Equita Bailiffs - What Can I Do?

[mr2jay]

I seriously need help dealing with Equita Bailiffs.

 

I moved out of a house in January 2009 having never seen a council tax bill. On leaving the property, I contacted the local council to inform them that I was leaving the property and giving a forwarding address to send me the bill for the property.

 

I then heard nothing and promptly forgot about it. That was until a month ago.

 

I recieved a call from my Father (who I have a very strained relationship with anyway) who had recieved a letter address to me "care of" his own address. I have never lived there, nor ever intend to. Needless to say, he was not amused.

 

I contacted Equita regarding this and told them that I have no intention of hiding from this debt and gave them my current address. I was told that was fine and I requested that they sent me a letter outlining the debt, how much it was for and how to pay. The account (or so I was told) was put on hold until this letter was sent to me. I thanked them and waited for the letter outlining what I needed to do and how much I needed to pay to arrive.

 

Two weeks later, I got another VERY angry call from my Father telling me that a letter had now arrived informing us that Equita were to call at HIS address (not, I have to add, the address I had given them as my own) and remove goods for this debt. On contacting them, they denied all knowledge of the call I had made although they did have a record of a new address. They still used the "care of" address though.

 

So, I called again and was told that it had now been transferred to a collector and gave me his number. I called him fourteen times before I got an answer. We had a discussion where I explained what had been going on and sent him away to get a figure for me......

 

The original debt was somewhere in the region of £357 according to my Father, imagine my shock when he came back with £595!!!!

 

Now, had they actually followed what they had promised to do, then the extra £250 would NEVER have appeared. Is this a case of them taking advantage of a situation and obtaining money through deception? If so, that is sailing VERY close to fraud.

 

It gets worse. I agreed to pay £400 there and then and the final £195 this week when I am paid. This was accepted and I thought nothing more of it until yesterday. Again, I got an irate phone call from my Father telling me that a bailiff had arrived at his door to serve a notice of goods removal within 24hrs. On top of that, on the same day, we had another set of bailiffs turn up at my OWN address.

 

I called the collector I was dealing with and demanded to know what was going on. An agreement is an agreement after all. I am now waiting for a call to tell me that this has been cancelled.

 

What I want to know is this.

 

What can you knowledgable people advise me to do to claim back these charges? I feel I have been lied to and ripped off and I am very close to contacting the local authorities to file a case for harassment.

 

Thanks

[kinkyklee]

erm just saw youyr thread as was guna write a forum on equita as ive had these nasty red leters this week n last to say they r coming to cease goods...not sure who they are never heard of them...for a fact i wont b paying them,not even sure wether to contact them as they guna come anyway apparently....they have issued enough warnings lol ... i dnt even know this company...what area are you from

[hallowitch]

erm just saw youyr thread as was guna write a forum on equita as Ive had these nasty red letters this week n last to say they r coming to cease goods...not sure who they are never heard of them...for a fact i wont b paying them,not even sure wether to contact them as they guna come anyway apparently....they have issued enough warnings lol ... i dnt even know this company...what area are you from

 

 

Equita are a firm of bailiffs who collect among other things council tax debt and parking tickets

 

if you own a car i would suggest you move your car out the way until you find out what they are chasing you for they may levy ,it clamp, or worse still take it

[Conniff]

You biggest mistake is using the telephone. Stop using the phone, they can say or deny anything and everything. Only correspond in writing using recorded delivery.

 

Don't believe a word the bailiff says either, get the amount owed from the council direct and then you can add on the fees the bailiff is allowed to charge not the ones they have made up.