Equita Bailiffs and Council Tax 24hrs notice

[hollieb22]

Right I have been trying to set up a Direct debit for my council tax since August,

first person I spoke to wouldnt do it over the phone

sent mandate which they say they never recieved back.

 

2nd person I spoke to after payment wasnt taken

set it up over the phone only for it still not to be taken,

 

3rd person I spoke to wouldnt do it over the phone said could only send out a mandate

but it could paid over 5 payments which at the time would have been in Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar.

 

I never recieved a mandate so doubt one was ever sent tbh.

 

Next thing I new I had a letter from the bailiffs,

I contacted them as its not like i'm not willing to pay,

told them when my husband would next get paid in order for me to make payment as i'm umeployed.

 

They were happy with that,

the week I was due to call my 13 month old was addmitted to hospital

so a phone call never got made as it wasnt something I was thinking about at the time,

so a bailiff called at the house and left a letter.

 

My husband then contacted to council,

went through our account with them about me setting it up over the phone and no one contacting us to say there was a problem with the Direct debit.

 

The lady he spoke to went and spoke to her manager and came back and told my husband that they would call it back from the bailiffs

as we should have been contacted about the offer and someone would be intouch with 2 days set set up the direct debit for payment.

 

This was the 9th Dec,

 

by the 13th we still hadnt recieved a call so

 

he called back spoke to someone else who told him the the person it had been passed onto hadnt processed it yet

so he would send them another memo to get them to sort and contact us.

 

We still never recieved any phones calls.

 

Thought we would wait till xmas and new year was over with due to people taking holidays and call back.

 

A Bailiff turned up at my house yesterday, and gave us 24hrs notice for payment or to remove goods.

Told him we owned nothing, out car was on the drive at the time he said what about the car I said its HP which it is and he said

well I'd sort that out with them implying that he would take the car for payment.

 

My husband contacted to council again and after calling them all day yesterday he finally managed to speak to someone this morning,

who told him that they werent willing to call it back from the bailiffs as we've had plenty of chances to pay,

which ok fair enough I could have called to make a payment but I wanted it paid by Direct Debit,

when your looking after a 1 and 2yr old the last thing you think of is oh I need to call to pay this today.

 

He made her an offer of paying a hundred pound per month which she wasnt willing to accept.

He asked why wasnt he called back and advised of this in December

so he could have contacted the bailiffs to stop it getting to this stage to be told "We dont return calls"

 

So where do we stand???

My husband has told me not to let anyone in,

which I'm fine about but how do we go about paying???

[hollieb22]

What happens if I pay the council direct??? do I need to advise the bailiff I have paid the council direct???

[hollieb22]

How much do I pay, cause in Decmber I owed £652 not sure whats included in that and then on this letter I got yesterday it said £814.

[hollieb22]

Once I send that letter to the CEO and a copy to the bailiff can the bailiff keep calling at my house??? If my car is parked on the drive can he place a levy on the car???

[hollieb22]

Do I have to prove the car is on HP???

 

Will get letters written up tonight and sent recorded tomorrow that way they cant say they never recieved them like my bank mandate.

 

Thanks so much for your help

[hollieb22]

One last thing as when we quieried this with with council the balance was £652 and they never bothered to call us to state that they were re-calling it back from the bailiffs. We've now had the balance gone upto £826.14. Do I need to pay the difference of £174.14 as I dont think its fair we've had these charges as the council never got in touch with us.

[hollieb22]

If I had a credit card, catalogue bill or payday loans which I was paying then I would put them down to £1pcm but I dont,

My mobile is only £10pcm which is in a contract till April.

I also havent said I dont have the money to pay the council tax either,

just got fed up of having to go online each month to make a payment and wanted to pay by direct debit that way no way of me missing a payment.

 

What I was asking was

if those extra charges recently incurred

if I can get them cleared off as I was waiting for the council to return my call set up direct debit

and get it paid cause as far as i knew it was being recalled from the bailiffs.

No one had called or written to state otherwise.

[hollieb22]

No probs will dig out my HP agreement then so I have it to hand if they call.

[hollieb22]

Called the council and asked them the questions in

Only 1 Liability order has been issued

It covers 2011-2012

£609.31 outstanding

Cost of Liability order £63.00

The lady I spoke to doesnt know what the bailiff fees are.

 

She said that all i'd need to pay them is the 609.31 but then the bailiff would still want there fee's paid

[hollieb22]

Thank you, both letters written up. Letter to CEO with copy to equita and the letter above requesting a breakdown of charges. These will all be sent recorded so should be recieved monday morning Tuesday and the very latest.

[hollieb22]

Update - Firstly thank you all for you help, my account has been called back from the bailiffs and those bailiff charges have been cleared off the account. The CEO has assigned the account to a lady in the Revenues department who I need to call tomorrow to set up a payment plan. Overall I'm very happy, just hope I can get a Direct Debit set up now so as I dont have to keep going online to pay.

[hollieb22]

Thanks I just looked on there website and they have their bank details listed so will set up a Standing order. Wish I had known months ago there bank details was listed online.lol