Please help me! Marston Bailiff court fine!!

[kayenails]

Hi,

I had a bailiff from Marston knock my door this morning.

 

I did not let him in but he told me I needed to pay £550 there and then to clear an old court fine for not having a TV license.

 

I have no way of paying this.

 

After begging him for 5 minutes and getting nowhere he said he would give me 24 hours to pay it.

He told me if I did not pay in 24 hours he would be back in the morning to remove my goods (not that theres anything to take!)

I was upset and so was my 3 year old son.

 

I called the Marston helpline after he left to try to set up a payment plan but this was refused.

 

I explained to the lady I was pregnant and surely this wasn't right.

 

She asked how far gone I was and I told her I was 30 weeks in a panic but im actually only 17 weeks.

 

She rang the bailiff and told him this information (I had already told him I was pregnant whilst I was crying to him)

and said he will not be breaking into my house and will return to see confirmation that I am 30 weeks pregnant.

 

What can I do now?!

Please help or redirect me to the right place?

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I'll move your thread to the bailiffs forum, where the guys will know what to do.

 

There will be a short term redirect from here.

 

My best, HB

Edited July 2, 2013 by honeybee13
Typo.

[unclebulgaria67]

What you can do to make this much easier and to save money, is go to the Magistrates court that issued the fine. If you did not receive the final steps notice you can make a statutory declaration to this effect and then you won't have any bailiff fees to pay. It will then be a case of agreeing a payment arrangement with the Magistrates, which they will be happy to arrange, particularly if you are pregnant.

 

In regard to the bailiff, it does not matter how many weeks pregnant you are. You are classed as vulnerable, so they have to tread very carefully. BUT you can easily resolve this with Magistrates and IF you did not receive the final steps notice, you can do the statutory declaration with Magistrates to save yourself a lot of money. Bailiffs can charge £300 + for collecting overdue court fines.

[tomtubby]

Did you know about the court fine?

 

Did you receive a summons?

 

Have you made any payments to the court?

 

Are you working or on benefit?

 

Are you single/married?

 

The above questions are to ascertain whether you are classed as vulnerable.

[kayenails]

The court fine was from roughly 3 years ago. I did know about it but at the time had no money and no control over money due to a violent expartner. I have heard nothing about the debt since. Marstons said they wrote to me in may but I did not receive this.

I haven't made any payments to the court

I am self employed on a very low income which makes me entitled to housing and council tax benefit.

I am Single

I'm also under current police protection from an abusive expartner so when this man rang my buzzer at 7:15 this morning I obviously got in a state.

 

I have no documents to do with this fine so wouldn't even know who to ring to sort it out not through the bailiff.

[unclebulgaria67]

Do you know which Magistrates court issued the fine ?

 

Do you still live near to that court or if not can you phone them ?

[kayenails]

I presume it would of been my local court as I've lived in the same town all my life. I shall give them a call. So they will talk to me about the debt even though it has been passed to Marstons?

[unclebulgaria67]

I presume it would of been my local court as I've lived in the same town all my life. I shall give them a call. So they will talk to me about the debt even though it has been passed to Marstons?

 

Yes they should do so. If you did not receive or cannot remember seeing any final steps notice advising that bailiffs would be used to collect the fine, you can do a statutory declaration at the court and it is then just a case of arranging a payment plan with the court. When you phone the court, mention that you are pregnant and under Police protection, that the bailiff has contacted you about a fine from 3 years ago. That you have been told to go to the court to make a statutory declaration and to make a payment arrangement directly with the court. Ask to arrange a time to come to see them.

[brassnecked]

I presume it would of been my local court as I've lived in the same town all my life. I shall give them a call. So they will talk to me about the debt even though it has been passed to Marstons?

Mention to the court that you are under police protection due to the violent ex partner, were your means assessed at the original hearing when the fine was imposed, or was it a guilty by post?

[honeybee13]

Hello kayenails, how are you getting on?

 

HB

[kayenails]

I tried a few times this morning to contact the fines department with the court but couldn't get through, I had to leave for work and the court was shut by the time I had finished. The bailiff left a voicemail on my phone asking me to call him as soon as possible to discuss full payment and to discuss the information I gave the lady when I rang the office (my pregnancy). Im now worried he will turn up in the morning and I have work at 9-8 tomorrow!

[unclebulgaria67]

You should try to resolve this with the court tomorrow if possible, even if that means taking a couple of hours off work. If you are pregnant you should not be working such long hours ( 9am to 8pm ? ) anyway and I am surprised your employer is allowing this. Non payment of a Magistrates court fine is a very serious matter and you could be taken by Police to the court, if it looked like you were refusing to deal with this.

 

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/pregnancy.htm

[kayenails]

Im a self employed beauty therapist and Wednesday is my long day. I will try to cancel a client and make the call again. Thanks for everyone's help.