To ask how bailiffs ever get people to pay

[howtoenforce]

Long time MNetter nc'd in case the debtor's wife is a mnetter!

Posting in aibu for traffic as posts in legal don't seem to get read much!

I finally got a CCJ against someone who'd conned me by taking money upfront and then refusing to provide the service paid for. The amount is about £3,000 and the debtor is a homeowner but self employed. I know that he's far from broke and could afford to pay but thinks if he ignores it all then it will go away.

It's great that I've got the judgment but I don't understand how bailiffs would be able to enforce it when the debtor just refuses to open the door to them. I was hoping someone else with experience of enforcing a judgment could tell me whether bailiffs were able to help or if you found enforcing a different way worked better.
Thank you!

I should say I don’t want you to give me their bank account details, I’m not dodgy. I can tell you what I did to recover the money I was owed though

A car can only be seized if there’s no finance on it.. And from what the OP has said a,ready, I’d be bloody amazed if the car was even registered in his name.

We used the Sherriffs office to get money back from someone - They were great, for a small sum they visited the person twice and he paid on the second visit. I think the thing that is most intimidating for the person that owes the money is that the bill pretty much doubles every time they visit - most sensible people realise this and pay before the bill gets ridiculously high.

I should add that they sorted out the writ and everything - we just handed it all over and about 2 months later we got £2k back.

He owned his flat outright. He was a very shifty man. After a few years of trying we eventually gave up because our solicitor bills were already the same as half of the debt.

@WhenDoesTheWashingEnd thank you for being so helpful! I will definitely seek help from a high court enforcer. Do you have any advice at all about how to choose one that might be better?

@JiltedJohnsJulie the debt is in his personal name and he's self employed. One thing I didn't quite understand is if recovery agents just try going round a couple of times or if they keep turning up and adding the costs onto the debt if they know the debtor can pay but doesn't want to engage with them

@ChrissieKeller61 I've sent you a PM!

If he owns cars. Any other vehicles.

Any computers. They take it to auction to claim money for the debt

However. You can't get blood out of a stone

If he's self employed. You Can get it taken out of his wages I believe. As well as if he we're paye

My friends just done the exact same thing. He's got 1 more month. Then bailiffs from high court. The judge said on the next hearing he would take it from his wages from tax returns.

My debtor is employed.
The Court Bailiffs tried several times to get payment with no success.

It’s taken over 3 years for the County Court Judge to enforce payment
from his wages at £350 a month until the debt of £4500 is paid.

This was an Online Government Claim, it would of been so much easier for me to not pursue the claim, but I was determined he would not get way with it. Good Luck.

I've had to do it twice and got my money back both times.
One was a car business, so they just seized a car and then sold it to pay the debt. The other was an individual and she just paid them (and paid them so much more than she actually owed me when you add fees in etc.)

daisyhut if the charge is registered against the property and transferred into another name without being discharged then it still remains on the property. Write to the new owner and ask for payment.

We know someone who had this happen to them. The old charge hadn't been settled and their conveyancing solicitor hadn't ensured the charges were settled and removed so the solicitors insurance ended up settling the debt.

Ours was a High Court bailiff as after fees, 8% interest etc it ended up being over the £3500 I was owed originally (ridiculous!).

The debtor pretended he didn't live in the house anymore (hence they went round in the evening) and none of the vehicles on the drive was registered to him (arsehole) but his name was on the deeds and the bailiff was persuasive.

Incidentally I phoned up the company employing the bailiff and accidentally got put through to the 'being chased for payment' team rather than 'I'm the one chasing' team. They were absolute dicks to me on the phone and put the phone down on me. And I called them! (In their world it should have been to pay)

Thank you everyone for replying!
I just wondered if anyone has had any experience of using the freezing order of money in the debtor's bank account?

I know this man's house is in his name but he jointly owns it with another bloke (not sure who he is) and it's subject to a mortgage. He drives quite a flash car and I would have expected it to be on finance.

I know he's going to try and tell whoever comes round to collect the debt that it's all a big misunderstanding/he's being persecuted/he's not prepared to talk to anyone about it but I'm sure the debt officials have heard every line in the book before!

@howtoenforce there are around 5 large High Court enforcement companies most of them can be found quite easily with a Google search.
The problem with the larger companies is that you can sometimes feel like small potatoes compared to the volumes of work they are used to handling.
Smaller companies sometimes feel like they offer a more personal service but several of them will only take referrals from solicitors and not litigants in person.

Without knowing full details it would be difficult to know who to recommend. My best suggestion would be to contact several companies both larger and small and discuss your situation with them.

You will find that although they say very much the same sort of thing on the surface, you'll likely get a different feel from each of them as to how they're going to approach this.
Initially see which one speaks to your circumstances best and if any stand out check out independent reviews as from as recently as possible.

Situations like yours can be extremely frustrating, particularly if your Debtor is ignoring your attempts to recover your money.
The best advice I can give it's to be as patient as you can. These things can take more time than you would like and and the present situation is not helping matters.

@WhenDoesTheWashingEnd thank you again for being so helpful and for explaining everything so fully!