Please help - threatened with 'removal of property'

FreddieB_3

Hi, I really don't know what to do, so I really hope someone can help me. It would appear that someone has registered their car to my address and is driving around London collecting congestion charges and not paying them. The first I knew of this was a bailiff calling here a week ago. He accepted that I was not this person. I called TfL (to whom the charges should have been paid), they said they cannot tell me anything because of data protection. I rang the DVLA who said they could take the registration away from this address if I had the reg number of the car, which I don't. I rang the police who at that point were nice and very reassuring.

Today I came home to a letter addressed to this person who does not live here, so I opened it. It says that the debt collection people now have a court order to remove property. I rang them, I said that I have shown proof to their collection officer of my ID, what more do they want. She said they will 'make a note on the file'. I then rang the police, spoke to a different person who was very unhelpful and rude. 'It's a civil matter, if they turn up and you call us we will attend but not stop them'. This is NOT my debt but how can I prove that this person has never lived here? I am scared to open the door and have told the children (teenagers) not to open the door. I'm afraid that I'll come home from work to find my car gone, or they'll break in.

How can this be a purely civil matter, if my address is being used fraudulently, and surely if the bailiffs take my property that is theft??

Please, if anyone can offer any advice at all, I'd be so grateful.

katsu

Not an expert, but the baliffs can't take your stuff as you are not the person who owes the debt.

You could ask the debt collector/baliff for the reg no if DVLA really can action this.

Baliffs and debt collectors are quite different - debt collectors can't take anything from the person who owes the money and have less power than baliffs.

You don't have to prove the person doesn't live with you. I told some baliffs to come and sit in the street and look out for the person they claimed still lived in my house and they never came.

FreddieB_3

Not an expert, but the baliffs can't take your stuff as you are not the person who owes the debt.

They suggested to me that if they 'had reason to think' the person lived here they could do it. I asked what constituted that, she just said that for example they might think I was lying to protect someone.

You could ask the debt collector/baliff for the reg no if DVLA really can action this.

Tried that, they also cited Data Protection as stopping them from telling me - surely not what was meant by this law??

Baliffs and debt collectors are quite different - debt collectors can't take anything from the person who owes the money and have less power than baliffs.

Ok. I guess the last one was a debt collector then. But now they have a court authority, the bailiffs will be next?

You don't have to prove the person doesn't live with you. I told some baliffs to come and sit in the street and look out for the person they claimed still lived in my house and they never came.

I think I believe that they 'aren't allowed' to take anything that is ours but what if they don't follow the 'rules'? And if I call the police they say they won't do anything. It's all ok if they stick to the rules, I guess what I'm afraid of is either that they won't, or that there is some kind of loophole I don't know about, for example if I'm not here or they decide I'm lying.

rosyw

When I was having problems with some similarly unsavoury characters a few months ago I found the following extremely useful
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1837507

FreddieB_3

That's completely brilliant, thank you!!