I have been dealing with these for 2 years, im now on my last year of paying them. I have tried to discuss the fees on the 5 accounts they have held, ie levy fees, attendance fees. My elderly father lives with me, and does'nt leave the house due to ill health. I am disputing all charges against the accounts, to be told i have to pay, balance on remaining council tax is £1134, over the 5 accounts £904 in charges. They have levied a car which isnt mine. Can these monsters charge an attendance fee when they have just sat outside and not knocked on my door. I have paid £200 per month and the only payment i missed was December 2012 and the reason behind this as they tried to take 2 direct debits, my bank pulled the payments back. Any advice will be appreciated.

Hi guys, really need some advice ASAP I have been paying equita for just over a year a fixed sum of £20 per month, recently they changed to £ 40 because i had more than 1 case against me. I have been paying despite not working up until april where i was just over a week late with1 of my payments. I phoned to make the payment but equita said they were unable totake the payment because it was late and that they had passed my case on to the bailiff. I then phoned the bailiff who said he would look in to it and call me back!! He never did after numerous calls with managers etc and not getting anywhere I decided to go to my local citizens advice. At cab they told me to send a cheque to clear 1 of the accounts which only had £2.50 outstanding and to ask for that account to be closed! as for the other accounts they toldme to send a letter explaining and dating all payments that I had so far payed and to ask if I could start re paying asap, as there was no written or signed agreement for increase of £20 to £40. I sent this recorded delivery and got this response. TAKE FORMAL NOTICE Further to your recent communication, the content of which has been noted, I write to inform you that your case is currently allocated to one of our bailiffs( Bailiffs name number) you should direct all queries to the bailiff in charge of your case. I have tried speaking to the bailiff and he has told me if i dont pay £477 by friday then bailiffs will be instructed to remove goods or any motor vehicles by monday 3rd june!!!!!! Sorry for waffling on but I am just desperate!!!!

Hi Everyone. I came home yesterday to find a hand delivered letter from Equita saying the bailiff will attend my house in 24hours. If i do not pay the outstanding amount in full and cleared funds, he will attend my house and MAY remove goods in my absence which they tell me will be distressing. I have been reading on here what to do and i have requested the information from the Council regarding the Liability order they got in Court. First i knew of this was yesterday, surely i must have received a summon or something? But nothing. The CT was applied when i was on benefits so i don't see how i can owe the council anything. I have queried this with them and they said there were a period of 2 months which im liable for ( Benefit took 2 months to be awarded). The CT bill was from a previous address. I am currently homeschooling my 9 year old son so he is in the house with me. I am also a single parent on benefits. How do i deal with the Bailiff when he turns up please? Im scared to death and i dont want my son upset. Any help gratefully received, thank you.

Had a baliff today a rather rude and horrible one , wanting a payment of £539.00 with fee of £200 for todays visit included . I asked why the fee was so high as I understood they can only charge so much He said it was because he was leving and enforcing. He then asked me if my husband was a roofer to which I replied yes as he is ... Then asked about the car on the drive which is in my name but its a disabled car so he did nt levy that He was rude demanding payment off me stating he was nt going to leave without some sort of payment and stated that if I paid my bills this would nt be happening his whole manner was scary well he scared me im on medication for stress and anxiety and I have a disabled son of 9 even after telling him this he did nt back off im still shaking . Before he left he posted a notice of seizure through the door and he s levied 3 pairs of ladders all of which my husband needs for his job the baliff knew this as I told him. After he went I phoned my local council office to receive not much better attitude the lady said if should pay my bills and the next step is committal to prison and she said I will be sent so im more paniced than ever . I asked about the baliffs fees and his manner to be told he s just doing his job im petified and don't know what to do if he comes back any advice much appreciated sorry for rambling I do this when anxious kymmie

Hi All yesterday I get home from work and find a letter from equita stated that I have unpaid council tax. the letter says: I have today called to your property with regards to a WARRANT OF ARREST WITHOUT BAIL. which has been issued by Coventry magistrates court. please contact me on the number below to discuss the situation. should you fail to comply with the terms of this letter, we will have no alternative other than to arrest you and take you into custody without further warning. it is signed by warrant office: then there name (not my mistake, that's how it is signed office not officer ) then his mobile number. yes I know I owe council tax, but am still paying 30 pound a month for arrears, I was paying 195. then that finished but still pay the £30 for the previous years c/tax, I did however miss two months paying it but just paid it this month. the £30 is for a different address. this is the first time I have had equita here at my property it used to be newlyn until I joined your site and promptly stopped paying them and went straight to paying the council online through my bank. can they do this and if so what can I do now, I don't remember having a court summons through to attend court at any time. please help as this is stressing me out.

Hi, Hoping you can help. I have an outstanding council tax debt which is with Equita bailiffs. I had an arrangement in place of £100 per month but missed a payment in Dec which I caught up with this week. My next payment isnt due till 31st Jan. Today we had a visit from the bailiff demanding full payment. I contacted Equita who said that everything was now with the bailiff. They gave me his name and according to the records he isnt registered as working with Equita!!!!!! Also even though I was late with the payment surely as I'm up to date it shouyld be fine. Please help, not sure what to do

Two weeks ago I received a letter from Equita threatening bailiffs for outstanding Council Tax. I was certain that most of my CT for last year had been paid and any remaining would be covered by benefit for Feb/March 2013. However they wanted £107. I phoned the local authority - totally unhelpful and I then went into meltdown in the Customer Services Centre. The receptionist there said she could not help but told me to contact CAB, which I did. I had an anxious wait to see CAB but have had a letter today saying that the council have now withdrawn this from Equita as it was 'a mistake'. No apology, no flowers...

