just a thought, but is your salary / benefits paid into this account? if so are they being swallowed up by the o/d? if so you may want to consider opening a basic bank account while you attemp to agree some kind of repayment plan with the bank and the rest of your creditors.

Hello All I have spoken with Lee and I have no reason to panic, my plan is up to date and still active. I carry on as normal! thanks Lee

you are right, but not sure who I would complain to as this has been agreed with Lee? and when I call to make a payment it takes me almost 15 mnutes to even get to make a payment, I get passed from pillar to post, to be honest its almost worth it because I get to make the paymen and its a step closer to paying off what I owe which is ultimately what I want.

thanks ceber i am just bit worried about it, I just get frazzled living on my nerves. xx

Hello I am posting this evening because when I got home tonight there was a letter from Vodaphone with a balance that was incorrect and asking for full payment, I have stuck to my payment plan as agreed, first payment due and made on 28th jan and seecond payment due and paid on 28 Feb..... can anyone offer me any help please, do I ignore or fo I call Vodaphone?

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thanks for your reply, I dont think its down to luck now, they have not followed the regulations and we are not going to roll over. its a tough world for everyone not just the bailiffs - dont mean they have free will to do as they please. thanks for your words of support. x

right the plan now is to raise a complaint to the council, the question is do I just go straight for the court option, as you could drive a bus through this situation. In the first instance I am going to email mr CEO and Mr Head of rvenues and ask for confirmation of the time that the mr Bailiff attended with his form 7 that he didnt fill in and didnt post through my letterbox. just as an aside, why would this bailiff state that our liability at 5 Jan was £306.23? and not £172.23?

ahhhh i see, now it becomes a bit clearer. thanks HW, the fact still remains that he did not actually levy, so do I just start the complaint process or do I need to ascertain the time he claimed he levied - bearing in mind that I can prove that my car was on a car park and I was in the office all day?

I am going to be sick now, this is getting to me

I understand that what you are saying that if you add a levy fee of £27 to what we had outstanding at 1 Jan 2011 it would equal £173.23, the point is that he did not attend therefore would not have been able to levy and took a payment of £306.23 on 5 Jan. I dont see what you are driving at HW, am I confused? I not understand what you are saying to me? sorry can you explain?

you could say that we were almost out of the woods with this bill and it was nearly paid off, and as we had a little spare money decided that we wanted to go into the new year not having this hanging around our necks, little did we know that he was going to have the little spare that we had and all of what we didnt. It was tough going for the rest of the month, walking to work and spending what we had with extreme caution. Mr Bailff made our lives a bloody misery, it was the toughest January of our married lives. the idiot he is.

I think there is some confusion here, so I gonna try and clear it up. There were 2 payments to go one for Dec of £70 and the last payment due at the end of Jan for £79.23. So total amount outstanding at 1 Jan would have been £149.23. As we didnt get to make the payment before Equita closed for Christmas we wanted to clear the full balance and not just the December payment at the soonest opportunity, when we called Equita's offices on 4 Jan it was too late as it had been passed to Mr Bailff for collection. On 4 Jan we were told by Equita to call Mr Bailff which we did and he told us that he did not have our case notes and to call him on 5th Jan after 4pm (which we did) It was at that point that he added his charges (levy and van on the same date) and told us that if we wanted him off our backs it was going to cost us £306.23, so we paid up.

Surely the amount claimed to owed by us to Equita should be £149.23 and not £806.23 as signed in the Form? as it states: Amount owing Penalty Notice Council Tax domestic Rates £806.23 Bailiff Charges (inc VAT) £199.50 total Amount if paid today £306.23 I dont get this, is it me or has this form been completed incorrectly? or should the form state was the liability was at the time that BCC transferred it to Equita? i think i am going crazy here? aaaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

on the form that I added to one of my posts it states Bailiffs Charges (inc VAT) £199.50?????????????? now if the vehicle charge was £130.00 was could £69.50 possibly be attained to?

Hi HW I hope the below answers your questions, dont forget that the £199.50 includes VAT (I still dont know what makes up the £199?!) Bill for 01.04.2009 - 31.03.2010 =£962.73 outstanding £98 payment made = £864.73 outstanding £57 court costs added (June 2009) = £921.73 outstanding £115 payment made = £806.73 outstanding as of 02.09.2009 November 2010 account passed to Equita - the following happens: £42.50 costs added between Nov 2009 and Jan 2010 (actual date unknown as there is no correspondence) = £849.23 outstanding. Hubby calls and makes arrangement to pay £70 each month with Equita this has been strictly adhered to and payments commenced in Feb 2010 with final payment due Jan 2011 of £79.23. The total amount outstanding as at 1 January 2011 was £149.23p which is the amount that he came knocking for, his levy and van charges were £157.00, so all that added together equates to £306.23 The rest you know.

