i used to drive i asked him for breakdwn on phone but told me he cant give me that iv emailed them for beakdwn how do they get away with this.. beyond belief !!

I have an unpaid PCN which was referred to Equita 3/4 weeks ago, I received a letter from them advising how they are managing this debt and advised me to phone them to pay £130 approx (PCN was £110 after the borough bumped up the fees for non payment) I thought I will pay them as soon as I get paid end of month but yesterday I had a hand delivered letter asking me to call them etc etc Having just spoken to the bailiff, he is demanding £391 to my disbelief, when asked for a breakdown, he said "he cant give me that" and sounded very threatening.. No previous visits by them, no entry to property and no levy on any car as I dont drive. I dont know what to do, please help Thanks

From what I have heard in on these forums, there was a court case (in leeds I think) where someone disputed multiple charges on more than one account for the same visit.. drop me a PM with your email address and I will forward you the details of the case.. its something tomtubby sent me by email.

I simply told them I owed 1600, why all of a sudden this has risen to 2200 simply by missing a payment, i requested a breakdown.. the breakdown stated that i only owe 1643 across all 3 accounts which means the £43 for the levy visit on ONE account so what tomtubby is saying must be TRUE, only a single charge can be applied for visit if they're dealing with multiple a/c's.. Create a thread mate and Im sure the likes of tomtubby will offer you their expert advice ! Good luck..

*** UPDATE *** More or less the same time I created this thread I sent a complaint email to [email protected] disputing these unlawful charges of £600 for simply defaulting on a payment arrangment.. (missing a payment), within 5 days I got a letter saying Karen Fowler will be investigating (she works in the complaints dept) After another week I got letter stating the breakdown of all the charges and surprise surpise, the unlawful charges were REMOVED totally and just a single charge of £43 was added for the levy visit.. I was also offered reinstatement of my intial arrangment if I rang the call centre and paid the instalment I missed initially plus Dec installment .. So to conclude, No more bailiff visits if I continue to make payments on time (which i will be doing believe you and me, Infact I will be paying before the date these payments are due.. and hopefully I will be able to clear my debt within 6 months (although it will be leaving me very stretched) and never have to deal with these bunch of cowboys, money robbing loosers ever again ! Shame to my local authority who wasnt interested to help me, not even an iota's worth , and my local councillors also ignored my emails , when i pledged for help !! On the plus note, My sincere thanks to CAG - what a brilliant consumer forum!! (I will be making a donation as soon as I can) and a special thankyou to tomtubby (she is awesome!!) + halowich, who gave me their time for their awesome advice !! Merry xmas and a happy new year to everyone and best of luck if you have deal with Equita !!

BAILIFFS prey on the vulnerable to cash in - its the only way they can maximise their profits sadly, such a shame the whole bailiff industry is so poorly regulated.. Don't get me wrong, Im all for clearing your debt.. but excessive charges and intimidation ? They can rot in hell for that ! I just had the worst 2 weeks with Equita - if you see my thread they slapped £600 UNLAWFUL CHARGES on my debt for simply missing a payment as per arrangment, upon disputing the charges by email, I got a letter in the post saying all the charges have been dropped on the condition I reinstate my arrangment and pay the arrangment instalment I missed ! This forum was a great help, best thanks to Halowitch and tombubby - they are brilliant for advice !!

Congrats AND ENJOY YOUR CHRIMBO!! wish my LA was as helpful, does this mean Equita have reversed those unlawful costs they tried to sneak out of you ?

Oh I see now ==> (sd) In hindsight i wish i didn't miss that Nov payment, i wouldn't be in this mess today I cant believe that Equita who call themselves certified bailiffs get away with just slapping any figure for a charge and get away with it, I wish I get this sorted asap - Learnt alot from this forum so thank-you all who has been proving a great help directly / undirectly

Sorry whats a SD ?

pls do update us as and when you have any updates... we will stick together !

I forgot to mention my wife is also pregnant.. the LA have said that since its me Equita are dealing with and not my wife, they cant take the debt back under the vulnerable cases.. The council tax is now in both our names since we got married this year and moved in with me, this years council tax im paying on time.. but these owed accounts were in my name only and my wife was not in the picture then Is this correct?

Good post Jimbo..

If you pay the LA make sure the payment dont contribute towards this years balance and contributes towards your arrears a LA will never refuse payment or atleast they shouldnt do, so may be worth paying them a visit in person and explaining what you are paying and for which account. They can come in your garden through any unlocked gates but will they find anything there to levy ? As long as your doors and windows are locked, they cant force an entry.

