county court bailiff

twhitehousescat

how long does a active bailiff case stay live for

a neighbour was taken to court by lowel , several weeks later they got bailiffs letter

contacted bailiffs to say they had no money to pay , they told him to ring office in liverpool (I think) best they could offer was 4 payments (I think) over something like 3 mounths

he receives esa (minimum)

they suggested to ring lowells , who were helpful after he stated mental health problems and said they would get warrant retracted

however they have wrote back asking him to jump thru hoops and provide info he cannot

is the a time that the bailiffs have to act , or can he expect a knock on his door any time in next "XX" yrs

[Deleted User]

What info can he not provide?

twhitehousescat

!!! wrote: »

What info can he not provide?

letters from his doctor (he flatly refused to write letters to lowell <spit> (his words))

full list of medication

list of all dates he has contacted doctor , been to hospital and list of any other mental health staff that have assisted (names / addresses and dates)

bank statements and letters from DWP going back well over 6-7 yrs

and more

PixelPound

so not so much that he cannot, but will not. You can't blame them for asking for proof if it's got as far as enforcement. Bailiffs may attend and may report back, e.g. if they fail to serve the warrant. Remember they are county court and not high court bailiffs.

Willing2Learn

@twhitehousescat

Can your neighbour get a Mental Health Evidence Form completed? That could be beneficial to your neighbour if Lowell were to have that evidence...

http://malg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Debt-and-Mental-Health-Evidence-Form-V3-June-2017.pdf

sambaird

It sounds like your friend has some quite serious issues, and it may very well be the case that the debt could be written off because of them. However, in order to get to this point, your friend or yourself will actually need to engage with Lowell.

The information that they have requested is not unreasonable when considering the above potential outcome - and while it may take some time to compile, it would not be that hard to obtain - if your friend is indeed being genuine about his circumstances. Lowell should indeed put the account on hold for a period of time for you to get this information together

Letters from Doctors / Medication Lists / contacts with Hospitals are all quite easy to obtain - you will just need to contact them to start the ball rolling.
The same with the Bank / DWP documentation.

When you say ‘and more’... what do you mean?
When raising an issue on this board, it is best to be as complete as possible - holding things back does not help.

If your friend does not want to engage with Lowell, I would recommend that he asks you to become an Authorised 3rd party so you can communicate with Lowell on his behalf. This would only take one phone call - the details can be found on the Lowell website here:

https://lowellsolicitors.co.uk/faqs/

twhitehousescat

Willing2Learn wrote: »

@twhitehousescat

Can your neighbour get a Mental Health Evidence Form completed? That could be beneficial to your neighbour if Lowell were to have that evidence...

http://malg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Debt-and-Mental-Health-Evidence-Form-V3-June-2017.pdf

who issues that form , should lowells have sent it

Willing2Learn

twhitehousescat wrote: »

who issues that form , should lowells have sent it

I believe the form is issued by the Money Advice Liaison Group

More info, guidance and consent form are available on the link below:
http://malg.org.uk/resources/malg-mental-health-and-debt-guidelines/debt-and-mental-health-evidence-form-for-advisers-assisted-self-help/

sambaird

It may be the case that Lowell have their own internal procedures regarding Mental Health issues, but it’s definitely worth contacting them to check if they will accept a completed copy of that form in lieu of the medical evidence they have asked for previously.

twhitehousescat

ok going back to first question lowells have retracted the warrent and now know of mental health issues (so do bailiffs and I presume court)

can lowells just restart warrent or do they need to reapply ,, knowing that they know of mental health problems as does court

sambaird

This is just pure speculation on my part, but I have a feeling that what they have done is simply put the enforcement action on hold. This is pretty standard once ‘Mental Health Issues’ are mentioned. This is not the same as ‘Withdrawing a Warrant’. What it may mean is that bailiffs may not visit or call for a set period of time, giving your friend the opportunity to provide evidence of said ‘Mental Health Issues’.

If no evidence is presented for Lowell to assess, then enforcement action will recommence.
Simply saying that a person has mental health problems does not make the debt go away or enforcement action stop - it only pauses the process for a bit.
This is why Lowell has requested the documentation they have - so they can make a determination based on verifiable evidence of a problem.

Like I said... the above is just speculation... the only way you are going to know exactly where the process is at is to communicate with Lowell to find out the next steps. No-one in this forum will be able to say definitively. But what is for definite is if you don’t engage with them and provide the evidence they have requested, don’t be surprised that enforcement action restarts.