New bailiff rules - open season for debtors or protection from thugs ?

Well.....

I have many calls from 'clients' with bailiffs on the doorstep, so it is something I get used to rather than never forgetting.

Bailiffs and Insolvency Practitioners have interesting relationships.  They are charged with maximising the return for one client, we are charged with ensuring parity between all, so the tools at our disposal can frustrate their actions instantly, which provides for some interesting conversations at times.  Things have got better over the last 10 years though as bailiffs have become educated about various laws and rules that govern or interact with what they do.

In my personal experience 50% of the time the bailiffs are great and very professional and supportive, whilst the other 50% do like to bully debtors into paying.

When you look at the changes I think that they are positive overall, especially when they will stop some unpleasant tricks or actions in their tracks especially in relation to fees and to give you an example of why this is good we found a letter on our doormat at about 2.30pm some 2 weeks ago from a firm of bailiffs stating they had called round and got no answer, it said they would call back in a few days to try and see if ABC Limited was available and collect the debt, oh and by the way the charges for us calling and getting no answer are £x.  

The following day, this time around 12pm, one of our employees spotted a piece of paper on the doormat by our front door.  It was another letter from the same bailiff stating they had called again and got no answer and the charges were now £x+x+a bit more.

But, how come with a fully staffed office the bailiff never rang the bell, never knocked on the door, never rattled the letterbox or anything else that a bailliff would/should do to collect a debt??  Call me cynical but isn't it a convenient way of racking up fees by you 'not being in'??

By the way I must make it clear they were calling to collect a debt in relation to a company liquidation we are handling and the office they called at does not at this moment in time have a board outside to say who is here, however the address is quite clearly marked for all to see, which is evident from the letter being pushed through the right letterbox.

So unfortunately it is evident that more rules were needed to try and stop behaviour like we experienced taking place.  If they had knocked we could have informed they what had happened to the company given the creditor clearly hadn't informed them.

Inevitably it will give some debtors more room to manoeuvre and "make life more miserable for creditors", but I think it will encourage a more conciliatory approach, which can't be a bad thing.

If they paid the bills and Companies House barred

Hi 

If people pay their bills in the first place or contacted the Debtor to try and make a payment plan their would not be a problem.  If companies house barred directors who constantly go into liquidation to avoid paying their bills to other suppliers.   Personally I would like to see these type of Directors disqualified.  I am sick to the teeth of Directors in Ltd companies not paying their bills to small suppliers.   

So personally I have no problem with bad payers been chased.  If you are not going to pay then don,t use the services or the supplier. 

I do have sympathy for families who get into debt but there is plenty of advice out there before it goes to the bailiff stage.