Thread: Equita charging attendance fee's

Hi
I am currently paying of a parking fine with equita. My debt was £303. I have paid half of this and have an agreement to pay the outstanding debt at the end of the month. I asked them for a Breakdown of this debt which i received after a long wait. I have only received 2 letters from them No one has attended my house for any reason and they are charging visit fees and attendance fees. can they really do this.

Breakdown of payment.
Debt £80
First letter £11.20
Visit £28
Attendance/enforcement £150.00
VAT £33.26
Card charge £0.85.

I rang them and they tried to say this payment was because they have sent a bailiff for a previous debt ( which i paid full visit and attendance fees for and cleared the debt last year).

They really are horrible people to deal with.

This post would bet better suited in the baliffs section. I have alerted the site team to get it moved

Sorry Im new at this.

utter crap, they cannot add fees for a different debt to this!

which council is this for - you need to make them aware!

Carlisle. I've told them. they don't seem to care as long as there getting their money. I have sent an e-mail to equita explaining my querey and said that the man i spoke to couldn't come up with a viable excuse.

This is classic equita. From my experience, as soon as the debt leaves the call centre and is passed to one of their bailiffs they add on their 'Attendance and Removal Fee' charges even though no one has attended and nothing has been removed. They are not allowed to do this and can only charge you a visit fee if they do actually visit (this is the charge of £28).

Do you still have the car the parking fine is associated with?

If not, I would write back to them asking for details of the visit, and a Breakdown of the Attendance and Removal fees. They probably wont write back and provide either but everytime they send you a letter, send them one back referring to your last.

If you still have the car that the PCN is associated with they can clamp you and make you pay pretty much whatever they want to release the car. If you then want to contest the charges they'll make it near on impossible for you to communicate with.

Thanks. I have sent them an e-mail requesting that. I'm not holding my breath for a quick reply.

Should i still pay them the outstanding amount at the end of march?? If I don't i suppose they will send the bailiff out and charges will be incontestable.

If you still have the vehicle associated with the fine i would be tempted to pay, although contesting the charges after they have been paid is an absolute nightmare.

If you dont have the vehicle, dont pay until they justify their charges and you at least know what you are paying for. If you keep on sending the letters and send letters to the local authority at the same time you should get somewhere and they will either provide the justification or eventually charge you what they are allowed to by law....

This is just what i would do based on my experience....

Thanks Fighting equita you've been very helpful.

I have changed my car since the ticket was issued so will wait for them to justify themselves before i pay.

Good. Just a coupple of other things. i'm not sure if they have the right to clamp a vehicle if they think it might be yours, say for example if it's parked in your driveway or they see you returning home. So be aware of this.

Also never let them in your house or sign anthing. If they call round simply tell them you have written letters asking for breakdowns and are awaiting their reply.

Lastly, keep copies and document all of your communication with equita, from telephone calls, emails and letters.

Hi.
Thanks for everyone's help. I made no further payments to equita and i received a letter this morning from equita saying that the account had been settled and closed.

Although no apology or even explanation of why they were trying to charge attendance/visit fees, As long as i never have to deal with them again ill be happy.

I don't know how they get away the way that they work, If i had not requested (and waited...and waited,,,and waited for) a Breakdown of the sum they were asking for the bailiff would've had £150 of my money in his pocket for doing nothing at all.

I wouldn't have known what to do if it wasn't for the consumer action group. Thanks again.

Good news
Rae

Originally Posted by bandit999

Hi.
Thanks for everyone's help. I made no further payments to equita and i received a letter this morning from equita saying that the account had been settled and closed.

Although no apology or even explanation of why they were trying to charge attendance/visit fees, As long as i never have to deal with them again ill be happy.

I don't know how they get away the way that they work, If i had not requested (and waited...and waited,,,and waited for) a Breakdown of the sum they were asking for the bailiff would've had £150 of my money in his pocket for doing nothing at all.

I wouldn't have known what to do if it wasn't for the consumer action group. Thanks again.

You ask an important question here....."How do they get away with it?"

The answer is simple. Because MOST people haven't got clue what the real charges should be.

Take the side of Equita for one minute. If they manage to charge £150 to 100 debtors EACH DAY...that will bring income into the company of £15,000!!!

If ONLY 10 debtors complain then they have made a fantastic profit.

In effect, they are RELYING upon debtors NOT complaining.