Bailiff behaviour @ neighbours - rant

Azari

George_Michael wrote: »

As has already been mentioned, a court appointed bailiff has the legal right to enter a property to seize goods to cover payment for a court judgement, and if no one was answering the door, all the bailiff was doing was informing the householder of what may happen if they continued to ignore them.

Except that if they were entitled to do that they would have done it, not gone away and come back when the neighbours returned.

So it reverts to a case of yobbos making a lot of noise and threatening to do something that would almost certainly have got them arrested had they proceeded.

George_Michael

That is why I started my post with a very important word (If) as we have no way of knowing if the bailiff was a court appointed one.

Azari

George_Michael wrote: »

That is why I started my post with a very important word (If) as we have no way of knowing if the bailiff was a court appointed one.

And I was merely pointing out that your hypothetical situation did not apply in this case.

George_Michael

Azari wrote: »

And I was merely pointing out that your hypothetical situation did not apply in this case.

So from that quote, I assume that you know what the debt was for and who the bailiff was.
Without knowing this, how can you possibly know for certain that what I suggest is wrong?

Azari

George_Michael wrote: »

So from that quote, I assume that you know what the debt was for and who the bailiff was.
Without knowing this, how can you possibly know for certain that what I suggest is wrong?

If you read the post I made I explain why logic dictates that the debt was not one for which they could force entry.

CKhalvashi

The bailiffs were wrong in this situation to take the action they took, in exactly the same way as the bailiff who lovingly put his foot in the door of this house, then tried to force his way in, when we moved in.

In the latter situation, he was arrested and charged with Criminal Damage and Assault, so occasionally a little bit of reason works wonders!

You don't just force your way into someones house, no matter who you are!

CK

RobertoMoir

scooby75 wrote: »

I am not against bailiffs - only the behaviour displayed by these particular ones. Shouting out and threatening that you will break in and take stuff is not my idea of the way a bailiff should behave.

How do you think a bailiff should behave?

As it happens, I'd be unhappy about the behaviour you describe myself, but possibly for different reasons.

RobertoMoir

George_Michael wrote: »

As has already been mentioned, a court appointed bailiff has the legal right to enter a property to seize goods to cover payment for a court judgement, and if no one was answering the door, all the bailiff was doing was informing the householder of what may happen if they continued to ignore them.

A Bailiff only has the right to force entry for a very small, well defined number of warrants. By and large, the typical bailiff will rely quite heavily on people not knowing those exact circumstances. Bluff and bluster rule the day.

Gra76

I don't think a bit of noise making and a few loud bangs of a door is out of line with what I expect of a bailiff. I would imagine there's quite a few people who would just ignore them knocking politely on the door and asking if it was ok for them to remove some items from their property to the value of their debt. Sometimes a bit of shock-value is the only way forward.

I wouldn't complain about them, although I'd make a point of telling said neighbour that they might want to open the door next time to stop the bailiffs scaring the hell out of your partner.

hippygran

I would probably have rung the police.

I once rang the police as someone was breaking down the door of the house opposite to mine - with a sledge hammer...................and halfway through the conversation spotted some uniformed police in the garden............and had to say 'Its OK it doesn't matter, it IS THEN POLICE!':rotfl:

Felt a bit of a prat, and found out later was a drugs bust!:eek: