Debt charity warns over bailiffs

A debt charity has advised consumers that they have certain rights they can seek to invoke if they are threatened with bailiffs.

The Money Advice Trust is launching a week-long series of advice sessions showing people how they can deal with such potential instructions and seizure of property – often without legal justification.

It noted bailiffs will often seek to trick their way into a home, with common techniques including requests to use the toilet, pretending to be from the local council and claiming to have a warrant that makes access mandatory.

The Trust's chief executive Joanna Elson noted that the rules bailiffs must operate under are "quite complicated" and most people will not understand them all.

"However there are some rules of thumb that are very useful to be aware of and one of those is to not let the bailiffs in your property,"

She said that people should seek advice and help, even if the bailiff is waiting outside at that very moment.

Householders are not obliged to let bailiffs in unless they have already been inside the home to collect a debt, except in extreme circumstances such as unpaid tax.

While bailiffs may seek to take possessions of goods, a bigger threat for those struggling with mortgages is repossession.

Credit Action figures have revealed this happens somewhere in Britain once every 14 minutes and 17 seconds.

Posted by Paul Thacker