Are bailiffs worth it?

[simwod]

An old tenant of mine owes me �1450. I have taken him to a small claims court and the the judge ruled that he pay me the money, which is to make up for rent arrears. It seems the next step is to hire bailiffs to recover the money from the defendant/tenant. However, my brother was in the same situation a year or so ago, got the court order and hired bailiffs to recover the money, but he has still not received a penny. In fact he just wasted more money by hiring bailiffs, who seem to have little power, or are just plain lazy. Does anyone have any advice for me? Are there any bailiffs who operate on a no recovered funds-no fee basis?

[Ethel]

No bailiff will work on that basis - they will have no idea whether the person has assets or not before they spend time and effort doing the job.

Bailiffs are well worth the money only if the debtor has assets - you can't get blood out of a stone.

If your debtor is in work, you could get an attachment of earnings order which means you receive a payment directly from his employer every pay day.

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/e nforcement/ae/index.htm

[Motoxchick25]

We've recently gone down this route with our ex-landlords because of the new tenancy deposit laws. We got to the stage where we had to get the County Court Bailiffs involved this proved an agonising experience because although we were aware that the landlords had the money / assests to pay they weren't willing to pay up. They then asked the courts if the warrent could be suspended - this was thrown out but we have agreed to get a particular sum of money off them every month. If they break this order then it becomes a more serious matter and gives the bailiffs more rights on claiming back the money.