andrew wilson *improper* charges!

[sparky686]

Hi all

 

wondering if anybody out there can help me out with this. I've had an ongoing debt due to an old wholesalers account that i defaulted on, it has gone through the high court, then onto the "good" people at andrew wilson. I am currently in a possition to pay the ballance off and be clear of this debt, but during some research a few months ago on here (i forget the exact thread) i read that they are prone to add charges that should not exist (in my case these were for a walking possesion that i'd never signed, no sale inventory fee, siezure fee, & enquiry fee for items that were never seized! Altogether these fees amounted to somewhere in the region of £170!), remembering vaguely the advice given to another cag member i sen an email requesting that these fees were reviewed as i believe them to be *potentially* fraudulant.

 

Today I recieved an email from Mr Wilson himself no less, basicaly admiting that these charges should never have been made (is this a *potential* admitance of fraud?), and offering up a revised figure which i am now planing to pay. My main question i guess is, where does the law stand on this one as i have not currently paid, and therefore did not pay the *alleged* "made up" fees, is this still a *potential* act of fraud on they're part for trying to *unlawfully* extract money from me, and where do i go from here to bring the law to they're front door, as if possible i would like to follow this up in the hope that another case against them might hinder they're ability to rip people off who may just pay without a fight as a way to get them off of they're back.

 

I hope that somebody out there can help on this matter, and i can put any correspondence, details etc on here to be viewed if required!

 

Cheers, Sparky

Edited February 18, 2011 by the_shadow

[cerberusalert]

Moved to Bailiffs Forum.

[the_shadow]

Does the revised figure still include fee's?

 

Have they basically just corrected their error and removed the charges applied incorrectly?

 

S.

[sparky686]

Hi Shadow, many thanks for your reply! They have removed the fees that they shouldnt have charged and explained the reasons for doing this in the email, basicaly i had an attached copy of my financial statement which has the charges in question crossed out in pen, and the new total written in (not printed) by the side, there are still fees included in the final figure, these are a percentage fee, mileage fee, enforcements under fee, & disbursments under fee! I hope this helps.

 

Sparky

[ploddertom]

Can you list the charges they are applying. Not many people are aware that the majority of HCEO fees can be challenged. Also have you approached the Creditor to see if they will take a direct payment from you?

 

PT

[sparky686]

Hi Ploddertom, fees are as follows;

 

percentage fee £35.88

mileage fee £41.85

enforcements under fee £323.13

disbursements under fee £109.32

vat £102.03

 

these are the fees they are still claiming for, if it helps i can scan in the copy of my statement as amended, which will show andrew wilsons adjustments.

And yes, I did try to deal with the solicitor directly, but was informed that as i had broken an arrangement with them that had brought it back away from these hceo types in the first place, it could not be retrieved a second time! I have also spoken to them about my questions with AW's fees and explained my intentions to pay as soon as the actual amount has been resolved! they were, not so long ago, about to try and push for bankruptcy, so it has been good to keep them in the loop, thus avoiding this action while the claim is being investigated!

 

Cheers, Sparky

[ploddertom]

Hi Ploddertom, fees are as follows;

 

percentage fee £35.88 - seems Ok

mileage fee £41.85 - seems Ok although he must have travelled some distance

enforcements under fee £323.13 - are these classed as Misc Fees, if so what are they

disbursements under fee £109.32 - which Fee are they under and what are they

vat £102.03 - OK

 

these are the fees they are still claiming for, if it helps i can scan in the copy of my statement as amended, might be a good idea providing you can obliterate all your personal details which will show andrew wilsons adjustments.

And yes, I did try to deal with the solicitor directly, but was informed that as i had broken an arrangement with them that had brought it back away from these hceo types in the first place, it could not be retrieved a second time! I have also spoken to them about my questions with AW's fees and explained my intentions to pay as soon as the actual amount has been resolved! they were, not so long ago, about to try and push for bankruptcy, so it has been good to keep them in the loop, thus avoiding this action while the claim is being investigated! - Shame as you could have saddled them with all the costs

 

Cheers, Sparky

 

PT

[sparky686]

 

Hi Ploddertom, I hope you can zoom in and read this, for some reason it has scanned and come through as a thumbnail, will try to see if I can get it on in a readable size for you!

[cerberusalert]

If you upload the image to a hosting site such as http://tinypic.com/ & then copy & paste the url back here it will be a lot better.

[sparky686]

The forum won't let me post links without having 20 previous posts, so please ignore the next 15 posts, then i'll get it up here!

[the_shadow]

The forum won't let me post links without having 20 previous posts, so please ignore the next 15 posts, then i'll get it up here!

 

Pls see post #9

 

S.

[sparky686]

its not gonna let me post it that way either!

[sparky686]

 

Right, I hope this works, I've had to put in some spaces so that it doesn't look like a link in order to post it!

[the_shadow]

Amended the URL's in post for you

 

S.

[ploddertom]

I see some very glaring errors here, however I don't propose to air those concerns on a public forum so will send you a PM with some more questions, for the sake of clarity I also intend to copy the Site Team with a copy of the message. I may have to do it later this evening as I still have some work to do first.

 

PT

[sparky686]

thankyou very much PT, that sounds promising, I'll look forward to your mail.

[ploddertom]

PM on way

 

PT

[the_shadow]

I can confirm the site team have been made aware of the PM and content.

 

S.

