Equita adding charges for parking offence

[fchristensen]

Hi.

 

About 1 year ago i received a parking ticket (issued by Richmond council). I had every intention of paying this ticket but completely forgot about it.

 

About 2 weeks ago Equita sent me a letter saying that i had an unpaid parking ticket which now would cost me £146. I immediately called them up to explain my situation. I told them that i get paid in 2 or 3 days and i would call back straight away to sort this out. (Woman on the phone agreed).

 

Payday comes and i call them back to pay my debt, only to find out that they had now increased the amount payable to £460 (despite the fact that i called them back when i was supposed to!) They also told me that they were not allowed to talk to me about this case anymore and that i had to speak directly to the bailiff. So they gave me a mobile number for the bailiff and i called. He told me that the debt needed to be setteled straight away otherwise he would come and take my stuff.

 

I am 20 years old and live in my parents house. Is he allowed to come into my parents house and take stuff?

 

I said to Equita that i was more than happy to pay the original amount agreed, which was £146, but they don't want to speak to me anymore.

 

I am left not knowing what to do and frankly am a bit scared.

 

Any advice is much appreciated and sorry for the long description.

 

Thanks,

 

Fredrik Christensen

Edited May 11, 2009 by fchristensen
title edited

[crem]

What other paperwork have you received since the original parking ticket? There are a number of steps the PCN should have gone through before it gets to bailiff stage. Are you saying you received, but ignored all of them, or are you claiming nothing further was received?

 

Depending on which of the above happened will affect what advise you receive so make sure you paint a clear timeline if you can of what happened.

[fchristensen]

Hi Crem,

 

Thanks for you reply!

 

I apologise i failed to mention that i did receive notice to owner which i appealed to. I did however not get any response to my appeal and nothing further after that.

 

Richmond Council insists that they have sent multiple formal warnings to me, but i have not received anything further than the notice to owner which i appealed to. They also say that they have not received any complaint / appeal from me. So i'm kind of stuck at this point.

 

Thanks,

 

Fred

[fchristensen]

UPDATE:

 

I just came back from work and found a letter from Equita in my post.

 

It says: Removal Notice and it is dated 05/05/2009. It specifies that i have to pay a total of £146 which was originally agreed. This is very confusing.

 

First they want me to pay £146, then £460, then £146 again? What's going on?!

 

Fred

[crem]

OK, If you maintain you received nothing after the NtO and that you submitted a formal appeal after this, then there may be steps you can take to get the fine re-set to it's original value. I am no expert on this procedure so hopefully one of our more expert CAGgers will pick up on this shortly.

 

The jist of it though is (I think) that you can submit a statutory declaration to the TEC stating that you submitted an appeal to the NtO and received no formal rejection nor anything else following it. This should cancel the bailiff position and take you back to the NtO appeals point. This procedure is very precise so await detailed guidance from someone on here who knows what they are doing.

 

On the letter today, does it say "pay £146 and that is the end of it"? if so, you may want to consider whether that may be the best option in terms of getting the price down. It really depends on why you appealed in the first place. i.e. if it was a genuine appeal against the offence not taking place or whatever, and you still believe this is true, then of course you don't really want to be paying anything do you!

[lamma]

If you end up having to fill out an N244 look out - the way they are processed gives the bailiff another chance to ramp the costs up on you. Also note that some (quite a few) councils have outsourced all the stat dec processing to the bailiff company. In some cases the contract between the council and the bailiff company says that all OOT stat decs will be rejected. Then you get notified by post but the council and the so the bailiff company get notified electronically. the time gap means they can clamp/remove/increase fees etc before you know anything about it. Its an absolute scandal.

[fchristensen]

Ok

 

thank you Crem and lamma for your very helpful advice. I will call them up tomorrow and get them to confirm yet again in writing that what i have just received in the post dated 05/05/2009 is correct and that the only amount i have to pay is £146.

 

If unsuccessfull i shall return and pester you some more with my useless explaining

 

Thanks again guys!

 

Fred

[crem]

If you end up having to fill out an N244 look out - the way they are processed gives the bailiff another chance to ramp the costs up on you. Also note that some (quite a few) councils have outsourced all the stat dec processing to the bailiff company. In some cases the contract between the council and the bailiff company says that all OOT stat decs will be rejected. Then you get notified by post but the council and the so the bailiff company get notified electronically. the time gap means they can clamp/remove/increase fees etc before you know anything about it. Its an absolute scandal.

 

 

lamma, I thought the Stat Dec went to the TEC, not the council?

[lamma]

OOT stat decs.

[patdavies]

OK, If you maintain you received nothing after the NtO and that you submitted a formal appeal after this, then there may be steps you can take to get the fine re-set to it's original value. I am no expert on this procedure so hopefully one of our more expert CAGgers will pick up on this shortly.

 

 

If a formal appeal was made at NtO stage, and the Council do not reject this within 56 days, then the appeal stands and the PCN is cancelled.

 

If a formal appeal is dismissed by a Council, they must send a Notice of Rejection together with details of how to appeal to the adjudicator.

 

As posted above you need to do a stat. dec. to revert to the NtO stage and then appeal again formally on the grounds of procedural impropiety by the Council.

[fchristensen]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks again for the helpfull adive. i have filled out and sent over a stat to TEC. I attached a letter explaining the situation as well as fill out the form itself.

 

I tried calling up Equita today and spoke to one of their employees. I explained to him that on the removal notice sent to me by equita dated 05/05/2009 (after i was asked to pay £460) it said to avoid further course of action by us you need to pay £146. I called up to pay the £146, but they said that the letter was an error generated by their computer system and that the outstanding balance is still £460.

 

I don't know what to do anymore...

 

Fred

[crem]

Submitting the stat to TEC is probably the best option at the moment. If accepted, (and I don't know how these things normally go, someone else might) then the clock is set back to the last point that you were aware of. In your case that should be the NtO stage. You then either pay the parking fine as it stood then, or appeal to the adjudicator. Either way, the bailiffs costs get scrapped and you only have the original fine to deal with.

[fchristensen]

Hi,

 

Again thanks for all the replies. I submitted the stat to TEC and they have informed me that they have notified Richmond Council to hold off any Bailiffs for the time being until the decision whether my application is successfull or not comes through.

 

However despite the submission of the stat to TEC, Equita Bailiffs keep sending me threatening letters. I received one that says Notification of Registration and that they are going to send porters and bailiffs over to my parents house (where i live). Surely this is goes against the rules does it not? I was told by a friendly TEC representative that Equita MUST hold off until a decision has been made.

 

Could someone shed some light on why they are still sending me threatening letters and what i can do in order to prevent them? Should i contact TEC informing them of the Equita letters or just ignore them?

 

Thanks,

 

Fredrik Christensen

[lamma]

yes tell TEC, bailiff should have suspended. they will charge an arm and a leg for those letters if they get the chance.