We have been in house for 3 months now and we are really settling in well. Apart from the fact that we have had 10, yes 10 bailiffs wanting to come and take our stuff away!
The old owners racked up so many debts and now almost every day we have to ring which ever company has sent the old owner the final remidner/solicitor's letter etc. It is getting to us so much and we are worried that we may miss a letter and have our possesions removed whilst we are out at work!
Is there a company or register somewhere where you can list their names so we dont ever receive these anymore? ITS DRIVING ME MAD!!!
How awful. I don't have the answer but maybe if you speak to your solicitors they could advise you? If the house had debt attached to it should this not have been brought to your attention when you were in the process of buying it?
Sorry can't answer your question about a company, but my partners sister and family reently found themselves in a similar situation, they have been in their house for a year now and still have calls and letters relating to the previous owners debt. But stick with it and I'm sure it will go away.
Also, I would sugest you contact experian who are a major credit reference agency and make it very clear you are in no way connected to the previous owners to prevent any ill effect on your own credit rating. Not that it necessarily will be detrimental but good to cover all bases.
Return all post to sender stating "not known at this address". Tell ALL bailiffs that you are the new occupants and tell them not to call again.
Certainly don't open someone else's post.
Write to experian and equifax, requesting your credirt files. Check them and if necessary write to them telling them to remove any association between you and the previous occupants.
There is no way they can remove anything, don't let them in the house EVER. As once they have been in they can reenter at any time they choose.
Your solicitor would have no idea if there was unsecured debt at the propery when he conveyed it. Any secured debt would have been cleared upon completion.
Your solicitor would have dealt with their solicitor when you bought the house. Check your doc's which will have his name and adress on and re-direct any mail to him and also the bailiffs.
In theory he should know where the old owner moved to, and definately will if they bought another property as he would have dealt with the purchase.
dont call or go to see anyone, why should you? the bailiffs cant enter your home unless if leave it unlocked...... when a bailiff appears don't answer the door and simply ring the police and say u are being harassed......... job done.
I too am being harassed by Bailiffs. What makes it even worse is that I don't think the stupid woman they are chasing even lived at my house to start with. Certainly she wasn't the person I bought it off, nor the previous Tenant.
I have returned the letters to them. I have called them and told them to leave me alone. Still, the letters keep coming, and now I have a letter from them implying that they have permission to enter my house whether I am there or not and remove my possessions.
When I phoned the "Bailiffs" today, they denied all knowledge of any returned letters or phone calls. What on earth is one to do?
I suffer from Agoraphobia and now I am not even safe in my own house.
This sort of treatment ought to be illegal.
Ary.
-------------------------------------- ***Do not, I repeat Do NOT feed the Trolls! *** *** All Hail the mighty hamsters! ***
Aryldi - they can't come into your house, full stop. If they arrive (and I've had them appear here looking for the previous owners) tell them to go away. If they are a nuisance, phone the police. There are very strict laws regulating what baliffs can do - and effectively they can't do anything, which is why they try to con you that they can. If you have a friend who's a solicitor, why not get them to write you out a quick letter threatening court action?
A friend of mine is a bailiff and on the whole the majority of them are right enough and of course they have to be firm because of the nature of the job. If they call at your house and the debt is definitely nothing to do with you, don't ignore them! Open the door, invite them in if possible and SPEAK TO THEM. Trust me, they'll be perfectly reasonable with you first time round even if it is YOUR debt and you'll have to make an agreement to pay by a certain date and if you don't THEN next time they'll be picking up your stuff. If the debt is NOT yours, then prove who you are with dates you moved in and give them as much detail of the previous occupants as you can.
They're not scarey if you talk to them. They've got a job to do just like we have.
Aryldi... you've done everything a decent person can do to tell the bailiff's that this is not your debt. Please do not let them scare you. My quick suggestion, call your local police station and ask their advice, naming the bailiff company and taking the name of the officer you speak with. Tell the police that you are scared they will try and break in and that you are getting pannicky. Say that you will be calling the station for officer assistance if after asking the bailiff to leave your property he will not and still wishes to pursue the matter. If the bailiff arrives again, through the door tell him finally that this is not your debt, that you are not the person he is after and that you are going to involve the police if they wish to carry on with scaring (I would use this word) you !
Talking to the police should be of relief. All the best with this xx
Just a quick further comment on the back of something Rob K said... why not take a photocopy of your solicitors letter showing you buying the property and another copy of a utility bill. Then, again through the door (I wouldn't let them in and this proof should satisfy them) give them the photocopies and say that this should end matters. You by rights should at least get a verbal 'thanks and sorry'.
firstly: DONT OPEN THE DOOR TO BAILIFS OR LET THEM IN! secondly, have you spoken to your local citizens advice bureaux about this? theyre usually a great help.
"Apart from special cases involving Customs & Excise or the Inland Revenue, a bailiff cannot force entry into your home. All other bailiffs have the right of peaceful entry only. This means that they cannot break down a door or smash a window. What he or she can do though, is enter through an open door or window, or jump the fence to see if you've left a side door unlocked. Remember you do not have to let a bailiff into your home. A bailiff cannot force their his or her way past you if you answer the door. If all the doors and windows are securely closed, they will not be able to gain peaceful entry to your house unless you let them in."
