Bailiff Advice

FlashKincade

Hi All,
I've come home from work tonight and found a note from a county court bailiff.
It states that I was written to and given notice of a warrant of control against goods on my premises.
It then goes on with the below threat (condensed for brevity).

"It is my intention to enter your premises without further notice whether you are in attendance or not".

This is to collect on a catalogue debt of £279 for which I would be perfectly happy to negotiate with them over. It just seems a little excessive to make such a threat over a relatively small sum.
They have never visited my home before (nor do I recall any previous communication about this) and there is only ever likely to be myself in the house to answer the door to them.

Where do I stand on this?
Can the bailiff legally carry out this threat over a small catalogue debt?

Many thanks in advance,

Macca

DCFC79

Where do you live ?
It might change the advice your given.

fatbelly

"It is my intention to enter your premises without further notice whether you are in attendance or not".

I am surprised that a county court bailiff is making such a statement. As this is a consumer credit act debt, the county court bailiff (not High Court) must be used and, as these are court employees, do not normally exaggerate their powers nor cause harassment.

The bailiff might say you have to pay them on the doorstep or you have to let them in - you don’t. They aren’t allowed to force their way into your home and they can’t bring a locksmith to help them get in. Although they can enter through an unlocked door. You have the right to keep them outside and talk (or refuse to talk) through the letterbox or upstairs window. Make sure everyone else in your home knows not to let them in.

To be on the safe side I would park your car away from your house - the bailiff is unlikely to know which one yours is.

They’ll normally leave if you refuse to let them in. But unless you make some arrangement to pay, the debt owner may then try other forms of enforcement

FlashKincade

Hi folks,

DCFC79: Thanks for your reply - I live in Staffordshire and it is entirely plausible that Nuneaton would be the nearest/issuing county court (if this is the issue that might alter advice given?).

FATBELLY: Thanks for your reply - I had gathered from other posts that this may well be the case. Just want to make double sure that I'm not going to come home one day and find I'm unable to get into my house.
I'm not going to be avoiding the debt, this is just the first I've heard of enforcement and the threat seems very out of place for a court official, particularly on court-headed paper which would make it difficult for him to deny making such claims (were it a case that he was breaking any rules by doing so?).
There's no car or any outside property for them to take interest in, two locked gates to get through to acces the rear of my house and no likelyhood for anybody else to open the door to them as I live alone (apart from when my 12yo is with me during school holidays).

Macca

FlashKincade

Hi,
Sorry to be a pain but does the 'warrant of control' mean anything more than the paper it's written on?
Does it give them automatic right to enter my home at any point?

Thansk,

Macca

sourcrates

FlashKincade wrote: »

Hi,
Sorry to be a pain but does the 'warrant of control' mean anything more than the paper it's written on?
Does it give them automatic right to enter my home at any point?

Thansk,

Macca

A warrant of control is just a document that allows the bayliffs to attend your home address.

Fatbelly has already answered the second part of your question, but just to be clear, they cannot force entry to private property for a CCA regulated debt, they can however enter through an unlocked door.

The only debts they can force entry for are unpaid court fines, and even this is rare.

The bayliff is clearly overstating his powers.

FlashKincade

Thanks for the clarification, Sourcrates.

I mean no disrespect to Fatbelly of course. My head is just a little bit of everywhere with all this.
The threat to enter regardless of my presence (and without having previously entered or conversed with me on the matter) feels a lot like local oiks threatening to burgle me.
All entirely stressful.

Many thanks to all for your brilliant advice

fatbelly

FlashKincade wrote: »

I mean no disrespect to Fatbelly of course. My head is just a little bit of everywhere with all this.
The threat to enter regardless of my presence (and without having previously entered or conversed with me on the matter) feels a lot like local oiks threatening to burgle me.
All entirely stressful.

I didn't detect any disrespect but I have a pretty thick skin anyway!

I think the form of words that the bailiff used was inappropriate and misleading. I would like to check what my local court bailiff now sends out. I know it used to be nothing like that. Hopefully I will see some paperwork at some point, and will come back to this thread when I do.

FlashKincade

If I knew how to, I'd gladly upload a photo of my one :rotfl:

Thanks Guys

John_G_Jones

FlashKincade wrote: »

Thanks for the clarification, Sourcrates.

I mean no disrespect to Fatbelly of course. My head is just a little bit of everywhere with all this.
The threat to enter regardless of my presence (and without having previously entered or conversed with me on the matter) feels a lot like local oiks threatening to burgle me.
All entirely stressful.

Many thanks to all for your brilliant advice

The difference is that the bailiffs would be trying to correct a wrong, not cause one.

If you owe the money then why not just pay? What is it that you want to negotiate over?

EssexHebridean

John_G_Jones wrote: »

The difference is that the bailiffs would be trying to correct a wrong, not cause one.

If you owe the money then why not just pay? What is it that you want to negotiate over?

No - if they made good on their threat to enter the property by force, they would indeed be committing a wrong.

The OP has already volunteered that they don't intend avoiding the debt - any further detail is none of our business, frankly.