bailiffs

[rambot]

Had a funny thing happen tonight, need some serious advice.
Arrived home after 5pm and found a bailiffs letter through my door, addressed to my son, (Lee).
It is a liability order from a magistrates court and passed to Chandlers bailiffs.
For council tax at a property in a town about 17.4 miles away.
Firstly my son has never lived anywhere in the last 6 years apart from with us.
it was dated July last year.
I have since travelled to this address on the bailiffs letter after having a rather heated conversation with the bailiff.
I knocked on the door and spoke to the owner, she informed me that she owned the house and had done so for a few years, Last year they rented out the property and a tenant called Leigh(female) rented the property through a local agents.
They absconded owing lots of money in coucil tax, electric, gas ,water rates,
The lady confirmed to us then that it was not my son who was with me,they also owed her two thousand pounds in rent
Also that she had informed the council that it was spelt Leigh and that she was female.
I spoke again to the bailiff to explain what the lady had told us and that i would speak to the council tomorrow.
I asked him what he knew about it and he told me that the council had heard that these people were living in my postcode district and they checked up with local council who then gave my sons name and address.
I am flabbergasted that the council can just pick a person out of thin air and send the bailiffs around to collect money or goods without first checking that the person is the person that owes the money.
It appears from what happened and the conversation with the bailiff that it is up to us now to prove that my son was innocent as he is already proven guilty by the courts and has never moved out of home in all his life.
Is it unreasonable to claim the taxi fare to this address and compensation for wasted time and stress factor worrying about what is happening when all along the council know it is female and not male and the spelling is not even correct.
How would i approach the materr of compensation and how would i word same.
If anyone has any ideas on this i would appreciate your opinions.
Many Thanks

[comanche]

Personally I would go to the Council offices and demand to speak to someone, outline the facts and tell them that unless they sort this out pronto you will be going to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Others may have more imaginative solutions but this approach will probably sort it out fairly quickly.

[rambot]

thanks seminole. cant believe this has happened.
i will try to gain the taxi fare and compensation though.

[comanche]

Absolutely. You should seek recovery of any reasonable costs but the priority should be to get the parasitic scum bailiffs to be called off.

[daveh]

And whilst all this is going on - AT NO TIME LET THE BAILIFFS enter your property -