Beginning of March I received a letter from equitta that I was in errors with my council tax bill of £300. Before that I had no knowledge that I had any errors with the council. I had thought my little brother had paid towards the council tax bill when I had asked him to but he didn't due to some misunderstanding. Therefore I had no knowledge of the errors until I received a letter from Equitta demanding the £300 to be paid within 7 days! So I decided to pay the full amount. I paid £200 on the 6th or March and £100 on 13th of March. So technically I had cleared the errors before the end of the council tax year ended which is the 31st of March 2010! However today (10th of April)) I received another letter from Equitta informing me that they will be visiting my property next week in order to remove items from my house …this has really frighten considering that I have already made the payments and had cleared my council tax bill. In order to be sure that I had cleared all my council tax bill I rang the council tax automated service within March to see whether there were any further charges on my account, but was told that I had no amount due in my account and that it had all been cleared.

The only thing which I did not do when I first received a letter from Equitta was pay them directly as I did not trust them so instead paid council tax directly. As I was unable to get in touch with them in person I paid through their automated council tax payment services for which I had reference number for each payment made. So can the bailiffs still come down my house considering I have made the payments …what do I do? Please him me …

Thanks in advance...x

good well done side stepped the bailiffs and their charges!

idle threats i'm afraid designed to frighten you.

write or send them an email that its been paid ask the council

goodbye bailiffs!

dx

If bailiffs are involved then there is a liability order against you from the court.

The court fee is payable and is credited before the council tax. So if you owed £300 and only paid £300 then you are still in arreas with your tax by the amount of court fees due.

Thanks guys for such prompt replies. Really nice to know that their are good people out there in time of need x...

I paid the full amount that was requested on the Equetta letter. It did not state any additional charges on the letter other than informing me that the sum of £300 pounds needed to be paid, which I did. I will email them and inform them that I have paid. I really hope they don't do anything to me and really do not want them visiting my house ...so if I have paid the full charges that were stated on the letter how would I find out what the additional charges were such as court fees etc, because I have not recieved any letter telling me to attend court?

...it's the first year I had to deal with full responsability of bills, council tax etc, I really hate these grown up stuff ...

was the letter from equita hand delivered or posted

it was posted? Does that matter? x

it was posted? Does that matter? x

yes it matters bailiffs collecting council tax debt can only charge fees for visits made to your home they cant charge a fee for sending you a letter by post

as said previously if the council are using bailiffs they must have a liability order against you

phone your council first thing Monday and ask them

1)the date of the liability order

2)the amount of the liability order

3)the date it was passed to equita

4) the amount outstanding on your liability order

as you have paid this debt before the bailiffs have been to your home there should be no fees however its common for bailiff company's to add visit fees before they visit

with council tax bailiffs fees are paid first out of any payments you make

therefore its possible that you haven't paid the council tax debt in full

while you are sorting this out DO NOT let the bailiff into your home under any circumstances no matter what they say keep your door locked at all times and your windows closed

if you have a garden DO NOT leave anything in it garden furniture,lawn mower. ect if you have a shed/garage keep it locked if you have a car DO NOT park it on your drive or near your house

some councils contract out there council tax administration and collection to agency's so when you phone the council you may be speaking to someone who is not a council employee one of company's councils use is capita who own equita

ask the person who you speak to there name and note down the time/date of the call

hopefully this will be sorted on Monday when you phone the council but as with most things concerning councils and bailiffs its never that simple

let us know what the council say

surely if the bailiffs wrote saying £300 and that was paid,

either they have added illegal fees [so the debt to the council was less than £300] but the court fees would have already been included.

i know it sounds strange, but it LOOKS like the bailiffs just wrote a letter of what the debt was without adding anything themselves ??? VERy rare i know!!

it will be interesting what value the council say the liability order was for on monday..............

or am i missing something ...[again]

dx

surely if the bailiffs wrote saying £300 and that was paid,

Equita are still trying to collect the full amount it look likes the council have not updated Equita and they will be looking for a levy if they have already added there fees (its always wise to be cautious when dealing with bailiffs)

either they have added illegal fees [so the debt to the council was less than £300] but the court fees would have already been included

I will be surprised if they haven't added fees to the £300

i know it sounds strange, but it LOOKS like the bailiffs just wrote a letter of what the debt was without adding anything themselves ??? Very rare i know!!

Its strange alright i don't like when bailiffs do strange no fees for themselves very rare its as rare as rocking horse s**t

it will be interesting what value the council say the liability order was for on monday..............

£257.50 at a guess

or am i missing something ...[again]

no you never missed a thing 8) until the financial side of it adds up you don't know whats going on with the account and i don't like bailiffs. no fees. and strange in the same sentence

dx

hallowitch

I expect that the 300 is for council employees pensions. Look at what the top squad are earning over 3.3 million a year. There is a greater london elections soon and there is 32 boroughs and if 8 of the top lot are on the same salaries and I expect it would be more this takes it over a billion a year for these people.

News | London Evening Standard

Hi,

Thank you all for your responses.

....I am totally cheesed off today! I rang the council and informed the lady I was speaking to of my situation. She then informed me that the reason why the Equita people are on my case is because I still owe £6.11!! For which she started laughing! Then she goes and speaks to her manager he then informs me that they had been some changes to my council Tax and that additional charges of £30.62 had been added!

The reason why I am cheesed is because I was not informed this in writing! I had no letter sent to me stating that I had these extra charges!!! I was told I had £300 to pay, which I did! Even when I rang the automated services after a week of having cleared the supposed balance "£300" the machine said that I had £0.00 on my balance!!!! But now when I rang the council they have recently added these charges!! I thing it is bloody pathetic! They could have informed me before trying to send Bailiffs down my house! Apparently these charges occurred as of 8/04/2010!!! However the first letter of Equita was sent at the beginning of March stating that I need to pay £300 within 7 days!!! For which I did!! So really the Bailiffs should have been off my case! But the council did not inform them that I had paid! And now they are asking me to pay additional charges, but surely that should not involve baillifs considering that these charges are from 8/04/10 and no form of written request of this had been sent?! I do understand where these additional charges are coming from (and it is not for legal reasons, but due to my sister who was claiming support as a student, who has recently had her first child etc)

Argghh I really hate the council!

what council is this

Walsall Council!!!

Paul Sheehan is the Chief Executive of Walsall Council

i would suggest a formal complaint to him