UK bailiffs can already legally enter your home unbidden through an unlocked door or window (!), or by climbing a gate or fence. Once they gain 'peaceful entry', they can break open any locked doors inside to seize your property. In practice, bailiffs intimidate, deceive and even resort to violence to gain entry into your flat. See this guide on bailiffs to get an idea as to what an insolvent or debt-ridden person can expect.
Now, it turns out, Bailiffs can legally use force to gain entry and restrain your person. See this article by Jennifer Swift:
Picture the scene - a bailiff comes to your home because you haven't paid a debt you owe, perhaps your council tax, and the court has given him the power to enforce it. You refuse to let him in, but he breaks in and enters anyway. When you get in his way as he appraises your property, he has his beefy companion pin you down to the floor.No protest on your part can sway them because their actions are perfectly legal.
This is not a nightmare scenario from a dystopian future, but could in fact be reality very soon in the UK. A little-noticed provision of the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 overturned the centuries-old principle that "an English's home is his castle" and permitted bailiffs to use force to enter homes in order to collect criminal fines, which include minor offences such as failing to pay for a TV licence (see paragraph 28, 125CA (2) and paragraph 3 (1)).
Next, provisions in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 made it possible for bailiffs to break in to collect civil fines and to use physical force to restrain debtors (see paragraphs 20 to 23; paragraph 24(2) and 31 (5)). So far these powers are not in force because the government has not created the necessary regulations to implement them.
But they are dangerous and unnecessary measures, putting vulnerable debtors, such as single parents, the disabled and the mentally ill, under even greater stress than they are at present and increasing the already considerable opportunities for bailiffs to intimidate them.
Bailiffs can be called for anything from missed rent, unpaid council tax (a regressive and draconian public services tax) or not buying a television license (a yearly fee for free television like the BBC and ITV). It doesn't take much insight to realize that Bailiffs represent an attack on the poor, disabled and disempowered. Of course, government reductions to legal aid exacerbate the problem. Not to mention the massive hypocrisy of Britain's current crop of MPs, embroiled in an expense scandal, and unlikely to have to hide behind a chain lock, afraid to open their door to callers.
