hounded by bailiff's (Not our debt)!

judekazama

we have for the last four months been receiving threatening letters and had visits from bailiff's regarding a debt that is not ours. The bailiff's have been instructed by the local council to retrieve a council tax debt for an address that sounds similar to ours (the house number is the same). The estate name is different, and also the people the letters are addressed to are obviously different. I have explained this to every bailiff that has turned up, and also rang the bailiff's office on a number of occasions to explain this. We have now received a final demand for the money or they will come and remove our property. Does anyone know what we should do now, or what we should do if they do turn up to remove our property.

alanobrien

I am pretty sure they cant enter without a warrent of some sort and even if they had one it would not be for your address.

They are clearly being stupid not listening to you and are wasting your time. As a last resort write them a recorded delivery letter and copy it to the council.

After that personally i would just ignore it and let them waste their time effort and money. They should have listened to you in the first place.

CIS

If its any use:
Iam currently training to be a council tax officer, I'll see if I can ask the trainer tomorrow as who exactly to speak to, they should be able to sort it out.

Whatever you do, dont let them in - if you d, the worst they can usually do is to go back to the council and report the debt is un-recoverable - its gets them off your back for a bit whlst your trying to sort it out.

chloejane_2

we have got a simular problem where we have moved to, the people who owned this house before us own lots of people money, and we keep telling the bailffs to go away not or debt etc, they have never wanted or tried to come in but think that is due to the dogs we have going nuts in the background lol. good luck with it all thought

x_raphael_xx

Bailiffs cannot enter a property unless invited in.
HOWEVER if you invite them in ONCE, they are then legally allowed to enter the property whenever they want.
Also be aware an open door is classed as an invitation, ie if the back door is open they can just wonder in!

I think thats correct, its how I understand it looking at websites etc, correct me if Im wrong.

judekazama

thank you very much everyone...i feel a lot less worried now when they turn up next!!!

Sparky29

I had this once. Wrote to the bailiffs saying that "the debt is not mine and after taking legal advice that if they come back again it is classed as harrassment and you will have to take things further." Never heard from them again. Its got to be in writing and keep a copy. Get proof of posting as well which is free.

Greycrow

Sparky29 wrote:

I had this once. Wrote to the bailiffs saying that "the debt is not mine and after taking legal advice that if they come back again it is classed as harrassment and you will have to take things further." Never heard from them again. Its got to be in writing and keep a copy. Get proof of posting as well which is free.

I agree but would suggest you send the letter, addressed personally, to the chief executive of the council concerned, and a copy of it to the bailiffs. You'll get his name and full title on their web site.
Don't be too polite. Tell them you're concidering suing them and the bailiffs for the stress caused to you and your family by their harrassment and false allegation.
As suggested above, keep copy and proof of posting.

Horasio

We rented a place and we reckon the landlords had a bad credit rating, as we were refused credit.

Once I had two very strange men come to my door during the day without any warning. I was alone. They asked the name of who owned the place. I told them to goto the agents, as I wasn't going to give out that info to strangers.

One was nice, one wasn't. The nice one didn't have ID, so I didn't let them in or give any information. Something felt wrong and I don't respond to bullying.

mm3958

Where do you live?
Get in touch with your local paper to expose this and embarrass the morons.
You must be willing to be named and photographed and appear in the paper - no newspaper worth its salt will touch it otherwise.
I am a journalist and deal with this kind of incompetence affecting innocent people all the time. I would be rubbing my hands with glee over this one.
Good luck.