Hi Forum! I thought you might be interested in some correspondence I've been having with TfL in relation to supposed ATR (Attendance to Remove) fees, and some truly hopelessly inadequate notices served by Equita when attending to levy, that (despite the requirements of the National Standards) did not even state the amount being sought, never mind giving a breakdown of how it had been arrived at. Where things stand now is that TfL have waived two sets of bailiff fees and one penalty charge (we had already agreed to pay the other), on the basis that no Form 9 had been issued when ATRs had been sought. So in some ways that is a **win**. However TfL do seem to be standing by the general practice of bailiffs claiming ATRs when no levy has been achieved (though TfL did apparently need to take 5 *months* to go away and think about this). This seems squarely contrary to the intentions of the law, so I'm interested to see what comments people have on what TfL have written. I am unhappy to leave things here, as it seems to me that this is a running sore that it is long past time that the Ombudsman should be asked to comment on (and I also feel personally guilty that I once let Westminster off the hook on this, by failing to take a Stage 2 response to Stage 3). Beyond that, a couple of other things that struck me as interesting in TfL's most recent response: * TfL claiming that a £210 ATR fee had been "calculated in the same manner as attending to levy distress", and is therefore "reasonable" -- when it is actually three times more than the ATL fee (£72), as well as being a fee for work that has already been charged for. * The way TfL try to sidestep round Culligan, without ever addressing the points made by the judge (and repeated by me) on their merits. * TfL moving from saying that it (August 2012), to saying (April 2013) -- TfL trying to distance itself from its contractors' activities? * And TfL now claiming that "all of TfL's contracted bailiffs issue a Form 9 when an attendance to remove fee is being charged". I'm interested: has anyone ever seen a Form 9 attached to a pre-levy ATL notice, in London or anywhere else? So: what do people think, and how best to move forwards? Anyhow, here is the actual correspondence: TfL's original Stage 2 response (August 2012, re-sent September 2012) My letter objecting to TfL's initial Stage 2 response (October 2012) An email from me from January 2013, after a carbon-copy enforcement action over a different ticket, again using the same hopelessly inadequate ATL notice and again seeking a grossly inflated fee, despite TfL having previously assured me that the previous time it had been due to Equita using an "out of date template" that was not a systemic error. Strangely, there's a curiously garbled sentence in the most recent response at paragraph 16, where TfL were perhaps going to discuss the field bailiff's agreeing to let me have 48 hours to raise this issue and try to have the warrant put on hold, followed by his subsequent clamping of the car a mere 24 hours later. (Fortunately I was able to get TfL to direct him to release it before it was towed away). TfL's reconsidered Stage 2 complaint response. (April 2013) Note that it was only with TfL's stage 2 complaint response (below) that it became clear that the bailiffs had been seeking to charge an ATR fee. Up until this stage it had seemed that the bailiffs might have been trying to charge for three visits (although the numbers didn't add up, and their first description of the property was way off). Quite forceful representations had also been made about the inadequacy of Equita's ATL notices. TfL's Stage 2 response (6 August 2012): I therefore wrote this email, of 2 October 2012, asking TfL to reconsider their Stage 2 position: That was followed by this email of 7 January from me, relating to the second ticket and ATL notices, which led to the clamping (followed by un-clamping) incident the next day: Finally, here is a reconsidered "Stage 2 review" email from TfL, received yesterday:

. . From the posts on the forum and enquiries that we receive there is little doubt that bailiffs (many times with the agreement of the local authorities) are charging fees that are frankly illegal. Almost always...debtors are forced to pay either because of threatening behaviour by the bailiffs or more often....ignorance of the fee scale. The public really ought to be aware of the scale of the abuse to the fees scale and worryingly, the way in which this is frequented by bailiffs working on behalf of local authorities that contract out their council tax enforcement to "back office" providers such as CAPITA Ltd. As most frequent posters to this forum will know....in almost all cases where CAPITA Ltd are the "back office" providers...the Contract to provide bailiff services is strangely awarded to EQUITA Ltd. This is a very common scenario and in fact, affects two of the largest local authorities in the Country.....Birmingham City Council and Westminster Council. For anyone new to this forum......Equita Ltd are owned by Capita Ltd. Approx 10 days ago we received an enquiry from a sole trader who has a small office in Westminster and a Liability Order had been issued against his business for arrears of Non Domestic Rates in late Feb 2013 March and payment required by 6th March. He contacted Westminster approx 4 days late and and was told that the account had been referred to EQUITA Ltd. Strangely, he was even given the name and contact details for the bailiff !! As mentioned above, he was just a few days late in making payment !! He contacted the bailiff on the telephone to make the payment in full of approx £3,000 and was staggered to be told that there must have been an error and the amount needed to clear the debt was £750 more that he thought. It was at this stage that the debtor spoke with me and I advised him to speak with the bailiff to ask whether any visits had been made. The bailiff confirmed.....no visit had yet been made. My advice.....was to make payment of the full amount to Westminster Council and to write a letter of complaint. Predictably of course...the complaint to Westminster was answered by Capita Ltd and the following is taken from their reply: Equita Ltd is indeed part of the Capita Group however both areas of the business have separate Contracts with the City of Westminster which are monitored. To date, no evidence of a conflict of interest has arisen. I note your comments with regards to Mr xxx and the bailiff fees (of £750). Equita Ltd has advised me that the amount quoted to you was the POTENTIAL figure that WOULD have been due IF THE BAILIFF HAD ATTENDED and Levied on goods with the intention to remove if payment was not made. The case has now been returned by Equita Ltd and the balance is now nil. How many other small businesses and individuals have paid this fee without question !!!! If this is how local authorities are treating small companies is it any wonder that we have businesses closing at such a rapid rate......