Hi ploddertom About the 1st + 2nd visit charges on my accounts - Im not sure yet when they were added to my a/c as I have no cost breakdown from them as of yet With regards to that letter dated 4th aug from equita to me - I have edited my above post.. see below I have a letter from Equita dated 4th of August which says I owe £2000 (after aug payment) which is correct! Then in Sept - i made a payment of 200 balance owed : £1800 Then in Oct - I made a payment of 200 Balance owed : £1600 Then in nov : PAYMENT MISSED + FILE REFERRED TO BAILIFF Demand on 2nd dec by phone : £2200 !! 3rd Dec : FORM 7 posted through my letter box which demands £2200 and mentions my dads car which is on my drive. So the bailiff has basically whacked £600 of charges unlawfully ! Even the LA says I owe them £1600 as mentioned in my first post.. So you mean no need to send SAR to get cost breakdown, someone higher up in townhall should be able to tell me.. but when I rang the LA they told me request the breakdown from Equita themselves.. I will ring the LA again and see what I can achieve.

Hi guys I am yet another Equita Victim I have 3 liability orders for council tax - 2006- 2007 / 2007-2008 / 2008-2009 accounts referred to Equita. they have charged the usual 1st + 2nd visit fees to each a/c arrangement was made with them to pay them £200 a month (total debt was approx £2600 inc equita charges) Since sorting out all my finances and determined to clear all my debts I rang Equita and we agreed on a arrangement to pay monthly till balance is clear. The arrangement was £200 a month . i paid £1000 off in 5 installments (200 x 5) plus all their costs (about 40 odd pounds per a/c) I failed on the arrangment by not making my november payment of 200.. The total owed balance before missing my Nov payment was £1600 £1600 also confirmed as principle remaining bailiff balance by my local authority now here is my problem.. what happens on 2nd dec ? I rang to pay nov and dec instalment (200 x 2).. call centre said ring the bailiff as my account is with the bailiff. So I did this, the bailiff demanded £2200 !! a jump from £1600 to £2200 !! - the bailiff said reason for this is and I qoute "additional incurred costs and reason for so much is cos I have 3 accounts"! I didnt get very far although i tried to explain i only owed £1600.. The next day (3rd dec) - 8.30am - FORM 7 left through my letter box which mentions a car on my drive (belongs to my dad) and mentions that I owe £2200! No entry was made, No entry has ever been made to my property at any occasion nor have i signed anything since debts referred to Equita. I do NOT own any vehicles, I will NEVER let any bailiff in my property, ALL windows and doors are always kept locked. My battle is this £600 increase just by defaulting the arrangment plan, I was determined to clear this debt before this happened but now I will pay Equita £0 + send payments direct to my LAuthority! what shall I do ? email sent to [email protected] 1 week ago requesting a breakdown of charges + dates etc.. but no response local authority far from helpful, No visits from bailiff since.. I want to file a form 4 against this bailiff if they dont remove these illegal charges, I know the bailiff is certified as I have done checks online. I will now be sending in an official SAR request to kickstart my battle // - It will be interesting to see how Equita or their bailiffs can justify the £600 charge ! I will fight this all the way.. Please support me and all advice welcome Many Thanks

hey you are not the only one, i have a similar story which i will post up shortly, equita are thieves and their practices need to STOP! I will go all the way to battle it out with them for the excessive charges added to my a/c by their bailiff as a result of failing on a arrangement plan, i will post my thread link here shortly if you wish to follow Good luck to both of us + all the other Equita Victims out there ! Do not pay them their charges, demand a break down in writing and keep us all informed here of all progress.

Thanks Tilly49 So step 1 is to basically open another bank a/c then send a letter from templates libary to get a list of my charges / statements + £10.. Il get on it to right away ! I just managed to get £118 of charges refunded by a simple phone call.. heres my little story I had a cheque going out which got me overdrawn by a £1 and as a result they implied a £30 charge + £28 for going overdrawn.. whats worst is I had 2 switch transactions before the cheque went out (both about £10 each couple of days before the cheque went out) when I did have money in the a/c but THEY DIDNT TAKE THE MONEY OUT THEN, they WAITED TILL I GOT OVERDRAWN AND THEN TOOK IT OUT OF MY BANK SO THEY COULD CHARGE ME £30 EACH FOR THEM TWO TRANSACTIONS ASWELL ! Just rang them up, spoke to a lovely scottish woman who after hearing me ranting for 2 mins calmy asked me " so Mr xxx, what is it that you want me to do today ? " I said refund me the bank charges " and to my amazement she did straight away as a godwill gesture and told me the bank wont be able to do this again.. Very glad I made the call and now its just a case of claiming back all the other money they owe me..

Hi folk I am new to his forum but we all share the common cause.. Now I am going to read up on a few threads and find out what I need to do first.. pls help me along and be my guide, I will be very grateful Need to get back the couple of thousand pounds my bank has taken from me over the years illegaly ! Is there a url where I can see a step by step guide for Halifax bank customers? LUK79