New provisions will permit bailiffs to enter homes |
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Action needed to protect families from unscrupulous lenders and bailiffs – Rob Wilson MP and Parliamentary Candidate Alok Sharma warn that new Government laws will put family homes at threat.
Homes across Reading are at threat of seizure by unscrupulous lenders or invasion by aggressive bailiffs, Conservatives Rob Wilson MP and Alok Sharma, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West, warned this week. At a time when families are struggling to manage their debts, the Government is weakening the rules which protect family homes. This includes the Government awarding new powers for bailiffs break into peoples’ homes. Labour Ministers are changing the law to allow bailiffs the legal right to break into family homes to collect civil debts. These new provisions will permit bailiffs to use ‘reasonable force’ to enter homes, such as knocking down a door or smashing a window, to collect debts such as missed credit card bills, an unpaid parking fine or TV licence fee. In their fight for civil rights, the Conservatives have pledged to reverse these new laws, which undo common law rights and liberties dating back centuries. Conservatives are also pledging to stop the small print of another Labour law which puts family homes at risk from unscrupulous lenders. The Government making it easier for lenders to get a ‘charging order’ against a borrower’s home which gives lenders a legal stake in the borrower’s home, even if the missed payments are an unsecured debt. The Reading East MP and Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West are also asking for more protection against forced sales by calling on the Government to create new rules to prevent families from losing their homes as a result of missing credit card bills or other unsecured loans. The new rules would prevent anyone from being forced to sell their home to repay unsecured debts of less than £25,000. Rob Wilson commented, “Borrowers must be responsible for their debts, but I am alarmed that the Government is to allow unscrupulous lenders to force families to out of their homes for small sums, such as missing credit card payments. “It is even worse that Ministers are to give bailiffs new powers literally to break down the door of family homes to collect debts, such as an unpaid parking ticket or TV licence. Alok Sharma added, “At a time when so many families are suffering from a soaring cost of living and an economy built on debt, it would be wrong in principle and in practice to impose these new state powers. We must protect Reading ’s families in these difficult economic times, and we need a greater sense of social responsibility from the Government and lenders towards those who are struggling to make ends meet.” |
