of copyright even though (a) It contains the name of my group and my website? (b) He designed it whilst working for the group © It is made up of royalty free and public domain material? . Your advice would be welcomed.

hi, can anyone tell me what has happened to my thread??? was on Lowell,carters o/d?? its gone!!

Used to just get an email when someone replied on a thread I posted on, and then wouldn't get any others unless I visit the thread again, and then someone posts another reply. But now, I am getting emails for every thread update regardless if I have visited it recently or not. Resulting in 8 emails within an hour just on 1 thread. Is this something changed recently?

Hi All, I am going in for the PPI fight, I will track my progress and hopefully successful outcomes here. I have had loads of loans and Credit Cards over the years, in fact so many that I can't remember them all, I have written a list and will try put them in some order for SARs and then hopefully get some advice from you guys as to which to go after 1st. I am doubtful how many will come up as being mis sold though as I recall saying no to protection insurance on most occasions, but you never know. My List: Mortgages Natwest Norwich & Peterborough UCB Intelligent Finance Loans Barclays Natwest (2 or 3) Prudential (EGG x2) Secured Loan - GE Money Credit Cards Natwest Barclaycard EGG HFC Banking - Marbles Store Card GE Capital (Debenhams) Time Retail Finance (Dixons/Curries) probably some more I forgot in the fog of time. Most of these will have been mid 1990s onwards so early ones may not be relevant. Questions: Are any categories listed above unlikely to be persuable? Which is the easiest company to deal with? Which would you recommend going for first? Would you SAR all and wait for the information first? If I don't know Account Numbers etc will I just send name/address to parent company address? Thanks in advance for any advice, NCB

Dear Sir/Madam, I work in health care. While working I received a phone call from enforcement officer who had court order to seize my assets to recover debts. Now having said this, let me begin with this - never asked for any debts and nor have borrowed any money from banks. I still don't even own car or house. Fortunately no educational loan either. Following this initial shock and support from senior colleagues who understood my situation kindly offered to help and contacted the officer. Came to realise that there was overpayment from nhs in 2012 for which they had send notifications and orders to Old address which again is staff accomodation no longer lived since 2012. The court sent enforcement officer to seize my debt. Further to this, it was myself who contacted my employer in 2012 that they were paying me when I was not working any longer for them. I was waiting to pay them back. After 2012 , I had changed 4 addresses due to work and this organisation never bothered to ask me or obtain information. They seem to have been corresponding to old address and then sent notifications from the court to the same address and court sent bailiffs behind me. After all this they found me in some other address and called me with threatening messages to seize my assets ( dont have much ). Now in the eyes of the court I have to pay interest and court charges for no knowledge of what was happening with sudden bolt from blue. They have messed up my credit report and asking me to pay private solicitors because the stage is too late. I am lost for words here. Also type - 'Barts overpayment error' in google please ( it s not letting paste link here ) This trust is notorious for bullying and harassment of staff members ( please type Barts nhs bullying) - it affected my personal health too. My points are - I definetly owe this overpayment, I had decency and courtesy to tell them they overpaid and was waiting for them to contact me either by email instead of sending notifications to wrong address ( staff accomodation where they can physically check If I still lived or not and tried to send me notifications before Enf Officer embarassing presence and unnecessary tensions created in life for which I had to take leave resulting in thin staff in already overstretched nhs.

Hi, this is my first post. I'm having a few problems with Cabot Financial. In 2002 I had a credit card with Morgan Stanley, everything went well until I was made redundant in 2003. I got into quite a few problems with cards loans etc, as I didn't have enough money to pay everybody. I went to the CAB for help, and they sorted things out for me. I was paying off this credit card at £35.00 er month. I have never had any statements or payment advice from Cabot at all. After I saw your forum late last year, i read quite a few posts and realised I was probably being "Cash Cowed" by Cabot. I stopped making payments and sent Cabot a request for CCA and payment statements. I got nothing back time within the statutory timescale. Then I got a letter from Mortimer Clarke Solicitors, saying if I didn't ring and make a payment arrangement, they would take legal action against me. I wrote to Mortimer Clarke, and told them I had asked for CCA from Cabot, and was waiting a response .I also asked them to take no further action until they had contacted Cabot, to ask why I'd had no response to the CCA request. Now I've got Claim form from Northampton bulk centre. I have never had a Goldfish card, so unsure what that's about. They say the agreement was terminated, so if there's no agreement, how can it be assigned to Cabot ?. Also the amount owed seems to be the same as it was in 2003, where's all my payments gone?. I could do with some help with filling out the claim form correctly. Any help would be much Appreciated Thanks....

