help! i dont know what to do!

Superfandango

Good result for the OP but there is a miss understanding on when lawfully allowed to break in to your property with court fines, in short if they have not been in your property they can not force entry with a locksmith see below.
The so-called "DVCV Act 2004" only provides for entry using "reasonable force":



1. ONLY if you are inside the property AND

2. You have an outstanding distress warrant (but not bailiffs fees)



It is NOT a license to break entry or using a locksmith.

In any event, this legislation is incompatible with Article 8 of Schedule 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Paragraph 15(1) of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (from April 06, 2014) requires bailiff to apply to a court for a warrant to enter and search for goods. but there is currently no court procedure for making that application and to which type of court the application is made has been specified in regulations.

A distress warrant on its own is not a warrant to break entry, it only warrants the taking of goods to pay the fine, distress.



It is becoming common for bailiffs collecting unpaid court fines to mislead people by saying they "can obtain the court's permission to make forced entry" or to leave a calling card saying he will return with a "locksmith".

Parliament has never officially defined the meaning of "forced entry" and has indicated it will continue to abstain from creating an official definition. You can rely on the definition of "forced entry" given in Halsbury's Laws of England loose leaf edition vol.1 paragraph 9.128 which is originally from the judgment by Sir Edward Coke in the case of Semayne v Gresham [1604] Yelverton 29 or Seyman v Gresham [1604] Croke, Elizabeth 809 or P.18 Ed.IV fo.4 pl.19, which states "A bailiff in execution of a warrant or a writ CANNOT make forcible entry to a dwellinghouse unless and until he has completed seizure of the goods in consequence of the first entry".

This means a bailiff can only break entry ONLY if



1. If he has a levy on goods inside the property AND

2. You signed a Form 8 walking possession agreement AND

3. You are DELIBERATELY trying to avoid the bailiff. This is NOT because a bailiff THINKS you are trying to avoid him. You have to be inside the property behind a locked door and the bailiff is outside and you are refusing him access to goods listed on the Form 8 Walking possession agreement. ONLY then can the bailiff break entry.



The Magistrates Courts Act 1980 does not have a provision to enable a bailiff to make an application to a court to extend his power of entry to include breaking and entering to execute a distress warrant issued under Section 76 of the Magistrates Courts Act 1980 or have a locksmith do it for him.

Schedule 4(5) of the Magistrates Courts' Act 1980 says "An authorised officer may use reasonable force, if necessary, in the exercise of a power conferred on him by this Schedule."

This confirms that there is no privilege for a bailiff to make an application to a court for permission to break open a property, or have a locksmith do it for him