Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

[Radioactive Ja]

Mu sons wife is 36 weeks pregnant and today while he was at work a bailiff turned up to take items out of their home. Apparently he had a traffic ticker issued in London last August. Apart from a letter telling him of the fine he says he has had no other correspondence from them. The bailiffs have a court warrant issued in Northampton in December and claim this is their second visit to the house. They are returning before 7pm to take goods away unless he pays 500! Is there anything he or his wife can do, the bailiffs office have declined any sort of part payment. They said his opportunity to do that was before it when to court.

[diddlydee]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Sorry I can't help, but I didn't want to view and run.

I'll see if anyone is better placed to give some input...

diddly x

[Riz]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

As well as advice from here, they should probably urgently call somewhere like National Debtline. Freephone 0808 808 4000. They are usually quite good on this sort of thing I think.

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

I do hope they get this sorted Jan, as time's so short I think ringing NDL as Rizzle suggests is the best plan.
You're daughter in law should be classed as vulnerable. Have they told the bailiff this? Did they let him into the house?

Do let us know what happens
Elsa xxx

[SXGuy]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Did i read somewhere they can not enter a propety if there is for example just a mother and her child at home?

Def ring national debtline because we dont want you to incurr further charges when they come back and wait over an hour for a payment.

As far as i know, from watching baliff programmes, now their at the point of them turning up with a writ, you have little choice but to pay the amount, and then dispute it afterwards.

If it had been for a business debt, it would be slightly different, because you could prove the debt was wrong for example.

But if its for a parking fine, even if you genuinely dont recall any previous notifications, you wont have proof of this per se, so the baliffs will prob want paying regardless.

You may find having to find the cash from somewhere, then dispute the claim after.

[tastyjane]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Jan, there are lots of things they cant take even if they come back


In most cases, the bailiffs don’t have the right to take the following protected items:

• clothing
• bedding
• essential household equipment
• furniture that you need for basic domestic needs
• tools, books, vehicles and other equipment which you need for your work.

Fixtures and fittings such as a built-in wardrobe can’t be taken.

The bailiffs can't take things that belong to your children.

Make it clear to the bailiffs who the things belong to if they aren’t yours. You may have to show them proof of ownership, for example, a bill or a credit card receipt. Or the owner of the goods could swear a statement to say that the goods belong to them.

The second-hand value of goods can be very low so it may be that the bailiffs can’t take goods to the full value of the money you owe. If this is the case, they will take what goods they can and try to agree a repayment schedule with you to pay off the rest of the debt and charges.

If they can’t reach an agreement with you, they will report to the people instructing them about why they haven’t been able to take enough goods to pay the whole debt.

The bailiffs may see that your goods are not worth enough to cover the cost of them coming out with a van and removing and selling them. In this case they shouldn’t take anything at all and will make a report.

In both these cases, the bailiffs won’t take any further action and the creditor will have to think about other ways of getting their money back.

Hope they are OK.

Jane x

[DoTheyMeanMe]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Except for rent, a bailiff does not have a right of entry, although once they have been in they have a right of re-entry.

If they have not been into the house previously, don't let them in - don't even open the door to them.

This is not a rare scenario, it happens many times every day. I guess it is Certificated Bailiffs who have been - Local Authorities often use them for fines, council tax, etc.

As for taking goods away: unless they have been before and taken a walking possession of goods, they cannot just take them. They will normally do a walking possession and list goods to the resale value of £500+costs. Legally these goods are now distrained (sometimes called pounded) although the bailiffs do not remove them at this stage. The only exception is if they consider the goods to be at risk of being moved or damaged, etc.

That gives you five or seven days to take whatever action you need to (or to pay-up). You may apply to the court to have the judgement set-aside, etc.

In spite of the heavy-handed tactics often shown on TV, the average bailiff is more interested in earning his money easily and will usually only remove goods as a last resort.

They are not a law unto themselves - there are answerable to a judge (who granted them their Bailiff Certificate in the first place). They do not want to find themselves in front of him again answering a charge of unlawful distraint.

It is a long time since I trained as a bailiff (and I wrapped the job on the third day) but I don't think any of the above has changed.

Good luck.

[SXGuy]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

but they can charge for waiting cant they? so while they cant gain entry, the amount can go up at an hourly rate can it not?

[DoTheyMeanMe]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

but they can charge for waiting cant they? so while they cant gain entry, the amount can go up at an hourly rate can it not?

They can charge for making additional calls after the first one but cannot charge for making calls on an empty house, for example. They can charge for waiting at the convenience of the debtor, for instance, while he goes off to get money, etc.

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Vulnerable situations
 Enforcement agents/agencies and creditors must recognise that
they each have a role in ensuring that the vulnerable and socially
excluded are protected and that the recovery process includes
procedures agreed between the agent/agency and creditor about
how such situations should be dealt with. The appropriate use of
discretion is essential in every case and no amount of guidance
could cover every situation, therefore the agent has a duty to
contact the creditor and report the circumstances in situations
where there is evidence of a potential cause for concern. If
necessary, the enforcement agent will advise the creditor if further
action is appropriate. The exercise of appropriate discretion is
needed, not only to protect the debtor, but also the enforcement
agent who should avoid taking action which could lead to
accusations of inappropriate behaviour.
 Enforcement agents must withdraw from domestic premises if the
only person present is, or appears to be, under the age of 18; they
can ask when the debtor will be home - if appropriate.
 Enforcement agents must withdraw without making enquiries if the
only persons present are children who appear to be under the age
of 12.
 Wherever possible, enforcement agents should have
arrangements in place for rapidly accessing translation services
when these are needed, and provide on request information in
large print or in Braille for debtors with impaired sight.
 Those who might be potentially vulnerable include:
 the elderly;
 people with a disability;
 the seriously ill;
 the recently bereaved;
 single parent families;
 pregnant women;
 unemployed people; and,
 those who have obvious difficulty in understanding, speaking or
reading English.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/...ent-agents.pdf

[tastyjane]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

I know Jan cannot get online over the next couple of days due to work but thought I would update as you were all kind enough to help - Jan (using part of the money she has stopped to her DMP ) paid the fine for them yesterday. The stress it was putting them under just as her daughter-in-law is due to give birth was not worth the fight..... In reality it looks like her son was caught on consecutive days in a bus lane in London - he got the first notification and paid the fine immediately but received a second the day after - was confused rang the company, a "lady" said that to ignore as it was probably a mistake and they had issued two and so he did ignore everything. Of course he didn't get it in writing and so the situation arose yesterday.

Thank goodness she has started down the UE route so she could help out

Jane x

[Radioactive Ja]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Thanks TastyJane, and thank everyone for your help and assistance, she also has two little girls aged 6 and 4. I just couldnt face knowing the distress there were under so I used my DMP money to pay. Going to make sure that I am not such a push over when it comes to my self.

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Urgent advice needed for son and pregnant wife

Lucky to have such a caring Mum