Since they now seem to know exactly who I am I see no point in continuing to keep my fight against this particular 'company' under wraps, though of course I may not always reveal all details in advance ... For those who haven't seen my previous posts re this particular parking company, some background is that I live in an apartment, the car park for which can only be accessed by crossing an Aldi car park for which we have a right of way. The Aldi car park is of course managed by PE who have ANPR cameras pointed at the entrance/exit, but nowhere else. This means of course that once a vehicle has entered the car park, PE have no idea whether it parks there or in our car park and what's more, they don't give a monkeys! In 5 years this household and our visitors alone have had well over 100 parking charge notices. Until October 2012 they were just ignored, but since then I've appealed every single one. Up until a couple of months ago PE just cancelled them - only one slipped through the net and got sent to POPLA and that one was cancelled too as soon as they knew about it. To save anyone doing the maths 100 'fines' per household x the number of households in the block = approximately £100,000 so no prizes for guessing why PE, despite knowing about the problem for 5 years, have done nothing to resolve it. In the last couple of months PE have upped the ante. They no longer allow me to do appeals on behalf of my guests - totally contrary to BPA and POPLA rules - and far from cancelling every charge, they're now disputing every one. With less than a week to go before the next POPLA decision is due, they suddenly submitted a pile of junk they called evidence. Not only that, we have today received yet another charge for the same vehicle. The final straw was having to apologise to the other half's ex because I told her I would deal with PE (one of their sons had used her vehicle to visit - had we not had a civilized relationship, the repercussions of this 'ticket' could have been horrendous) who then insisted on directing all correspondence about the appeal to her. prior to the POPLA evidence thing, I had submitted complaints to DVLA, BPA and Aldi with no holds barred. Despite the apparent connection, there's no way the complaints could have been received and communicated to PE in time for them to put their bundle together, it is just coincidence. I am not expecting anything from BPA, PE are far too big to have any action taken against them by the association they fund, I'm expecting DVLA to initially refer my complaint to BPA at which point I will involve my MP, but I'm hoping Aldi at least will finally see sense over this. It wouldn't be difficult to solve my issue and stop their car park being horribly abused by all and sundry - a simple count of the number of cars parked their when the store isn't even open would be a clue to how effective PE's current methods are, though of course the last thing PE want is for no one to abuse the car park ... currently there are outstanding complaints to anyone I can think of plus 3 outstanding POPLA appeals, one of which is due to be decided this week, and 5 outstanding appeals to PE which I may or may not get a response to any time soon. Progress will be posted to this thread, as will anything I think will help anyone else once it's done it's job for me. Hopefully. Here's Parking Prankster's thoughts on the subject http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/is-anpr-always-fit-for-purpose.html

A number of frequent posters on the forum have said that they would like to have a thread so that we can discuss the procedures available for debtors if they consider that a bailiff has done something wrong. The thread can be used to discuss a variety of scenarios such as: What is the correct procedure for debtors to take if a bailiff clamps their car which is on finance? What should a debtor do if the bailiff has clamped or removed their car and it is needed for their employment. Can a bailiff charge a fee if the address on the warrant is wrong. PS: We had a similar thread when the new regulations came into effect on 6th April and that was extremely useful and provided a great source of information to frequent posters on the forum. This new thread should be the same.

Have a look here, 17 pages long but well worth a read on a Forum not afraid to sail where it's windy. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=10&t=1473466&mid=0&i=0&nmt=Fallen+for+a+[problem]%2E%2E&mid=0 Maybe he reads CAG in his spare time H

Hi, I posted a thread this afternoon about MWA. I got some good advice and asked a few more questions, now it's vanished. Am I looking in the wrong place? Thanks. Really need some advice before inevitable phone call from Seetec tomorrow morning...

Hello Anyone know the answer?

