Bailiffs are looking for a previous occupant. Do I have to give them their new address?

You have no obligation to give a bailiff other people's addresses.

If the bailiff has a warrant or writ of control that has your address for a person no longer living there, then the warrant or writ of control is a defective instrument.^[1]

Bailiffs cannot take the law into their own hands and trace a debtor that has moved because Creditors must not issue a warrant knowing that the debtor is not at the address, as a means of tracing the debtor at no cost.^[2]

Bailiffs must return the warrant to the creditor who can find the debtor's new address and apply for a new warrant specifying the debtor's new address.^[3]

^{[1] Paragraph 3 of Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007

[2] Paragraph 12 of the Taking Control of Goods: National Standards, Published by the Ministry of Justice April 2014.

[3] Civil Procedure Rule 75.7}