Bailiffs enforcing for an ex-tenant-ish

TwistedPsycho

Good Evening and many apologies if this is in the wrong section of the forum. I found that most of the first few pages of hit for bailiffs came here.

Basically I am trying to work out what rights everyone has in a situation. My brother run up lots of debt (Orange, Littlewoods, etc), buried his head and failed to turn up at court while living at our parents house. I believe that letters from "proper" bailiffs have now started arriving (instead of "debt councillors", etc) which my parents are aware of.

Due to other problems which have panned out over a number of months however, my parents have served him and his fiancee notice to leave which expires on the 28th.

If a bailiff knocks before then, obviously the tactics of not letting them in will be applied and they will be sent away, however once they come and he has left how can this be reasonably proven?

Are the bailiffs obligued to accept that responce from my parents and take the warrant back to the court? My fathers car is in his own name and has been for years, so that should be safe, but older TV's, dining suites, a microwave etc will be harder to prove ownership of.

I am actually heading over to my parents house (I moved out about 5 years ago) to retreive anything of value of my own - a computer I lent them and move anything out that belongs to my sister like a laptop which she bought with her first ever pay packet (bless her heart - my first pay packet went on comics and penny sweets). But I would like to go armed with any advice that I can gleen to at least try and help.

Many Thanks in advance for any advice anyone has, as googling and searching these forums has taken me a whole 8 hour shift at work and I am none the wiser!

TP

RobertoMoir

Actual bailiffs? From the court?

Strictly speaking, it's for them to prove the debtor has goods there to seize, not for anyone else to prove he does not. They shouldn't take goods that don't belong to the debtor and if they do it will be trivially easy to get them back with a statutory declaration.

TwistedPsycho

Sorry. When I say actual bailiffs; he was paying a small amount to a representative of a collection agency, then stopped.

He then got letters telling him to attend court, which he ignored.

He is now getting letters which as far as we can tell are from a bailiff company although as he won't open them, obviously it would be illegal for anyone else to....

The debts are purely for store cards, mobile phones, etc ,etc, nothing like Council Tax, Rent, Fines, etc.


With regards to goods that are in the property; things like my sisters laptop should still have a recipt (I sure hope so - even if for the standard warranty!) but older goods like the TV's are 6 or 7 years old so receipts are less likely to have been kept. Because they are in my parents house, where my brother run up the debt then they are able to take them if my parents can't prove otherwise..... no?

DarkConvict

Its illegal to open letters to someone detriment. What clarifies detriment is upto each individual / judge if it goes to court. But if your parents are concerned that bailiffs letters are arriving they could open them to secure their own position in the matter.

Anyway, only goods that belong to them can be taken. It is upto the bailiffs to prove the goods can be taken not for you to prove otherwise. Get your parents to write a letter stating the person does not live here nor does he have any items of property left at this address.

RobertoMoir

TwistedPsycho wrote: »

Sorry. When I say actual bailiffs; he was paying a small amount to a representative of a collection agency, then stopped.

He then got letters telling him to attend court, which he ignored.

He is now getting letters which as far as we can tell are from a bailiff company although as he won't open them, obviously it would be illegal for anyone else to....

The debts are purely for store cards, mobile phones, etc ,etc, nothing like Council Tax, Rent, Fines, etc.

I strongly suggest someone opens these letters and has a proper look.

With regards to goods that are in the property; things like my sisters laptop should still have a recipt (I sure hope so - even if for the standard warranty!) but older goods like the TV's are 6 or 7 years old so receipts are less likely to have been kept. Because they are in my parents house, where my brother run up the debt then they are able to take them if my parents can't prove otherwise..... no?

NO. They can't take one person's property for another person's debt. Doesn't matter if your brother's address at the time he run up the debt was that house, another house somewhere else, or on mars.

Trust me on that one.

3Dogs

http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/debt_basics/bailiff-guide.php

This may be of some assistance to you

TwistedPsycho

Thank you for your responses.

I understand from all this that the bailiff has to prove that items belong to my brother before they can lay claim to them, rather than it is up to other to prove they are not.

is this correct?

RobertoMoir

Yes. They can make some assumptions (e.g. the goods in your house are yours, the goods in a room you rent in someone else's house are yours but the goods in the rest of that house are not yours) or else they wouldn't be able to function, but the long and short of it is that they can only remove goods that belong to the debtor and they have to show consideration of this rule in how they go about removals.

In the event that a bailiff does take something that doesn't belong to a debtor, it is trivially easy for the true owner to swear a statutory declaration and have it returned.

TwistedPsycho

Right. I am with you now.

Thank you so very much everyone.