Please could we have an explanation why this thread was closed. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?434085-How-to-beat-All-IPC-windscreen-parking-tickets/page3

Hi all, Great forum and some good advice, but I feel I still need to ask again as some of the info is conflicting. I parked at A Euro Car Parks site in Bracknell. I over stayed (I was there for over 6 hours) as I never recalled you had a limit before and that it was free (it is for an hour or 2 I think). I got a letter from ECP demanding the £70 or £40 if paid straight away, but I lost the letter. So awaited letter number 2 so I could pay. Instead I got a letter from DRP demanding £130 or they would recommend to the creditor's solicitor that court action should be taken to recover what I owe. Anyway, I was happy to pay the original fine but had no way of doing so or talking to anyone at ECP. I spoke to the DRP saying I will not pay them £130 as I never got a letter (slight bending of the truth) but will pay the original fine with the reduction to £40. They just refused and demanded the full amount (this is last day I have to pay). I said that the original letter never came to me so that was unfair. They started referring me to websites and legislation saying I had to pay them the £130. Anyway, I called them back and the same woman (they would not let me talk to the person on the letter) still refused and said I would be taken to court. I said they had no right for that sum and she again directed me to a website stating they do. I informed her that the amount of letters lost by the Royal mail a week means this is not unusual and asked why they did not send by recorded delivery. She just said they don't have to and just have to prove that they sent it and I am the person who has to prove that it didn't arrive (not possible). I also said I had taken legal advise and been told that they don't have the right to this money. They simply said "No, you haven't". I said I had and they just said "Thank you, goodbye". So I have read a number of threads here (the main one was 2012 though) saying ignore, ignore, ignore. Are you sure they can do nothing here? I am also slightly troubled by the sticky that says you should not ignore. There is an address on the letter. I should also say that I am using a company car. Can they find that out and contact my company?

Was the "How bailiffs are paid" discussion just a spoof thread to distract attention from the 15% MET bribe issue?

What was the actual reason for overstaying the two hours?

Hi all, Im finding it hard to follow the existing threads so i thought it easier to create my own. Ive been with BH for several years now and on every contract i was told i had to have OSC. Have people been successful in reclaiming? What are my first steps? i keep seeing the word SAR floating about ... do i need one of these, i dont have all my original paperwork. Thanks for your help oh also, I finished paying for a tv last november, it had been in for repair whilst being paid for and a few weeks after i had finished paying for it the fault reoccured, so i took out the extended cover for the tv with brighthouse and booked it in for repair. This was in november and they left me with a tv that i have to say i am in love with lol, anyways can i just keep this one now since its been quite a few months

What's the reason for the ' appeal generator' thread being deleted?

Dear All I've been reading the various forums regarding this company from afar for the last few days. I have two payday loans which have been passed to MMF on 13 February and so have a personal interest. To give some background, I worked for a debt management company for ten years and so have relatively strong knowledge of the tactics employed by DCAs. This company seems to have stooped to new levels in terms of blatant disregard for acceptable debt collection practises. This morning I emailed the OFT summarising the complaints highlighted in this forum in the various threads. I have asked them for advice on the best way to proceed with key questions as to whether it is 'safe' for me to (1) communicate with them and (2) send payments to them. To be very clear, I want to pay my debts back, but at an affordable rate and in the knowledge payments will reduce my debts. I expect this will be the same for most people who are experiencing problems with MMF. I will try to upload the email I sent to the OFT onto this thread for evidence of action - my simple request is that all of you people who are suffering at the hands of MMF take action and register the Complaint with the OFT - it is a numbers game, the more complaints they receive, the more they will listen! I would ask anyone who has made a complaint, or is considering doing so, to post on here.

Hi all, I've been looking through today for advice on what to do about the infamous Harlands, but thought I'd create my own thread as I've mostly seen pages about cancellations. Basically what has happened is since, as a student (or indeed, a human being), I don't often have money, I reached the end of my overdraft on 19th November. Now I applied for an extension to my overdraft which was set to take place on 25th November, however my gym membership fee comes out of my account on 24th. So I went to the gym (Xercise4Less) and explained the situation and they said that's fine, we'll sort it out. No worries. (Note at this point I wasn't even aware that direct debits were handled by Harlands). So I thought nothing of it for the next two weeks, and had no correspondence either from Xercise4Less or from Harlands (who I still didn't know existed) so I assumed the money had been taken and everything was fine. But then on Friday night I logged onto my bank account to find that Harlands had taken £34.99 out of my account with notifying me. So after a bit of rummaging and finding out who Harlands were, I discovered from this forum that it's an admin fee due to late payment. I'm just wondering if I have any grounds to claim that £25 back? I realise £9.99 is an admin fee, but can I claim the £25 back as I got no prior warning that it was going to be taken out of my account? Thanks! Seb.

