bailiff reforms

sourcrates

Jeremy vine has just been discussing bailiff reforms on radio 2.

Now you would think the people they have on to discuss these issues would at least know what they are talking about, but not today.

The lady from CAB did not even know under what circumstances a bailiff can force entry to private property, and did not make it clear you can just lock the door and refuse them entry, its only magistrate's court fines and certain other debts where entry can be forced, and only then as a last resort.

Mr vine seemed unaware a CCJ or liability order must be obtained first, via a court process, before a bailiff can be engaged, and no one corrected him on that.

They were also making no distinction between bailiffs and debt collectors in some of the conversation.

All in all a very unsatisfactory piece of public information, as clear as mud, and little help to anyone.

D_M_E

The You&Yours program on R4 today also dealt with debt - didn't hear all of it but will listen again tomorrow

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bfx576

Agree with your comments about the R2 program - you would think that a speaker on the subject should know what they are talking about rather than just waffling on making noises.

Herbie21

sourcrates wrote: »

Jeremy vine has just been discussing bailiff reforms on radio 2.

Now you would think the people they have on to discuss these issues would at least know what they are talking about, but not today.

The lady from CAB did not even know under what circumstances a bailiff can force entry to private property, and did not make it clear you can just lock the door and refuse them entry, its only magistrate's court fines and certain other debts where entry can be forced, and only then as a last resort.

All in all a very unsatisfactory piece of public information, as clear as mud, and little help to anyone.

As somebody who took active part in the Consultation on Bailiff Reform in 2012, I am seriously concerned at the constant press releases that call for an Independent Regulator. The advice sector is very well aware that the House of Lords Spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice announced in December that whilst he is happy to discuss regulation, there is a preconception and that is that the costs of running an Independent Regulator would have to be paid for by the debtor. !!!!

A lot of the problems concerning complaints about bailiff enforcement are due to inaccurate and misleading information on some websites and that is a FACT.

In one of the interviews (I think that it was the Radio 2 Jeremy Vine show) an advice agency representatives stated that since 2014, there had been a 24% increase in enquiries to advice centres. There is a simple reason for this increase:

In 2014, when the Taking Control of Goods Regulations was introduced, the government also introduced a series of statutory notices that MUST be given to the debtor. For the first time ever, all of the following statutory notices:

Notice of Enforcement
Controlled Goods Agreement
Warning of Immobilisation
Notice after Taking Control of Goods on a Highways (Inventory)
Notice that Goods have been removed for Storage or Sale
Inventory
Notice of Sale

MUST by law provide the debtor with the name, the website and the phone number of the following advice agencies:

AdviceUK at https://www.adviceuk.org.uk/find-a-member

National Debtline at https://www.nationaldebtline.org or 0808 808 4000

Money Advice Service at https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk or on 0300 500 5000 Gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk

With each of the notices clearly signposting the debtor to free advice agencies, then commonsence alone would tell you that the named advice agencies would receive an increase in enquiries relating to bailiff enforcement !!!!!!

Karen747

This is so typical of the BBC, I heard a local BBC radio making same mistakes.

Even the HCEO's can't come in and as they are only interested in coming in so that they can charge you extortionate fees to make a list of your worthless tat that they are mostly not allowed to take.

As far as I am concerned they need to be regulated by a proper 3rd party, they need to get rid of the ones with criminal records, yes that guy on the TV who was thrown out of the Met for drug offences.

They are evil people, I think High Court Enforcement should be reserved for businesses only and that the creditor should pay the typical entry level cost of using the High Court which is close to £40k I am told.

The fact is that when we had a debt escalated to the High Court all it meant was that the creditor would NEVER be paid, I never let them in, I made an arrangement with the office and they still came back several times to try and bully their way in.

Luckily I had seen their tactics on TV so would not even open door, they looked around and eventually got bored so left.

The creditor told me they has got just a few quid as the HCEO company take their fees first. I always intended to pay them back when situation improved, but after them doing this I will never pay them.

It never makes sense to me to add more debt to a debt when someone can't afford to pay the first debt.

I think some of the County Court Bailiffs are more professional and for civil debts like fines and poll tax I have no problem in principle, although if a Magistrate is kind enough to fine you and you do not pay then perhaps a little time inside will deter.

I think for car parking they need to stop adding hundreds of pounds to a £40 ticket just to make this bailiff industry able to inflict pain. We see the same abuse as we had with clamping, the Councils see it as a revenue stream and are super aggressive.

We used to have just two traffic wardens, now we have sixty and they are are like nazi's on commission. I swear one of these days they are going to do it to the wrong person and get a really bad smack.

The same applies to the ex cowboy clamper HCEO bovver boys, one day someone is going to hurt them and I for one will not be sorry, I was actually quite glad that Karma had given one of them Cancer and disappointed it was in remission. Normally I would never wish such a thing on someone but these people are just pure evil and deserve everything they get. I just hope the TV crew are there to film them in their misery the way they do others.

Actually I read on another forum that the TV Production company keep getting sued.