Hi all, newbie here both with the forum and the laws of council tax bailiffs! On the 01/03/13, we received a bailiff removal letter - the usual scary stuff delivered by hand but with no note of how much we owed. We phoned the bailiff who told us that of the £674 that we owed to the council, they wanted an extra £250 of fees and for the entire balance of approx £930 to be paid in full on monday. We have not received any other correspondence from Equita prior to this letter we received on the 01/03. I tried to ring the company's call center to inquire what the £250 fee was for and was shunned away, being told only the bailiff officer can tell me that. They offered to send a breakdown in costs that would take 14 days to arrive, a bit pointless considering more costs will incur during that time period! So I rung the bailiff officer, rudest person I have talked to for a while! Talked over me the entire time and hung up on me, not understanding that we had no idea of this debt with them and the only evidence for any visit to our property was a single letter on friday. He especially didn't like it when i threw some Section 5 on his @##! The last thing he said before he cut me off was that he had a warrant and bailiffs would be visiting today. I have now spoken to Lewisham Council and have paid the full £674. They will contact the bailiff and advise them the account is settled and I have been told to write a complaint to both the council and Equita. It feels like a shakedown, we knew nothing of this debt being with Equita until friday just gone, yet the fees they have added on do not seem appropriate. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, It's scary stuff! Many Thanks!

Hello Everybody, long time lurker first time poster so please be gentle! I hope somebody can help us, as it seems that we are not the only people to have had problems with Equita. My Partner and myself have had debt chasing us from our teenage years, and as such have had experience in dealing with Debt Collection Agencies, both helpful and unhelpful, to pay back what we owe. Equita, however, are in a different league! I apologise if this is more long winded than it needs to be. My partner received a letter from the local council informing her of a parking offence (of which she received no ticket on the car, and neither of us can remember parking without getting a ticket), and so we fired off the obligatory online 'appeal'. We didn't think to press it or chase it as, at the time, we had far more pressing and personal issues to deal with. The next thing we knew, we received a letter from Equita, explaining that the debt had been passed on to them and would be required to pay them. We started to pay them weekly, and then my partner asks for a breakdown from them as to what we owe. Another two requests later, and they send one through, dated 19th October. This is what it stated: Debt: £82.00 Initial letter: £11.20 Visit/Levy fee: £56.00 Attendance charges: £167.00 Card fees: £3.75 Giro Book/Admin fee £4.85 VAT £48.56 Total £373.36 Payments received £160.00 BALANCE £213.36 We were mortified as the amount we owed had actually INCREASED, and as such we contacted them enquiring about where these charges had come from, more specifically, the levy charge (we don't know what one is!) and attendance charges. We were told that this was when a bailiff comes to your home to which we replied that there never had been a bailiff come to the house, and the only letters we received were posted, not hand delivered! In our not-so-infinite wisdom, we refused to pay any more money until they could tell us when the bailiff had actually attended to incur these fees, as it seems they are making it up. Low and behold, a bailiff then turns up (i know, duh), he doesn't knock, he posted a demand notice and left. We figure the most sensible thing to do is just get back to paying it, however we were only making sporadic payments as this was all we could afford, however we made the following payments since then. 5th Nov £94.00 14 Nov £26.50 22nd Nov £23.00 As far as we were aware this left a balance of £69.86. We then received a letter on 7th December dated 4th Dec WARNING NOTICE, beginning "Our removal team recently called in your area to remove goods to clear your debt, but were unable to meet with you" RUBBISH. Also, signed Bailiff Manager (Very personal, not even a name to contact). My partner contacted them to be told we owed £112.00! She calmly queried this but was treated rudely and aggressively, being told "you have two choices, pay it, or we'll come and take your stuff, it's as simple as that." I was fuming and called them demanding to speak to a manager being curtly told that one would contact us within 24 hours, and having the phone put down on me. Within an hour a bailiff turned up, knocking very quietly and trying to put a letter through the door before I opened it giving him the shock of his life. The letter was a BAILIFF REMOVAL notice, stating at the top "I have called at your home today to execute a warrant issued by Northampton County Court." More rubbish, how was he doing that when he was posting and running?! Handwritten on the letter was LEFT TO PAY = £75.14, so ANOTHER different amount! I told him i wanted it sorting right now, and I asked him where the fees had come from, seeing as he'd never been here before the fees were added. His answer was that they put a levy fee and attendance fee on as soon as they come to the property to take the VRN. I said, how do you know thats our car? He replied that he confirmed it from the council paperwork, so I said so basically you didn't come round, you just copied the reg from one piece of paper to another, and we've been charged £200 for that? to which the little begger SMILED, and said they just do as they are told. We agreed to pay £40.00 then and there, and he called the office and used our card to pay it, he also had two giro books (£4.85 each) that we neither needed or asked for removed from the account, leaving £25.44 to pay. My partner made a payment of £27.00 on 14th January to finally get rid of this hideous ordeal. Hooray! Until today. We received a letter this morning - FINAL DEMAND - Warrant of execution dated (Blank), Our removal team recently called.... etc as above. Yet again, as with all their letters, there is no amount listed on the letter - so she calls to be told she owes a little over £30! This is getting ridiculous now, she demanded to speak to a manager, they refused giving her a standard info@equita email address and told her that if she complains the bailiff action will still continue. My partner has been in tears all morning and as you can probably tell by my rambling post I am furious. These **** seem to make things up as they go along with no recourse for their actions. Is there ANYYTHING we can do? We are so drained by all of this please help! Thank you to anybody that managed to stay with my ramblings long enough to finish this post!