Hey CAG, I've been a silent reader for a while and find myself requiring a little advice. Basically I took out a 24 month contract with Orange, beginning 1st March 2011. The contract was due to expire on the 1st March 2013. I was paying by Direct Debit, up until a few months before the contract ended, where I cancelled with my bank so I could delay the bill payment for a few days. No issues there. However, when it came to the end of the contract period, according to my contract small print, I was required to give one month notice of cancellation. After having trouble actually contacting anyone over the 150 number (my father also having the same issue - easy to take out a contract but impossible to cancel one!) I eventually did this by email on 1st March 2013, as I was going away and was unable to sit on the phone on hold for an indeterminable amount of time. I recieved an automated reply that Orange were looking into my request. After this, I had no other contact from Orange, and upon returning to the UK, as my bills were unpaid I was unable to log into my account. I recieved no contact from Orange regarding the account, and was unable to call 150 for free any more as I had already gotten rid of my old contract phone. So I (perhaps mistakenly) went about my daily business, thinking no more of the unpaid bill. Perhaps one month later (mid-April I believe), I had a call from an Orange representative asking for some sixty pounds in unpaid charges. I disputed her claim and stated that I had requested my contract terminated. She said she couldn't do anything and gave me another number to call. Second mistake was made here, I didn't call the number. I really hate dealing with anything over the phone, I get extremely stressed and often struggle to hear what they are saying. Recieved my first DCA letter from DLC on the 24th July 2013, with a balance outstanding of £139.61. My second was recieved on 5th August 2013. I often read about people ignoring the DCA letters, was this a mistake too? After the second letter, they managed to find my home phone number and I took a call some time in August. The representative from DLC was understanding and spoke to me like a normal person which I was glad about. I stated my dispute, he told me something about having to activate a new sim card to confirm the Orange contract was cancelled, I was never told this anywhere in my contract nor in the phonecall I had with Orange. I did read about this somewhere else recently, but it sounds completely ridiculous, I did not want to continue my contract whether it was monthly or pay-as-you-go! He also told me the best thing to do would be to contact Orange again and give them the same statement. I took this advice, and upon calling Orange I was greeted by a bored-sounding woman who told me I was unable to dispute the claim as the debt had already been passed on to DCA, and I would need to dispute it with them. So I emailed DLC on 31st August 2013, stating the dates of the contract, my issues with the charges and the dispute over cancellation. I was out of the country again and stated to them I would be unavailable until 10th September, which they noted in their reply and said the account was on hold until that date, they also asked me to forward all details of the dispute. Upon my return to the UK, I recieve news of yet more calls made from DLC, with the reference number and a contact number. My last email to DLC was on 3rd October 2013, giving a large dated list of all contact between me, Orange and DLC, my dispute with their claim, and the fact I thought it was unfair that Orange let the contract continue running, when no bills were being paid, nor was my contract number even in use for any calls, messages or data. I stated I was aware I owed Orange money for the final month of my contract, however I was unable to log in to my account to pay it. I also asked that they not call me and that I wanted to continue correspondence through writing. They replied to this email today, on 7th October, with a useless copy & paste of a previous email, giving the date the account was passed to them (23rd July 2013 - with a balance of £139.61) also breaking down the balance into £106.10 airtime, £22.90 contract charges and £10.61 admin charges for the DCA. I have not replied yet as I'm unsure what to write without asking them if they actually even read the last email I sent them. How big a mistake was it letting it get passed on to DCA? Am I liable for the whole debt, even after giving cancellation notice and them letting the contract continue, unused? And in the event I'm liable for the full amount, can they refuse payment in installments? I only work part-time and would struggle to pay all at once. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. Jamie

