Equita and Council Tax

[Kennedy]

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!

[renegadeimp]

Did you deal with the council directly or their call centre? A lot of councils call centres are outsourced to the company that owns equita.

 

Also remember that Equita are bailiffs as well.

 

 

Did your council tax ever go to court?

[d_bartlett2008]

1st thing make an appt with a money adviser at CAB or one of the other advice agency's to draw up a financial statement and work out an affordable payment plan (most councils want full payment by march so base it on 6 months)

 

2 Make a formal complaint to the council about the behaviour of Equita, if they haven't given you a suitable outcome after 8 weeks you can then take the complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman

 

3 read the national debtline factsheet on bailiffs remember never let them in, keep all doors and windows closed and move any vehicles well away from the house

 

4 Start making affordable payments to the council via their automated payment telephone number or like you said by internet banking.

 

Can't stress enough how important getting advice is on this subject

 

Hope this helps

 

Darren

[ploddertom]

Because you had an arrangement to pay Equita does this mean they made a levy on your goods? If so can you describe the goods seized exactly as described on the Notice of seizure? Have you been given a breakdown of the charges applied so far? Do you know how much you owed the Council originally? Do you know how much you have paid to date?

[tomtubby]

Always remember that as long as you do not let the bailiff into your property and you do not have a car that he can levy upon the MAXIMUM fees that a bailiff can charge is limited to £42.50.