Hi Guys, I am sure that this has been asked a thousand times but I have tried searching and cant seem to find a definative answer. I have requested the breakdown of charges from equita and they are as follows: Debt: £263.16 Statutory Visit Fees: £42.50 Levy Fee: £31.00 Attendane Fee: £140.00 Card Fee: £1.00 Total £477.66. So firstly I have only ever been visited twice, both times I was not at home so their visit fee is correct. BUT, the levy fee and attendance fee?? I have never recieved notice of the levy or why they would bring a van to take goods that I have not had notice of. Also, I live at my partners house, it is not my house - if they gained access for example through an open door and did a levy of goods can this be classed as trespass as I had already informed them at the beginning that I did not own the house or the belongings within the house which if they record calls they will have a record of this. Is there anyway I can claim back the levy and attendance fee? Just little help would be gratefully recieved. Thanks for looking.

Hi all, I am totally new to the forum so please forgive any errors or omissions. In short I am at the point where I need some advice and have been strugglingto find it anywhere and am open to all advice. In short back in 2008 I became a victim of a Certified Bailiff working onbehalf of Equita. Having failed to pay a Penilty Charge Notice (parking fine) issed by LeedsCity Council. I have been intending to publish the whole storey here which may providesome inspiration to other victims of their overcharging regime, this will be a lengthyprocess and I will start shortly. I have recently made an application to Northampton Court using Mony ClaimOnline. This claim has been defended by Equita. Can anyone help me with the terminology used in section (4) of their defenceagainst my claim, specifically their reference to s11 Distress for Rent Act1988, and its relevance in this matter? I am aware that this relates to charges provided by particular bailiffs andthe fees that they can charge, I however consider that my claim for any refundin this matter is the responsibility of the agent of the bailiff this beenEquita. Equita notice of defence 1. It is confirmed that Equita were instructed on 9th September 2008 toenforce a warrant for an unpaid Penalty Charge Notice from Leeds City CouncilIssued in the Northampton County Court under references ********** (bailiff ref********) in the name of * ******* of ** ******* ****** ***** ****** in respectof a Silver Renault Megan vehicle registration number ******* in the sum of£95.00. 2. Letters were sent to Mr, ******* and an initial bailiff visit was made tothe given address following receipt of a warrant including bailiff charges inaccordance with the regulations, but no contact whatsoever was received. 3. In the absence of any payment or an agreed payment plan, our bailiffre-attended with a removal vehicle on 15th October 2008 with a view to removinggoods, but he was unable to obtain a reply. However following this visit Mr,******* contacted the bailiff and paid the outstanding debt inclusive of bailiffsfees and charges which had risen to £366.49 in total. 4. Looking at the particulars of this claim, it is clear that the claimamounts to a challenge against the amount of the bailiff fees and chargeslevied by Equita. We assert all fees and charges are in accordance with TheEnforcement of Road Traffic Debts (Certificated Bailiffs) Regulations 1993 (as amended).If the claimant wishes to challenge the bailiffs ’ fees and charges the proper remedywould be to make an application in accordance with section 11 of the distressfor Rent Act 1988 for a detailed assesement. We therefore assert it is an abuseof process to lodge a challenge using the "money claims on-line"process and respectfully request the claim should be struck out. 5. In conclusion we believe in lodging this claim 4 years after the eventthe claimant is merely trying to recover bailiffs fees and charges properlycharged by bailiff in the enforcement of a Court warrant. All bailiff chargeshave been raised in accordance with the above named regulations. We thereforestandby our actions in pursuing him for the outstanding debt and fees, andreject this claim in its entirety. Many thanks

Back in July, I moved house (and to a different town and different local authority area at that). I had earlier this year had a large number of PCNs, most of which were succesfully fought and repealed with one outstanding which I paid. As far as I was aware all outstanding matters had been dealt with, and there certainly weren't any new PCNs in the last month or so before leaving, so if there were and the ticket was removed from my car I would have had time for the NTO to arrive before leaving. Today, I've come home to a letter from Equita regarding an unpaid ticket which apparantly has been through the court and a warrant of execution granted. They do not include any PCN number, any reference number for the warrant of execution they apparantly have, the VRN of the car involved, nor are they demanding any specific amount of money, only that I contact them before 'further enforcement proceedings' are started. The usual bailiff threats of a visit from the door and removing goods are not made. In the past I did have some PCNs which ended up with Equita, and this is not like any letter I've seen before, those all demanded a specific amount of money, were properly reference with the PCN and VRN and were much more specific about what would happen if I didn't pay. Also, as I scrapped my car as part of the move I've never had it registered as my new address, nor have I registered on the electoral role so I'm uncertain how they've even found me - my only guess can be they've searched council tax registers for people with the same name (my surname is uncommon) and are fishing to see what response they get. This is also the only letter I've had regarding this alleged ticket at all, so if they or the council knew where I was previously I would have expected correspondance before things got to this stage. A few things I'm wondering Is this likely to be a fishing letter to see if I'll respond or would they actually take action against this address without response from me or something else to confirm that I am the person they are looking for - if they are fishing it's even possible that this has nothing to do with me - my name might be uncommon but there were 2 of us in the phone book at my old town! Can they proceed without some kind of verified proof of where I live? What would be the status of the warrant of execution that already exists? Would that be to levy distress at a specific address (i.e. my old one only) or would it cover anywhere where they know (or believe) me to be? Would 'further enforcement proceedings' mean that they need to go back to court before they can do anything else at a different address? Can I apply to have the court order for the warrant of execution set aside on the grounds that I didn't know I was being taken to court and have had no opportunity to defend myself? If I go down the route of making an out-of-time witness statement on the grounds that I didn't have the opportunity to fight the PCN, accept it and pay a lower fee, or file a witness statement in time is this likely to be succesful (I've never had success with an O-O-T yet, but I've never before had the argument that I didn't live at the address they sent the information to)? Can I find relevant information out without contacting Equita - it's not about avoiding a ticket, it's more that to them all I am is a name with a sum of money attached to it and their greater concern is getting me to pay it, not about whether or not I actually owe it or have grounds to fight it so I don't consider them an impartial body to get information from! How long would Equita wait before taking any further action, to give me an idea of how long I have to sort this out? Any help would be greatfully appreciated!

