Bailiffs Clamping on Private Land is a Criminal Offence
It is the practice of police forces to train their officers to say bailiffs recovering a debt are in a class above the law if they are reported for clamping vehicles on private land.
Regulation 18 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 provides for vehicles to be clamped for 2 hours if found on a highway. Exclusions include the vehicle being used, or a child or vulnerable person being in the vehicle. See regulation 10 of the same regulations.
Regulation 16 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 allows clamping of vehicles on private land only if the vehicle is not causing an obstruction or hindering access to a building, and a notice has been affixed.
Regulation 17(3) makes it illegal to clamp vehicles on public roads where the driver has not received a statutory Notice of Enforcement or where the vehicle does not belong to the debtor. See also Paragraph 10 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.
Clamping motor vehicles on private land that is not the debtor's land is a criminal offence under Section 54 of Chapter 2 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
A person commits an offence who, without lawful authority:
(a) immobilises a motor vehicle by the attachment to the vehicle, or a part of it, of an immobilising device, or
(b) moves, or restricts the movement of, such a vehicle by any means.
In 2011, a company operating as a trade association representing bailiff companies at Parliament attempted a last-minute amendment to the law to exclude bailiffs, but Parliament rejected the proposal.
Source: Parliamentary document
This is the actual legislation as it appears on the statute book.
The trade association sought to create a class of exempt persons from committing an offence of clamping on private land. It asked Parliament to amend Section 54 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 by adding the following:
54 (7) In this section "lawful authority" includes a warrant or order issued from or authorised by a magistrates' court, a county court or the High Court for the seizure of goods.
Parliament expressed its intention that bailiffs executing warrants continue to commit an offence by rejecting the proposal to add the above into Section 54.
If Your Vehicle is on Your Own Driveway
Just move it to someone else's. Bailiffs cannot remove goods situated on land that is not the debtor's address. They can only take control of goods or vehicles found on a highway or on the debtor's land. They cannot interfere with goods situated on somebody else's property or land.
Huntress Search Ltd v Canapeum Ltd on appeal [2010] EWHC 1270 (QB)
Mr Justice Eady, paragraph 37 of his judgment:
Finally, I return to the question of whether or not the address appearing on the writ confined the enforcement officer's authority to carry out enforcement at Unit 8. Should it be treated as a direction to execute there and only there? There is little direct authority to assist on this point. Traditionally, the writ of fi fa has been treated as authorising the high sheriff (now the enforcement officer) to execute in respect of any goods belonging to the debtor within his or her bailiwick or district. It would be absurd, argued Mr Wilson, if the enforcement officer were to appear at the premises identified on the writ and, having spotted that the debtor's goods were located somewhere in the vicinity, he was not entitled to execute but would rather have to return and seek additional authority by an amendment to the writ.