EQUITA Bailiffs

[BerryN]

Anyone dealt with them before???

 

I went through a patch of really bad depression (although it was never diagnosed) and just abandoned my car all over the place. I ended up with numerous parking tickets and would just screw them up and throw them away thus ignoring it.

 

I was dealing with the relevant Council to pay off the debt but then moved and lost all information (bad excuse I know) and then subsequently forgot about it.

 

It got passed to Nottingham County Court who then passed the 'debt' to Equita Bailiffs who added £350 to each ticket making my debt nearly £7500 in the end.

 

I was receiving letter after letter after letter and ignored it but then I spoke with them on the phone and arranged a meeting with one of the bailiffs at a hotel nearby - did not want them in my parents house!!! My father came with me and spoke for me. The bailiff would not let us have a copy of the apparent 'warrant' but briefly showed it to us. We agreed a payment plan of £50 a month. I was paying this every month until I fell pregnant and got sacked from work for being so (long story!!) and couldn't afford that amount. I wrote to them to explain and said I would reduce the amount to £25 per month. Didn't hear anything so carried on struggling with £50 then wrote again and said I was reducing it to £25 unless I heard otherwise which I didn't. Therefore, I started paying £25 a month. I was still receiving one letter per 'debt' (about 19 in total) every time I sent some money as they wouldn't put the whole debt together to make life easier for everyone, they would allocate the money to a different one each time despite an agreement with the bailiff in the meeting. I was then told that the bailiff had left and the person who signs the letters doesn't actually exist!! (thought that was quite amusing) and was allocated a new bailiff and given his mobile number and told to call him to discuss my situation. I rang him and he agreed £25 a month but was asking questions like what colour is my house, what is the front door made of etc which i refused to answer. I was then receiving letters stating that he had been to my house etc which was rubbish as nobody had EVER been to the house. I am still paying £25 a month but this will NEVER go away unless I can do something to reduce it.

 

They have never been to my house, never done anything other than 19 letters a month (one for each account) and a few phone calls and they have racked up over £350 of charges on each 'debt' that started off at £60...

 

 

What can I do??? Help... PLEASE!!!

[BerryN]

Can anyone help me??

[renegotiation]

You may be better off posting this in the bailiffs sub forum and in the parking tickets main forum.

[rory32]

I have already requested that the thread is moved. No need to post another thread in a new forum.

[BerryN]

Anyone dealt with them before???

 

I went through a patch of really bad depression (although it was never diagnosed) and just abandoned my car all over the place. I ended up with numerous parking tickets and would just screw them up and throw them away thus ignoring it.

 

I was dealing with the relevant Council to pay off the debt but then moved and lost all information (bad excuse I know) and then subsequently forgot about it.

 

It got passed to Nottingham County Court who then passed the 'debt' to Equita Bailiffs who added £350 to each ticket making my debt nearly £7500 in the end.

 

I was receiving letter after letter after letter and ignored it but then I spoke with them on the phone and arranged a meeting with one of the bailiffs at a hotel nearby - did not want them in my parents house!!! My father came with me and spoke for me. The bailiff would not let us have a copy of the apparent 'warrant' but briefly showed it to us. We agreed a payment plan of £50 a month. I was paying this every month until I fell pregnant and got sacked from work for being so (long story!!) and couldn't afford that amount. I wrote to them to explain and said I would reduce the amount to £25 per month. Didn't hear anything so carried on struggling with £50 then wrote again and said I was reducing it to £25 unless I heard otherwise which I didn't. Therefore, I started paying £25 a month. I was still receiving one letter per 'debt' (about 19 in total) every time I sent some money as they wouldn't put the whole debt together to make life easier for everyone, they would allocate the money to a different one each time despite an agreement with the bailiff in the meeting. I was then told that the bailiff had left and the person who signs the letters doesn't actually exist!! (thought that was quite amusing) and was allocated a new bailiff and given his mobile number and told to call him to discuss my situation. I rang him and he agreed £25 a month but was asking questions like what colour is my house, what is the front door made of etc which i refused to answer. I was then receiving letters stating that he had been to my house etc which was rubbish as nobody had EVER been to the house. I am still paying £25 a month but this will NEVER go away unless I can do something to reduce it.

 

They have never been to my house, never done anything other than 19 letters a month (one for each account) and a few phone calls and they have racked up over £350 of charges on each 'debt' that started off at £60...

 

 

What can I do??? Help... PLEASE!!!

