Beating the Bailiffs
antiausterity@talktalk.net (Anti-Austerity Action) | 30.08.2013 14:55
How to kepp bailiffs at bay
BEATING THE BAILIFFS
If you are in arrears in paying Council Tax and rent then the Magistrates' Court can make a Liability Order to try to force you to pay up. Bailiffs can be sent to your home to try to seize goods to be sold to pay the amount owed plus costs. You should be sent a warning letter at least 14 days before the first visit by the bailiffs.
CALLING AT YOUR HOME
Bailiffs should not call at your home before 6 a.m. and after 9 p.m. and on Sundays and bank holidays.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM BAILIFFS
Bailiffs will write to you and perhaps phone you to ask for payment. Try to avoid communicating with them because each time they are in touch with you they will add a charge to the amount you owe. Avoid speaking to them through the letter box.
ENTERING YOUR HOME
Bailiffs do not have a right to enter your home unless you allow them in. But they are allowed to gain entry if they can do so without using force. So lock your doors and windows. Tell other residents in your home not to let bailiffs in. It is not legal for a child to let a bailiff in. If they legally enter your home then they are entitled to remove goods but only ones belonging to the debtor.
Bailiffs are allowed to climb over (but not break down) gates and fences to enter your gardens and drives. Try to make it difficult for them to gain entry in this way. To seize goods they can legally force entry to outbuildings such as garages, greenhouses and sheds not attached to your dwelling. Avoid leaving valuable items outside or in outbuildings. Don't leave vehicles on drive-ins or in the street because these can be taken.
In general, remove valuable items from your home, especially those outside, if you think bailiffs are coming.
The police cannot help bailiffs gain entry to your home. If bailiffs use forceful and threatening behaviour to try to gain entry to your dwelling then call the police.
MOBILISE SUPPORT
If you know the bailiffs are coming then ask people sympathetic to your situation to be present outside of your home. Ask them to show their support for your refusal to pay up by displaying placards and chanting slogans. Get photos taken of the bailiffs and ask the local media to cover the event. This will pressurise the bailiffs to behave properly. They and the Council do not want this sort of adverse publicity. Also notify Anti-Austerity Action to help mobilise support.
STANDING TOGETHER, WE CAN WIN!
In Britain today the Coalition Government and local councils are waging a war on the poor. It was the boundless greed of the bankers and financiers which created the financial crisis yet ordinary people are being forced to pay the massive debts run up by these parasites. We are being asked to pay more Council Tax while vital local services are being ruthlessly slashed. At the same time the millionaire bankers go on taking their multi-million pound salaries and bonuses.
Twenty odd years ago the Government introduced the notorious, unfair Poll Tax. Millions of people refused to pay up. Councils tried to use the courts and bailiffs against the refuseniks but there were too many cases so the system clogged up. The Government had to abandon the Poll Tax. We can do the same again. The more of us who don't pay the harder it will be to persecute us. People who can afford to pay Council Tax should not do so in solidarity with people being pushed below the poverty line.
CAN'T PAY, WON'T PAY!
ANTI-AUSTERITY ACTION
Contact: antiausterity@talktalk.net
antiausterity@talktalk.net (Anti-Austerity Action)
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/5924
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Not helpful
30.08.2013 17:43
Yes, dont open the door, but why not speak to them through the letterbox? And no, bailiffs can't charge you every time you communicate with them. And magistrates have no involvement with rent arrears. And bailiffs levying for council tax arrears can't force entry into outbuildings. And its not illegal for a child to let a bailiff in. And hiding or removing goods from your house could be a criminal offence if they've already been seized.
The bedroom tax and localised council tax support are causing untold misery and poverty. Councils are using distress warrants far too readily instead of looking at other options for addressing arrears, and the big bailiff companies are raking it in as a result. A lot of bailiffs frankly know f*** all about bailiff law and a significant minority will cut corners, lie and intimidate people. The way to genuinely help people who are on the receiving end of this isn't with tub-thumping and half-truths you've read on some internet forum, its to direct people to genuine help from an experienced benefit or debt adviser who knows what they're talking about.
Trojan
The usual rubbish.
02.09.2013 08:37
Bailiffs routinely break the law and there js copious evodence of them doing just that. They dont carry the correct documentation and if they are found it is next to impossible to get a judge to see the offence. They will often force entry and they simply lie about it. Forcing themselves into property by taking advantage of the elderly and weak is routine. They will often do this with the aid of the police by inventing breach of the peace. They dont need to talk to you to inrease their charges, they can simply invent non existant visits and letters that are never sent. They are routinely threatening and abusive and they are habitually given to lieing about everything they do.
There is no point trying to get advice online because most of the forums are either run by bailiffs, or are infested by bailiffs and council workers giving bad, incomplete or false advice. Disinformatom and misinformation are routine in this industry.
Sotry to be the bearer of bad news but bailiffs, county courts and the councils that fund them are nothing more than an organised racket whose only concern is to get their grubby hands on as much of your income as possible and they will do whatever it takes, including routinely breaking the law, to get the money they need to keep the racket going.
Im looking forward to replying to the fool that inevitably is going to come along to try to defend this. Whoever he or she is, they will swear blind they are not a bailiff or council worker.
Gregorian