Massive screw up by Equita, we may now have a bailiff visit.

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

I am soory but i shouldnt laugh but they cant take livestock, pedigree or not i know i shouldnt but thhe above has got to be a wind up????

gilligansyle

Amy. wrote: »

We are now all sorted, Bailiff has sent or is sending it back to Equita, i can then make my £70 payment on friday the 1st or as soon as the bailiffs name is off the account. I told them i will ring on the 1st and then everyday if necessary until his name is off the account so i can make the payment, they said thats fine.
So were all sorted, im still going to make a complaint about the others i spoke to though as they were extremely un-helpful ( to put it politely )

Glad it all worked out ok.

sy187

Hi all

This is my first post and I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP.

I received a letter from Birmingham City Council dated 03/08/2011
Claiming that I have lived at the above property in Birmingham from 20th July to 6th December 2005.

and that I owe £338.13

I rang Birmingham City Council and informed them that I have never lived at that address and emailed there team in the 8th August 2011, as requested by there staff.

(My bank has also started that they will help in this matter as my statements and records prove that I have never lived at the address)

On 14/09/2011 I received a letter from Equita demanding £380.63.

I promptly contacted Birmingham City Council and they asked if I could resend the email that I sent in August.

Anyway to cut a long story short...

I got home on Friday 23th September 2011 and found a hand delivered letter with no date, time or amount to be collected, from Equita, giving me 24 hours to pay in full.

I have contacted Birmingham City Council again on Friday and the only thing I got from a very sympathetic lady was "lock all your doors and windows, I will have someone contact you on Monday".


What has shocked me is how can things get so out of control and what can I do.

Please help.

sy187

Hi all

This is my first post and I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP.

I received a letter from Birmingham City Council dated 03/08/2011
Claiming that I have lived at the above property in Birmingham from 20th July to 6th December 2005.

and that I owe £338.13

I rang Birmingham City Council and informed them that I have never lived at that address and emailed there team in the 8th August 2011, as requested by there staff.

(My bank has also started that they will help in this matter as my statements and records prove that I have never lived at the address)

On 14/09/2011 I received a letter from Equita demanding £380.63.

I promptly contacted Birmingham City Council and they asked if I could resend the email that I sent in August.

Anyway to cut a long story short...

I got home on Friday 23th September 2011 and found a hand delivered letter with no date, time or amount to be collected, from Equita, giving me 24 hours to pay in full.

I have contacted Birmingham City Council again on Friday and the only thing I got from a very sympathetic lady was "lock all your doors and windows, I will have someone contact you on Monday".


What has shocked me is how can things get so out of control and what can I do.

Please help.

hallowitch

sy187 wrote: »

Hi all

This is my first post and I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP.

I received a letter from Birmingham City Council dated 03/08/2011
Claiming that I have lived at the above property in Birmingham from 20th July to 6th December 2005.

and that I owe £338.13

I rang Birmingham City Council and informed them that I have never lived at that address and emailed there team in the 8th August 2011, as requested by there staff.

(My bank has also started that they will help in this matter as my statements and records prove that I have never lived at the address)

On 14/09/2011 I received a letter from Equita demanding £380.63.

I promptly contacted Birmingham City Council and they asked if I could resend the email that I sent in August.

Anyway to cut a long story short...

I got home on Friday 23th September 2011 and found a hand delivered letter with no date, time or amount to be collected, from Equita, giving me 24 hours to pay in full.

I have contacted Birmingham City Council again on Friday and the only thing I got from a very sympathetic lady was "lock all your doors and windows, I will have someone contact you on Monday".


What has shocked me is how can things get so out of control and what can I do.

Please help.

Birmingham council outsource the administration of council tax to a company called Capita so when you phone /e-mail them you are speaking to a capita employee Capita own a bailiff firm called Equita


First thing Monday you phone and e/mail the council tell them don't ask tell them (politely) that you have never lived at the address tell them you e-mailed them on the 8th August when you were first contracted by Equita as you still have bailiffs calling it looks like no action was taken by them to sort this out clearly there is some kind of maladministration and you want conformation in writing by e-mail by the end of the day (Monday) that all bailiff action against you has been put on hold until they can establish why you have been linked to this to this address

If they refuse to put the bailiffs on hold tell them you will be writing /e-mail a letter of formal complaint to the chief executive Stephen Hughes

defty1977

HI

This is my first post so please bear with me!!

