bailiffs threatened by Metropolitan Collection Services Ltd

[brent100]

Hi all

I have recieved a letter from metropolitan collection services Ltd for an o/s debt to HSBC

They have said the following:

 

They may send debt collectors to my door - what can they do and what powers do they have?

 

They may start legal proceedings which may result in:

a county court bailiff visiting my home and taking goods - can they do this without my permission for them to enter my property?

 

The debt is £23k unsecured personal loan that I just cannot afford to pay

 

Any advice on this would be appreciated

 

I have also posted in debt collection section but thought this area may help best with the bailiff question.

 

Thank you

 

Brent

[maroondevo52]

Hi, Brent.

 

Some info here.........

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bailiffs-sheriff-officers/107376-what-bailiffs-can-cant.html

 

Also found this............

 

 

Found some stuff here.............

 

Are there any goods that the bailiff cannot seize?

 

Bailiffs (except bailiffs acting on behalf of the magistrate's court - see below) cannot seize the following goods:

tools, goods, vehicles and other items of equipment necessary for use by you in your employment, business or vocation;

clothing, bedding, furniture, household equipment and provisions as are necessary for satisfying the basic domestic needs of you and your family

Bailiffs acting on behalf of the magistrates' court cannot seize the following goods:

clothing, beds and bedding tools of the trade

basic domestic needs of the family would normally include fridge, cookers, freezers, but may not include video recorders, second TV's, jewellery, washing machines, stereos or microwave cookers.

Can I hide goods?

It is not unlawful for you to remove goods from your house or hide them before a bailiff visits unless the bailiff is distraining for rent. Remember that a bailiff, having gained peaceful entry, can return at any time and if s/he believes that goods have been removed or hidden prior to their visit, this is likely to happen. For what to do if a bailiff visit is imminent - see below.

What if the bailiff does seize goods that do not belong to me?

If a bailiff seizes goods that are subject to a Hire Purchase agreement, seek advice urgently. Goods on HP do not belong to you until you make the final payment, but there may be circumstances in which they can be seized.

If goods have been seized wrongfully, then the owner of the goods can apply for them to be returned. You will need to get further advice about this.

 

 

Will I get advance notice of a bailiff visit and fees?

 

From 1 April 1998, local authorities must send you a letter giving 14 days notice of a proposed bailiff visit to collect council tax. County court bailiffs must issue a warning notice allowing 7 days for you to pay.

Do I have to pay the bailiff's fees?

The fees that bailiffs can charge for recovering money vary. There are fixed fees for bailiffs collecting council tax; for example, from 1 April 1998 fees for the first visit by a bailiff are £20 and £15 for a second visit, where no levy or seizure is made.

All bailiff fees (with the exception of magistrates' court bailiffs) can be looked at by the county court to see if they are reasonable or excessive. This is known as 'detailed assessment'. If you think that the bailiff's fees are excessive you should get further advice about this.

 

 

What should I do if a bailiff is about to visit my home?

 

Remember you do not have to let a bailiff into your house or flat. If you make sure that all doors and windows are locked, the bailiff will not be able to gain access to your home. If they cannot get in, they cannot lawfully seize goods. A bailiff may call a number of times to try and gain entry. Eventually they will return the warrant to the court or local authority if they are unable to gain entry, or you do not have enough goods to pay off the debt and fees.

Secondly, get the matter out of the hands of the bailiff and back to the county court, local authority or creditor. The next paragraph tells you how to do this.

If the debt is an unpaid county court judgment you can apply to the court to stop (''suspend'') the warrant and vary the instalments you were ordered to pay by the court. You can apply to do this on form N245, available from the court. The form asks for details of your income and outgoings with a few personal details such as whether you work. You will have to pay a fee at the court (currently £30), unless you are getting income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance or tax credits*. You may have to show proof that you are receiving these benefits.

(*You must have a gross annual income of £14213 or less and receive both working tax credit AND child tax credit, or working tax credit with a 'disability element' or a 'severe disability element'. Your tax credit award notice will contain this information)

The fee can also be waived if you are on a low income and payment of the fee would involve undue financial hardship. Applications for a fee reduction or waiver are dealt with entirely on an individual basis according to circumstance and there are no precise guidelines about when a fee should or should not be reduced or waived. In either case you must complete Form Ex160 and send or take it to the court with the N245.

Some county courts may refuse to suspend a warrant of execution until a walking possession agreement has been signed. This goes against guidance issued by the Lord Chancellors Department and if it happens to you seek further advice.

If bailiffs are collecting unpaid council tax it is often difficult to negotiate instalment payments with the bailiff or the local authority until the warrant is returned or withdrawn from the bailiff. However, you should try to negotiate instalment payments with the local authority and encourage them to withdraw the warrant from the bailiff. It is important to make clear that although you are unwilling to let the bailiff in, you are willing to make instalment payments at a rate that you can afford

 

Hope that helps.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[madmatt1009]

could a site moderator please move this to the debt collection agencies sub forum, from what brent100 has said it appears that he has received a standard "doom, gloom and end of the world" letter from a dca and needs advice on a cca request

[maroondevo52]

He say's he has already posted in the Debt Collectors Forum and wanted help with the Bailiff bit here

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[Susij]

Hi all

I have recieved a letter from metropolitan collection services Ltd for an o/s debt to HSBC

They have said the following:

 

They may send debt collectors to my door - what can they do and what powers do they have?