Hi CAG'ers, Following being away from my rented property and letting it to tenants over the past 5 years, I came back to the UK in March 2010 and moved into my flat. The council chased me for previous years CT and issued liability orders for those years. I told them that I am keen to pay and on receiving the Income and Expenditure Form said that I could afford £200 p.m. They said that they wanted full and final payment due to the sum and as I could not pay fully, they handed the case to Equita and they asked me to pay 400pm which I refused as I could not pay other exigencies at that rate. I have been paying 200 p.m (to Equita) for the past 4 months and spoke to them on the telephone and they said that I should continue paying, however the baliff action will still continue. I have been receiving letters on a weekly basis with 2 site visits 'Delivery be hand - Payment due in full-24 hours' being the latest one, however they stood outside and posted the letter through my box.. They cannot gain entry into my flat as the block (3 flats) is very secure, however I do park my car about 15 mins walk away now. However, I want to de-escalate the situation... Can the baliffs force entry through breaking locks to gain entry, as the last letter said that they will 'remove goods in my absence' ? Can I now start paying the Council directly instead of Equita? Can I lobby the head of the Council re: attempting to agree a repayment schedule? Can I take the issue to court and voluntarily agree a schedule of payments of £200 p.m? Are there any other options in terms of debt arrangements that I can take up that will not adversely affect my credit rating? Thanks in advance Tony

Hello I am new to the site and as my first post i would just need some clarification. My Mother is 73 years old and this year had her CTB reviewed well to cut a long story short she was found to be in arrears for this current years tax bill. she was hesitant in what to do and instead of coming to myself or another family member she let it spiral into where Equita are now involved, even though she was calling to agree to pay the agreed sum Manchester City Council offered. her LO is for £409.65p from the original £365.86p CT arrears.we got a letter from equity saying the usual pay before etc etc (as previously stated on your great site) but she was contacted by their Bailiff and told my mother she would be at the home on the 5th of Dec and would accept the full amount. of £409.65p my mother waited in all day and nothing until 5pm when the bailiff telephoned saying she couldn't of come today she was stuck in Barnsley and now the fee would be £580 a letter was hand delivered the next morning with the dreaded Notice of collection within 24 hours. the Bailiff will not answer her phone, the company says she must deal with the baliff and the council say the same thing. we spoke to our local Councillor who said we should e-mail the council tax office about reclaiming the debt for this years CT and pointing out she is willing to pay the complete debt of £409.65 off, but before he goes into bat for us he wants to hear their explanation. both the Councillor and a very nice lady from the CT office (on our third attempt) was baffled and only usual fees were no more than the £40 odd mark email was sent and via return auto mail says i should hear within 3 and via phone which said 7 days.(completely baffled) but in the meantime the threat of the knock on the door is scaring my mother silly. I have taken time off work for the past 2 days to ease her mind on this but can't afford to take anymore time off. we have done the following. Locked all doors and windows and make sure the door is locked between 6 am and 9pm told Equita that we have been in contact with the council about taking the debt back and can they call off their dogs whilst this is being done...i know they said they would but am highly suspicious they did this to get us off the phone. kept in contact with the council tax office but not mentioned anything else just if my mothers case is being looked at. my main questions are these...Because this is for this years tax bill can my mother still pay this off via online or automated telephone systems to stop Equita in their tracks? and should we pay Equita the visiting costs or the council? thank you in advance and many many thanks for all the great advice that has been offered on other threads as this has helped alot in the past couple of days and to all those in other threads i hope all your problems are quickly resolved

Hi. Could someone help me..we have been charged all these fees for our council tax debt.. Debt £1,217.24 statutory visit fees £42.50 levy fee £54.00 attendance charges £167.00 card payment fee £4.00 first of all the levy fee dont know what he levied on because we were out at work. Attendance fee he never came in a van, only a car. Because my daughter was in but she never answered the door. He has been twice.

I wonder if you can help me please? Had a letter put through my door this morning from Equita Bailiffs. I knew their visit was imminent so the vehicle was moved to another address so it could not be clamped. I am in the process of sending an application to file a statement out of time/extension of time but have no idea what to put. We never received the original PCN. What concerns me is that the Bailiff states on the letter that ' if you fail to contact me within the next 24 hours I will have no alternative but to reattend your property AT ANY HOUR OF THE DAY OR NIGHT to impound your vehicle/remove goods. Is this correct? I thought they could only attend during reasonable hours i.e. 07.00 am to 19.00 at night? Many thanks Deb Another point to mention, I have just checked online to see if the Bailiff is certified and he is not. I have searched under his name and Equita's. He signs the letter 'Bailiff in Charge'. Thanks again Bump

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/358261/Miss-GB-finalist-denies-benefits-[problem]-over-lover I have checked and this bailiff is certificated with Equita. He is also named in the paper. Dosnt it make you sick though. There are genuine people out there who struggle every day trying to pay their rent etc especially now it is all changed and people on benefits have had their reduced. Loved to know how she is getting so much HB for a 4 bed house with only one child. Here we have a bailiff who is meant to be law abiding, probably collecting on behalf of the people he is defrauding. How ironic is that. I hope he loses his certificate over this, there are just far too many rogue bailiffs out there thwarting the law, its about time the powers that be started doing something about it instead of talking about it as they do too often and nothing changes. Those who defraud the benefits are responsible for why genuine people who have no choice but to claim are made to suffer. This is not an isolated case either. Bailiffs have been reported many times for fraudulent behaviour. It just seems that many fraudsters become bailiffs because they know how to milk the system so it benefits them and here we have proof of it happening.

