Urgent help needed?

[21Rach]

my cousin is newly single mum to a under 1 yr old and 5 yr old.. so money is tight, place she lives has roads with yellow lines so basically if she wants to park nearest place is 10 minutes away which isnt always gonna be practical for her - well she kept parking there and gettin tickets (we all park there they seemed to only target certain people i've always been fine so have the other nicer cars makes me think they target people they know they can get away with it for) anyway.. bailiffs jus turned up at her door, she didn't answer they posted a letter saying "£130 in next 24 hrs, or we come back to price up your goods and will take them away to that value" do they have a right to demand this?

 

[boryoda]

Yes they may well be able to

However they do normally send a few letters demanding payment before they just turn up.

I would suggest that she looks on consumeractiongroup website.

There will be a zillion threads about this situation and someone will give her some advice.

My main concern would be if she pays this one are there others still in the system.

 

[suzib76]

when they send the baliffs in they do take things, they come in to the house and value what you have, so unless she can hide everything really quickly then she will have to pay up
without wanting to sound a bit off here, if she kept getting tickets maybe she should of found somewhere else to park

 

[suzib76]

oh and if she doesnt pay up the cost will escalte very quickly with fees etc and she stands to lose even more

 

[faun]

Yep sadly court fines and unpaid parking tickets are pretty much the only things that baliffs are allowed to collect on. So she either needs to pay up or get everything she wants to keep out of the house asap.

 

[thelilbump]

was it baliffs tho or 'debt collectors', i think baliffs have the right to demand entry but debt collectors don't but i'm not 100% sure. My friends Dad was a baliff and I seem to remember having this random conversation with him!

 

[suzib76]

for parking tickets it is usually baliffs, unless they are in a private car park then it would be debt collectors

 

[faun]

Also if no-one is home or doesn't answer the door they are allowed to access the property through any open windows.

 

[lottie_2007]

I've been doing alot of research into this over the last few day. my DH had an outstanding council tax bill from a few years back which we thought had been paid off last year, we have heard nothing until a balif turned up, put a letter through the door saying payment within 24 hrs. I rang him and said i'd do the best to get the money as i don't want it hanging over us etc, i called him to say it would all be paid but would be about a week to transfer money, he said this is no good and gave us two days!!
I rang nat. debt line to get some advise and basically aslong as the baliff has never been peacefully alllowed into your home, i.e you let them in or a door/window was open they cannot break in! They have to have a levy of what they are going to take and return another time to remove goods! They have to accept an offer of payment and you are entitled to give them a breakdown of your incomings/outgoings to show them how much you can pay! If you are making an offer to pay it would get thrown out in coourt if the balif threatened with that!
Tell her to keep doors/windows locked and not to let them in, from what i've read they bully vulnerable people into paying up! Get her to ring national debt line for advise!
We have managed to speak direct to the council and they have extended the time in which we have to pay but i will be paying it next week when the cheque clears as its an awful thought that balifs are trying to get into your home! xx