HCEO help.

svscraig

Firstly I would like to say hello, I have regularily checked this site for advise, and now hoped someone may help/advise on this.

Today I was visited out of the blue by a HCEO collecting a writ for £1250, for a company that no longer trades at my business premises. His tone from the off was that the writ was against the premises regardless of who occupied it now. No amount of information would convince him otherwise. He said that as it had got to the High Court stage (I was unaware of any court case originally) that the only thing he could do was to either collect the money, or a locksmith would come and change the locks. At this point the Police were called.
He them went on to say that a van had been called, and that a valuation team was on the way, and that if I did not pay immediately £800 would be added to the costs. I was given no time to make any calls to verify this at all.
The police were there to keep the peace, but established the writ was genuine and that was it, so I had no choice but to pay the amount.
What concerns me is the guy that came could not provide me any genuine id, his id was from the company he worked for not a HCEO id, and that he also claimed that a bailiff had visited my premises previous, and he then produced a photo of the baliff's visit supposedly from the 26th of July, but showing a customers car outside that had only come in today (I own a garage), so a blatant lie.

Sorry for a long first post, but my heads in a spin, and hoped for some advice from here. Many Thanks.

bottleofred

Hi,

I have no idea how to help, but will bump this up the page and hopefully someone with more knowledge than me will be along soon with advice.

Good luck

Red

FireWyrm

A) is this Scotland? I've dont know what a HCEO is
How can it be your debt? Do you own the property? Do you have legal title? If what the bloke told you is true, anyone can just walk up to any house and demand that the occupyer pay a debt that was not incurred by them.

No, this doesnt sound right at all. I'd start by ringing the number on the writ and work up from there. No doubt about it, you need more information and you need it right now. Sit on the phone until you have something. I just cant see how this could possibly be legal, but there are all sorts of weird and antiquated laws in this country which one would have thought were not possible. In the meantime, dont leave the premises unoccupied, doors or windows open or anything valuable inside, you need to protect your assets. Until someone comes up with an answer, dont pay a penny piece. It's gone this far, a little further wont make any difference, as I suspect this isnt your problem and the bloke was just being a jobs-worth.

fermi

High Court Enforcement Officer?

FireWyrm

Some updates to my post :

http://www.thesheriffsoffice.com/articles/can_hceos_enter_3rd_party_premises_to_enforce/

As I thought, the HCEO must ensure that the goods he is levying against belong to the debtor. My first port of call in your shoes would be to get all my paperwork together and I mean everything. Every receipt, every contract, everything that says that there isnt a brass screw in that property that belongs to anyone but you.

http://www.thesheriffsoffice.com/articles/walking_possession_agreement/

(see the last paragraph)

Here is another link : http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si2004/20040400.htm

fermi

Doesn't have to be Scotland.

HCEOs are used for English cases in the High Court.

----> Dealing with debts in the High Court

FireWyrm

fermi wrote: »

Doesn't have to be Scotland.

HCEOs are used for English cases in the High Court.

----> Dealing with debts in the High Court

The high court for a debt of £1250? This doesnt seem right...surely, it isnt event worth their time to hear the case for such a small amount of money.

fermi

FireWyrm wrote: »

The high court for a debt of £1250? This doesnt seem right...surely, it isnt event worth their time to hear the case for such a small amount of money.

It's quite possible. Have a look at that link.

It would be a County Court debt that has been transferred to the High Court for enforcement.

They don't hear the case. The County Court did that. They just issue the 'writ'.