Hiya

I have an old council tax debt with Equita.

I missed a payment over christmas and they forwarded it to the bailiffs.

The guy came out and I explained that I live in my sisters house and own nothing, which I could prove.

He went away

I kept calling to find out what was happening and got no repsonse.

I called Equita and they said I had to speak directly to him but he wouldn't pick up the phone.

They then instructed a different Baliff who after speaking with agreed to re-instate the instalments,

i've been paying him.

I was away last month when the payment was due

when I came back I called him to pay.

He said he'd call me back and then didn't.

I called him over a couple of weeks, leaving voice messages asking him to return my call

so I could make the payment, I also text him but he didn't ever call me.

Now they've instructed a third guy,

I just spoke to him and explained what happened. and that I had tried to make the payment

but the guy wouldn't come back to me. He said, 'He didn't help you out there' and I said no, but

he's saying that now there is no way for the arrangement to be re-instated

and that if I don't pay they'll come and inventory the stuff in the house

and then when I prove it's not mine they will take it back to court and i'll be summoned.

I'm planning to file a complaint with Equita as I don't think it's fair

they won't allow me to continue the arrangement when it was their agent that didn't communicate with me.

They repeatedly sent me letters threatening further action even though I was making my payments,

then said they couldn't stop the letters as they were automated

and that the bailiff had to advise them I had an agreement with them

but despite me asking he didn't tell them.

But the payments were taken from Equita, it's on my bank statements!

Any advice please??

If it is a Council Tax debt, you will be able to get a balance from the council. Equita are working as the council's agents, so it is worth mentioning to the council that Equita are refusing to reinstate a payment arrangement.

It is vital you do not allow the bailiff entry to the property, so keep doors locked. They are allowed to walk through unlocked doors. Ensure any goods outside (usually a vehicle) are kept out of the way, or the bailiff will try to take it under control.

How much is the debt for and what fees have been added? You should have received a letter headed Notice of Enforcement giving you 7 days to arrange a repayment plan. You would have been charged £75 at this point.

The next charge would be if the bailiff visits you. This would be for £235. If there is only one Liability Order against you, this is all that will have been charged at this stage. However, if there is more than one debt being collected, they will charge multiple £75's (one for each debt), but only one £235. You need to be clear what exactly you owe. Are you?

If Equita refuse to reinstate the repayment plan, then write to the Head of Revenues, copied to the Chief Executive of the Council and Equita stating you are willing to repay the debt, you are putting the money asside, and will reinstate the payment agreement once they agree to take money off you. It is very important you show your willingness to pay.

At the end of the day, if the bailiffs are denied access to your property, they cannot take control of goods outside and are not agreeing any repayment, they will return the account to the council, at which stage all bailiff fees will die. Unfortunately for you, the first £75 of any monies already paid will have gone straight to the bailiff, with the remainder split roughly 70:30 between the council and the enforcement company.

I would ask the council for a detailed breakdown of your debt, including any fees applied to it, stating Equita are refusing to give you this information.

Once you have more detail about the extent and breakdown of the debt, post back if they do not agree repayment in the meantime. Remember if you sit it out, it will be returned to the council and any remaining fees will die, leaving just the original debt.

If they do agree to allow another repayment plan, it is critical that you stick to it rigidly, or this will all happen again.

yes , he's lying.

they cant do anything unless you let them in

and you are under NO legal obligation to do so!

CTAX debts have no right of entry

I would suspect at some point in time

you've had a notice of Enforcement letter

and then got charged an extra £75

then when they bailiff came around

you got a further +£235? charge

Yes I had a payment arrangement and I missed one so they sent out a bailiff and charged me £75 and £235.

I asked him to re-instate the agreement as I am a single parent working part time and can't pay it all in one payment,

I don't have that kind of money.

At that point it was £790.

He was going to call me back, didn't and wouldn't answer my calls or texts.

passed to another bailiff, he agreed the arrangement. I was paying it.

He stopped answering my calls and texts,

I left voicemail's asking him to call me back so I could make my payment and he didn't.

Now they are passing it back and it would seem planning to add even more charges on.

I don't know what the current balance is as they said I have to ask the new bailiff.

Equita say I can't pay the money directly to them or I would have just sent them the monthly amount,

I have to pay via the bailiff, but they are clearly collecting the money because it shows on my statements as Equita.

The new guy say's it's gone to the highest point in the business and there is no way I will be allowed to re-instate any arrangements

and that they will apply for a committal or something like that.

I don't understand what he meant but he says I'll get summoned to court.

I just said oh well if that's how it has to be fair enough I've been trying to pay you.

I've just made an email complaint to Equita detailing everything that's happened and asking to re-instate my agreement.

If I make a direct payment to them for one installment would that help?

Have a read of my post diddy - they can't add more fees on. In fact if they hand it back to the council, any further fees due will die, as there will be no enforcement power anymore. This is why it is important to tell the council what has happened, and make it very clear you are trying to pay the debt. You can ask if they will take it back, given the circumstances, so you pay them directly, though in this case the fees may well still remain.

if I called the council and explain whats been going on they may take this back and allow me to pay them directly?

