Bailiffs limited company

[sendingoutthebailiffs]

Limited company owes me money, payment enforced by county court and now having to send out bailiffs. Does anyone know what usually happens when the bailiffs turn up at a business?

They have a head office, but director runs several companies out of the same office, so could they claim things are owned by their other companies, essentially that nothing there is for this particular limited company and therefore bailiffs can't take anything?

The company also has multiple premises. Can the bailiffs go to these? This is outing but the multiple premises I am referring to are children's homes that the company runs... (hence name change) so can they go to these or not? Obviously it's not ideal for the children.

Is it also easy for the company to move and hide assets from the bailiffs?

And before anyone thinks it, I'm not heartless for having to send out the bailiffs to a children's care company, the company owes me money as an ex employee! And they can afford to pay me but have chosen not to so it has had to come to this. It's a sum in five figures so it's not exactly pocket change!

Thank you

Is it a high court writ that you're issuing?

Sorry I don't think so, my solicitor is sorting it. Payment enforced by county court, so I assumed it was from there, but could be wrong?

It could very well be a high court writ though! I just don't have an idea right now.

If the debt is over £5,000, bailiff enforcement has to be through the High Court, even if the claim was decided in the County Court. (If it's between £600 and £5000, you can use either court. These limits have stayed the same for decades.) Transferring from one court to another for enforcement just requires the right form, which any solicitor can do. County Court bailiffs work for HMCTS on salary, High Court ones work in the private sector on commision against what they recover. Many lawyers prefer to use High Court bailiffs wherever possible. . .

Essentially, the bailiffs go round to the premises and demand the money. If they don't get it, then (if possible) they label goods to be taken and sold. They then go away and come back two weeks later. They ask for the money again, and if they don't get it take the goods and sell them at a public auction (often a good way to get really cheap stuff), the auctioneer and the bailiff take their slices, and the rest is sent to you. If they can't get the money they'll report back.

There may be better ways to get money from a company than bailiffs, but this is something that your solicitor should discuss with you as it all depends on the exact circumstances.

@TalbotAMan

It's a lot more than £5000! So then it must definitely be a high court writ going by what you're saying. Sorry I'm a bit clueless about it all. I'm hoping my company will just pay up when the bailiffs turn up (or ideally before they turn up!). My concerns and questions are in my OP, but I can't really find information about that on Google. I don't know if they can claim everything is owned by the other companies that operate out of the same office, whether they can hide and move assets/high value items so the bailiffs don't know about them, or if the bailiffs will only go to the one location (head office) or if they can go to the multiple premises, and whether them being children's homes has an effect on that.

The bailiffs will know what they legally can and cannot do, they do it day in and day out, so let them get on with it.

Bailiffs section on here: www.businessdebtline.org/fact-sheet-library/

Obviously it's written to advise the debtor (ex-employer) not the creditor (you) but might give you some info - there's separate fact sheets for CC bailiffs and High court bailiffs

I know the bailiffs know what they can and can't do, but that's not what I'm concerned about.

1 Technically, companies are legally separate, even though they may have the same ultimate owner, and so the property of one cannot be taken to satisfy another's debts. Nor can the owner's property be used to pay their company's debts. That's where the term 'Limited' comes from - it means that the company's debts can only be taken from its assets and so it's ability to pay is limited.
2 It is possible. There are ways in which that can be countered, but when I taught this stuff to aspiring solicitors and barristers, it was a lecture that took the best part of an hour. This, again, is where your solicitor comes into the picture.
3 Bailiffs can visit multiple premises and on multiple occasions, but they will charge for doing so, and although those charges will be added to the debt, if they end up coming away empty handed then the person who instructed them has to pay. So there has to be some careful thought as to whether the creditor is just throwing good money after bad.
4 I don't claim any particular expertise in relation to them, but I can't think of any reason why children's homes should have exemption.

@TalbotAMan
Thank you so much! That gives me a clearer idea of what I wanted to know. I know I can ask my solicitor but I feel bad bombarding him with questions all the time. I'm really hoping it doesn't actually get to the point of bailiffs having to seize stuff, hopefully they will pay between now and then even though we are going down that route now. But for the past couple years I've been thinking hopefully it won't get to this (about various things in the legal case), and time and time again it always has! So I am just trying to manage my expectations once again for worst case scenario.