equita hand delivered 'notice of enforcement'

[chinoky]

Hello all. I just received a 'notice of enforcement' which was hand delivered 7 days after the stated date (cheeky monkeys) I understand the laws have changed. I was wondering if they can now force entry? Thanks

[i hate bailiffs]

What is the debt about

[chinoky]

Council tax

[ploddertom]

What date was the letter written?

What date did you receive it?

Do you know what postal service was used - Royal Mail, Uk Mail, DHL etc?

Do you know what level of service it was send by - 1st Class, 2nd Class or another?

What date and/or time have they given you to reply by?

[matt v atos]

What date was the letter written?

What date did you receive it?

Do you know what postal service was used - Royal Mail, Uk Mail, DHL etc?

Do you know what level of service it was send by - 1st Class, 2nd Class or another?

What date and/or time have they given you to reply by?

 

OP says hand delivered 7 days after the stated date

[ploddertom]

OP says hand delivered 7 days after the stated date

 

That's as maybe but still need details.

[i hate bailiffs]

. I was wondering if they can now force entry? Thanks

 

NO THEY CAN NOT despite what they say

No forced entry

No locksmith

No arrest

[chinoky]

Sorry was a bit vague earlier. The date stated on the letter was 10th July. It was hand delivered today. It said they will come back on the 18th at 17:30. So specific I thought the law had changed to allow forced entry which had me worried

[lookinforinfo]

The law states that you must have 7 clear days notice before the bailiff can knock on your door to either collect all the money outstanding including their fees; make an arrangement

to pay off the amount over a period of time; or take control of sufficient of your goods to sell at auction and pay the debt.

 

At the moment they cannot do any of that until the 7 days have elapsed ie. 25th July [sunday is not included]. This is to give you time to arrange a repayment schedule with the

bailiff to avoid him coming to your house. [if you don't make an arrangement his visit will add £230 to your bill so you do need to sort things out sharpish.]

 

Your first thing is to complain to the CEO at the Council stating that the letter was delivered on Thursday17th July and the EA says he will come on Friday night 18th July giving you no time to resolve the matter and is in breach of the recent Taking Control of Goods Act which states they you must have 7 clear days notice. Then ask him to confirm that noone will call until the 25th July at the earliest and get them to confirm how much you owe the Council and what you need to pay to prevent the bailiff coming. Once you know that you can either make an arrangement with the CEO to pay that amount and then contact the bailiff advising him that you have come to an agreement with the Council.

[brassnecked]

Are we having to watch Equita more closely, as if indeed it was hand delivered on day 7 after the date, Formal Complaints will need raising. You could contact your local councillor also to ask what they think regarding the unlawful actions of their agents. What council is this as it might be a Capita stitch up one, as in Capita do the backkoffice and revenue functions, they own Equita.......

[lookinforinfo]

Virtually all mail is hand delivered whether by postmen, TNT or the bailiff company. Unless some one was in the house or there is cctv who is to know

who actually made the delivery. Whoever it was, should a bailiff turn up today that is a blatant breach of the Act.

I cannot find it now, but I seem to recall that were a bailiff to come round within the 7 day period that the Control of Goods was cancelled and the £235 fee cancelled. Am I

right on that?

[brassnecked]

The £235 would be applied when they call. As this is Equita, we can advise chinoky to be very careful with Equita, and make sure there is no handy car to take control of, and not to let them in, as they have not given 7 Clear Days notice to allow for an arrangement. If they turn up huffing and puffing thell them you are initiating a complaint on the ground of no notice before calling in breach of Taking Control of Goods and will not be letting him in to take control of squat.

[chinoky]

It's Bexley Council. I will try and reach the CEO to explain the situation. Unfortunately I don't have cctv installed. I'm not opening the door to the bailiffs.

[chinoky]

Thanks for your advice guys.

[ploddertom]

Did they come as promised?

 

My view is that the Notice of Enforcement is non-compliant & thewrefore they cannot charge £75 for it. There is nothing stopping them doing it correctly though. Is there any chance you can pay the Council whilst you have a chance.

[tomtubby]

The new bailiff regulations provide that the Notice of Enforcement may be SERVED by a variety of methods (by post or hand delivered etc). If hand delivered, the '7 clear' days must still apply. I would 'assume' that the bailiff will try to state that the NoE that he hand delivered is merely a COPY of one that had previously been posted. I would be interested to hear his response.

 

Interesting question.

[ploddertom]

The new bailiff regulations provide that the Notice of Enforcement may be SERVED by a variety of methods (by post or hand delivered etc). If hand delivered, the '7 clear' days must still apply. I would 'assume' that the bailiff will try to state that the NoE that he hand delivered is merely a COPY of one that had previously been posted. I would be interested to hear his response.

 

Interesting question.

 

I have come across another the same as this whereby the letter has been delivered by hand and saying contact must be made within 2 days. Again it is Equita - seems as if they have their own agenda.

[brassnecked]

I feel that Equita, are being creative with the Taking Control Regulations, possibly with the connivance of Capita if they happen to infest the council where the debtor is resident.

 

We should watch this one closely, as Equita will hand deliver on the seventh day or a couple of days later than the date on the letter to try to apply Compliance and Enforcement fees immediately if they feel they will get away with it rather than posting it via Royal Fail or TNT Post etc, A new interpretation of their previous MO, of upfront fee fraud perhaps.

[old bill]

All local authorities need to tread carefully where enforcement of Council Tax arrears is concerned. It would appear that court staff at magistrates courts are waking up to the fraud and corruption relating to Liability Orders. A case I am currently helping someone with has revealed a local authority only has summonses but no Liability Orders against the person I am helping. The magistrates court staff very kindly informed us of this. On my advice, the person is now writing to the Court Manager to request copies of the Informations the local authority would have to lay in order to obtain summonses and details of Justices and Justices' Clerk who were sitting on days the local authority claimed LOs were granted and who granted the Liability Orders (if any were, in fact, granted).

 

As for this thread, any local authority which has contracted Capita and its two attack dogs, Equita and Ross & Roberts, will need to keep a very close watch on what they are doing. If the new regulations are not being complied with, unless local authorities have had the sense to insert an indemnity clause into contracts, apparent non-compliance on the part of Equita and Ross & Roberts could prove very expensive for Council Tax payers.