What can a bailiff take?

Shocked_Pants_2

Not sure if I've posted this in the right area, but nothing seemed to fit properly :embarasse

I live in a family household as one of 2 parents, with 2 adult children still living at home. One of those children has recently lost their job, and as result fell behind on car and mobile phone payments. Rather than take their parents advice and deal directly with the debtor, all communications have been ignored and I'm pretty sure that we're not far from having debt-collectors/bailiffs rapping on the door to strip the house bare.

My question is this - my partner and I own pretty much anything of value in the house (big tv, dvd player, games consoles, desktop computers, laptops) whereas the child in debt has their own computer and few minor bits of bling and designer clothing. If it gets as far as a bailiff knocking on the door and having right of access, what's to stop them from helping themselves to my own stuff when it doesn't belong to the person who owes the debt? Are they able to take anything of value in the house that they wish?

To clarify the ownership of house situation, my partner is the registered renter of the property from a local housing association, the child in debt simply has our address as their place of residence (and they are also on the electoral register at our address).

Assume that, in this case, they are allowed access to the house i.e. we've gone past all the "you can't come in here without a...." stuff.

Thanks in advance.

Pants.

JohnD76

Apparently incorrect information

RAS

JohnD76 wrote: »

Nothing unfortunately.

You will need to prove ownership of the items, eg receipts for them not to take your items or you will have a week I believe to prove ownership once the items have been taken.

This information is incorrect.

Tixy

Hi

A debt collector has no rights at all and cannot take anything. Just tell them to leave.

Does the adult child actually have CCJs against them now?

Has a baliff already entered the property? if not then they cannot force entry to the property for consumer debt. If they haven't been in yet I would suggest that in no circumstance do you let them in your property.

If you did decide to let them in then on the first visit they can only levy (make a list) of the debtors possesions. They have to come back again to actually enforce the levy and then they can only take items belonging to your child (if you bought the furniture in their bedroom then you own it, they cannot have it) so it would be down to any possessions of your childs such as phone, camera, mp3 player, tv, dvd, computer etc.

Does the child have a car? is it regularly parked near the house? if so baliffs could levy and remove that.

If the baliffs have not yet arrived I would suggest serious words to the child to get them to agree to a repayment plan before baliffs turn up.

You might also want to take a read of baliffadviceonline website as it deals with what baliffs can or cannot do and how much they are allowed to charge in fees.

Madison

I was horrified to find that bailiffs can also take pedigree pets and sell them to new owners.

Numpty_Monkey

A debt collector has as much right to ask you for money or goods as, I have just turning up on your doorstep.
Baliffs are court appointed ( you or your yopung un) will have been taken to county court had a CCJ issued and carried on ignoreing it, then it goes to balliffs and they have rules they are meant to follow

fermi

If they are just behind on payments then the prospect of a CCJ is miles away, let alone anything that might follow.

Even in the very very worst case of a CCJ it is worth remembering that:

a) If you don't bury your head in the sand and ignore the CCJ, it will virtually never come to bailiffs.
b) Even if it did, you get notice that they are to be used, and it is relatively simple to stop.

RobertoMoir

Right... My advice as a former bailiff:
First of all, if its car payments and the like then unless the case has been to court, had a CCJ granted against your son and then he's still ignored attempts to settle then it will be debt collectors, not bailiffs.

If so, this is good news. Debt Collectors have no right to be on your property and are not allowed to seize goods in the way a bailiff can - period. They might bluff and threat and claim otherwise but they can't legally seize random items of your son's property let alone yours.

Secondly if it is bailiffs then they only have the right to seize HIS items after they have gained "peaceful entry" and access to his property. So don't let them in. I've got a guide to bailiffs and entry to property here, which is written with council tax enforcement in mind rather than your situation but it's still useful enough I think.

The kinds of bailiffs that enforce CCJs are not the ones that most "bailiff horror stories" are written about, and frankly you've got to really work at it to get them actually taking stuff from a home on a first visit.

If they do gain entry and do levy against or even take your stuff, it's simple enough to get it back. You don't need receipts, you simply need to sign an oath called a statutory declaration. This will cost you a few quid at most solicitors offices and is all you need to assert your ownership over goods that are levied against.

fermi

http://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/whatelse.htm

It is important to remember that the onus of proof is on the owner of the goods seized to show that they are exempt

However, the courts have decided that bailiffs have a duty of care that they must exercise when seizing goods and that when a bailiff is put on notice that items do not belong to the debtor, then they must act with caution, and try to seize other items if at all possible.

RAS

let's start by separating debt collectors from bailiffs.

Debt collectors have no rights what so ever.

Bailiff other than in a very few circumstances (ordered by a court for non-payment of fines usually) when a bailiff has the right of entry.

So the first thing to do is to make sure that bailiffs never have the right to enter a property unless they are invited in. All the family need to know that.

This will not stop them taking the car however, or securing the debt on the car.

With respect to your possessions, they cannot take them but you may be advised to do a Statuatory Declaration which lists your possessions and prevents bailiffs taking them. Most solicitors will charge £5-10 to do this.

RobertoMoir

Goodness we're all sharp today...

Anyway I need to go back to my job as part of the evil govt. employed overlords. These £5 notes won't light themselves you know...