Bailiffs Rights

TwistedPsycho

Evening.

Some of you will probably remember my previous threads about my stubborn brother and the debts he was (and still is) ignoring. Well now he is apparently due in court next week and my parents are doing their nut!

The question is this. From what I can gather from my father, the letter actually says that the solicitor is going to petition the court for the bailiffs to be able to take ANY possesion in the house regardless of the ownership.

Now as far as I was aware, the standard protocol was that bailiffs were only able to take items that belonged to himself or partly owned by him. With this is mind surely things such as the TV in a communal lounge, which is paid for and owned by my parents, or my fathers car could not be seized?

I hate being so far away that I can not go down and take another look at the paperwork. He has been unemployed for over a year but has never gone to the dole office with his paperwork. As far as I can tell he has therefore never been able to sign on. He never sent the paperwork for his loan payment protection to the bank, so they are also chasing him. I wish i could wipe my hands of him, but I know he is family.

Any help on baliffs rights would be appreciated, I am sat here witha blank mind because I can not even work out what to google.

Many thanks

TP

EDIT: Sorry Guys... After a stiff drink I found my previous questions on this matter were exactly the same.... Thanks for reading anyway!

tallyhoh

Bump- anyone with an answer? would like to know the rights of shared occupation/ possessions myself.

Thank In advance:D

rog2

Hi TP - Bailiffs can NOT take something that does NOT belong to your brother (he may need to prove ownership) and the 'Solicitor' is wrong to 'threaten' this.
For a very good overview of exactly what a bailiff can and can not do, and your rights in dealing with them, have a look at the following link:

http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/identify_problem/bailiff_problems.htm

I'm sure that will help your brother.

Conor_3

What can and does happen is the bailiff comes in, take what they deem to be his or possibly is and then it's up to the actual owner to prove they own it.

tallyhoh

Thank you. That makes things a bit clearer. I thought I had seen one of those programmes where a flatmate had to take receipts to prove his ownership of something.
But I wonder what could they do if they took something of an "innocent" party and no receipt could be produced?

Scary?