Equita Bailiff/kb ba1 - further help wanted.

[emandcole]

Hi,

Would echo that last advice completely. Equita are renowned for trying it on and frequently overcharge relying on the fact that many people don't know their rights. I would also issue a form 4 complaint against the bailiff concerned in the court issuing his licence which means that a judge will look at your evidence to see if the bailiff has been up to no good. If the judge is satisfied the bailiff has been taking liberties he can remove his bailiff licence and award you damages out of the bailiffs bond money. Equita as a company are in the courts regularly for various breaches.

 

The sooner more people get together and fight these people the better it will be for us all. It is not illegal to be in debt but the way these people operate would make you think otherwise. If you have the evidence against the bailiff then investigate the matter further, you'd be surprised how quickly individuals fold when they are the ones being pursued by the authorities. Best of luck.

[emandcole]

Congrats on that, we'll be following you in a few weeks time once we've given a Mr Deakin enough time to dig his hole deeper. Equita normally fall apart quite quickly from my own understanding and research and although they'll normally back a bailiff up with lies right o the end they won't risk their own neck when the crunch comes. No honour amongst thieves eh?

 

Good luck and make sure you get damages for the hassle and trauma you'e been subjected to.

[emandcole]

To be honest any letter you send to Equita will have very limited benefit, they simply do not engage with complaints as you have probably already found. I'd send the letter to them purely to show that you've been through the motions of contacting them as you need to show you've attempted to settle the issues before you take Equita or an individual bailiff to court.

 

They'll probably send you a letter pretending to be concerned etc if you're lucky. I'm no expert but I would wait for a response from Equita and once you've 'done that bit' and got nowhere continue to pursue the bailiff with the form 4 as he is responsible for his actions. I take it you have proof of his wrongdoings and that these conflict with bailiff practice or you wouldn't have issued the form 4 complaint already? When your evidence and case is heard and hopefully upheld you can apply for costs/reasonable damages from his bond.

 

If Equita themselves are responsible also in some way as an employer - for example contributing to the failure of the bailiff, obstructing you in obtaining information, sending deceitful letters, misrepresenting their powers, the list goes on, you could then take Equita to court for these breaches and ask for damages also using the bailiff case as further weight to your argument. Frequently they lie about attending a property and add costs and a good one to pursue is proof they have actually attended for the times you've been billed for. A subject access request would get you that information. If they then cannot provide GPS evidence of those apparant visits to tie up with the listed visits that could be one way to go but they really do make it easy in general to get them for something as their practices really are very poor. If they don't reply in time to the SAR complain to the data commissioners office in London. I did and Equita got in trouble for it. If they do that too many times they'll drop themselves right in it

 

Also ensure the instructing party (a council perhaps) are involved as they are legally responsible too. There's a lot of leverage if you can play the waiting game and it can be very easy in time to turn the two against each other as neither party when it comes to the crunch wish to be seen in their true light and there are serious implications for them. I'm drilling northampton council at the moment for a series of huge failures and they're getting themselves deeper in it by the week. I will be pursuing damages action soon as we're ten months in and still a huge number of problems exist all built on lies and deceit which they can't wriggle out of anymore.

 

As for mental turmoil and other things you could claim for that but you'd need to show evidence for this. A visit to the GP to log your specific problems relating to the bailiff/Equita would be helpful. Any losses you claim for need to be reasonable and you have to show evidence for them. Unlike Equita you can't just make a sum of money up and claim for it but if you can show how it's a loss to you or how you've been affected you can claim for it. Would your employer write you a testimony and show how your performance has been compromised for example? Did this result in a lost performance bonus for example? You get the idea.

Evidence = loss = award. Whatever you claim for obtain reasonable evidence and you'll be fine.

 

Ultimately if you put a concise claim together Equita would be stupid to let it get to court but accepting an offer or waiting for court intervention is a whole new ball game in terms of recovering costs/damages. Keep us all posted as Equita are in many peoples bad books and the day will come when they won't get away with thier current practices.

[emandcole]

Hi Jewel,

Glad you've got in touch with the forum here. Unfortunately you appear to be at the hands of a particularly sad individual who has definitely overstepped the mark. Follow the advice on here and between us all you'll get through it. The council appear to have adopted a shocking approach by ignoring you, I believed they had a legal responsibility to control any agent they instruct and it appears they're trying to ignore you.

 

As well as the MP I'd also consider a complaint to the local government ombudsman about maladministration of your council. Equita are well known for breaking all of the rules and they do this because not enough people complain/know their rights. It's vital these companies are brought to account and the charging is ridiculous. It has to reflect their actual costs and usually they have little in the way of those, it's pretty much made up.

 

Follow it through, don't feel victimised as you're simply another one of the many thousand in the same position. Once you have evidence of what the bailiff has been up to submit a form 4 complaint against him in the court that issued his licence. If the proof is good he'll lose it and you'd have done the world a great service. Picking on kids is just not on, hope your daughter is ok . Keep us all posted.