I ned help please council tax, equita & baliff

Doodles152

Thank you, i have sent this email off straight away to them.

Should i contact the bailiff in the meantime to advise as don't want him calling back to try to enforce removal of goods etc.

RAS

He cannot come back to enforce removal of godds unless he has done a levy. If you have signed nothing, he has not done a levy.

Doodles152

Hi, just thought i would keep you updated on my progress, I sent the email off to Equifax that Herbie21 gave me. Never got a reply, left a long message on the baliff phone stating practically word for word the email and letter, asking for him to phone, he has not responded either.
So yesterday forwarded the email to Equita again stating i had not had a reply and that the baliff had not responded to my telephone call either and almost straight away i got an email saying it has been passed on to their correspondence department and that they will get back to me in 14 days by writing.

So i presume the baliff won't call whilst this is under way.

Thank you to everyone who gave their help and no doubt i will be needing your help once the letter comes.

RAS

Jayne

maybe time to write again and ask how you can pay the February amount?

Doodles152

That's a good idea RAS, i will send them an email now whilst i think of it, then hopefully they will respond again. Feel a bit calmer now, until there letter arrives that is!!

Doodles152

hi, in need of your help still, have finally got a statement off equita showing that i owe £544 wot should i do now??

I have also had a removal of property letter from equita stating someone would come within the next 48hrs but that hasnt happened yet.

I think that because no levy has been made on my items they cannot just come and take it away?

I have left a message for the baliff as equita will not speak to me and they have said all dealings to be done through baliff so i have left him a message stating that i have now received the statement showing i owe £544 not £715 as he had stated and that i can pay £200 now and the remainder to make up £544 next week. He has left a message for me to call him back but want to get your advice on what i should do next?

Sorry for long post, i really appreciate all the advice you have given me it has all been good.

RAS

hi

if there is no levy, he cannot remove property nor can he come into the house unless you invite him.

I think you need some proper advice on that letter, as I believe he is acting outside the law.

Can you pm Herbie21 again. She needs to know the name of the bailiff and who signed the letter.

Doodles152

what does anyone else think?

RAS

Pm RobertoMoir. he is an ex bailiff.

RobertoMoir

jaynebryan96 wrote: »

hi, in need of your help still, have finally got a statement off equita showing that i owe £544 wot should i do now??

I have also had a removal of property letter from equita stating someone would come within the next 48hrs but that hasnt happened yet.

I think that because no levy has been made on my items they cannot just come and take it away?

They can come, gain peaceable entry (search the forums for that term and you'll see notes from myself and others about what this entails) and remove goods. They won't want to do this if they can help it as it rarely helps recover anything but the most trivial debts, so they'll gain entry, levy and threaten to remove goods if you don't pay a lump sump + agree a WPO.

At least, that's how I would have done it.

jaynebryan96 wrote: »

I have left a message for the baliff as equita will not speak to me and they have said all dealings to be done through baliff so i have left him a message stating that i have now received the statement showing i owe £544 not £715 as he had stated and that i can pay £200 now and the remainder to make up £544 next week. He has left a message for me to call him back but want to get your advice on what i should do next?

Sorry for long post, i really appreciate all the advice you have given me it has all been good.

In your position, as you describe it in your discussions with RAS, they have not levvied, and therefore can only charge you first and second visit fees. Think that's about £45 all in, not £200. £200 sounds more like those fees, plus levy plus a van fee, which is well naughty if they haven't done a levy yet. I suspect they are looking to carry out a levy in order to make the extra fees appear to be correct.

The council are responsible for the actions of people acting on their behalf, which would be the bailiff.

Therefore, I'd contact whoever is in charge of council tax collection at your council (head of revenues isn't it?) plus your local councillor and complain to them about the disgraceful behaviour of their agent attempting to charge you fees that you're not obliged to pay and ignoring your requests for them to justify the fees.

I want to emphasise the local councillor bit. Some people seem reluctant to do that, but these are the people whose job it is to represent your needs at the council, and if you can explain this to a councillor in a way that gets them on your side, they will get results.

I'd tell them that you are happy to pay the council tax that you actually owe (you've got no choice there so I strongly suggest going gracefully, so to speak) but that you believe that the council should take the debt back from the bailiffs as they clearly cannot be trusted.

As a bare minimum, if they refuse to take the debt back from the bailiffs (and if they say "can't", that's a lot of bollox, they mean "won't" so tell them you're aware that it's "won't" rather than "can't" and to try that one again), I'd be wanting a breakdown of the debt, including costs, and a written undertaking from them to get their agents back into line and to allow you to pay the debt without incurring further costs above those you've legitmatelly let yourself in for (the c'tax, court costs, 1st + 2nd visit; if it stays with the bailiff).