Equita Enforcement Letter

MoFars

Hey All
First of all apologies if someone has previously seeked advice on a similar issue to mine here on this forum! 

I am being chased by Equita for a council tax arrear amount due from 2014. I had since then moved cities and counties twice and last year when I got back into the county again on a new job, a few months in I received a letter from Equita advising of this unpaid council tax amounting to £1450.  This came as a huge shock to me after nearly 6 years. The dates listed on the Equita letter seem correct to when I used to reside in the stated property but this was a shared accommodation (shared with 5 other people). I was not responsible for the bills or council tax at this property and as far I remember the person delegated this task used to collect money from everyone every month to pay for bills and council tax. 

The letter from Equita has me and one of the other housemates from property listed on the letters and no one else. This other named person however has left the country and I have not been in touch with him for over 5 years. I don't know where any of the other housemates are either. Equita have already added a compliance stage fee of £75 to the debt amount and over the last month or so been sending letters threatening to send enforcement agents to my property. I know my situation is quite pityful here as I cannot prove that I was paying my share of bills to other housemates and neither can I get in touch with any of them.   

What can I do in this situation? Would I be responsible for the entire amount stated from Equita? If this is the case then I would not be in a position to pay the entire amount in full in one hit! Even though I earn well, due to some other prior commitments, I can only manage to pay about 50£ towards a payment plan. Is this something Equita would agree with?

Please help a stressed fool here!

Many thanks

RAS

If this wasn't a registered HMO for which the LL was paying CT
and at least some of you were not students,
you were jointly and severally liable for Council Tax.

That means each of you can be chased for the full amount.

The fact that you appear to have been done over by one of your housemates is neither here nor there, unfortunately. It would be for you to chase them and the other tenants.

Do check that the dates of the liability order coincide with your residence, however.

Equita are unlikely to consider anything that doesn't pay off the debt within a year, and may well add extra fees.