sorry sorry, i just cut and paste from email , it looks ok on the reply box then comes out like this, i know about talking to them but after the letter through my missus was going mad.

The council tax manager asked me to put everything i could remember about my dealing with equita in an email , i sent her, Hello, Thanks for the telephone call I will try to put together below the conversation with the bailiff and some other points which I feel are relevant, if you could reply by email as well as phoning it would help me understand what’s gone on as it is sometimes a lot to take in over the phone. I spoke to the bailiff on Tuesday morning at about 8 am and asked him to clarify a few points, His certification number to check he was a certified bailiff, The original amount owed, Any payments made by myself, The remaining balance, Any fees added, He said I would have to ring back the next day at ten, I rang back he said he didn’t have a number but was registered at Liverpool, I checked this and he is, He said it was scheduled for a man with a van to visit and remove goods, He said the debt was £1224.79 originally, He said I owed £816 now before a visit, I knew I had paid around £612 so I queried the difference, he stated these were fees added, I reckoned up quickly the fees to be around £200 and asked him how they could charge this as the fees are set in legislation, he grumbled and said if I paid straight away it would be £643 pounds, meaning the difference from £816 to £643 are I assume the fees he quoted i.e. £173. I told him I couldn't pay at once but could possibly pay over two weeks if I didn't pay the mortgage, he replied that he'd get back to me. He didn't and called the next day, and hand posted the letter I left at the council. Neither I nor my partner has any recollection of a previous visit, During June and July I was receiving letters from Equita asking to ring head office, if the debt had been passed to an individual bailiff Equita wouldn't discuss the debt with me and so I don't think I could have entered into an arrangement with them. Do Equita have proof of the visits; many Debt collection Agencies now use GPS logs as proof of visits. Hope this helps you get to the bottom of it. My other questions are, The national debt line insist that fees are only payable for the first two visits and if no entry is made non thereafter, a van charge cannot be made unless a levy is in place, no levy has ever been placed on my goods as entry has never been made. A link to their website can be found here http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=02_bailiffs_and_council_tax fees are at the bottom, Equita are members of the ESA enforcement services association, their code of conduct states, . Members should on each and every occasion when a visit is made to a debtor’s property which incurs the debtor in a fee, leave a notice setting out in detail how the fee was made up and retain a record of the said issue of the notice for a minimum period of 12 months, after the date of issue. This is not the case with Equita letters, The last letter implies the bailiff can return at any time and force entry whether I am in or not, again this is against the law as no walking possession order or levy has been signed, in effect he is threatening to break in and steal goods. I have found a receipt for the payment I mentioned to you that I paid last year, It was for £427.27 and the equita reference was *******, paid on the 4th april 08 , as above I believe no visits were made only to collect the money, no levy etc. I called the recovery office on Saturday to try and find out how much you recieved, the lady has found a payment from equita on the 4th May for £277.77, if this is the same payment it means again i have been charged £149.50 to pick up the cheque ?. As I said on the phone I am more than happy to get the debt paid off and appreciate the time and effort you are spending to get the issues resolved, however if it is that Equita have acted outside of the legislation set in place to govern Bailiffs I intend to complain to whoever I can to ensure this doesn't happen again. Many thanks again Stephen Whiteley She rang on monday and sounded much more agreeable, she said the debt is on hold while an investigation is carried out and she would write back as soon as possible, i know the letters not perfect but are there any major errors i should know about before she rings back. Also if anyone knows about CCJ's and charging orders can i have some help on my other thread please.

Hi, i had a defaulted loan with the halifax which was passed to blair , oliver and scott. I then moved out of my property and rented it out, into a house i own with my girlfried. I informed the halifax who the debt was to that i had moved house and was in diffulties financialy. I recieved a letter from The land registry at my new address telling me a charge had been issued at my previous property. After investigating it seems the halifax passed the debt to blair which sold it to howard cohen, they must have been sending letters to my old address and resulted in the court case , ccj and charge. I have never recieved a letter from them as i had moved before they bought it, halifax confirm they have my correct address, they still transfer me to blair when i ring? blair tell me they sold it, howard cohen tell me they only had my old address, they rang my dad at weekend ! i've not lived there for 7 years. What do i do ? i'd like to go to court and explain my circumstances. help help help

Hi, further to my ongoing thread about equita and salford council, i am looking faor anyone who has been charged illegal amounts by equita when recovering a council tax debt, ideally where no levy has taken place, i am trying to establish if this practice is common place in our area, many thanks

Just noticed on the letters from equita , first one is the liability order, second says Recovery officers have called, third says they will send out a bailiff if not paid, whats the difference between recovery officer and bailiff

fantastic, as i haven't paid the fees yet if they withdraw them is there anything i can do other than complain, if equita have been charging for every visit regardless of levy is there anyway i can do anything to help the other people that had been ripped off ? the lady from the council was telling me thev'eused equita for 4 years for thousands of cases and they are a reputable company, imagine how much they must have made ripping off people. As a point of interest where does the onus lie on proving a visit from the bailiff has taken place. thanks again

