Someone Else's Goods Were Taken: CPR Part 85 Claims

A partner's car, a flatmate's television, a parent's tools stored in the garage, stock a friend left in your lock-up. It happens more often than it should, and the claim is made in writing to the enforcement agent.

This page is for the owner of the goods, the person who is not the debtor. If you are the debtor and want to know which goods are protected in the first place, that is a different question, covered in what can bailiffs take. And if you are being chased for a debt that was never yours at all, start with bailiffs chasing a debt that isn't yours.

The rule the agent was bound by

Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 is the framework almost all enforcement against goods now runs under, and paragraph 10 of it is blunt: "An enforcement agent may take control of goods only if they are goods of the debtor."

The difficulty is that an agent at the door cannot see ownership. Goods inside a debtor's home, or parked outside it, look like the debtor's goods, and agents commonly proceed on that assumption unless someone shows them otherwise. The procedure below exists precisely because the assumption is sometimes wrong.

Move early, before the formal route is needed

If the goods have been listed or clamped but not yet taken away, the cheapest fix is usually evidence, fast. Send the enforcement company, in writing, whatever shows the goods are yours: a receipt or invoice in your name, a bank or card statement showing you paid, a finance or lease agreement, the V5C and insurance for a vehicle together with anything showing who bought it. Copy the creditor in, quote the reference number, and keep proof of sending.

A well-evidenced ownership claim gives the firm a strong commercial reason to release the goods without a fight, because selling goods that turn out to belong to a third party exposes the agent and the creditor to a court claim. Many disputes end at this stage. If yours does not, or the goods have already been removed, use the formal procedure, and do not let the informal exchange run down the clock that follows.

The formal claim: rule 85.4

The route is a notice of claim to controlled goods under rule 85.4 of the Civil Procedure Rules, which implements the third-party claim created by paragraph 60(1) of Schedule 12. The rule requires the person making the claim to act "as soon as practicable but in any event within 7 days of the goods being removed".

That deadline is worth reading twice, because it runs from the goods being removed, not from the visit, not from a controlled goods agreement, and not from the notice of enforcement. If your goods have been listed or immobilised but are still where the agent found them, the 7 day period has not started. Do not treat that as permission to wait: the rule still says as soon as practicable, and goods can be removed with little warning once they are under control.

The notice must be given in writing to the enforcement agent who took control of the goods, and rule 85.4 requires it to include:

• your full name and address, with confirmation that the address is your address for service
• a list of all the goods you are claiming; and
• the grounds of your claim for each item, which in plain terms means saying, item by item, why the goods are yours and how you can show it.

Send it so you can prove delivery, attach copies of your ownership evidence even though the rule does not strictly require it, and keep a copy of everything.

The timetable your notice starts

Rule 85.4 then sets a short, fixed exchange:

So within roughly three weeks of a valid notice you should know, in writing, whether your claim is admitted or disputed, in whole or in part.

If the creditor admits your claim

This is the outcome the procedure is built to encourage. Under rule 85.4(5), where the creditor admits the claim, "the enforcement power ceases to be exercisable in respect of such controlled goods" and the agent must, as soon as reasonably practicable, make the goods available for you to collect if they have been removed.

In practice, admitting a sound claim promptly is also the creditor's cheapest way out of the dispute, which is why clear evidence sent early so often settles the matter. A creditor gains nothing from fighting over goods a court would eventually hold were never the debtor's.

If the creditor disputes your claim

Where the claim is disputed, the dispute can go before a judge. The disputed-claims stage has its own procedure in rule 85.5 of the Civil Procedure Rules, which may involve applications to the court and can carry costs consequences for whoever loses, and in some circumstances a claimant can be required to pay money into court while the dispute is decided. The details depend on the case, so read the rule itself and take advice before this stage rather than during it. Free debt advisers can help with the enforcement side, and for goods of real value a solicitor's letter early on can be money well spent.

Do not abandon a genuine claim just because it is disputed. The evidence that would have persuaded the creditor is the same evidence a court would look at, and an unanswered dispute means the goods can be sold.

If the goods have already been sold, or the rules were broken

Where an agent has breached Schedule 12, paragraph 66 gives the affected person a court remedy: the court may "order goods to be returned to the debtor" and may order the agent or a related party to pay damages in respect of loss suffered. Taking goods the agent had no power to take can found that kind of claim, and the same evidence of ownership does the work. The complaint ladder, and how the paragraph 66 route fits alongside it, is set out in how to complain about a bailiff.

Jointly owned and financed goods are different questions

This page covers goods that belong to someone other than the debtor outright. Goods the debtor co-owns with you sit under different rules, because the debtor's share is capable of being enforced against, and goods on hire purchase or lease generally belong to the finance company rather than to either of you. Both situations, and the evidence that helps in each, are covered in what can bailiffs take.