Can Bailiffs Seize Money

[nailit]

Hypothetical question,
Suppose bailiffs turn up at your home to collect a debt, of say, £2000 but you don't really have the goods to cover the cost. However they find £2000 in cash. Can they take that?
And if the money isn't your's, how on earth can you prove that it belongs to someone else?
Thanks.

[hc4361]

Yes, they can seize cash and they prefer it over removing goods.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/bailiffs/your-belongings-and-bailiffs/what-goods-can-a-bailiff-take/belongings-a-bailiff-can-take/

[hc4361]

Regarding proof of ownership you could make a statutory declaration stating that the goods and cash aren't yours and the true own can apply to the court for the return of his goods and cash.

[New Judge]

Providing he can prove they are his, of course. The Stat Dec provides no such proof. In fact, it provides very little at all and bailiffs or High Court enforcement agents are unlikely to pay much heed to it unless positive proof of ownership (rather than an unsubstantiated declaration of non-ownership) is supplied.

[Peter Pedant]

someone keeping a large sum of money in the house of a debtor ?

I mean it is not even likely let alone probable ( that it is someone elses)

my tenant said in court about her unlucky landlord ( er that would be me) that I hammered on the door for rent which she just happened to have up in a wardrobe but never gave me. So I went on hammering and she went on being well anal - and the judge in the end said she just didnt believe her.

[nailit]

Thank you for answers guys.

[trt]

This has been proved on the tv programme, 'cant pay, we will take it away', where they found money hidden in a bedroom, and took it till the debtor could prove it wasn't his, but he couldn't, and it was confiscated.

[Peter Pedant]

Oh just for completeness
if you make a vol dec to the taxman that you blamelessly owe tax in an oopsie tone of voice
he goes for it like a rat up a drain pipe
( none of this - "well of course he would say that wouldnt he, but we are not sure")