Bastard Bailiffs

I can't believe it's September already!  The evenings are now a lot darker than a few weeks ago, and there's a definite nip of Autumn about the temperature, don't you think?

 

Schools are back, and This Morning is back on our screens with the correct pairing of Holly and Philip, and all is well!

 

So what's been happening to me since I last made an entry on here?

 

Quite a lot actually.  I'll try to fill you in as well as I can.

 

A few weeks ago, Benjamin and I were interviewed for a documentary about exposing corruption within various establishments.  The episode that we were interviewed for is all about people who have been badly treated by bailiffs.

 

Bailiffs? I hear you cry?  Surely that's just for people who are in debt?  Well you'd think so, wouldn't you?

 

One afternoon, Benjamin and I went out to our car, and found that it had been clamped.  One immediately suspects that it's something to do with a traffic warden, but we were in a bay that we have a valid permit for, and the permit was clearly on display.  It turns out that the car had been seized by bailiffs, pending auction to recover the £600 costs of a court case against me that I knew nothing about!

 

As it was the weekend, I couldn't get any details from anywhere about exactly what this was all about, and it was the following Monday before any details came to light.

 

After a lot of digging around, we discovered that Haringey Council (our borough) had taken me to court about two parking tickets that I apparently hadn't paid.  The problem was, they had our address wrong on their records, and all notifications about the case were going to an address ten doors down the road, with a different postcode.  In fact, the address doesn't actually exist as a flat, so it's no wonder I had no clue as to what was going on!  Digging further, we found out that I hadn't simply not paid the fines at all - quite the opposite - I had sent letters to the council (with my correct address clearly on them) appealing against the parking tickets.  Obviously, we hadn't recieved any response, as all letters were going to the wrong place!  The ridiculousness of them having the wrong address for tenants of their own borough, when we are on the electoral roll, and clearly pay council tax from the correct address beggars belief!

 

I arranged to meet with the bailiff at the car (I didn't want to give him my home address, as I feared he would attach the debt to the property, and that can be a nightmare to revoke), with the intention of sorting out the whole sorry mess, and he gave me the impression that he was going to help as much as he could.  He knew the situation, and said that I had a very good case.  I was obviously innocent.  He also knew, that the reason I needed my car was to drive up to Shropshire to visit my mum, who had just suffered a couple of mild heart attacks.  Stress levels were riding high, as you can imagine!

 

When he arrived, he immediately started putting the pressure on me to pay up, telling me that the tow truck was just around the corner, and one quick call from him would bring them round to remove my car completely.  This would them lead to hundreds of pounds of further charges, that there would be no way of reclaiming.  I was trying to stall him as much as possible, because Ben was at that very moment on the phone to the council, trying to get them to call the whole thing off.  They eventually capitulated and asked to speak to the bailiff to tell him to cancel his action.

 

Unfortunately, by this time, the bailiff had made that call, and was telling me that unless I handed over the £593.24 right there and then, the tow truck would arrive and there would be no stopping it.  I caved.  I just needed him to unclamp my car and go away, and the only way I could see to make that happen was to pay him the bloody money.  So I did.

 

While I was in the process of paying, Ben was trying to get him to speak to the man from the council on the phone.  The bailiff, a Mr Glenister from Equita in Northampton (Googlebots take note, and alert them to this post!), got seriously aggressive, and threaten to smack the phone out of Ben's hand if he brought it anywhere near him.  It was all terribly unpleasant, and totally unnecessary.  We were innocent, for crying out loud!

 

Eventually, my car got unclamped, and the bailiff went away.  The council gave instructions for them to return my money, and although it only took them 30 seconds to take my money, it took them ten days to return it to me!

 

The council also reset the chrges to their original amounts, and I still had to pay a further £100 to get everything cleared up.

 

At no point, did anyone from the council apologise for the terrible situation we had been put in.  They are still blaming the DVLA for supplying them with the incorrect address, even though my correspondance with them showed my actual address very clearly at the top!

 

Benjamin has been amazing over all of this, and wasn't going to let it lie.  He contacted the local press, and Lynne Featherstone, who is our local MP.  She has been brilliant, and having her support through all of this has really changed people's manner in dealing with the situation.  Subsequently, "as a gesture of goodwill", Haringey council have decided to refund the £100 I paid for the original parking tickets, and I've now had the money back from the bailiffs, so it's a happy ending.

 

That doesn't make up for the fact that I was put under enormous amounts of stress, and at an already difficult time.  And still, no one is apologising for putting me through all that, when I was completely not at fault.

 

There's also the very real possibility of a County Court judgement potentially hanging over my name, which could rear its ugly head in the future.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, I now realise that Mr Glenister had no intention of trying to help me out.  He duped me just so that I would meet him.  There was no tow truck just around the corner.  This seems to be standard practice.  They know full well that people will panic, as I did, and cough up the money if the pressure is put on them sufficiently.  Talking to the makers of the documentary, they've told me I'm right, and that everything I've said is very familiar to them.  The whole purpose of the film is to expose this sort of behaviour, and draw attention to it.

 

If anyone reading this ever finds themselves in a similar situation, take note.  Don't be fooled by the extortion tactics!

 

Apparently, the government is in consultation about regulating a code for bailiffs to operate under.  Let's hope it goes through.

 

I've also found out that individual bailiffs work on a commission basis, so he was going to get that money out of me by any way he could think of.  That's something that also needs to change, to stop these thugs from feeling the need to get aggressive in order to get their money.

 

The law courts need to realise that bailiffs are working as an instrument of the law, and the law exists to protect people.  It's not acceptable for violent animals to be out there using these sorts of tactics to frighten people.

 

Haringey Council should also take note.  Is this really the sort of behaviour they want someone employing on their behalf?

 

And while we're on the subject:  I can't abide the phrase, "As a gesture of goodwill."  It's such a misnomer.  It allows the user to feel that they are doing something benevolent, and therefore have the moral upperhand, when in point of fact, they are simply making reparations for their own cockup, as they bloody-well should!  A real gesture of goodwill is a donation to charity, or helping someone up the stairs at Leicester Square Tube station with a heavy bag, as I did yesterday (although in point of fact, it was less altruistic than it may sound, as he was struggling with so many bags that he was totally holding up a crowd of people trying to climb up behind him, including me!).

 

As a reult of all this madness, our story got into the local newspaper (The Ham & High), and the article was seen by a researcher working for the documentary.  Cut to: a few days later, and my living room is full of camera and sound equipment, while Ben and I get interviewed about our ordeal!

 

As far as I know, the programme will be on ITV sometime in October.  I'll keep you posted.

 

Anyway...

That story took a lot longer than I thought it would to tell. (I come from a family of talkers!)

 

I'll save other news for another post, and hopefully, it wont be as long until the next one as it was since the last one!

 

So this is me, signing off.

 

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