Hi, New to the forum, I had a problem two years ago, i lost my job had no money coming in, and couldn't afford to pay my council tax, I informed Birmingham City Council of this problem, and told them as soon as my benefits were sorted I'd be paying what i could, it took a little over six weeks. In this time the account was passed to Equita, i phoned the council who refused to tralk to me about the issue, telling me i had to speak with the bailiff, So i spoke with the bailiff, who demanded an unrealistic amount of money up front??? I refused and have since been dodging them and refusing to speak with them. Last month I decided to do the right thing and set up a payment plan with Equita, I agreed to £25 per fortnight, (I'm still out of work and on benefits:evil:) thinking this was the right thing to do, the bailiff left and said the arrangement had been agreed. Two days later a letter come through saying that £50 a fortnight had been accepted, i tried contacting the bailiff, and tried to call the office, who told me i had to speak with the bailiff, Anyway, today at 12:15 there was a knock at the door, and a bailiff was there, i said i had no intentions of speaking with him and asked him to leave, as i was trying to sort the problem out with the council. He refused to leave and kept knocking my door and on the window, after opening the door the third time, i told him to leave or i'd call the police, he said "as i have a liability order against you the police won't help you", I told him to leave or i was calling the police, The fourth time, i spoke to him through the bedroom window, i told him my partner was calling the police, within a minute he was gone. Not before shoving a letter through my box, with the typical bailiff threats. and a Notice of Seizure and inventory of goods, With costs detailed below Amount owed to the Council -:- £350.37 Bailiff costs -:- £227.50 Total Amount outstanding £577.87? I've tried to make another arrangement with the bailiff for £50 per month and been told its not acceptable, Telling me i should ask family or friends for the money, or they will be back Monday, to take my goods and car. I'm at a lose here, not sure what to do, or how to remove this threat/issue. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks in advance.

Hi all, Have received a removal notice today from Equita, containing the veiled threat; 'may remove goods even in your absence'. I've checked the bailiff register and this person was registered at Northampton, so is he allowed to use such phrases, or am I overreacting a bit? Because of health problems I have I don't think I can deal with talking by phone (plus I've seen the advice not to do so) so will text him to advise that I'm speaking to the council for information about liability orders, etc. and will email the council for the info and request they call off the bailiffs whilst discussions are ongoing. Do you think this is will be ok? Any advice will be gratefully received.

Hello, I was hoping somebody might be able to help me here. I have Equita chasing me for outstanding council tax and am happily ignoring them. Does anybody know how long they wait before handing the debt back to the council? ..and should I complain to them now about the unlawful charges or wait until it goes back to the council? I'm wondering if contacting them at the moment will encourage more visits, letters etc If anybody has any experience of this I would be grateful of their views. Many thanks

