Shared house bailiff issues. Help!

mrsgideon

Hello,


I live in a shared house in Manchester equally split between two professionals and two students. Back in October 08 a problematic tenant who had been unemployed (and still is today) and hadn't sorted his council tax out moved out and back to his parents' home in Newcastle because he couldn't afford to live here anymore.

Eight months later he still owes this money and as he lives in Newcastle and the warrant is set for our house, we are getting removal notice after removal notice. All this I have tried to challenge by sending proof of change of residency in the form of utility bills to the bailiff firm, endless calls to the council tax office and referring his home address to both numerous times.

Nothing has worked and today I came home to find a brand new 24 hour removal notice.

I don't know how to proceed from here. Please help!


Sarah.

RAS

Hi

Legally you are jointly and severally responsible for council tax, so you need to pay and then try and recover from the problem tenant.

Have any of you let the bailiffs in? if not, then it is essential that you keep all doors and windows locked, do not keep any cars anywhere the bailiffs might find them and send a pm to Herbie21.

What bailiffs fees are they charging? if they have no levy, then the maximum is £42 however many times they visit.

cyril82

The thing to remember in the short term is that you do not have to let a bailiff into your home, nor can they push past you to gain entry or break into your home.

they can enter through an open/unlocked window or door so keep em locked.

The second is to establish who's name is on the warrant/order. If it is not your name i believe you are fine, and if the bailiff firm won't listen you can contact the court directly to tell them they have granted an incorrect warrant against a previous tenant and you are being harassed by bailiffs.

The court should suspend the warrant until they can confirm the person is still at the address or establish his new address, if you have the ex flat mates new address provide it to the court.

Also if he is still on the electoral roll at the property remove him as the court/council may check this and use the information to establish whether or not he is still at the address.

Definitely visit the link posted by Herbie there is a lot of good info on there.