 

They may start legal proceedings which may result in:

a county court bailiff visiting my home and taking goods - can they do this without my permission for them to enter my property?

 

The debt is £23k unsecured personal loan that I just cannot afford to pay

 

Any advice on this would be appreciated

 

I have also posted in debt collection section but thought this area may help best with the bailiff question.

 

Thank you

 

Brent

 

I'm no expert and new to this site,so I'm sure you will get actual advice from others. However, from personal experience and discussions with a friend who, until recently worked for one of the larger debt collection agencies, I would say the key is in the wording. Whilst I recommend you try to figure out some sort of payments (albeit nominal amount) with HSBC and maybe contact CCCS, you probably don't need to panic immediately in my opinion.

 

My experience of the process (confirmed by my friend) is an agency sends the 'we may' do xyz (some with more threatening manner than others) and if you ignore them (I don't recommend, but it does happen) they give up and a few months later you get another letter from another debt collection agency saying pretty much the same thing. As I already said, it's better to take control of your finances, but from experience and what our friend said, the debt tends to get passed around for some time. Without a court order, they can't do anything. BUT, you don't want it to go to court, because CCJs are not very good for your credit record and neither are the default or late payment indicators.

 

What I'm trying to say is (unless there have been very recent changes to the law) you can sleep ok tonight. But it is worth figuring out some repayment plan with HSBC because then it's harder for them to take you to court, generally. I made 'nil' offers to many of my creditors using the form letters in the CCCS pack, with a promise to update them if my circumstances changed and you will be surprised how many accepted that they were not a priority debt, so it doesn't need to be a huge amount necessarily.

 

A word of advice on HSBC - from personal experience they weren't interested in working anything out with me and it finally did go to court (I was less experienced then, I could have stopped all that if I'd had the CCCS pack prior to that). The also have a lean on my property, so if I sell, they will get their money back before the cash is released to me, so do try to stop it going to court.

[madmatt1009]

I do apologise everyone, I hadn't read the other thread and was concerned that brent100 was being panicked by the threat of bailiffs

[maroondevo52]

Don't apologise I've done the same sort of thing a few times

 

You were trying to help, that's all we can ask.

 

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

Edited July 31, 2008 by maroondevo52

[brent100]

Thank you for your advice guys. Really appreciated. What is a CCCS pack?

Cheers

brent

[maroondevo52]

Hi, Brent.

 

Have a look at this thread, may help you out.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/getting-out-debt/128587-info-cccs-payplan-experiences.html?highlight=cccs+pack

 

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[Susij]

I didn't realise Consumer credit councelling services had a service you could pay for!

 

I rang them a few years ago, they just talked to me about my debts, gave me a CCCS reference number (that's important when talking to the creditors) and sent the pack. I found the pack helpful - especially the form letters (keep the originals and just copy those you want to use).

 

I started to get my life back once I'd sent out all my letters and got 95% good responses to my 'offers'.

[letsmakeamark]

The threat of bailiffs would only come after once metropolitan has got a county court judgement against you. Until you actually recieve a summons. I would completely forget the threat.

[ScarletPimpernel]

The threat of bailiffs would only come after once metropolitan has got a county court judgement against you. Until you actually recieve a summons. I would completely forget the threat.

 

No summonses any more for County Court - it's now a claim.

 

 

MCS's standard threat letter is a breach of CPUTR 2008, because it omits or hides material information - that bailiffs are a method of enforcing a judgment, whch means that nothing can happen until they've issued a claim, won the case (you have the right to defend and/or counterclaim - for unlawful charges, for example), and most significantly, you have failed to comply with the Court's order for payment.

 

MCS is, as you are probably aware, a company that is HSBC's in-house DCA. They know very well that if they were to go to court, any judgment will be for an affordable amount each monh. They routinely, therefore, seek to intimidate people into paying more than they can afford with the sort of bullsh!t letters you have received.

 

I recommend applying all the usual rules - never speak to them on the phone, send a CCA to MCS and a SAR to HSBC; if there are charges dispute the debt (which means they must suspend collection activity), and don't let them scare you.

 

In the meantime, please complain to your local Trading Standards department about MCS' letter, asking them to forward it to Brum TS for enforcement under CPUTR>

[Guest jsa12]

if anyone has trouble with this mcs go straight to trading standards,,they usually try and back up their threats with large increases in payments required.

 

take no notice of their reviews either,i had one turn up the last day of February and sent the slip back,a further letter arrived saying they had not had a response and would be applying an increase to the next payment,this was dated first of march.

[ploddertom]

Please look at the dates!

 

PT

[dx100uk]

doh!

dx

[Barbarawoo]

Sorry don't have time to read through it all but just so you know Metropolitan collection services Ltd is the in house collection team for HSBC

 

Same company

[dx100uk]

this thread is years old

it has been bumped by someone posting to it

 

ignore it

 

needs closing/

 

dx

[letsmakeamark]

Somebody is trying to be freindly but has done it in the wrong way.

[tomtubby]

this thread is years old

it has been bumped by someone posting to it

 

ignore it

 

needs closing/

 

dx

 

There are so many bailiff enquiries that need answering and threads like this going back 2 years should be closed. Can everyone stop posting and the thread will finish.