|
|
|
Unfortunately people’s debt sometimes gets so bad that their creditors take the step of sending a bailiff to their house to claim goods as payment in kind. It’s not a very nice situation to be in and it can cause a lot of stress and embarrassment. You have rights, though, so if you know what the bailiff can and can’t do, you can minimise your stress and loss. Bailiff – definition Bailiff simply means a person whom a creditor appoints to collect a debt for them. This could be anything from county court judgements (CCJs), court fines or fees, outstanding council tax, overdue child maintenance instalments or unpaid rent. They may send private bailiffs from a private debt collecting organisation. These are known as certified bailiffs as they must provide evidence to the court that they are suitable to work as debt collectors. Alternatively, they may send county court bailiffs. These bailiffs work for the local authority. Whichever type of bailiff comes to your door, they must follow a set of procedures to ensure that you are treated fairly. Some do have more authority than others to seize goods though. When can a bailiff come into your house? A bailiff requires the appropriate legal permission to come to your home. The authorisation that they require depends on what your debt is. CCJs require what is known as a warrant of execution. If your debt is unpaid council tax, fines or maintenance payments decreed by a magistrate court, the creditor must obtain a distress warrant or liability order to send the bailiff to your house. As a first step, the organisation to whom you owe money may send an unqualified and unwarranted representative to discuss your debt. They sometimes call these representatives ‘collectors’ or ‘advisors’, but they have no legal authority to come into your house or take any of your belongings as they are not bailiffs. It’s therefore a good idea to always ask for proof of identity and the appropriate permission to enter before you let anyone into your home. Your call from the bailiff won’t be completely unexpected. You must receive either one or two weeks’ notice. (This differs according to the type of permit obtained.) You probably won’t be given an appointment time though – they could call at any time, day or night. The only exception is for bailiffs who have come to collect rent, who must visit during daylight hours.
Can bailiffs force entry? Normally, bailiffs are forbidden to force their way into your home. They can only enter by invitation or through an open window or door, and they are also allowed to jump over fences, walls and gates to access your garden. Answering the door to a bailiff does not mean that they can push past you to get inside – you are entitled to refuse them entry. However, watch out for cunning tricks used by bailiffs to gain peaceful entry, such as asking to use your telephone to negotiate with the creditor, or seeking shelter from the rain. Sometimes they may bring a police escort, if they have reason to suspect that there may be trouble, but even then you don’t have to let anyone into your house. Just as bailiffs have no right to enter your house by force, you are not allowed to remove a bailiff by force once they are in. This is considered to be assault and they may call the police and press charges. How do bailiffs collect debts once they are in your house? After coming into your house peacefully or by invitation, the bailiff has the right to seize items owned by the debtor whose name is stated on their permit if the debt can’t be paid by cash. Of course, the bailiff doesn’t know which goods belong to you and which don’t, so it is up to you to prove ownership if they earmark goods that aren’t yours. Although bailiffs aren’t allowed to force entry to get into your house, they are permitted to force open internal cupboards or doors to look for goods. Also, if you have let the bailiffs into your house, this automatically permits them to do so again in the future, even if you refuse, and they can break in if necessary. Are bailiffs allowed to take anything? Bailiffs are allowed to take any number of items to meet the cost of the debt that you owe. As second-hand goods tend to sell at only a fraction of their original value (and seized goods are normally sold at auction), this means that the bailiff will probably have to take a considerable amount to cover the debt. For example, if you owe £200, the bailiff may have to take items that you perhaps originally paid up to £2,000 for in total. However, you are still entitled to items that provide basic living requirements. Bailiffs can only take items that are considered luxuries or non-essentials. So you won’t be left without a bed, a cooker, clothes or items you need for your work, but you may find yourself losing your games console, television set if you have more than one, CD player, video recorder, coffee machine or microwave. There’s a particular method that bailiffs use to indicate what items they intend to remove from your house. They’ll ‘levy distress’ upon your goods by either marking them, pointing to them or informing you verbally before they take them. Usually, they’ll remove the items on their first visit, but if this is not possible, they are most likely to leave a person in your house to watch over the items until they obtain the means necessary to remove and transport them. Do you have the right to remove or hide goods? If you know that the bailiff intends to make a visit, you are perfectly within your rights to hide goods or remove them so that the bailiff can’t find them (except in cases of unpaid rent). Bailiffs can get wise to this, though, and if they believe you have done this, don’t be surprised if they pay another visit out of the blue to find items they suspect were hidden from them during their first visit. Do you have to pay fees to the bailiff? If a creditor has to send a bailiff to your house to recover a debt, any fees incurred for visiting your house, and the costs of seizing transporting, storing and auctioning your items, will be passed on to you. And remember that your goods won’t fetch anywhere near the same value at auction as you paid for them in the first place, so this will also leave you significantly out of pocket. What can you do to avoid losing your belongings? If you can demonstrate trustworthiness and a willingness to repay your debt, you may be able to negotiate what’s known as a walking possession order. This involves the bailiff nominally ‘seizing’ the goods but permitting you to retain them provided you keep up your agreed level of repayments. You’ll also have to pay the required fee for the administration of the walking possession order. The rules for seizing goods under this type of order are the same as for any other bailiff visit – entry to your home must be by peaceful means. Don’t be tricked into signing any order that has been posted through your door – if they can’t get into your house, bailiffs may sometimes attempt to peer through your windows and list on their order any goods that they are able to see. You can always try negotiating repayment of your debt, although this is unlikely to be successful at this late stage. The best thing to do to avoid any debt problems and the nightmare of a bailiff’s visit is to be honest and upfront with the organisation to whom you owe money as soon as you realise that you are struggling to pay. In this way, they are more likely to be understanding and to help arrange a repayment plan that you can manage financially. If it still gets to the stage where they inform you that they are going to send a bailiff, get in touch with them as soon as possible and do what you can to negotiate an alternative solution. You’ll find expert guidance on handling debts and bailiffs through independent consumer advice organisations such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. This article is copyright protected and is not for republishing |