[BerryN]

Anyone dealt with them before???

 

I went through a patch of really bad depression (although it was never diagnosed) and just abandoned my car all over the place. I ended up with numerous parking tickets and would just screw them up and throw them away thus ignoring it.

 

I was dealing with the relevant Council to pay off the debt but then moved and lost all information (bad excuse I know) and then subsequently forgot about it.

 

It got passed to Nottingham County Court who then passed the 'debt' to Equita Bailiffs who added £350 to each ticket making my debt nearly £7500 in the end.

 

I was receiving letter after letter after letter and ignored it but then I spoke with them on the phone and arranged a meeting with one of the bailiffs at a hotel nearby - did not want them in my parents house!!! My father came with me and spoke for me. The bailiff would not let us have a copy of the apparent 'warrant' but briefly showed it to us. We agreed a payment plan of £50 a month. I was paying this every month until I fell pregnant and got sacked from work for being so (long story!!) and couldn't afford that amount. I wrote to them to explain and said I would reduce the amount to £25 per month. Didn't hear anything so carried on struggling with £50 then wrote again and said I was reducing it to £25 unless I heard otherwise which I didn't. Therefore, I started paying £25 a month. I was still receiving one letter per 'debt' (about 19 in total) every time I sent some money as they wouldn't put the whole debt together to make life easier for everyone, they would allocate the money to a different one each time despite an agreement with the bailiff in the meeting. I was then told that the bailiff had left and the person who signs the letters doesn't actually exist!! (thought that was quite amusing) and was allocated a new bailiff and given his mobile number and told to call him to discuss my situation. I rang him and he agreed £25 a month but was asking questions like what colour is my house, what is the front door made of etc which i refused to answer. I was then receiving letters stating that he had been to my house etc which was rubbish as nobody had EVER been to the house. I am still paying £25 a month but this will NEVER go away unless I can do something to reduce it.

 

They have never been to my house, never done anything other than 19 letters a month (one for each account) and a few phone calls and they have racked up over £350 of charges on each 'debt' that started off at £60...

 

 

What can I do??? Help... PLEASE!!!

[Zamzara]

Those fees sound excessive: the maximum for a letter is £11.20 per letter, though I'm unsure how many letters they are allowed to send, or if they can send letters for each ticket. It sounds highly dubious.

 

The Citizen's Advice Bureau offer a good service with helping people in debt, and they can probably advise on whether the fees are excessive too.

 

Above all though don't worry... nothing that bad can happen to you.

[BerryN]

will speak to them next week as they don't appear to answer the telephone! Thanks for the advice.

[swisstoni]

Hi Berry,

If i'm quoting you correctly, you have 19 tickets @ £60 each which gives a grand total of £1140 so that means the "bailiffs" are charging you over £6000 for their services. Extortionate at best. As it's the same company dealing with all your tickets, I cannot see why they have not joined all the fines together (except for their own money-making). I would seriously challenge the legalities of this. Contact a local solicitor to see if they have a free surgery to see if there's anything they can do to help you get rid of these awful low-life ****. As you can probably tell, i'm not one of their biggest fans. Never had dealings with them just reading on here the underhand tactics they use on the vulnerable makes me so mad. Also,

If you are in reciept of benefits (housing, JSA etc), you are classed as a vulnerable adult and can ask the court to call off the bailiffs.

 

Hope This Helps

 

SwissT

[B.A.Ts]

firstly how many warrants of execution did you get from the court that was handed to the bailiff

[PizzaMaker]

firstly how many liability orders did you get from the court .. if Im correct then they can only charge for the liability order not for each item ie for each ticket.. I maybe wrong I will have to check.

 

Liability orders are for council tax. Warrants of Execution for parking tickets.

[B.A.Ts]

my apologies for that mistake im still learning about this 'bailiff law' etc I have corrected it, I knew what I meant.

[B.A.Ts]

this may help, but it could be a long shot

Warrant of execution

[tomtubby]

Sorry B.A.T but the info provided is to vary a County Court Order. Now here is where the consufion sets in. Warrants of Execution for Parking Charge Notice are authorised by the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton. And although a County Court, has very different regulations.

 

For PCN's the correct method is to apply for what is called an "out of time" late Statutory Declaration.

 

Will provide a copy letter for you tomorrow.

[B.A.Ts]

Sorry B.A.T but the info provided is to vary a County Court Order. Now here is where the confudion sets in. Warrants of Execution for Parking Charge Notice are authorised by the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton. And although a County Court has very different regulations.