I think it went to court for a liability order or something will that affect whether they take it back please?

A liability order is done through the court, but that is only to state formally you owe the money and have not paid it, so they can commence formal enforcement proceedings. The council will prefer you deal with Equita, but if you write (email should be acceptable) explaining the difficulties, they might take it back if you ask them, though you would still face the bailiff's fees if they do this.

The only way to avoid fees would be to sit it out, denying any access, and stopping any possibility of taking control of things outside where you live (a vehicle usually). Eventually they will return it to the council, at which stage any remaining fees would die. Obviously this can be stressful - only you can decide which route to take.

If you go back to the council and accept the fees, then make sure they know how difficult Equita are being, and stress you want to repay the debt at the rate you were previously. Don't expect this to be easy.

Okay thanks.

Just so I know where I am,

the baliff says he has a warrant to take my goods,

can he use force to enter in this instance?

I have an 8yr old in the house,

so if I refuse entry but he can force his way in (although I always keep my doors locked so he'll struggle)

I don't want my son getting distressed.

Also, if I hold fire, refuse entry but send my payments each month to Equita via bank transfer as I was doing before.

Even if they keep coming out, if they accept the payments

does it in effect mean they are agreeing to the payment arrangement?

I'm just thinking that if they can't force their way in and I just pay them each month

they can hardly accuse me of refusing to pay,

the balance should be around £600 now

so I'll be clear by about December and rid of them.

Thank you x

They are not allowed to force entry for a Council Tax debt, so as long as you keep your doors locked, you are safe. If they turn up, you do not have to have anything to do with them whatsoever.

If you sent payments directly, I can't see them refusing them, though you need a breakdown of what is owed so you pay only the right amount. As long as you are happy accepting the £310 bailiff fees (they'll already have take £75 of this from your first payment(s), so effectively the remaining £235, in order to relieve stress, that is your choice.

The threat to remove goods is to try to force full payment which they are technically entitled to do once you miss an agreed repayment. That said, if you are paying, and have proof from texts you have offered multiple times, they are unlikely to try to come to your house, other than to try to take a vehicle under control - you need to be wary of that. They cannot have what you have not got, so refusing payment would be stupid.

I would still write to the council as Equita are being deliberately obstructive which only adds unnecessary stress to an already emotionally fuelled situation.

that bailiff needs reporting to the council.

as they are employing him.

they are having a laugh

this is for CTAX, not a flippin court fine

notice of committal my foot!!

what is this CTAX debt from.

and did the council write to you about

it is for an old property or you current one?

tell us more about the debt?

and any others you have .

as if you are paying mobile phone/brighthouse/crad/loans off you REALLY need to drop those down to £!PCM

and get this paid of ASAP.

have you checked you are getting all the benefits you and your child are entitled too

Okay, thank you,

I'll keep the doors locked as always and just send my money each month to Equita.

I'll speak to the council and tell them whats been happening and find out what the balance should be.

I think if the current charges already stand then I will have to pay them.

But I'll send them my phone records showing the attempts at contacting the bailiff

and say that I'm not prepared to accept any further charges.

If it went back to court I think it would go in my favour as I can show that I tried to contact him

to make the payment but if they can't really do that hopefully the council will just take it back

and I can clear it on the payment arrangement as planned.

Yes, that's fine if that is what you are choosing. As said several times, you could sit it out, but this can add extra stress.

It won't go back to court, it will go back to the council. make sure you write and complain, ideally to the Chief Executive and Head of Revenues, copied to Equita. Any payments will reduce your balance, and as long as they don't gain entry, no further charges can be added.

The bailiffs lie in order to coerce payment, so post back if there are any further problems. Hopefully you should be fine.

Hi Dx100uk

This is an old council tax debt.

I used to live in Kent and after I split up with my sons dad stayed there for 4 years,

trying to maintain their relationship but really couldn't afford to live down there and got into all manner of debts.

I moved back up to Coventry about 2.5yrs ago and moved in with my sister.

I didn't work for the first 7 months but eventually got a part time admin job and am still in that job.

I admit for a long time I buried my head in the sand about my debts hoping they would all go away

but for the last 1.5yrs I've been paying them off.

I have arrangements with all my creditors and maintain them each month,

but at Christmas missed a few payments.

Equita are the only ones that have got out the bailiffs,

I picked up the arrangements on everything in Jan and stick to them.

Because I have quite a few debts I don't make huge payments on each one but am slowely clearing them.

By the end of the year I'll have a good few down

I get some tax credits but I'm not entitled to claim any other benefits as far as I know.

I'll speak to the council and have already made a complaint to Equita.

I'll be downloading my phone records and taking screen shots of the texts and emailing them in also

as this proves I tried to contact and make payment.

I'll send these to the council too.

Thanks Coughdrop. Appreciate the advice. Was feeling really stressed earlier, but a lot better now

what do you mean by paying 'other debts'

I hope you are not blindly paying debt collection agencies like lowells/cabot etc etc

for consumer debts a DCA IS NOT A BAILIFF!!

such debts are NOT a priority.

and can be questioned.

dx

Yes I had a payment arrangement and I missed one so they sent out a bailiff and charged me £75 and £235.

