Relative living in parents house is in debt - can bailiffs enter house?

hounslow_boy

Hi,

Can anyone help me out here and clarify my parents rights and position in the following situation?:

A young niece of mine has been staying in my parents house for a few years, she occasionally pays keep but not much. Turns out she has quite a bit of unsecured debt in arrears (credit cards and personal loans), and to top it all has just resigned from her job because she hated it - she doesn't have another job to go to. She has no claim on the property, names not on the deeds and never paid the mortgage (it's mortgage free now).

My concern is this: she clearly isn't going to be able to pay her creditors nearly as much as they'd like; if her debts are passed on to a collection agency and eventually bailiffs come a knocking on my parents front door what are my parents rights?

I'm aware that without a court order you don't have to let them in but my parents are old and it wouldn't be difficult to trick them.

If bailiffs did get inside would they have the right to include my parent possessions in any inventory of saleable goods?

My niece lives in just one bedroom that contains all her things, surely the bailiffs can only do their thing in there?

Would my parents have to prove that everything in the house belongs to them and not to my niece? I don't know how they would do that as no one keeps receipts for furniture or electrical goods.

And if it got to a county court order allowing them in could they take anything they like?

Thanks to everyone in advance.

AMBERSHADOW

I wouldn't let them in they have no right unless you invite them in

hounslow_boy

AMBERSHADOW wrote: »

I wouldn't let them in they have no right unless you invite them in

It's my parents house, they're elderly and frail and unfortunately it would be easy to trick them. I'll do my best to alert them to the dangers but I'm concerned. :sad:

climbgirl

Just try and impress on them as much as you possibly can that they're not to let them in the house at all. Once they're in, they can come back legally. So try as much as possible, to get them to understand that (and that they might use tricks to get past them).

They are not entitled to take belongings that don't belong to the person who owes the money. It's easy enough to prove when it's a situation where you have housemates on a contract, but it might be a slightly different situation in this case - I assume there's no paperwork about her staying there and contributing to bills?

Better to try and avoid that them even coming in the house.

Any chance the niece can move elsewhere?!

hounslow_boy

climbgirl wrote: »

Just try and impress on them as much as you possibly can that they're not to let them in the house at all. Once they're in, they can come back legally. So try as much as possible, to get them to understand that (and that they might use tricks to get past them).

They are not entitled to take belongings that don't belong to the person who owes the money. It's easy enough to prove when it's a situation where you have housemates on a contract, but it might be a slightly different situation in this case - I assume there's no paperwork about her staying there and contributing to bills?

Better to try and avoid that them even coming in the house.

Any chance the niece can move elsewhere?!

She's been living there for a few years, everything official has her staying there: council tax, drivers license, etc but no bills are in her name (because she doesn't pay any of them).

There's nowhere else she can go or wants to go (I can understand why, when she gets virtually free board and food thrown in too) and it's way too political to even attempt to get her to leave - I won't even try - would cause major family trouble.

Thanks for your reply.

RAS

Bailiffs are extremely unlikely for Consumer debt. As long as she has not run up Council tax debt or unpaid fines, the only people who might turn up are debt collectors and they have no more powers than a paperboy.

And even if bailiffs turned up with the right to collect money, they can only take your niece's possesion, not your parents belongings. If you parents want to protect your niece explain that they must never let bailiffs in the house.