If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
Bailiffs to be allowed entry into people's homes for all debts....
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
probably one of the most evil repressive things a government could allow, espeically as many of them abust thier poisiton and threaten jail and charge extortionatlly
currently only magistrates imposed fines can be enforced this way
currently only magistrates imposed fines can be enforced this way
0
Comments
Have you ever looked at the proceeds? They sell stuff for like, 10x less than it's worth to get them sold quickly, so if you have a debt of £1000, then need to sell £10k worth of your stuff to get the money. In most cases, if you have a debt of £1000 then you won't normally have £10,000 worth of stuff lying around the house!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6358591.stm
not one i wanted but its enough
This is a government that is stuffed full of lawyers. Indeed, when I meet a lawyer, the first question I ask is "how do you sleep at night?". Such is my low opinion of the legal profession. They have plenty in common with bailiffs. Both are liars, thugs and bullies of the worst kind. I struggle to find what else could explain why this government wants to give them more powers.
I'm well aware that the lawyers on the boards will not like it, but they surely realise better than anyone that opinions on the legal profession vary hugely. If you're a lawyer, you can't have morals. You have to defend your client, keeping personal morality out of the matter.
Baliffs shouldn't be given powers to enter someone's home, that's what the police are for should it ever go that far and genuinely be appropriate.
I don't like the idea of bailiffs being allowed to use reasonable force to enter premises, and I think that will be ditched from the legislation before it passes. Only magistrates court bailiffs currently have that right, and that is the way it should stay.
That said, though, why shouldn't a properly-trained and regulated court bailiff be allowed access to someone's house when they won't pay up their debts? I'm a debtor (I'm owed well over a grand and have a CCJ against the person who owes me the debt) and why the hell should I have to sit and wait for my money because she won't open the door? It isn't just the nasty banks who use bailiffs to enforce debt repayment.
SG, you're chatting shite, as usual.
It seems not, its also nasty lawyers who want the money extracted as well. I like the way you refer to it as "be allowed access" as opposed to "be allowed to force access."
Making it so that only in extreme circumstances can bailiffs take such drastic measures is good, which is how the process currently stands if I'm correct. However, making it easier for bailiffs to take money is completely going the wrong way, there should be more emphasis on the diplomatic side.
Maybe a government run debt repayment scheme where it doesn't impoverish the person who's paying it, but is also not open to avoidance because it doesn't have the backing of the legal system. For example, thousands of people pay back their student loan straight from their income - if this person owes you money, and you get a court order to say they owed you money, and they didn't pay on time, then maybe the inland revenue could do something with the incomes to drip feed your account from their income.
In some cases where people work cash in hand it's trickier, but then again, people who do work cash in hand I wonder how they would have got in so much debt in the first place.
I guess I'm just agreeing with you when you say
What on earth are you on about?
The way I see it, if you owe someone money then you should have to give up your plasma telly and your nice car until your creditors are paid off. And you shouldn't be able to get around it by saying "you're not coming in".
Should a bailiff be allowed to barge down your door at 5am? Of course not. But the current situation is ridiculous, for both debtors and creditors.
I've actually arranged for a Court bailiff to pay a visit to my debtor, and the Court fee is about £35 + VAT. I pay that fee out of my own pocket, and it gets added to the debt. The reason why Bailiffs aren't as successful as they were is because there are fewer and fewer items of any worth. The telly isn't worth anything, the computer's not worth much either, and there are restrictions on what jewellery and other valuables that can be confiscated.
You already can obtain what is known as an "attachment of earnings", but it only works if the person is salaried, and there are restrictions as to how much you can take, etc etc. My debtor isn't salaried, she's self-employed, so I can't do an attachment of earnings. I have secured a Legal Charge against her house, so my debt is reasonably secure, but even that can't force her to cough up.
The current situation isn't very good- most law firms advise you to arrange for a private bailiff to visit your debtors because they don't tend to be as restricted in what they can do as Court bailiffs (i.e. they behave immorally- good at getting the job done, but bad for everyone else). That's stupid. I wouldn't have any problem with Court bailiffs having more power to enforce Court judgments, but private bailiffs should have little power and be regulated very severely. The current situation doesn't protect creditors, and doesn't protect debtors either.
Hmmmm...sounds like shes a real cynical bitch, sitting around watching her plasma telly which she drove home in her nice car, except:
Shes a "self-employed" person with very limited valuables (what a shame you can't confiscate and sell her trinkets though - I'm sure shes got the crown jewels tucked into an old biscuit tin on the mantelpiece!).
At least your safe in the knowledge that if she continues sitting around watching her imaginary plasma screen tv and cruising around in her imaginary mercedes instead of "coughing up" you can add one more to the homeless statistics to pay for you and the missus' next holiday.
What does she even owe you for? Legal advice?
Still, you can think what you want, I'm in the right and my debt's safe enough, being secured against her house. It helps to work for a big law firm sometimes!
You can't confiscate the tools of the trade (e.g. expensive photographic equipment) and most other electronics are not worth much at a bailiffs auction because you can get the items cheaply enough at Comet now. It's pretty much the same reason why nobody bothers nicking the CD player out of cars any more.
Well apologies, I did wrongly assume it was for legal advice: but you did imply that she had nothing of value which is why you had to secure it against her house.
Also why can't you get her car confiscated? Or does that count as "professional equiptment"?
What kind of a twat promises to produce photos of someone's wedding day and doesn't deliver
I'm not a solicitor or anything like that, I just work as a conveyancer for a big law firm. I've done a fair bit of work in different legal sectors so I know what I'm talking about, but I'm not that special.
I was advised by my firm to secure the debt against her house mostly because it pisses most debtors off to have someone else having a controlling stake in their house. She cannot do anything with her house without our consent now. I have actually ordered the Court bailiffs to go into her house and see what she has, so we'll see if she pays up.
We don't know who owns it, to be quite honest, and it has to be hers for the bailiffs to seize it. It's highly likely that it belongs to a HP company or such like. And it would be professional equipment- bailiffs cannot seize equipment on which someone bases their livelihood.
I quite agree. The amusing thing is that ignoring us has cost her £500 in extra fees so far, stupid woman.