Schedule 12
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
10:45 am
David Drew (Stroud, Labour)
It is a delight to serve under your chairmanship once again, Mrs. Humble.
I would like to ask my hon. and learned Friend the Minister a question that relates to commercial properties rather than domestic properties. It relates to a case of a non-domestic rate debt, which I know from my constituency is not unusual. The case is indicative of the sort of problems that can arise, and I shall be careful how I talk about it, because it is fairly well known.
The case involved a fish and chip shop owner who faced the bailiffs coming in. The argument here—this is the reason why I am sympathetic with those who wish to identify what is meant by constraint on somebody’s ability to do the business—is that, with the best will in the world, anyone who knows anything about the fish and chip business knows that it relies on the fryer and the basic equipment. When the bailiffs arrived in their white van, the only thing that they could have taken in this case was the fryer, but they could not have got it into the van and they certainly would have destroyed the business if they had taken it.
I hope that my hon. and learned Friend the Minister will respond to my point, which is about a completely fallacious visit, because although there was no way that the bailiffs could have taken anything from the property, they charged the owner £350. If bailiffs are to have any credibility, there has to be some foreknowledge of what they are rightfully to be taking and what is to be done if they are clearly going to damage a business or cannot take anything. In this case, the moneys were subsequently paid and the debt was off-laid. However, I should like my hon. and learned Friend to comment on such cases, in which, to my mind, the bailiffs are outwith any credible reason for going to take any goods from a particular commercial premises. I want to know what restraints there are on bailiffs to ensure that they do not just go on a trip, even though they cannot take anything from the business, whack the owner with the extra charge and then say, “Well, we’ve tried our best, but there was no way that debt could have been off-laid by seizing goods.”