In march I received a letter from Manchester City Council saying that my unpaid council tax (£167)has gone over to equita, I rang equita who said the debt had gone back to MCC I rang Mcc to arrange payment plan which was agreed, due to a bereavement I completely forgot to ring MCC to make the first payment. The next thing I have received a letter from equita dated 19th june, (even though i received the letter on the monday 18th june) which says.

"we write with reference to the unpaid amount owing to MCC for CT owing on ************** st.

A liability order has been granted by the magistrates. we therefore require the sum of £209.87 by return of post.

failure to discharge this debt will result in our bailiff calling without further notice to attempt to enforce the order by seizing your goods and chattels, which will then be sold at public auction. This will involve considerable additional costs which will also become payable by you.

Please contact our office immediately on 08706060101 with your proposals for discharging this debt.

Yours Sincerely etc etc"

I didnt get paid till the 28th and thought I would have enough time to pay the debt and hhave done with.

However, after having problems all the bank (lost card could only withdraw 50 quid etc) we got home at approx 5.30, to find posted through the letterbox the following.

"delivered by hand
BAILIFF REMOVAL (in red with red box)

payment due in full-24hours

I have attended today with the intention of removing your goods and chattels as are necessary to discharge the outstanding CTLO and any additional ENFORCEMENT COSTS incurred.

Please note-no further arrangements are acceptable and payment is now required in full by CLEAR FUNDS ONLY.

I will re-attend at your address with immediate effect and may REMOVEgoods even in your abscence. Should you wish to avoid this distressing course of action, contact me immediately on the telephone number below to arrange prompt payment of your debt.

NO CONTACT WILL BE TAKEN AS YOUR REFUSAL TO BE PAY


Yours sincerely etc etc"

We immediately rang the number 6 times!!!! On all occasions the phone rang and was hung up with no option for voicemail. we then rang equita 3 times and the phone just rang and rang!!! We went to equitas website (after massive breaking up type of argument with my partner) and found that we could pay online (which we did and the full amount of £209.87) We thought we had done our bit!! But im afraid no, The next morning my partner rang the bailiff who answered, and explained that we had paid the previous evening (20.28) he said he didnt care as there was £158 is costs to pay and he would be getting the money no matter how, my partner explained that there would be noone in the premises and he just hung up, long story short and about 2 hours (while working) and a trip to CAB (4 hours in total during work hours) one call i made was to the bailiff explaining that a complaint had been put through to MCC about his and Equitas conduct, he just said that my call had been noted and hung up!!! I spoke with the manager of MCC council tax dept. who said he would ring equita, (as on the bailiffs letter he didnt mention any costs or anything of monetry value on the letter and thats was in breach of MCCS bailiff code of practice) and get the bailiff to 'back of' which he agreed to for 5 days! me and my partner are at our wits ends and dont know where else to turn as we now cant afford the £158 for the costs.

I know the bailiff cant break in to recover these "costs" but it feels like we are prisoners in our own home!! having to shut and lock the windows and doors!! another problem is that we have 6 cats and a "big" dog (half alsation and half staff) but my concern that, even he isnt trained to do so, if someone were to break into my house, he would "go" for them, (obviously if im not there then i cant restrain him and he always causes a riot when someone knocks on the door!)

Please can someone help with this as we are now scared to near death!! another thing is my partner rang me at work this morning to say that someone had knocked on the door this morning (my partner ran upstairs and looked out of the bedroom window) it was a man in a hi viz (green) who was looking though the living room and bedroom window (which was open) walked up the street looking back several times then went. We werent expecting anyone to call and he only called at our house.

Please can somone help with this????

hallowitch

have you ever had a hand delivered notice of seizure of goods and inventory perhaps listing a car (if they haven't been in your home )

do you own a car (is it on HP/finance)
can you record your calls

defty1977

apologies for not responding sooner, the matter was taken up by MCC and was completely dropped!