Equita Bailiff Help

franki9581

I am being chased by Equita Bailiffs for unpaid council tax from several years ago. I'm sure it was all paid at the time, and received nothing about it while I lived at the property referenced.

I have followed the advice on other posts, and even the advice given to me by my assigned bailiff but I am a bit stuck.

Was sent letters from the council last year saying there was money owed and additional court costs, so I contacted them to query it as I was certain it was all paid. Got no response to any letters or emails.

In April got many letters from Equita in quick sucession demanding payment or else the bailiff would be around to remove goods. Sent a letter and email to the council again and rang Equita to avoid the bailiffs, told them the situation but made a payment of £105.21 and set up a direct debit for £35 a month.

In May the direct debit wasn't taken so they rang and demanded payment of £146. Then again in June no payment was taken, so in July they forwarded my case to a bailiff.

I rang Equita, they were very rude, refused to discuss it, told me I had never set up a direct debit, when I had. Refused to tell me how much money they were demanding as the full amount, wouldn't tell me anything. So I rang the bailiff, explained the situation and he told me to get back to Equita provide them with a financial statement and agree a direct debit amount.

So I have emailed and written to Equita, and they sent me back a letter on Saturday, again saying talk to the bailiff, then today they sent another removal notice saying they are coming this week to remove goods unless I pay immediately in full.

The council haven't responded, have written to my councillors, all of them, no response yet.

No one has knocked on the door, no letters say they have been hand delivered, and no bailiff has been in the house, and I haven't signed anything.

How do I get the council to talk to me so I can get them to recheck there records to find out why they think I owe them money, and how do I get Equita to leave me alone.

RobertoMoir

Firstly, its difficult to get the council to take a debt back from a bailiff unless there is evidence of wrongdoing by the bailiff or the bailiff is unable to recover the debt. Look at it from their point of view: For whatever reason the debt isn't paid. They send quite a few reminders and take people to court and yet it takes assigning bailiffs to get a result. They will want to leave it with the bailiffs because the bailiffs, from their point of view, often work.

(I'm not trying to say that the council are "in the right and that's that", and I'm not trying to belittle or upset you here, but its important to understand the motives of both the bailiffs and the council in order to deal with them successfully)

Ok, the letters you do have, what do they say on them? Do any of them read anything like "notice of attendance" or similar phrases? I know you say they haven't visited and that's fine but you need to make sure they're not trying to pull a fast one.

Their motives:

The council want their money back and unless you are either able to show them that 1) they have made a mistake, 2) you are in a vulnerable group, 3) or are the victim of bad behaviour by the bailiff, they will be reluctant to take the debt back at your request.

The bailiffs want to manipulate you into paying the debt back with as many bailiff's fees as possible on top.

Fees
The debt will already have a fee - the costs incurred by the council from taking you to court for non payment of council tax and getting a liability order granted.

The bailiffs can not charge you any fees, unless they have either a levy against your goods (in which case they have a lot more rights to charge you fees and potentially a lot more rights to impose themselves upon you so you want to avoid a levy) or they have made one or two visits "with the intention of levying, but where no levy was made". For those two visits they can charge you a small amount (about £22 for one letter and £18 for the other, I think it is, I forget the exact amounts but its along those lines) but without a levy they cannot charge you more.

So armed with this information you need to find out how much the council think you owe and check it against how much the bailiffs think you owe in order to make sure that the bailiffs have the correct info (mistakes do happen) and are not charging you naughty fees.

If the bailiff visits you need to prevent them from being able to levy on goods.
As regards the levy situation, see this link to an old post I made that summarises the rights of both the bailiff and yourself in regards to them getting access to your property to conduct a levy upon goods.

Keep in mind they can only levy on goods owned by the person liable for the debt, and they can also levy on valuable items that are outside the house, including cars parked on the driveway or in the street.

They need to have access to goods in order to levy on them - let me back up a bit here actually. A levy is a seizure of goods, in order that the bailiff can take them away and sell them if the debt is not paid in a manner satisfactory to the bailiff. This means that in order to levy on an item a bailiff has to be able to physically 'seize' the item. They don't need to go around touching things to levy on them or anything like that but they have to be able to do so - so they can't levy on your TV in your front room or a car locked inside a garage because they can see them through a window.

Don't follow advice from the bailiff 'assigned' to you by the way, not without getting it checked first, and never ever let them in your house no matter what. I don't care if the world's ending, if they're on fire in the street outside your house or if it turns out they're a personal friend of the pope.

Even if they are the most honest person, let alone bailiff, you ever have and ever will meet in your life, they are at best going to have a conflict of interest in any advice they give you. Remember what I said about understanding motives, and what the motives of bailiffs are?

franki9581

Thank you for the help.

I have finally been contacted by the council tax office providing a breakdown. It includes periods when I no longer lived at the address so I have asked them to investigate further and correct their records. SO hopefully this will mean they will take the account back.

My councillor also contacted me and suggested I use the formal complaints procedure, should I wait to see if the council take the account back first though?

Latest letter from the Bailiffs is a removal notice.

RobertoMoir

franki9581 wrote: »

Thank you for the help.

I have finally been contacted by the council tax office providing a breakdown. It includes periods when I no longer lived at the address so I have asked them to investigate further and correct their records. SO hopefully this will mean they will take the account back.

My councillor also contacted me and suggested I use the formal complaints procedure, should I wait to see if the council take the account back first though?

Latest letter from the Bailiffs is a removal notice.

I suggest following your councillor's advice. I would also ask them if they could persuade the council's finance department to take the file back or at least put enforcement action on hold with the bailiffs while they investigate and correct the amounts they are asking you for. Make it clear that you are happy to make an arrangement with them and stick to it (and you must stick to any new arrangement the council might give you now in a manner that would make a tube of superglue gasp in admiration)

They may not go for this, but it doesn't cost anything to ask.

RAS

Definately ask the councillor to get them to put the enforcement action on hold until their records are correct.