 

I asked him to re-instate the agreement as I am a single parent working part time and can't pay it all in one payment, I don't have that kind of money.

 

At that point it was £790. He was going to call me back, didn't and wouldn't answer my calls or texts.

 

passed to another bailiff, he agreed the arrangement. I was paying it. He stopped answering my calls and texts,

I left voicemail's asking him to call me back so I could make my payment and he didn't.

 

Now they are passing it back and it would seem planning to add even more charges on.

 

I don't know what the current balance is as they said I have to ask the new bailiff.

It would seem that after defaulting at Christmas time, a personal visit was made and an enforcement fee of £235 was applied to your account. At this point, the amount outstanding was £790 which included the £235.

Before this visit, were you making payments to Equita or were your payments being made to the council?

Since Christmas (when the account defaulted) how much have you paid to Equita?

What payment arrangement was agreed?

The other issue is as you are a lodger with your sister, the bailiff cannot have anything from the house as your sister is a third party, he will tell you different, so under no circumstances let him in.

You have had good advice from the team.

 

If, what is stated in the above post on the last paragraph is true and you do not have any money, do not enter into a payment arrangment, as if it fails your account may be transferred to another bailiff who may charge identical fees again.

 

Sitting it put may work in the short term but, it will not stop continued enforcement and it will not settle the debt.

 

The only way to guarantee that bailiffs stop calling is to show them you have no funds or property which can be used to pay the debt, they will then report this back to the council who sill not use them again in this action.

 

It is also debt avoidance by any definition.

The OP has not answered an enquiry that I raised a few days ago and has not posted any further so I will make just this one post.

In this particular case (which is what we should focus one), the individual appears to have reduced her debt from £790 to £600. Accordingly, the compliance fee of £75 has been deducted in full and the balance (approx £125) would have been apportioned on a pro rata basis with approx 60% being allocated towards the debt on the Liability Order and the remaining 40% towards reducing the 'enforcement fee' of £235.

It would seem that Equita has allocated this account to three seperate bailiffs employed by them. Naturally, additional fees cannot be charged if the debt is passed to a fourth or even fifth bailiff working for Equita. Problems can arise however if the account is returned to the local authority and it was specifically this point that I had in mind when I made my earlier post.

Regretabally...in this particular case....if the local authority were to reissue the Liability Order to another enforcement company, the OP could find herself being charged a further Compliance Fee. Whether this would happen in reality is another point and is one that is better being discussed in a new discussion thread (ie: Recycling of Warrants/Liability Orders).

Discussion posts moved to .....

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?466609-Equita-threatening-court-action-despite-payment-arrangement...Discussion

This thread temp closed until advised by the OP to reopen.

Hiya

I missed so many responses on this thread sorry!

I did miss a payment over Christmas, but kept up with them after that until May when I tried to make my normal payment but the bailiff wouldn't answer my calls or return them. The first bailiff did the same thing in Jan but the second bailiff was the one who let me re-instate the agreements.

The third is refusing and my complaint was that I am trying to make the repayments but wasn't able too, not because I wasn't trying and that the bailiff who now holds the account keeps saying he's going to take it to court for a commitment proceedings. I think they should allow me to make the payments as previously agreed.

Not let anyone in, and can prove the belongings in the house are my sisters.

I don't know what more I can do as they won't respond to my complaints, transfer my calls to the bailiff when I ring the office and won't accept my money directly.

I will look back on your previous posts and respond later on this evening.

In the meantime, can you post back to let us know how much you have paid to Equita (via their bailiffs) against this debt and what the current balance is?

Current Balance is £660.36 - I have paid £360

I missed a payment in December. Re-started the agreement in Feb with Bailiff no 2 as Bailiff no 1 ignored my calls/texts/voicemails. And then Bailiff no 2 did the same in May when I tried to make that months payment. Now passed to Bailiff no 3 who says he's coming tomorrow (said the same on the 30th June and didn't that time) and that when I prove the stuff in the house belongs to my sister, he'll apply to court for commitment proceedings and that he has a warrant.

If he has a warrant can I still refuse him entry or can he use force to enter?

Also, Equita won't allow me to make any payments to them directly they say the money has to be paid to the bailiff and he won't accept anything other than full payment.

I also haven't made a payment for June and am shortly due July, and am wondering if I should just stick with what I planned to do and transfer it directly to Equita's bank account. They have told me only to pay the bailiff but am assuming they won't return the money to me if I send it that way!

Hi Diddy1

The only thing I would suggest to do is pay the council, Direct on the online or telephone payment line.

The council can not decline payment.

I would also get in contact with the head of revenues at the council and explain what has happened.

A similar thing happened to me a few years back with Equita,

If you can get proof of what the EA is saying about the committal even better.

The council would be the only one that can take you to court for this, and it is very unlikely to happen.

Just make sure you to not allow entry to your property, and any vehicles move away.

Leakie

Hi Leakie

Thank you, I don't understand the court part anyway - it's already been to court and had a liability order (?) issued. I'm not trying to get out of paying. I fully accept I owe the money and want to get it paid off.