Oh help, Bailiff has levied on my neighbours car?!

toffe

Ah, sorry. so basically all they have done is list the car as an asset of yours which they "may" seize.

In that case whats the problem? All you do is notify the bailiff that that is not your car and if they are stupid enough to even consider lifting it without checking it out your neighbour would have them arrested and charged with theft.

Of course they are not going to do that are they.

Sounds like nothing more than a scare tactic to get you to contact them.

pimento

Sorry to bump this thread but I have a question.

I came home tonight to a letter put through my door addressed to two people I don't know at an address up the road from me. Their address is 264 High Street and mine is 246 High Street. I know the landlord of 264 so called her to see if the names on the letter were her tenants and she confirmed they were.

The letter was left by a bailiff saying basically 'sorry you were out, you owe council tax for £580 and I'll be back to take good to the value of...'

Now it's obvious that the bailiff has just dropped the letter through the wrong door and when I called the mobile number of the bailiff (on the letter) he agreed this was the case (and told me to shred the letter), but I wondered what would happen if he (or his mate) came back again when we weren't home, didn't realise they had the wrong address and just took my car which is parked on the drive?

DarkConvict

Not a great deal, unless you sign a walking possession order they cannot take goods from inside the property, and without that WPO they cannot force entry anyway.

As to the car, yes they can levy a car that is nearby or on the property. But before they take it away they should check who is the registered owner with the DVLA otherwise it is theft.

pimento

So if the bailiff hadn't realised he had the wrong address he could just take my car?

I'm glad I didn't shred the letter. Now if my car suddenly disappears because the bailiff is dyslexic, I'll know where it has gone!

Don't they have to do an HPI check or something? This is scary stuff.

RobertoMoir

pimento wrote: »

but I wondered what would happen if he (or his mate) came back again when we weren't home, didn't realise they had the wrong address and just took my car which is parked on the drive?

Well when someone steals your car the normal procedure is to report the theft to the police and give the police any info that might assist in their capture and prosecution if you can.

The reason I mention that is because that is effectively what the bailiffs would be doing if the scenario you describe took place.

pimento

That sounds very laid back Roberto. I'd be happier if I knew that the bailiff made some attempt to match car and debtor and indeed, address and debtor before they wielded their clamp.

Isn't this a requirement?

I wonder how far the conversation would have got yesterday if my (bewildered) husband had been at home.

RobertoMoir

pimento wrote: »

That sounds very laid back Roberto. I'd be happier if I knew that the bailiff made some attempt to match car and debtor and indeed, address and debtor before they wielded their clamp.

Isn't this a requirement?

It wasn't when I did the job - I mean you'd obviously try and do so but the assumption was that a car on someone's driveway was their car unless proved otherwise, for example.

There was no requirement to have a bit of paper from the DVLA or anything. That was a long time ago however. I'd say that most repsonsible bailiffs would want to take at least some steps to ensure they were seizing the correct car, for their own sake if no-one else's, because I was quite serious with my comment about it being theft if they took someone else's car by accident.

pimento

I'd say that checking you have the correct address would be a good place to start, but the bailiff who put a letter through my letterbox yesterday didn't even do that.