ok getting somewhere, just had a phonecall of the assistant council tax councillor, she has been asked by the councillor i emailed to look in to my case, she insists i owe the money, i agree, payable at a realistic figure, but has put the collection on hold while she investigates the fees , threat of fees that equita are charging. Equita now insist i was visited in june last year twice, i deny this , this was the time i agreed a payment plan on the phone if it had been referred to a bailiff they would not have spoken to me. Equita deny the bailiff told me there were £180 charges applied before visiting , i don't have a recording but i think she believes me and is taking the matter up with them The most interesting thing is she insists they can keep calling and adding fees when no access or levy is in place, she quotes section 1A of the 1992 statutory instrument "for making a visit to premisis with a view to levying distress (WHETHER THE LEVY IS MADE OR NOT ), can anybody with a legal background confirm if this is the case or not with reasoning, she also says if they visit with a van, again no levy, they can charge reasonable costs she reckons £150+ is reasonable. While this issue about visits with no levy may not affect me directly i'd love them to be wrong and have to deal with it, however the advice would have to be spot on, thank you very much for your help till now stephen

The bailiff called today and posted a letter it reads I have attended today with the intention of removing your goods and chattels as are necessary to discharge the outstanding council tax liability order and any additional enforcement costs. i will re-attend at your address with immediate effect and may remove goods even in your absence. Should you wish to avoid this distressing course of action contact me immediately on the telephone number below to arrange prompt payment. no contact will be taken as your refusal to pay . also my name is spelt wrong on the letter any ideas,

whwn i rang to pay equita it refers you to the bailiff, gives his name and number , i spoke to him and asked him to clarify the outstanding debt , he informed me then it was my debt of 612 plus 180 fees, he hasn't visited yet but says he is coming with a van today.

Just sent the following to my local councillors Account Number –********** Equita Number - ********** Dear Sir, Whilst I understand the importance of recovering council tax it is with regrets that due to financial hardship over the last two years I fell behind with my council tax, the debt was passed to equita who you employ to recover debts. Despite discussions with the CCCS who were advising me on my debt situation Equita would only allow me to repay the debt over six months at £204 per month. We struggled but we did manage to pay three payments before we fell behind on our mortgage as we did not have enough money to pay both, we missed a payment in December and the matter was referred to a collection Bailiff. Equita now refuse to discuss the issue with me and the council refuse to discuss the issue with me, I have been informed by the bailiff that even though he hasn't visited my house he has added £180 to the bill, after researching bailiff law I have found that this is illegal, there are statuary fees in place for bailiff fees set by the government, starting at 12.5% of the first £100 and going up, it can be researched on the net. These fees are only applicable after the first visit where access is not made. I am more than willing to pay the debt as stated but will not be held to ransom by a company employed by yourselves who are acting illegally and exploiting people who are most at need. I can only guess at the number of people who have through fear and ignorance has had to pay these illegal fees and request that you investigate this matter with Equita direct. I can assure you that with a simple search of the internet regarding Equita and there method of operations you may come across their questionable or illegal way of dealing with people is this really a company which you choose to represent Salford. My question is what do I do now, I am willing to pay off the debt but not to a bailiff who imposes illegal fees, do you as a council condone or are aware of this practice, ant help would be appreciated. It is my intention to forward this email to a selection of local councillor’s and the local Salford Advertiser and await your responses. Many thanks ******************************** Wonder if i get a reply

The liabilty order was for £1224 divided into six payments of £204, i have paid £612 so i know i owe exactly £612 plus any other charges, craig has not been yet i'm ringing at 10 tomorrow to get his figures for whats owed, what i'm after is to know what they can legally charge me so if he's added a load on i can reply to him straight away, chabged the front door lock to one that stays locked when closed so he can't walk in , the old lock just stayed open unless locked with key.

Hi, i owed the council just short of 1300 pounds equita demanded that i pay £200 a month back and this i have kept to, i then missed decembers payment and it has been passed to a bailiff called craig, equita and the council won't discuss this issue now. i Rang craig and asked him to clarify some points before we started any discussion about payments, theses were are you a certified bailiff ( checked he is) the starting balance, any payments made, remaining balance, any fees ,charges made, he said to ring back tomorrow, what i need to know is if they have added fees and charges which from the forum i know not to be legal what do i do ? should i not pay any more untill there removed, offer carry on paying my installments, (£600 remaining) or something different. please help as i've got to ring back tomorrow.

HI, just a quick thought, when i got into the situation i'm in now regarding unpaid loans it all started by consolidating loans with more loans, i'm sure some of the lasted less than six months before i took out another with the same branch to pay off debt plus new debts. My point is that even though i might have been blind to the fact i was struggling to meet repayments the bank shouldn't have been, do i have an argument ? it's over 8 years to the last loan thats in default can i do anything? thanks steve

ohh well, just recieved my cca today from the halifax, guess they'll be chasing me again anytime now, just a question on that, there is payment protection on the loan but as i'm now self employed but wasn't at the time i took out the loan it is now of no use. is the insurance still running as the debt is still in place or is that not the case as the account is in default. i've attached it for your views. 2. just got a reply from frasercard saying as the account is over 6 years old they have no records of charges, is this the norm ? many thanks cca.doc

Hi, i have two unused bank accounts which i am trying to reclaim charges against. As i don't use these accounts but they are overdrawn the banks have withdrawn the facility and are chasing payments, can i get the accounts on hold untill the reclaiming process is complete, if so is there a template letter for doing this? cheers