 

For PCN's the correct method is to apply for what is called an "out of time" late Statutory Declaration.

 

Will provide a copyletter for you tomorrow.

Excellent that certainly will come in handy thank you so much.. Why cant there just be one bloody rule for everything.. would make life so much easier, but then again they make it hard i supose so poeople cant find out what their rights are in certain cases

[B.A.Ts]

tomtubby.. is this it

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/files/OOTApplicationPack.pdf

[livelylad]

3 threads merged and thread title changed

 

please keep to the one thread when asking questions or updating .This is in your own interest as you will get much more informed advice when people can see at a glance what you have done so far

[tomtubby]

These are the correct forms.

[PizzaMaker]

Hi Berry,

If i'm quoting you correctly, you have 19 tickets @ £60 each which gives a grand total of £1140 so that means the "bailiffs" are charging you over £6000 for their services. Extortionate at best. As it's the same company dealing with all your tickets, I cannot see why they have not joined all the fines together (except for their own money-making). I would seriously challenge the legalities of this. Contact a local solicitor to see if they have a free surgery to see if there's anything they can do to help you get rid of these awful low-life ****. As you can probably tell, i'm not one of their biggest fans. Never had dealings with them just reading on here the underhand tactics they use on the vulnerable makes me so mad. Also,

If you are in reciept of benefits (housing, JSA etc), you are classed as a vulnerable adult and can ask the court to call off the bailiffs.

 

Hope This Helps

 

SwissT

 

What you have to remember is that if you do not pay your parking ticket and the original was £30, it will go to £60 and then finally to £90. Debt registration of £5, then this means each ticket is £95, with the costs of letter, the fine will then be £108.16.

 

£108.16 x 19 = £2055.04p

 

If they have visited you property, a visit fee of around £30 would be applied to all 19 of your accounts.

 

I know equita are trying to charge someone i know £2000 for 4 parking tickets. They are adding illegal fees on all multipule accounts.

[BerryN]

It looks like I am being screwed BIG time! Further to a fantastic coversation with tomtubby I will be following advice and sending an SAR to Bailiff and a request to local Council to get copies of Parking Tickets as they are so old they are more than likely unenforceablwe anyway!!!!! Will keep everyone updated because this would make me one of the happiest people alive if i get rid of this!!!!

[BerryN]

UPDATE

 

Equita phoned my parents house (conveniently that is where ALL my debt issues are addressed to). They proceeded to talk to my father asking for debit card details for my monthly payment which I sent last week. They told him that if he didn't pay that the bailiff would be sent round to remove the car involved. My father laughed saying they shouldn't even be talking to him as they don't have permission, datd protection act etc and she said to pass me on the message that the bailiff had been round and seen the car (the car involved in the parking ticket debts) in the driveway of the house 2 days ago, and will come and take it within 7 days whether i give them permission or not unless I make a substantial payment today.

 

Again, my dad laughed and put the phone down on them.

 

I sold that car about 18 months ago!!!! hahaha

[BerryN]

I am sending an SAR request now as per previous discussions - do I sign it? I have read a lot of info about people not signing the letters????

[kfdh1962]

my girlfriend had dealings with equita over council tax liabilities. Not nice people to deal with . she had a particulalry threatening and aggressive bailiff threatening all sorts such as kicking down the door, swearing at her etc. They also added on extortionate fees for non existant visits,

any way to get to the point, with advice from this site and some research to understand the legal postion, i challenged them, reported them to the council etc, got the charges reduced from £502 to £40, and got the debt back to the council's management

 

so dont be put off by their intimidation, keep on going as you are and you will win through in the end.

[BerryN]

how did you do that? I would love to do that - how!!!

[kfdh1962]

i take it you mean reducing the chaarges.....

 

there are a few websites around that tell you what they can charge for , and the amounts they can charge. They were trying to charge around £200 each time for a van coming to the house twice... which never happened... and even if it did they could only charge for it if they had previously been allowed into her premises to make a levvy of goods,,, which they had never done. armed with this and other information from the great people on this site i challenged the bailiff, and equita at there offices both verbally and in writing, and copied the council on everything. Equita never produced detalied list of charges which they were requested to do and in the end dropped the charges to £40 to cover to calls to the house to hands deliver letters and some minor costs for correspondence...i did emphasise that i would fight them on the charges in courts if necessary as i knew they were wrong...