Bailiff indemnities

The request was successful.

Dear Salford City Council,

under foi or in the public interest can you please answer the following questions...we have had over 20 councils now reply to the same questions within 48 hours .we hope you will do the same

1. Does your enforcement agent contract allow your enforcement agents to issue an
indemnity against prosecution for themselves without the agreement of the council in
cases where they have wrongfully seized and to vulnerable
2. Have you ever allowed bailiffs to make their own settlement agreements where goods
have to be returned?
3. Would you allow enforcement agents to breach the equalities act if it meant your
business rates were collected?
4. How would you react if they did this without you knowing?
5. Would you class a secret indemnity which achieves a gain at the cost to the
vulnerable victim a material breach of contract .?
6. Must enforcement agents always report failed levies and a full report when dealing
with vulnerable customers
thank you for your public concern in answering these questions asap.

Yours faithfully,

claire moore

Leigh, Maurice, Salford City Council

Dear Ms. Moore,

 

I have passed your request onto the relevant teams. They have informed me
that there are a number of queries that need clarification before they
will be in a position to respond. In the meantime your request will be
placed on hold until we receive the required clarification.

The queries are detailed below.

 

Qn1 Does your enforcement agent contract allow your enforcement agents to
issue an indemnity against prosecution for themselves without the
agreement of the council in cases where they have wrongfully seized and to
vulnerable .

      This question needs clarification as

·         What does the requester mean by “wrongfully seized and to
vulnerable”. This is not a full sentence

·         What is the requester’s definition of vulnerable? We do not have
a set definition and this is judged on a case by cases basis.

·         What exactly does the requester mean by indemnity against
prosecution?

·         What is the requester’s definition of wrongfully seized and at
what point in the recovery process has supposed action taken place?

 

Qn2 Have you ever allowed bailiffs to make their own settlement agreements
where goods have to be returned? This question needs to be clarified.

      The Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013
[1]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/... outlines the
actions an Enforcement Agent can take. If the requester could rephrase the
question in relation to this legislation then we may be able to respond
however at the present time we are unsure what the requester means by
settlement arrangement or the point in the process where goods are
returned to the customer.

 

Qn3. Would you allow enforcement agents to breach the equalities act if it
meant your business rates were collected?

     We need further clarification. What sort or breach is the requester
envisioning?  

 

Qn4. Would you react if they did this without you knowing?

     Requires the clarification on Qn3 before this can be answered.

 

QN5 Would you class a secret indemnity which achieves a gain at the cost
to the vulnerable victim a material breach of contract. This again needs
clarification. What does the requester mean by secret indemnity ? Google
defines it as

secret indemnity represents provisions placed in a contract that protects
one party against potential loss through insurance or protection provided
by the other contracting party. ... The indemnitor acts as the insurer,
while the indemnitee is the party protected from loss.

 

If something is permissible in the in the contract how can it be a breach
of contract if the action is undertaken? Again we need some clarification,
the requester needs to explain in plain English what they actually want to
know.

 

QN6 Must enforcement agents always report failed levies and a full report
when dealing with vulnerable customers This again needs clarification The
Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013
[2]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/... outlines the
actions an Enforcement Agent can take. If the requester could rephrase the
question in relation to this legislation then we may be able to respond
however at the present time we are unsure what the requester means by
failed levies and we still have the issue of what is “vulnerable”.

 

 

Maurice Leigh

Information Governance Officer

Legal & Governance Division

Service Reform

Tel: 0161 793 2938

email: [email address]

 

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this communication/message from [email address] sent on Tue Jan 14 12:12:08 2020 is confidential. It is intended solely for the addressee(s) [FOI #629337 email]

Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message, or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
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2. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/...

Dear Leigh, Maurice,

Hello thank you for asking for clarification to give you context

A bailiff seizes 400 x the business rate debt
He takes the goods despite the owner saying they are not owned by the debtor but the debtors other company including hire purchase agreements
The debtor gets put into mental hospital due to this trauma and because neither council or bailiff made a fair and balance test
Excessive levy and ownership is proven but still bailiff holds onto goods for 3 months trying to squeeze co into liquidation for legal purposes
Eventually bailiff agrees to return every item but not before the person under mental health care signs a indemnity to say he wont sue the agent
The agent never declares this indemnity that does not cover the council and breaks equality law
The victim doesnt come out of mental health illness for 9 years
2 companies lost ,7 jobs and a awful lot of assets

hope that explains the indemnity
this is hypothetical but has been seen to have happened by one larger bailiff firm .it will come as a shock to some councils if this has been repeated
for that reason we have asked 150 councils what in the public interest would be their reaction and their contractual status after hearing such behaviour

Yours sincerely,

claire moore

Leigh, Maurice, Salford City Council

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    CAMS 012 34200316 4 Claire Moore bailiff indemnities RESPONSE LETTER 21.01.20.doc

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Dear Ms. Moore,      

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to your enquiry.

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request of 19^th
December
2019.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Your
request and the council’s response are as follows:

 

 1. Does your enforcement agent contract allow your enforcement agents to
issue an indemnity against prosecution for themselves without the
agreement of the council in cases where they have wrongfully seized
and to vulnerable.

No.

 2. Have you ever allowed bailiffs to make their own settlement agreements
where goods have to be returned?

No.

 3. Would you allow enforcement agents to breach the equalities act if it
meant your business rates were collected?

No.

 4. How would you react if they did this without you knowing?

Please note that the Freedom of Information Act provides a right of access
to any recorded information held, not covered by an exemption.  It does
not relate to an opinion, judgement, or general question that is not
already recorded. 

 5. Would you class a secret indemnity which achieves a gain at the cost
to the vulnerable victim a material breach of contract?

Please note that the Freedom of Information Act provides a right of access
to any recorded information held, not covered by an exemption.  It does
not relate to an opinion, judgement, or general question that is not
already recorded. 

 6. Must enforcement agents always report failed levies and a full report
when dealing with vulnerable customers?

Yes.

  

 

The council considers it has fulfilled your request. If you are
dissatisfied with the way your request has been handled, or wish to appeal
this decision, you may wish to reply direct to this email. Your appeal
review will be overseen by a senior officer.

 

If you wish to lodge an appeal please forward it to our generic email box
[1][Salford City Council request email]

 

If you are still dissatisfied following any internal appeal, you may wish
to contact the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF - [2]www.ico.org.uk

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Maurice Leigh

Information Governance Officer

Legal & Governance Division

Service Reform

Tel: 0161 793 2938

email: [email address]

 

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this communication/message from [email address] sent on Thu Jan 23 11:33:11 2020 is confidential. It is intended solely for the addressee(s) [FOI #629337 email]

Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message, or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
As a public body, Salford City Council may be required to disclose this email [or any response to it] under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, unless the information in it is covered by one of the exemptions in the Act.
Please immediately contact the sender, [email address] if you have received this message in error.

For the full disclaimer please access https://www.salford.gov.uk/e-mail. Thank you.

References

Visible links
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2. http://www.ico.org.uk/