Old council tax debts and bailiff enforcement

gavinchappell

Not sure where this should go, but there's many helpful people in DFW so this will do for now. However moderators should feel free to move it if appropriate.

A friend of mine called me just as I was leaving work tonight (around 4pm). She was at home on her own, and had a visit from bailiffs with police accompaniment regarding an old council tax debt belonging to her housemate from a previous address (about 4 addresses ago, I believe, and before they were living together). They wanted to enter and seize goods to the value of ~£800. She spoke to them through an upstairs window rather than opening a door and (rather stupidly in hindsight) told them that the person in question didn't live there and it was nothing to do with her. She didn't give her own name.

The bailiffs left, however they did put a letter through the door with contact details on, and very clearly stating that if they aren't contacted within 24 hours that they will be returning to seize goods. I have a few questions which I'm unsure of, so I'd appreciate any advice:

1) My friend will be at work tomorrow and would rather stay out of the way than get involved as it's not her debt. However, are the bailiffs allowed to force entry if there's no one at the address when they return (for the sake of argument, let's say it's exactly 24 hours so 4pm tomorrow).

2) If they're allowed to force entry then are they allowed to take anything from the property regardless of ownership? My friend has a small amount of sentimental jewellery which she obviously doesn't want to be removed to settle her housemate's debt from before they lived together. If she was there, then she could argue that it's hers and may get away with it, but obviously if there's no one at the address and entry is forced, would it just be fair game as it's in the house?

I've told her to make sure her housemate calls tomorrow and sorts this out, but when she phoned him to tell him what had happened he refused to come home from the pub to talk about it, so I think we need to assume that he's a total idiot, and personally I wouldn't be surprised to find that he went out tomorrow at the time the bailiffs are expected just to avoid dealing with it, hence my questions.

It's not something I've ever been involved with before (only ever dealt with bailiffs once for a family member, and just gave them the new address and the issue was settled) so I'm really not sure what I should advise her to do. Obviously I don't want any of her items seized to pay off her housemate's debt, but I don't want to give her any duff advice and then get her into bother as well.

Many thanks!

CIS

However, are the bailiffs allowed to force entry if there's no one at the address when they return (for the sake of argument, let's say it's exactly 24 hours so 4pm tomorrow).

No - they can only force entry once they have first had peaceful entry and are returning to collect goods (very very few councils will let bailiff's lift goods without authorisation from them).

If they're allowed to force entry then are they allowed to take anything from the property regardless of ownership? My friend has a small amount of sentimental jewellery which she obviously doesn't want to be removed to settle her housemate's debt from before they lived together. If she was there, then she could argue that it's hers and may get away with it, but obviously if there's no one at the address and entry is forced, would it just be fair game as it's in the house?

They can only take goods belonging to the debtor.

gavinchappell

As far as I know there's been no previous peaceful entry. My friend didn't let them in this evening, and to her knowledge (and therefore mine) that's the first time they've been to the property. There's a small chance that they've been round while my friend was at work and her housemate (the debtor) was in, but I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't let anyone in as he obviously knows he still owes money (judging by his attitude).

And that also settles the issue of ownership, she/I were just concerned that if they were allowed to force entry (which they seemed to give the impression they were, although she was obviously in a worried and angry frame of mind while telling me what had happened) then anything in the house would be up for grabs. But if that's not the case then there's not so much of a worry that any of her jewellery would disappear never to be seen again.

In all honesty I'm not convinced his stuff in the house adds up to that amount anyway, he has an iPhone which I would assume is still a high-value item but most of the furniture/electrical stuff etc belongs to my friend rather than her housemate so as long as she can convince bailiffs of that then she'll probably be fine and it'll just be her housemate's problem to deal with. I'm not sure what other types of items they'd be looking to seize.

Thanks for the answers, most useful

Tixy

Gavin
This might be a useful link for friend (or even to pass to the housemate) http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=02_bailiffs_and_council_tax
I guess the best she can hope for is that he decides to man up and contact the council to start making payments to them. If she has any influence on him then recommend that he does this, council tax should be high priority to him.

gavinchappell

Just had an apologetic text from her just as the email about your reply came through. Apparently he's off to see the Citizen's Advice Bureau first thing tomorrow morning, so hopefully they'll give him the same advice as it's obviously the right thing to do. They've both had debts in the past, the difference being that she takes steps towards it, got into a bit of debt while out of work, but has pawned jewellery and got a job to start paying it off. That's why there's only sentimental jewellery in the house, the more meaningless stuff has already gone in order to settle her own debts. Whereas from what I can gather he's currently unemployed on benefits and shows no interest in working. But I digress, needless to say I think that he's a bit of a moron and she would be far better off living on her own or with someone a bit more grown-up