tomorrow I will be going through an ongoing problem I have with Birmingham City Council and Equita about Equita front loading fees I have included the email chain from Stephen Hughes CEO at the council. Any advice on what to do next? Sorry the email chain is so large but wanted to make sure you had all the info Dear Stephen. aa advised I know and can show the visits did not take place please escalate my complaint to the final stage. I have brought this matter to the attention of the LGO and will as you have paid fraudulent charges now be bringing the matter to the attention of Mike Sharpe and the police Our Ref: M Dear Miss /// Council Tax and Equita bailiffs I write in response to your emails of 31 July 2012 and 1 August 2012. Your enquiry has been investigated and I can advise you as follows. As you may appreciate, due to the nature of the work conducted by bailiffs some degree of dissatisfaction or distress is likely to occur. However, I can confirm that bailiffs employed by the City Council are subject to a code of conduct. This ensures that the bailiffs comply with the law as interpreted by the City Council at all times and levy distress in a proper and fair manner. I can advise you that bailiff costs are, in the main, set out by law (Schedule 5, Administration & Enforcement Regulations 1992). They are a set amount and are not linked to the value of the debt. The fees for attending with the intention of removing goods are not set in law other than to state “they must be reasonable”. We have agreed with Equita that the fee for attending with a van is £141.00. This is a one-off charge irrespective of the amount of time spent at the property. You have incurred bailiffs’ fees totalling £215.00 as detailed in your email of 31 July 2012. I can confirm that £26.00 from the payment of £1201.50 made on 17 May 2012 has been allocated towards the fees to reduce the balance to £189.00. Apart from the initial letter, the following two letters are hand delivered when visits are made and contact is attempted. In your particular case, records show visits were made on 17 May 2012 and 9 July 2012. During the second visit a levy was made on a vehicle. There would be no reason why Equita would say they have visited if they have not done so. A copy of your email, of 1 August 2012, to ......... has been passed to ......(Complaints Officer at Equita) to arrange an investigation into this matter and she will reply directly to you. You were previously advised that your account would remain with Equita and a payment arrangement of £45.00 every 30 days was set up for you. You were required to make payments directly to them. I did advise that the Customer Service Team, at Revenues and Benefits, were willing to renegotiate the arrangement, if the payments of £45.00 every 30 days were difficult for you to maintain and that you should contact the team directly. I trust this clarifies the situation. However, if you require any further assistance with this matter please contact Revenues and Benefits’ Customer Service Team on 0121 464 8299 or in writing at Birmingham City Council, PO Box 8267, Birmingham, B4 7XF. Yours sincerely Stephen Hughes Chief Executive Birmingham City Council 03/08/2012 13:07 cc Subject Re: Council Tax - Equita Bailiffs Action Dear Stephen, Please find attached the latest correspondence from Equita received today. I have not communicated the wish to pay £45 every 30 days as this letter states, I have also still not received a breakdown of the dates, times and name of the Bailiff who allegedly attended my property thus incurring the additional charges despite repeated requests for this information. Also if you read this letter the inference is that they have not actually yet levied as such an explanations as to where the addition £189 has come from becomes even more urgent. I would be grateful if you would recall this debt to the council with immediate effect, confirm your council’s acceptance of my repayment offer by return. Kind Regards ...... -----Original Message----- Sent: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 16:45 Subject: Re: Council Tax - Equita Bailiffs Action (CX ref Dear Ms /// Thank you for your further email dated 31 July 2012. With regard to your earlier email dated 26 July, I have been advised that we are unable to open the attachment to that email. If you are able to send this again either as a .doc or .pdf file we will progress this as soon as possible. In the meantime, I have forwarded your latest email to officers in Revenues and Benefits with a request that they look at this matter again and a response will be sent to you as soon as possible. Yours sincerely Stephen Hughes Chief Executive Birmingham City Council cc Subject Re: Council Tax - Equita Bailiffs Action(CX ref Hi Stephen, I did send you a further email following this one where I have in fact raised a formal complaint against Equita (copy enclosed). I have paid £35 yesterday via the BCC payment line and this has been put against the correct year on the account Due to the nature of my complaint and the failure of your enforcement agents to follow the law and not only advise me of a full breakdown of costs including dates the visits occurred and the details of the items levied against as requested on 4 separate occasions now, I request again that BCC recall the debt. Below I have provided a breakdown of the fees actually charged, along with a breakdown of the fees I believe, having sought advice, should legally have been charged. As you can see there is a difference of £189 Debt £1402.81 Statury Visit Fees £42.50 Levy Fee £30 Enforcement Fee £141 Card Fee £1.50 It is hard to understand how such a mistake could be made, particularly bearing in mind I went to the trouble of requesting a breakdown of legitimate fees applied to my account by your enforcement agents, and also double checked these with your Head of Revenues. It would appear not only that one of your senior members of staff has little knowledge of the relevant legislation involved in his job (an issue I am sure you will want to address), but also that he is condoning quite clearly, the unlawful application of fees to your customer’s accounts. The vicarious liability between yourself and your appointed enforcement agents makes this a very serious issue indeed for you. There are a number of criminal avenues that could be pursued should legal proceedings be instigated. I would be grateful if you would recall this debt to the council with immediate effect, confirm your council’s acceptance of my repayment offer which has at no point changed and the fact that Equita despite my repeated requests to accept a payment plan payable on the 30th of each month of £35 felt that an amount considerably more than this on a different date was appropriate, and confirm that you have instructed your appointed enforcement agents to cease pursuing this account, again with immediate effect. I would also be grateful if you would please confirm that no fees are owing to your appointed agents. Please rest assured I have not intention of reneging on my responsibility to pay this debt this is shown by the payment I made yesterday, but it is only fair, given the circumstances, that I should be able to do so free of any unlawful activities by your appointed enforcement agents. I look forward to hearing from you, Yours faithfully, -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Hughes Sent: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:14 Subject: Re: Council Tax - Equita Bailiffs Action (CX ref 6--) Our Ref: = Dear Ms Thank you for your email of 24 July2012 regarding Council Tax and Equita Bailiffs, I asked Chris Gibbs,Assistant Director,Revenues and Benefits, to investigate your enquiry again and he has advised me as follows. In my correspondence to you dated 23July 2012, I advised that the Customer Service Team were willing to renegotiate the arrangement, if the payments of £45.00 every 30 days were difficult for you to maintain. I have been advised that you have not been in contact to take up this offer. I would therefore request again; if you are having difficulty with payment, or the amount of £45.00,to contact the Customer Service Team on 0121 464 8299 who will be happy to help renegotiate a new arrangement. In previous correspondence you have been advised that due to your account being with Equita Bailiffs, you are required to make payment direct to them. Failure to do this can incur further recovery action by the bailiffs and costs. I trust this clarifies the situation. However, if you require any further assistance with this matter please contact Revenues and Benefits’ Customer Service Team on 0121 464 8299or in writing at Birmingham City Council, PO Box 8267, Birmingham, B4 7XF. Yours sincerely Stephen Hughes Chief Executive 24/07/2012 17:43 To cc Subject Re: Council Tax - Equita Bailiffs Action(CX ref ] Hi Stephen, Thank you for your response, unfortunately the information that has been passed to yourself via Equita is infact incorrect. The Bailiff advised me when I spoke to him that he had not in fact visited the property and gave me until the Friday to make payment and your office halted Bailiff action on the Thursday. I have also received no documentation regarding the levy and there has been no visit to my property I can if necessary prove this as there is a CCTV camera that points at my front door. The fees are also made up of an 'enforcement fee' which as no Bailiff has attended at all let alone twice would not be able to occur as I believe that is the fee payable when the Bailiff arrives to remove goods. The amount I have been trying to get agreed is £35 this is more than I can afford and is not the £30 nor the £45 quoted below. My communication with the Bailiff was via text and voicemail. No arrangement was made to pay the balance I certainly did not agree to clear it. I will of course pay the amount owed directly to the council at a rate of £35 per month and I will be requesting yet again from Equitaa breakdown of their fees, the name of the Bailiff who attended ,the dates attended and the council that they are registered with this will be the 3rd occasion I have requested this and once it has been received I will be making a formal complaint. Kind Regards -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Hughes Sent: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:37 Subject: Council Tax - Equita Bailiffs Action (CX ref 6]) Our Ref: Dear Ms I write in response to your email dated 10 July 2012 regarding Equita Bailiffs actions in relation to your Council Tax arrears. I asked Chris Gibbs, Assistant Director, Revenues and Benefits,to investigate your enquiry and he has advised me as follows. Your account was passed to Equita Bailiffs on 8 May 2012 for recovery of outstanding Council Tax of £1402.81. Equita Bailiffs sent the first letter on 9 May 2012, giving you the opportunity to contact them and arrange payment of the balance. On 16 May 2012 your account was issued to the levy bailiff to visit. An arrangement was made with you, payment of £1201.50 was received by the bailiff and you agreed to make payments of £227.31 each 30 days thereafter,to clear the remaining balance. On 4 July 2012, when no payment or contact was received, the arrangement was cancelled and your account was passed to a bailiff,to visit. You called the bailiffs office on 7 July 2012 and were referred to the bailiff who was now in charge of your account to arrange payment of the outstanding balance. The bailiff visited your property on9 July 2012, and levied on a vehicle at the address. Due to a levy being made, further costs were incurred as have been advised by Equita bailiffs. On 9 July 2012, you called the Council Tax section advising that the bailiffs would not accept your offer of £30.00 per month. You were advised that an email would be sent to head office requesting this or for the account to be called back from the bailiffs. You called the bailiff office twice on 9 July 2012. In the first call you were again referred to the bailiff in charge of your account and in the second call you advised that you had spoken to the Council Tax Department and that they were going to insist that an arrangement of £30.00 be agreed. On 10 July 2012, the bailiffs sent a letter to you advising of the outstanding balance on the account. On 11 July 2012 the bailiffs received a letter from you offering an arrangement of £35.00. As your account is with the bailiff, no further action was taken as you had been advised to contact the bailiff direct. Records also show that on 10 July 2012 you called the Council Tax section three times, advising that you could not get in touch with the bailiffs. You were then given the address for Equita Bailiffs. Your second call was to enquire whether we had received an email, but unfortunately the notes do not state whether this was from you or internal. The advisor confirmed we had not received the information and to allow more time for this. Your third call was to query your initial balance for the year 2011,of which you were advised. I have been advised that an arrangement has been made for you to clear your account with Equita Bailiffs at £45.00 every 30 days starting 30 July 2012. If you feel that you may have any difficulty paying this amount please contact the Customer Service Team on the number given, who will be happy to look at this again with you and contact Equita Bailiffs on your behalf. For any other enquiries in relation to your account with Equita you can contact them on telephone number 0844561 8807. I trust this clarifies the situation. However, if you require any further assistance with this matter please contact Revenues and Benefits’ Customer Service Team on 0121 464 8299 or in writing at Birmingham City Council,PO Box 8267, Birmingham, B4 7XF. Yours sincerely Stephen Hughes Chief Executive Birmingham City