[sparky686]

Right, have tken some advice now and have sent another email back to andrew wilson concerning the vat charges that seem to be all at 20% despite only 1 of them being on, or after the 4th of jan when the rate changed! also they still have a fee on there for removal of goods that has never happened. I will chase this up with them today (kind of ironic that recently they've been getting calls FROM me) As soon as I hear anything I will update on here.

[sparky686]

Stillwaiting for a response from them now, seems as though they don't want to talk at the moment, have been calling them to get a response, apparently mr wilson is dealing with it now, but he never seems to be in the office!

[sparky686]

Just had a reply from andrew wilson, this is as follows;-

 

Dear Mr XXX,

 

I have now found that our instructions have been withdrawn on this case, as the writ against you had expired.

 

I am not aware of what further action the Claimant may now wish to take.

 

I am happy to answer any further questions you may have. A Subject Access Request is unnecessary, as we hold very little personal information about you--we are not a public authority under the Freedom of Information Act and so will not simply let you have a copy of your file on this case, most of which is protected by legal privilege in any event.

 

I am not sure that I understand your VAT point--VAT is payable on all enforcement fees currently at 20%. We charge and account for this tax but are unable to provide you or any business debtor with a VAT Invoice to reclaim it, on the grounds that the VAT Policy Directorate decided in 2000 that this would be contrary to public policy.

 

Our fees are based on a scale under the High Court Enforcement Officers Regulations 2004 (Schedule 3) which you can access at

 

Andrew Wilson

 

so, obviously I need not worry about these people anymore and need to once again speek to the original solicitor, but I'm wondering now if I have grounds to a refund from them as they are no longer instructed to chase this debt coupled with the fact they they had tried to caim for charges that the director (Mr Wilson) has admited were wrong? I'm hoping that they are now going to need to worrie about me, but obviously need to know what, if any, grounds I have hear for refund and complaint against them! Also, is his comment about the pointlessness of a subject access request correct? This will be on they're doorstep already i should imagine, but will have to check it has been recieved.

Edited March 23, 2011 by silverfox1961
removed name

[ploddertom]

Just had a reply from andrew wilson, this is as follows;-

 

Dear Mr - I would remove your name

I have now found that our instructions have been withdrawn on this case, as the writ against you had expired. - no reason why it was not renewed unless of course the Claimant wasn't prepared to pay the renewal fee

I am not aware of what further action the Claimant may now wish to take. - no comment to that

I am happy to answer any further questions you may have. A Subject Access Request is unnecessary, as we hold very little personal information about you--we are not a public authority under the Freedom of Information Act - we know that, that's why a SAR is needed - and so will not simply let you have a copy of your file on this case - but have to for a SAR -, most of which is protected by legal privilege in any event. - load of twaddle

I am not sure that I understand your VAT point--VAT is payable on all enforcement fees currently at 20%. - yes but they were charging this at times when the rate was lower -We charge and account for this tax but are unable to provide you or any business debtor with a VAT Invoice to reclaim it, on the grounds that the VAT Policy Directorate decided in 2000 that this would be contrary to public policy. - we know that

Our fees are based on a scale under the High Court Enforcement Officers Regulations 2004 (Schedule 3) which you can access at - well that's what it says plus any they can think up

Andrew Wilson

 

so, obviously I need not worry about these people anymore and need to once again speek to the original solicitor - I think I may be tempted to let them do the running -, but I'm wondering now if I have grounds to a refund from them as they are no longer instructed to chase this debt coupled with the fact they they had tried to caim for charges that the director (Mr Wilson) has admited were wrong? - this bit I'm not sure about, they can probably charge for work necessarily done but to what extent - I'm hoping that they are now going to need to worrie about me, but obviously need to know what, if any, grounds I have hear for refund and complaint against them! - Maybe a simple request and see what they say - Also, is his comment about the pointlessness of a subject access request correct? - see above - This will be on they're doorstep already i should imagine, but will have to check it has been recieved. - wait and see if they return it complete with payment-

 

They should have known the Writ had expired as they should have reminded the Claimant it needed renewing, this may be one of the reasons they want you to withdraw your SAR - in my view I would still press ahead with it.

 

PT

[sparky686]

Hi Pt, just read ur response, and have already spoken to the solicitors today and made arrangements to pay the outstanding debt with them over the next few days (to be fair would rather pay them before they think about extending the writ again), this has now also gone down to £199.07, so happy days all round I cannot thank you enough for your help and advice on this case and to all who run this site helping myself and others like me, rest assured, a donation is on its way from myself in the next few days! Have repied to mr W as there are still unanswered questions, have also asked for a refund, I have no intention in letting the preasure off of them now, even if they do no longer have the right to persue me, if I can take any action against them, I will, and am wondering who the regulatory body would be to log a complaint with, and is it worth speaking to hmrc about the vat thing?

 

So now to wait for the sar request, have pointed out that refusal will result in a court order being sought! will update when I hear back from them!

 

Many many thanks again for all your help so far!

[sir_gilmour]

Hi

Welcome to The Consumer Action Group.

 

 

I am just letting you know that as you haven't had any replies to your post yet, it might be better if you post your message again in an appropriate sub-forum. You will get lots of help there.

 

Also take some time to read around the forum and get used to the layout. It is a big forum and takes a lot of getting used to.

 

 

Once you start to find your way, you will soon realise that it is fairly easy to get round and to get the help you need.

 

It can be bit confusing at first.