Bailiffs seized my friend's car

[bluebottle]

Re: Bailiffs seized my friend's car

Also, if you are in a position to do so, instruct a legal professional to contact the local authority involved and point out what their brain-dead enforcement agents have done, in addition to obtaining an LO they had no grounds, in law, to obtain or be granted. In cases where legal professionals have become involved, local authorities appear to take matters a lot more seriously and act far more quickly than if peeps try to deal with it themselves.

[Dirac]

Re: Bailiffs seized my friend's car

I had a similar problem last year with a council sending bailliffs to my Girlfriends house, and attempting to levy on her car. On the exceptionally good advice I received here I contacted the council directly, and informed them that I would not be dealing with their bailiffs as I was under no obligation to deal with anybody but the council themselves. They tried to tell me they could not deal with it, that I had to go through the bailiffs but this is absolutely not true for council tax cases. You have to tell them you know the law, and that they are wrong.

Once I had made it plain I knew a bit of the legal circumstance I was in, their whole attitude changed, and they tried their best to help me, and help me work out the details of the situation. I may have got lucky with the council I dealt with though!

I let them know that I had no knowledge of the debt, the bailliff visit was the first I'd heard of it, and that I was willing to work with them to sort it out. On this basis I requested that they suspend debt collection activities while the account was sorted. They gave me a month to get my case in writing to them, and called off the bailliffs.

Turns out, in my case, I did owe them money, and we were able to come to an arrangement to repay direct to the council. I have still never even spoken to the bailiff!

It sounds like you need to contact the council, get them to suspend collection, and get the dates of when they claim you owe council tax. Then it is simply a matter of proving you were not resident at those addresses in that time period (Even if you were using the address for post etc.).

Do not contact the bailiff, contact only the council, and insist they call off the bailiff. Tell your friend to not open the door, do not sign anything, no matter how innocent it looks, and absolutely do not let them in the house. Your friend should tell them, if they return, that she is not the person liable, you don't live there, and they have no legal grounds to levy or remove any property belonging to her. She should inform them that any further contact will be considered as harassment, and that she may resort to legal proceedings to remedy the matter.

[alham]

Re: Bailiffs seized my friend's car

If possible get your friend to speak to the council they will probably refuse to discuss the case with her/him under "Data Protection Act". In response tell them that they are being harassed by council's agent for someoneelses debt, that person doesn't live or never lived at the address (whichever applicable), and that your friend is prepared to apply for an injunction to stop harassment (£40, and theywill get the money back anyway from the council). Send your friend a bunch of flowers/bottle for this, then call council and get them to sort it out.

[bluebottle]

Re: Bailiffs seized my friend's car

If you're going to apply for an injunction under Section 3, Protection from Harassment Act 1997, I would advise that a Cease and Desist Notice is served on both local authority and bailiff company as a precursor to applying for the injunction. If it then becomes necessary to apply for the injunction, the local authority would be named as principal defendant with the bailiff company as a secondary defendant.

There is something called a Regulation 46 complaint, but to the best of my knowledge and belief, only the CT debtor can pursue such a complaint through the magistrates court that granted the original LO.

Your friend would be wise to engage a legal professional to deal with this. The local authority will take the matter a lot more seriously as the last thing they need is litigation they are likely to come out of on the losing side.

[alham]

Re: Bailiffs seized my friend's car

True, but sometimes a "friendly" conversation form a position of strength can sort out misunderstandings and avoid legal costs.

[bluebottle]

Re: Bailiffs seized my friend's car

True, but sometimes a "friendly" conversation form a position of strength can sort out misunderstandings and avoid legal costs.

That is very true, Alham. However, it depends very much on which local authority and which bailiff company is involved.