are we in trouble?

Bailiffs can't put a claim on the property unless it belongs to him - he isn't on the mortgage or anything is he?
However, they can come in and take possessions, anything that you can't prove is yours. Anything you do have a receipt for, find it.

Personally, I think he's never going to learn if he keeps being bailed out and it might be time for some tough love and a boot up the bottom into the real world.

I think you need to go down the tough love route, as by bailling him out, you're potentially making the problem worse, as he'll never learn to stand on his own two feet.

Sit him down, and explain to him that money is tight, and you can no longer afford to bail him out. Does he pay rent? At 21, he should be contributing something... Does he have a job?

Do NOT let ballifs in, and dig out receipts for all your stuff to prove it's yours, so that they can't take it. By all means guide them up to his room and tell them to take what they want.

Pssst wrote: »

You can get your credit report for a couple of quid from the likes of Experian. It may well be shot to bits.

If you are suggesting that the OP's credit report may be shot to bits, as opposed to his sons, then you are wrong. Financial links are not created by address so as long as the OP has no financial associations with his son eg. joint bank account then it will not affect the OP's credit report. Let's try not to worry the OP anymore than necessary!

If your son had fraudulently used your details to obtain credit in your name then this would be a different matter, however it doesn't sound like this is the case from what you have said. Now your sons credit report is a different matter - that could well be a mess if he has missed payments on credit accounts.

As far as I am aware, should baliffs be sent to your property they are only able to take possessions belonging to the debtor so they should not take anything belonging to you & your wife. I'm not sure whether you have to prove your possession or whether they take your word for it. Some one on the DFW board will know. Hopefully your son won't allow his position to get that bad.

My OH had about £10k worth of defaulted debt when I met him & I sorted this out for him, paid it off & we are rebuilding his credit rating currently. However, you can't help someone who still has their head in the sand.

I suggest you try to get your son to order his credit report & then try to get him to sit down & go through it with you so that he can see how large & 'bad' his debts are. If he hasn't already got defaults then he needs to do everything he can to avoid them. My OH's defaults though paid off are still hanging over his head for a further 3 years, this makes it very difficult to get almost any credit.

Try to get your son to listen how badly it's affecting his mother, maybe that will help, I don't know. My OH was about your sons age when he got himself in this mess & he won't be free from its affects until he's 28! He would be happy to talk to your son over PM (if this is allowed) & you can get him on here(!) as maybe hearing it from someone his own age, who has got out of the other side, would help.

Please let me know if I can help any further.

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Are you sure? When I moved away from the family home, I had to disassociate myself from my sister, brother and father :eek: And a good job I did...

I presume this was sometime ago. Once upon a time I believe addresses were used to financially associate people but I can assure you that is no longer the case. Now, unless you have some form of joint finances, then there should not be any form of association between people living at the same address.

I know this as I live with my partner but due to the terrible state of his credit report we keep our finances 100% seperate. We have no financial assocaition & we both check our reports regularly so I know that there is no association due to us living at the same address. This is a common misconception people have, you are even able to get married without creating an association as long as your finances are seperate. I have a mortgage & interest free credit cards, both of which I would not have if my OH & I were financially associated.

HTH