The Bailiffs

bailiffsOGH Lendl

Another horrific ordeal this week which, now that I’ve calmed down is pretty laughable but didn’t seem to be at the time.

After my visit on Tuesday I came home to find a note pinned to my door. It was headed with the Supreme Court logo and was a message from the debt collectors saying they had come to ‘execute a payment’ and to avoid them breaking into my apartment to collect this debt, I should contact them immediately the next day. Naturally, I panicked. As it was late I couldn’t reach my lawyer and since there was no specific information given, I didn’t even know what it was all about. I assumed that it related to the 3,000 Euro child maintenance I was ordered to pay last week but I had appealed that order so couldn’t understand why they were enforcing it so soon.

I had to go out early in the morning and was in a cold sweat all night, with visions of returning home to find my apartment broken into and completely emptied out. I have nothing to take anyway but still hoped to have the luxury of a bed to sleep in and a sofa to sit on. I felt utter despair and desperation, pushed almost to breaking point.

It wouldn’t have been the first time my apartment was broken into. On the day the children were taken, the father ordered the police to break into my apartment while I was out with the children with the outrageous claim that my parents and I had barricaded ourselves inside, were ‘suicidal’ and ‘going to kill the children!!’ When the police refused to believe this nonsense, he brought a locksmith to break in and change the locks!

After all the anxiety and upset caused on this ocassion, it turned out to be a fine of 33 euros!!! in some court costs that I hadn’t paid dating back to October 2012. I had never received any letters about this so didn’t even know it was owing. It was increased to 75 Euros which I immediately paid and the matter, much to my combined horror and bemusement, was settled.

Austria is a country that sends round the debt collectors for 33 Euros but does nothing when you report that children are in critical danger, are severely traumatised and are having teeth removed without any explanation. Go figure it out….

 


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