Hi guys, I am really hoping for some help here I am at the point of tearing my hair out!!! My partner had a letter addressed to him and another person about 18 months ago for some outstanding council tax, about 18 months worth, for a time at a property that he did not live there! We spoke with the council at the time to say not our debt, he didn't live there and we didn't get a response from them, assuming they were speaking with the other person whom the letter was addressed to. This February/March we had a letter from Equita threatening to turn up and remove our goods. My partner had several discussions over the subsequent few weeks with the council directly to try and get it resolved. We were told as he was claiming he did not live there, we should submit evidence and they would look to drop the claim. Even though the debt was from 2008-2009, we managed to get a couple of bits together from another address showing he was not where they claimed he was. Well, that seems to have been ignored as every month-2 months we get another letter from Equita threatening to take our car/remove goods! We have been into the council now numerous times to ask for updates as to what is happening and each time we get a 'backlog, hasn't been looked into yet' blah blah blah.... they will say that Equita are on hold and a month will go past and BANG another letter from Equita through the door! Now the bigger issue here is that my partner is disabled and not working due to his disability. Quite how they think he can afford to pay them back even if he was responsible is beyond me but they can apparently turn up and take your car without our consent which is really concerning as he is disabled, that is his only means of transport! Additionally, it would appear the council/Equita never bothered to contact the other party noted on the invoice for the council tax although we are fully aware that the person in question was at that address living on their own. Equita do not seem to care about this fact however and despite the other party still living at the address the tax is owed on (which is rented to them by Norwich Council!!) they solely harass us. I know this is a bit of an essay but I am really hoping for some help here. I don't want to pay for something we don't owe but what more can we do?? The stress is killing me.

Good evening! I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some advice. I've heard that when a debt gets passed to a debt collection agency, you can eventually request that the person you originally owed the debt to 'take it back'. Is this correct? The situation is that a council tax debt has been passed on to Equita. I phoned Equita as soon as we received the letter and they basically bullied me into a payment scheme of over £200 a month. This was fine (although certainly not desirable) for the first couple of payments but due to my changing jobs, I fell behind and couldn't keep up with the payments. Equita started being really nasty, demanding the same amount even though there was no way we could afford it. Our money just simply went on other bills. I no longer dealt with Equita as I don't take kindly to being threatened and bullied and emailed the council to request them to take back the debt, explaining our problems with Equita and outlining the fact that we were willing to pay the debt, we just weren't willing to deal with Equita. The council keep replying with the same answer, that we must deal with Equita directly. Does anyone have any advice? Do we just keep pressuring the council or do we just stop communicating and pay money directly to them anyway (via internet banking)? Thanks in advance!