With most debts, bailiffs are involved only if you can't come to an arrangement to repay a creditors, and then only after your case has been to court.
However, this doesn't apply to Inland Revenue bailiffs and VAT bailiffs. Once bailiffs are involved it can be difficult to negotiate with them. Bailiffs usually work by threatening to take your possessions to persuade you to pay what you owe, or taking and selling things you own to repay your debt.
Although you may believe bailiffs are allowed to force their way into your home, and some bailiffs may give you this impression, this is not normally the case. They may force their way into your home only if they have been inside your home for the same debt on an earlier occasion.
If you do let a bailiff into your home, they will usually take 'walking possession' of some of your belongings. This means that if you cannot negotiate acceptable payments, with the bailiff, or you miss payments that you have agreed with the bailiff they can legally force entry into your home and take those items away. So if you never let the bailiff into your home, they will never be able to take 'walking possession' of your belongings inside it. However, they will be able to take belongings outside your home (a car, for example).
For most types of debt, 'basic household items' can't be taken away by a bailiff. This includes a bed, cooker, fridge and most furniture, but not, for example, a television or other less necessary items.
County court bailiffs If you have a county court judgment (CCJ) and you don't make the payments as ordered, the creditor can ask the court to issue a 'warrant of execution'. This will involve county court bailiffs. But you can ask the court to stop them by filling in a form at your local county court, with a statement about what you can afford to pay.
County court bailiffs also carry out evictions after possession proceedings. This is the main situation in which you cannot physically stop bailiffs from coming into your home, but again you can ask the court to do so.
Debt collectors It's important to realise that debt collectors are not the same as bailiffs. Debt collectors cannot take any direct action against you, apart from asking you to pay. If you believe a debt collector is harassing you, or putting undue pressure on you to pay, contact the trading standards department at your local council. If you are bing physically threatened, contact the police.
Bailiffs and the Human Rights Act The Human Rights Act, is a relatively new law, and it may mean bailiffs are used less frequently. Part of the Act protects your right to 'peaceful enjoyment of possessions and respect for your privacy, family life and home'.
In practice, this should mean that courts and public authorities use bailiffs as a last resort, and should consider using less intrusive and distressing ways of getting you to pay what you owe. These include:
benefit deductions; attachment of earnings; and voluntary payment arrangements. There is a separate Community Legal Service leaflet in this series, 'The Human Rights Act', which explains how the Act works and what it means for you.
Thank you all for your advice. I shall be contacting the Police to report these people... after all, how do I even know they are real? I have never heard of the person they are claiming money from at my address.
I shall also check out the Human Rights info you suggested... they are indeed breaching my rights to peaceful enjoyment of my property by harassing me for a debt that is nothing to do with me.
Ary.
-------------------------------------- ***Do not, I repeat Do NOT feed the Trolls! *** *** All Hail the mighty hamsters! ***
Originally posted by Lillie-B: Just a quick further comment on the back of something Rob K said... why not take a photocopy of your solicitors letter showing you buying the property and another copy of a utility bill. Then, again through the door (I wouldn't let them in and this proof should satisfy them) give them the photocopies and say that this should end matters. You by rights should at least get a verbal 'thanks and sorry'.
This is the best advice on here - Aryldi, just show them some ID (preferably photo, passport, driving license) so that they know you are not the debtor and they will go away. Not answering the door, calling the police etc etc etc is all very well but they quite possibly still think you are the debtor they are chasing.
Originally posted by Riven: Your solicitor would have dealt with their solicitor when you bought the house. Check your doc's which will have his name and adress on and re-direct any mail to him and also the bailiffs.
In theory he should know where the old owner moved to, and definately will if they bought another property as he would have dealt with the purchase.
If only it were that simple. This person is not the previous owner. Nor are they the previous previous owner. I have no idea who they are; or evn if they even lived at my address.
Ary.
-------------------------------------- ***Do not, I repeat Do NOT feed the Trolls! *** *** All Hail the mighty hamsters! ***
Originally posted by Lillie-B: Just a quick further comment on the back of something Rob K said... why not take a photocopy of your solicitors letter showing you buying the property and another copy of a utility bill. Then, again through the door (I wouldn't let them in and this proof should satisfy them) give them the photocopies and say that this should end matters. You by rights should at least get a verbal 'thanks and sorry'.
This is the best advice on here - Aryldi, just show them some ID (preferably photo, passport, driving license) so that they know you are not the debtor and they will go away. Not answering the door, calling the police etc etc etc is all very well but they quite possibly still think you are the debtor they are chasing.
I have already told them I was not the person they were after. They didn't listen. They don't care who I am. All they care about is scaring the money out of me.
I am not giving out personal information to people who haven't shown me any proof that they have any right to be hassling me. I will not spend a penny photocopying documents that they have no right to see, and that for all I know they could then use fraudulently to impersnoate me.
It is up to them to prove that they have a right to be demanding this information; not for me to prove that they do not.
In the meantime, I have set a Boundary Spell around my property which should discourage any attempts at forced entry.
All Hail the mighty hamsters! 
