Can bailiffs break in?

Perfect explanation GRUNTY.

Thanks for helping. Debt was DWP so I phoned them and they have took address off the record

WOW!

When we were selling our last house I had a debt collector/bailiff at the door one afternoon asking for the young woman we were selling to.
She and her husband were being very awkward during the whole process.

I explained she didn't live here and he asked if she'd moved on already.
"Moved on? She hasn't moved in yet!" I replied.

Apparently she'd been using my address, which had a clear credit score, to borrow and buy all sorts.
I had a guy trying to deliver a lawnmower one day for her, he was surprised when I flatly refused to accept it and store it in the garage for her.

I had quite a chat with the debt collector, she was an old "client" of his and their last house had been repossessed.

When the surveyor from the building society they were using to buy our house came, he asked me if they were first time buyers as that's what it said on his forms.
"Well if that's what they've said, I wouldn't know," was all I could think of replying.
Nightmare! 😬

Don't worry. I had a similar situation. When the bailiffs arrived they were lovely. I told them what I knew of the previous occupants and never heard anything else.

The foreign guy who rented our flat for 1 year before we bought it apparently run a business from the address. We got letter from the Council saying they had information that a business from run from said address. We didn't ignore, wrote a Registered letter sent by our Solicitor, and got an apology and case cleared. The man had returned abroad.

This happened to me until I phoned the debt collection agency and explained that they were trying to contact the previous tenant who had returned to New Zealand. I gave them the telephone number and address of the letting agency just in case they had a forwarding address.

I received a written apology for the trouble that they might have caused me and heard nothing of the debt after that.

People are frightened of debt collecting agencies because of the stories they hear but, in reality, they're just another business and, if you contact them, are ready to listen.

Just returning the letters by normal post is just not enough. Send them back with a letter of your own by registered post.

Many years ago this happened to us when we moved into a house. Neighbours must have wondered what their new neighbours were like! The police came 2/3 times even though on the first occasion we gave them our details and the name & address of our solicitors who could prove we had only just purchased the property. Then we had various debt collectors and also bailiffs. Heard eventually apart from previous owners owing money to several people they had also tampered with the electricity and were using it although it had been cut off by the electricity board. The electricity problem went on for months.

I’ll just throw in here that apparently it’s advisable to put “return to sender” envelopes directly into a sorting office mailbox, to ensure it will be redelivered back to the sender, rather than in any old postbox.

I think they can with a court order and police in attendance

Open the letter & should be contact details, explain the situation & they can remove you from their files.
We had this from a catalog company, it was always left on our answer machine - asked if the person owed money & explained the person they were after had given a false address, they never phoned again.

I had this when someone fraudulently used my address to get a fuel card. I’m afraid I got on my high horse initially and argued that I shouldn’t have to prove that I had lived here for nearly 40 years, told them to go and check council tax records and the electoral roll but eventually I had to show my council tax bill just to get rid of them!

I would suggest you contact the local Citizen's Advice Bureau asap

We had this recently. We opened the letter, the second time one came, it was for unpaid car parking fine. We had to prove we lived here by sending a copy of our latest council tax bill. We did have a bailiff come. We explained that we had moved to this address last year and he took a copy of our council tax bill. We received an email to say we wouldn't be bothered again. I was annoyed that we had to prove we lived here. I really didn't see why they couldn't look on the Land Registry to see themselves the house had changed ownership. We gave them the address of where the last owners had moved to but they didn't seem to be interested.

We had bailiffs turn up at the door early one morning a few years ago.
They were very polite and had obv been watching us for our movements as to when we would he home as knew the car my husband drove (he'd already left for work very early).
Chap said there had been letters sent to us (there hadn't), which we'd ignored, hence them turning up unannounced.

Transpires that they had the wrong house !
We lived at 150
The house they should have been at was 156 and whoever had written the address down quickly on a scrappy bit of paper had written the 6 so it looked like a 0.

Extreme apologies all round.

I phoned the bailiffs they told me to send proof. I told them my name and the estate agents I had bought from. They asked me to send proof but I said they needed to check for themselves or continue wasting their money sending bailiffs. I never heard from them again.

If they do turn up then you will just have to show them some ID. To be fair they are lied to and phoning or emailing does not prove that the previous person has left the address.

NO they cannot, you have to let them in, but do not let them over the doorstep.

From experience (masses of debts incurred by the former owner of a flat) both returning to sender, and writing ‘No longer at this address’ are equally useless.

If you have no forwarding address (I didn’t) you are entitled to open mail. I eventually had to write around 12 explanatory letters, with copies of my council tax bill, to various companies and debt collectors, and they did all back off.

The former owner evidently had returned to his country of origin, leaving over £20k of debt.
And yet I’m quite sure that he could come back tomorrow and absolutely nothing would happen to him. 🤬

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/bailiffs/stopping-bailiffs/stopping-bailiffs-at-your-door/

They have no right to break in but some can be very heavy handed in their approach. My eldest son has been a thorn in his lovely partner's side for many years. Gambling, affairs, borrowing money, lies; her and I have had it all. Although they are no longer a couple she still gets mail and bailiffs around the door as he uses her address. She always has her council tax and mortgage paperwork to hand to shown he no longer lives there and they leave without any problem.

If informing the bailliffs that the person they want no longer resides at the address and that you are the legal owner of the property, have a solicitor write to them,

When working I was an Outreach Support Officer and encountered this several times. We made a phone call and explained and I suppose as I was a ''professional' it was taken on board. Just have proof that you are the new owner/occupier and they should leave you alone.

Write or call them just sending letters back won’t stop the procedure anyone could write that. They will ask for copy of your council tax bill to proof who lives at that address.