Hi i recently received a letter from Provident stating unless i paid them an outstanding amount of £25 within 14 days then they would hand the debt to a debt collection agency, register me with the credit rating agency & that court action may be taken. I was expecting this letter as i refused to pay my agent anymore,since December. The reason for this is that my agent asked for my payment book in November 2012, as she said that she needed to refer to it. When she eventualy reluctantly returned my payment book there had been some alterations to my payments, going back up to 20 months ago, £60 payment had been altered to £20...£40 had been altered to £20 etc, on 5 different occassions the amounts had been altered, but you can still see the original amount underneath the alteration, by the side of each alteration she has written miscalculation. I phoned Provident & told them of this, they asked me to send a copy of the book to them, i requested a computer record of all my payments to them, before i would send the payment book. when i got the print off from Provident, there where several queries by myself as there are alot of payments in the payment book not on the print out of payment history, or the amounts are less than in the payment book, the dates also do not match up on several occassions. I worked out that in all i was around £115 in credit with Provident . I wrote to provident, sent a copy of the payment book & highlighted the alterations, lesser payments & no payments both on the payment book & the payment history print off. I stated that there is also no APR amount entered in the APR rate box on the payment book. I then said that my account seriously needed to be looked at & that i was giving them 14 days ( the same amount of time they gave me to pay, in their letter to me) to offer an explenation & to make a complete refund for the full amount of the loan, as the loan had been mishandled by themselves & the agent, they did not have proper records & what records they did have had been altered by the agent, therefore the loan is void & that if i do not get any satisfaction i will be taking the case to a small claims court . I received a reply this week saying that the case has been passed to a senior investigating officer, who will contact me soon. However, they have said that their investigation will take 8 weeks & if i am not satisfied at the outcome after 8 weeks i can put it to the financial ombudsman. ( which will probably take months). I have decided that i should write back to them with a letter before action letter, stating that i am giving them 30 days to resolve this matter, under The Practice Direction- Pre action Conduct ( i'll also include a copy of it for them), state that i will not be seeking advice from the ombudsman, but will be taking this issue straight to the Small claims court., listing my reasons & also all of the costs i intend to recover: the loan amount, costs for telephone calls, time for writing letters, loss of earnings if i have to attend court etc. Can anyone give me any advice as to where i stand on this matter & if im doing everything correctly or if ive missed anything.. .any advice would be most welcome, thanks.

Hi everyone. So a week ago I got caught trying to shoplift a bottle of aftershave from Debenhams. A stupid thing to do obviously and have no excuse. Anyway, leaving aside the morality if my actions, I got the expected RLP letter this morning. It said that I owe them £147.50 which strikes me as a tad excessive seeing as the item was recovered undamaged and I was only detained for about half an hour. The police came but didn't arrest or fine me, just made me apologise to the store detective. From reading the threads on here it seems that a one line letter denying liability is the way to go (even though I was caught, bang to rights ). However they have managed to get my name quite spectacularly wrong - spelling my first name wrong and using my middle name as my surname, with no reference whatsoever to my actual surname. Would it be an option to write to them saying that no one of that name lives at this address and to stop sending letters? Or should I just stick to the tried and tested method? Finally, I'd rather not keep getting letters sent so as to avoid arousing the wife's suspicions, so I'm a little tempted to suck it up, pay and move on. If I write to them denying liability but offer say £50 without prejudice to make them go away are they likely to accept or would that just complicate things? Just trying to work out the best course of action really.

I have been reading a few threads about 1st credit just to try to get a flavour of what to expect in my dealings with them, and am unable to get a clear picture (probably due to my browsing skills, or lack thereof) I recently received the standard 'please contact us' letter, and will wait until they write with more details of what exactly they want from me. I had a CCJ for a debt to customs and excise over 6 years ago, which has only just dropped off the bottom of my credit record, and so only recently have been able to open a 'proper' bank account. Due to personal tragedies at the time of the original proceedings, I genuinely managed to forget about it, until last year, when i took up a new job, and was subsequently sacked, as the employer had said that i lied about my credit history. Be that as it may, I looked forward to what I thought was the end of the matter, when my credit rating improved after the removal of said CCJ earlier on this year. I guess my question is - what avenues can these debt collectors take to pursue me for this, and is there anyway to reduce my liability? I am currently working, and could afford to make token payments but think that at the rate i could afford, the debt could take years to clear.I live with my partner of four years, and the house and most of its contents can be proved to belong to her.