An interesting story - were any laws broken?

[mrsquirrel]

Father finds locks changed as house is repossessed in address mix-up | Mail Online

Arriving home with his 12-month-old daughter, Matthew Brooks was in a rush to get her out of the rain.
Then he saw the large notice on the front door telling him that his house had been repossessed and the locks changed.
Mr Brooks, 42, knew he and his wife were up to date with their mortgage - but he also knew his protestations were unlikely to cut much ice if bailiffs arrived to start clearing the house.

Enlarge Blunder: The estate where the Chelsea Building Society seized the wrong home

Stranded on his own doorstep, and needing to pick up his elder daughter from primary school soon, he had to act fast.
A call to the estate agents named on the notice began to unravel the mystery and finally led to the blunder being laid at the door of Chelsea Building Society, which amazingly had made a mistake with the address of a house it was repossessing.
The society has now apologised to Mr Brooks and paid him compensation, but he said yesterday it had got off lightly.
Worry: The Brooks family feared bailiffs arriving

'To come home and find someone's gone through your house, changed the locks and prevented you getting in is a massive invasion of privacy,' he said.
'At least we weren't away at the time - if we'd been on holiday they could easily have sent bailiffs round before we knew anything about it, or we could even have been burgled.
'And now we're worried that it will come up as a black mark on credit checks even though we're entirely innocent in all of this.'
Mr Brooks's ordeal began when he arrived at his £150,000 home in Crewe with baby Loren.
'There was a note on the inside of the glass front door saying the house had been repossessed and all the locks had been changed,' said the supermarket quality control manager. 'I was left outside in the cold and rain with a baby - I was really angry.'
Needing to collect his other daughter, seven-year-old Melissa, from school, Mr Brooks ordered the estate agent, who had the new keys, to bring them round.
He then traced the blunder back to the Chelsea Building Society. It was handling the voluntary reposbefore-session of a property four doors away, but had inexplicably got the wrong house.
Mr Brooks and his wife Lindsey, a 30-year- old administration clerk, had to spend a week just before Christmas using the new locks, fearing all along that they could have some more unauthorised visitors, they were changed. The building society apologised and paid compensation of a few hundred pounds.
But Mr Brooks said: 'It paid for our daughters' presents, but really it ruined Christmas for all of us. It was like being burgled - I'm still furious at what happened. How can they try to repossess the wrong house - surely they check the address before they send people round?'
Chelsea Building Society said its agent had realised a mistake had been made as soon as he entered the house because he had been expecting an empty property, but by then the locks had been changed.
A spokesman added: 'As soon as it was identified an error had been made we liaised with Mr Brooks to rectify the situation immediately.
'We are extremely sorry this happened and can confirm this event will have no effect whatsoever on the credit rating of Mr and Mrs Brooks.'

Ignoring the compensation etc. Did the ballifs commit a crime by breaking into this house and changing the locks?

[The Fresh Prince]

She's 30!

[watterinja]

It just seems so wrong. A total violation of the poor family's rights.

I believe that the family should take legal action against the society & charge the balifs for breaking-&-entering - as well as the persons who instructed them to enter the premises.

[AntRobertson]

Did the ballifs commit a crime by breaking into this house and changing the locks?

Trespass.

[good2bhappy]

^ where is the Mens rhea?

[mrsquirrel]

^ was it breaking and entering.

I don't understand how they got in without the keys anyway.

[AntRobertson]

^ where is the Mens rhea?

Trespass is a tort in the UK, I believe - no need to establish mens rea

[mrsquirrel]

From a legal/law viewpoint what happened in this case (if it's all true)

[AntRobertson]

From a legal/law viewpoint what happened in this case (if it's all true)

I don't quite understand the question; do you mean what could happen or what/if an actual crime was committed?

[mrsquirrel]

what if an actual crime was committed.

If I was to go to somebody's house and change their locks when they were out. What would happen to me?

[good2bhappy]

I was referring to criminal tresspass
In my unlearned opinion someone is liable for a tort

[mrsquirrel]

And

what would have happened if the bailiffs had taken their stuff out of the house?

[AntRobertson]

what if an actual crime was committed.

If I was to go to somebody's house and change their locks when they were out. What would happen to me?

You'd undoubtably be arrested and charged; criminal nuisance or damage or something like that. But then the facts here are slightly different as there was no mens rea (intent) on the part of the bailiffs - they were merely carrying out their duties (albeit managing to cock it up completely).

That's where trespass would come in though, as a 'civil wrong' or tort there's no need to show intent, just the fact of the action.

[Happyman]

^
Agree with that

[mrsquirrel]

It all seems a bit off to me that.

So if for example a friend phoned me up and said - Quirrel, I'm going out can you change my locks while I'm away" and I changed the neighbours locks by accident. That would be ok.

mens rea (intent)

glad you cleared that up thought I had missed something about toilets there.

[AntRobertson]

It all seems a bit off to me that.

So if for example a friend phoned me up and said - Quirrel, I'm going out can you change my locks while I'm away" and I changed the neighbours locks by accident. That would be ok.

Well it would be 'ok' insofar as you'd not likely be charged with any criminal offence (or, if you were, you'd have a pretty good defence), however you'd still be liable for trespass and most likely - as was the case in the article - have to make reparation/pay damages of some sort or other.

[mrsquirrel]

I find this all quite strange.

[baldrick]

I thought engerland got some new bailiff laws recently

couldn't be fcuked to do much googling

"The bailiff called at his house and said he had to make a payment, otherwise they would bring a delivery van and locksmith. He said they would get into the property and take goods and there was nothing he could do about it.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Lancashire | Man dies during visit by bailiff

[mrsquirrel]

^ That's what I thought. That they could now pretty much force their way into you house if necessary and take things.

Years ago I worked for McKenzie clothing just as they went into receivership. I was hired to clear out the old stock room and drive the director to shops to close them. we had to work through the night to get shops cleared before the baliffs came.

Got chased in liverpool by them. Which wasn't surprising. The landlord had really pissed off the boss and he took up all the antique wood flooring he had put in. Walk in the front door and it was a 2 story drop to the basement.

[mrsquirrel]

Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors - Times Online

here

[Eliminator]

^locksmith