Urgent advice needed!! - bailiffs for a court fine

[Golow66]

Hello there

 

Ive just had a call from bailiffs for a court fine I've not paid.

 

Apparently they were outside of a previous address that i lived in and were about to enter. This address was a correspondance address given to the court while I was between addresses...the bailiffs have made no attempt to contact my family home (which i registered when the offence was committed) and I have had no previous correpondance from them until now.

 

My question is, can they go to any previous addresses and enter property, or is it only the address on the paperwork they are allowed to enter? e.g. to my family home where I do not live (I am pretty sure they do not have the address, although they may be able to get ir from the internet as they have some other details)

[Golow66]

31 views and nobody knows?

 

Can anyone advise me on something I have read on here called the 21 day rule?

 

Although I admit I am guilty of falling behind with my payment the bailiffs have doubled what I had to pay. Do i definitely have to pay this?

[impecunious]

Just hang on in there! There might have been 31 people viewing your post but not everyone is au fait with court fines, etc, so best to wait for the right response rather than everyone just throwing in their six-penny worth.

 

Good luck!

 

Impecunious!

[unclebulgaria67]

I think the answer is yes, they can go to the address held on record with the court and if they have permission of the court to gain entry then yes they can force entry. Not sure what would happen if you were not living there. I suppose the bailiff would be taking a chance and might be faced with having to compensate the home owner for any loss incurred, e.g new lock/damage to door. It is probably their normal practice to check that the person does live there first and this is probably why you had the call. If you don't own anything at the address, then they would have nothing to levy on at the address and they should not hassle the current occupiers of the address.

 

Suggest that you make arrangement with the court/bailiffs to start paying the amount required. If you don't then they will just come to the address where you are resident and the costs will start to mount up.

[tomtubby]

The "21 day rule" is the period of time in which you can file a Statutory Declaration.

 

The Magistrate Court rules provide that a person may file a statutory declaration to cancel/rewind the process but this may only be done withn 21 days of becoming aware of the court fine.

 

This is a very common situation but as you have said above, you were aware of the fine and knew that you had fallen into arrears with payments to the court. For this reason you cannot file a Statutory Declaration.