I once lived in a place where a bailiff came to the door wanting somebody else (who was as far as I knew asleep upstairs, but I was his lodger so I wasn't going to rock the boat).
I explained that the person he was seeking wasn't home, but he got all aggressive on me and started accusing me of being that person... so I told him to wait, shut the door (you mustn't ever leave a door or window open when there's a bailiff around as they are allowed, under certain circumstances, to enter without a warrant if they're not actually breaking and entering) and got my passport. Having shown it to him, he then started swearing at me, claiming that I was, in fact, the other person and had a forged passport.
My patience ran out around this point so I directed him to leave and shut the door on him.
I then went online and discovered that a bailiff who uses abusive language can have his licence revoked
A few minutes later my landlord, who had heard it all, was apologising to me for the hassle, thanking me profusely for taking the flak, and explaining that he had already made an arrangement to deal with this particular problem, and the bailiff should never have been there in the first place - which turned out to be true.
When he called the bailiff company to point out that they shouldn't have been there, they agreed and apologised for their "clerical error" (does anybody employ clerks these days, apart from courts?
).
When he then added that I was considering making a complaint to the relevant authorities and having this guy's licence revoked for his aggressive and abusive language, they went into hyper-apology mode - the bloke himself came to the phone and apologised to me in person
We never heard from them again, but my online research that day taught me a lot about dealing with bailiffs... they turn up here occasionally, but it's always for somebody who moved out several years ago
They tend to be rather stupid people who rely on you not knowing the law to get their way, so knowing even the most basic smattering of the law - and, more importantly, the Code of Conduct to which they are legally required to adhere - can get them off the doorstep very rapidly.
Here endeth the first lesson.
There is no second lesson
I explained that the person he was seeking wasn't home, but he got all aggressive on me and started accusing me of being that person... so I told him to wait, shut the door (you mustn't ever leave a door or window open when there's a bailiff around as they are allowed, under certain circumstances, to enter without a warrant if they're not actually breaking and entering) and got my passport. Having shown it to him, he then started swearing at me, claiming that I was, in fact, the other person and had a forged passport.
My patience ran out around this point so I directed him to leave and shut the door on him.
I then went online and discovered that a bailiff who uses abusive language can have his licence revoked
A few minutes later my landlord, who had heard it all, was apologising to me for the hassle, thanking me profusely for taking the flak, and explaining that he had already made an arrangement to deal with this particular problem, and the bailiff should never have been there in the first place - which turned out to be true.
When he called the bailiff company to point out that they shouldn't have been there, they agreed and apologised for their "clerical error" (does anybody employ clerks these days, apart from courts?
).When he then added that I was considering making a complaint to the relevant authorities and having this guy's licence revoked for his aggressive and abusive language, they went into hyper-apology mode - the bloke himself came to the phone and apologised to me in person
We never heard from them again, but my online research that day taught me a lot about dealing with bailiffs... they turn up here occasionally, but it's always for somebody who moved out several years ago
They tend to be rather stupid people who rely on you not knowing the law to get their way, so knowing even the most basic smattering of the law - and, more importantly, the Code of Conduct to which they are legally required to adhere - can get them off the doorstep very rapidly.
Here endeth the first lesson.
There is no second lesson
Comment