The bailiff no longer wants to be the bogeyman: ‘I am more vulnerable these days’

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The mailbox of an apartment in Amsterdam’s Slotermeer district is packed on a Tuesday afternoon in May. Envelopes and advertising brochures are sticking out. “That is a clear signal,” says bailiff Bas Evers. He has a stack of papers in his hand. The resident has not paid a number of bills from a coffee roaster and should now receive a so-called summons. But according to the bailiff, the full mailbox says enough: the resident has more debts, and there is a good chance that he or she could no longer pay the rent and now has a different home address.

There is no point in stuffing the papers through the slot anyway, says Evers. He will inform his client that litigation will probably cost more money than it yields.

Bailiffs play less of a bogeyman role than before for citizens who cannot pay their debts. In the past, the bailiff went out to seize items or to vacate a house, but since about ten years the assignment has been: prevent things from getting to that point. More often, the bailiff thinks along with the debtor: which payment arrangement is feasible, for example, or can it help to contact debt counselling?

This is also apparent from the recently published annual figures of the Royal Professional Association of Judicial Officers (KBvG). The number of activities performed by bailiffs, such as serving summonses or seizing a salary or benefit, has fallen sharply in the past five years: from 2.3 million to 1.6 million per year.

Photo Olivier Middendorp

Non-willers and non-skilled

Nowadays, the professional group attaches more value to the distinction between “non-willers and non-skilled”, says KBvG chairman Chris Bakhuis. After the credit crisis in 2008, bailiffs saw that the group with problematic debts was growing. Since then, the sector has become more involved in the problem. Some people simply don’t want to pay. But bailiffs now have more insight into cases where payment really does not work. They pay more attention to signals that indicate this, such as the full mailbox in Slotermeer.

The bad image of bailiffs is mainly due to the book Character by F. Bordewijk, thinks Bas

The fact that citizens nowadays come into contact with bailiffs less often has to do with the so-called digital seizure register. This was introduced by the profession itself some six years ago. Bailiffs must now register if they have seized someone’s salary or benefits. If they are instructed to collect a collection, they first check whether another attachment has already been made on the salary or benefit.

If that turns out to be the case, the bailiff often decides that there is no point in making another attachment, says Bakhuis. “In this way, it is more often prevented that citizens become further into debt.”

Also read this piece about bailiffs: One man’s fault is another man’s business model

This milder approach is necessary, among other things, because the social costs of an eviction, for example, are very high, says Bakhuis. Usually, the municipality has to pay for a hotel room for a family that has been evacuated and look for alternative accommodation. In addition, the police are sometimes also present during an evacuation. Or youth care becomes involved with the family. “Society indirectly contributes to this.”

Everyone thinks bailiff is a terrible profession, says Bas Evers. Mainly because of the book Character by the Dutch writer F. Bordewijk, he thinks, in which one of the characters is a ruthless bailiff who abuses his power. “As a result, people still see a grumpy man in a long coat.”

Evers is sitting – with a long coat – in his car next to driver Herman, who drives him through Amsterdam-West that afternoon so that he has his hands free. Evers has been a bailiff for over thirty years. In the past, he sometimes slammed the door behind him after an annoying conversation, he says. But now he is trying to be “vulnerable” by being less coercive and smiling a lot.

Bas Evers in the car with his driver Herman.
Photo Olivier Middendorp

“I once had to ‘evict’ an 85-year-old woman from her house,” says Evers. “You stand there while all the stuff is put on the street. You do that with great reluctance and that is extremely frustrating.” Evers is pleased that such situations occur less often.

Number is declining sharply

The result of the more lenient working method is that there is less work to be done and, partly as a result of this, the number of bailiffs has fallen sharply in recent years, says Evers. In 2017 there were still 796 bailiffs in the Netherlands. Today there are 631. The profession is also aging rapidly. The vast majority are 45 to 65 years old. There are only twelve bailiffs between the ages of 20 and 30.

And that while the number of people with debts is expected by the KBvG to increase in the near future. To accommodate companies during the corona pandemic, the Tax and Customs Administration gave them the option of paying payroll tax and sales tax later. Now that the Tax and Customs Administration will collect the deferred payments, the number of bankruptcies will increase. KBvG board member Arjan Boiten: “People may lose their jobs and can no longer pay the rent or mortgage.” The number of people with debts may also increase due to the high inflation.

Photo Olivier Middendorp

Chairman Chris Bakhuis thinks that there will still be enough bailiffs for the coming years to cope with the possible increase in the number of people with debts. “That increase will be gradual,” she says. “Parts of our work are also being digitized at some employers, such as seizing a salary or benefit, so that fewer people are needed.”

Bailiff Evers wonders whether there will be enough new bailiffs in the coming years. “Our profession does not seem sexy,” he says. “I don’t think there are young people who dream of becoming a bailiff.”

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