Speak to a BAILIFF Expert - £35
Preparing for a bailiffs visit.
Open windows
Contrary to popular belief, leaving your windows open is safe. Since April 2014, bailiffs cannot enter property through an open window, unless he has power to enter while executing a warrant for an unpaid court fine.
Regulation 20 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 states;
Mode of entry or re-entry to premises
20. The enforcement agent may enter relevant or specified premises under paragraph 14 or 15 of Schedule 12 respectively, or re-enter premises under paragraph 16 of Schedule 12, only by—
(a)any door, or any usual means by which entry is gained to the premises (for example, a loading bay to premises where a trade or business is carried on); or
(b)any usual means of entry, where the premises are a vehicle, vessel, aircraft, hovercraft, a tent or other moveable structure.
Doors
The chain must stay on the door.
Get a WiFI Video Doorbell. Answer the door from your phone, tell the bailiff hold his photo ID up to the camera.
Otherwise, the bailiff may try and apply force to the door and ambush you when you open it.
Get it on video
Any mobile phone can make an instant video. It proves your claim if the bailiff breaches any part of Schedule 12.
If your video shows a bailiff is wearing a body-cam, then get the recordings.
Install a wi-fi doorbell that records conversations. You never need to open the door. Never acknowledge your name to anyone on the doorstep.
Bailiffs WILL target your vehicle
Put it on a neighbours' driveway, or allocated parking space, or on any land you do not live or carry on trade or business. Paragraph 14(6) of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007
Display a disabled blue badge inside the vehicle. Regulation 4(1)(d) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 and take a photograph of the vehicle showing the badge.
Buy a cherish number plate and re-register it. That will not protect the vehicle being taken into control, but immunises it against ANPR vans.
Otherwise, the bailiff can clamp it, remove it, even when parked on a highway.
NEVER ATTEMPT to sell or transfer it. A third party claim will never work. It can only be exported or scrapped.
The car will get damaged if the bailiff takes it. Make a comprehensive video of the vehicle to record its condition and content
Make a continuous time stamped video using your mobile and a selfie stick with fill-flash set to ON. Record the video SLOWLY in this order starting from the front number plate:
The whole front of the car.
Move round to show the wheel clamp on the car (if fitted).
The paintwork, roof, wheel, bumpers, bonnet, all doors and tailgate including the locks, sweep the camera over the roof.
Open the boot and record the spare wheel condition and its contents.
Record the engine bay, steering, and brake fluid reservoir levels, the battery, the engine number and any unique markings. (Improper use of street lifter wheel brackets can rupture steering and brake hydraulics)
Record the items in the glovebox. Lock the glovebox and film it locked.
Record the mileage and fuel.
Record the whole of the underbody of the car. Bailiffs move vehicles around a compound using forklifts causing damage to engine pan, fuel lines and exhaust system. This may cause the car to be written off. With video evidence you recover the replacement cost.
Record the condition of all road wheels, the tyre walls and hubs. Street lifter wheel brackets press against them when they lift the vehicle off the ground. This can cause impact damage to the hubs and tyres to deflate.
If you cannot timestamp your video then make a sworn affidavit proving the date, time, and location the video was made.
Place a Vehicle Tracker Tag in the vehicle. Using an app, it enables you to position it's location on Google Maps. If the enforcement compliance checklist shows it is taken unlawfully, you can recover it, or alert you by text message whenever it changes position.
When bringing a claim under paragraph 35 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, you must show evidence the vehicle was undamaged before bailiffs removed it. Liability then resides jointly with the creditor and the bailiff company under paragraph 66 of Schedule 12. Here is how to bring court action.
The bailiff can take control of your car if it on a highway or parked on land where you live or trade.
Paragraph 9 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act states;
9An enforcement agent may take control of goods only if they are—
(a)on premises that he has power to enter under this Schedule, or
(b)on a highway.
Paragraph 14(6) of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act states;
(1)An enforcement agent may enter relevant premises to search for and take control of goods.
(6)Otherwise premises are relevant if the enforcement agent reasonably believes that they are the place, or one of the places, where the debtor—
(a)usually lives, or
(b)carries on a trade or business.
Make the bailiff produce
and hand to the bailiff
The bailiff must show on demand, his ID and authority to enter premises (The warrant).
If the bailiffs fails to produce
Failure to produce revokes everything that follows, and the bailiffs fees.
This also applies to court fines PROVIDED the fine is already paid.
Paragraph 26 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts Act 2007;
The enforcement agent must on request show the debtor and any person who appears to him to be in charge of the premises evidence of—
(a)his identity, and
(b)his authority to enter the premises.
Redress by the bailiff if he fails to produce
Paragraph 66 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 states;
This paragraph applies where an enforcement agent—
(a)breaches a provision of this Schedule, or
(b)acts under an enforcement power under a writ, warrant, liability order or other instrument that is defective.
...
(5) In the proceedings the court may—
(a)order goods to be returned to the debtor;
(b)order the enforcement agent or a related party to pay damages in respect of loss suffered by the debtor as a result of the breach or of anything done under the defective instrument.
All fees are also invalid because Paragraph 26 is a component of the Schedule 12 procedure.
Regulation 3 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014;
These Regulations apply when an enforcement agent uses the Schedule 12 procedure.
If any fees have been paid, you can reclaim them.
Here is how to bring the proceedings
Do not admit (confirm) your name or address
Unless the person asking, is a police officer, who is on duty, and wearing the correct uniform
If the bailiff is collecting a court fine
You must kill the warrant, or stop the enforcement. Here is how.