Brilliant - I will be back!

thanks for your post Jimbo, but we have moved on a bit now thanks to the advice I have has from the great CAGGers on here, I just need to get a few answers to my questions in post 84 and I will be away!

hi there - can anyone steer me on the questions above then I can set to writing my letter!

Hi there I have a few questions? 1. what can you tell me about bailiffs working hours? 2. what can you tell me about what should be legally completed on a notice form? 3. can someone explain why a levy and a van fee cannot be claimed on the same day? 4. should the form say what time they called and served notice? Sorry if it seems that i am a bit blonde but want to put together a comprehensive letter to bcc & equita. thanks wu

Hi HW, thanks for the advice, that is exactly what I am going to do this evening, although one thing here concerns me - should there be a time that the bailff supposedly allowed visitied the property? what time are they allowed to call just so that when I put my letter together they cant come back and say that he is allowed to visit at 9pm at night?!! In response to PT post of earlier today - no i have not seen this note before, he did not leave this at our home, and the reason he didnt was because he did not attend when he claims he did, because he called at 6.50am on the morning of 6th Jan because we saw him.....tut tut....we saw you....... also I have looked up the regs you mentioned and have pasted it below - is that the reg u meant? 45 (5) The person levying distress on behalf of an authority shall carry with him the written authorisation of the authority, which he shall show to the debtor if so requested; and he shall hand to the debtor or leave at the premises where the distress is levied a copy of this regulation and Schedule 5 and a memorandum setting out the appropriate amount, and shall hand to the debtor a copy of any close or walking possession agreement entered into.

My car was parked in a car park in Birmingham City, and I can prove the time I left my office that night so it would be impossible that my car would have been at home before 7pm or thereabouts. He is also trying to claim levy Fee & "Van" Fee at the same time so he is wrong there as well, why is he wrong here? what do I do nxt PT?

well know me over, I have received an email response from Mr Head of revenues and have attached the levy they claim to have made. I am not sure what to do next. and as for the levy well I am just astounded as Mr Bailff never ever attended and we have never seen this notice before, and the details on the notice are extremely scarce considering they are required to complete a minimum amount o informationif he called during work hours the car would have been parked at work and I can prove it as I have to pay for my parking! he called at 6.50am on the morning of 6 Jan because we saw him parked outside. anyway the content of the email is as follows. All thoughts would be gratefully appreciated as I am fast losing steam and getting more and more annoyed with this bunch of incompetent muppets. Dear Mr & Mrs Very Hacked off Re: Council Tax I refer to your email dated 1 February 2011, concerning Council Tax account xxxxxxxxx. Your enquiry has been investigated and I can advise you as follows. When dealing with enquiries, we carry out a thorough investigation of the complaint itself and the accounts for the customer. This is the reason why we have mentioned the amounts outstanding on your 2010/2011 account. One of my officers has been in contact with Equita Bailiffs and confirms the dates for each visit and levy of goods as follows: Amount of Fee Description Date £38.00 Levy 05/01/2011 £24.50 1st Visit 09/12/2009 £18.00 2nd Visit 16/12/2009 £130.00 Use of Vehicle 05/01/2011 Total £210.50 As requested I have attached a copy of the levy that was obtained on 5 January 2011. Equita Bailiffs have advised that they responded to your complaint about Mr XX (bailiff) on 28 January 2011. I have also attached a copy of that letter for reference. I trust this clarifies the situation. However, if you require any further assistance with this matter, please telephone the Customer Service Team on 0121 464 8299. Alternatively, for general Council Tax enquiries, please contact the Revenues Service on 0121 303 1113. A copy of this response has been forwarded to Mr CEO for his records. Yours sincerely Mr Head of Revenues 20110208114913494.pdf

good morning all, apols for not posting for a while I was thinking about what I should do. I can confirm that the £130 has been credited to our account this morning, so now I feel able to continue the pursuit of monies I feel that are owed to us. I did contact Mr Head of revenues yesterday to ask for a response to my email of over a week ago, and no surprise that I have not received an answer despite copying in Mr CEO. I am tied up for a bit this morning but will come back and read the post again that HW has posted as it certainly looks like the route that I need to go down. What I dont get is why they are avoiding the issue - surely they should be whiter than white especially in todays world? What do they have to hide that the Council wont give me the answers we want?

so are you saying that to pursue this is pointless and that I should just acccept the £130 be grateful and walk away?