Hi, could do with some advice here on council tax, and Equita. On the 19/05/2015, I received a letter from Equita. A liability order was issued by the court for non payment of council tax due to the council. Contacted Equita and arranged to pay £47.72 per week, to clear the debt. Which I was informed would need to be cleared within 6 months. The debt is made up from the following; £1270.51 council tax, £75.00 compliance stage fee, £1345.51 Total. For the year 20013 to 20014. On the 14/08/2015, I received a letter from Equita. A liability order was issued by the court for non payment of council tax due to the council. Contacted Equita and arranged to pay £70.03 per week, to clear the debt. Which I was informed would need to be cleared within 6 months. The debt is made up from the following; £849.30 council tax, £75.00 compliance stage fee, £924.30 Total. For the year 2014 to 20015 I owe council tax for both the years in question, and do agree to pay them. I was informed by the council, court of both debts, and did have time to contact the council, so this is my fault. During the two periods I was working and could have paid the council tax. The issues I have are; 1... As a single person, I should only have to pay, “single persons council tax”. Which means the first court order of £1270.51 is wrong and should be £849.30. 2... I have started a new job and my take home pay is £800.00, per month. After rent, I have only £400.00 to pay living costs and the two above debts. I phoned up Equita today to pay £119.88, for the first debt. And £70.03 for the second. Which is all I can afford each month. The person on the other end said as I could not pay £190.88 ( £47.72 x 4) per month for towards the first debt of £1270.51, he would have pass the file on to an enforcement agent which would add further charges, and may result in losing goods. The second debt of £849.30, will be cleared within 6 months at a rate of £70.03, and is acceptable. I need advice on what to do next, or what I should do. Thank you.

Afternoon all, first post on here. Need some help really. Didn't pay council tax because I'm a 24 year old child. Didn't set up a payment plan with Birmingham city council quick enough, so went to equita, did set up a plan with them which I thought was by direct debit. Apparently not, as I didn't pay them 7 days ago they've sent a bailiff out to my house today who put a notice after taking control of goods on my car. However this car is on finance, the reg they've written is wrong and on all correspondence they've called me Lexxx my names Lxxx. Anyway, have tried calling bailiff multiple times to let them know that where I rent is rented fully furnished and that the car is on finance so they don't turn up again tomorrow and try and charge me for them and their tow truck. Which I'm guessing they will %100 do. I've rang 5 times,eft a voicemail asking them to call me back and have sent a text informing them. If they do bring a truck tomorrow would they still be able to charge me for it? What do I do and how do I go about getting them to set up a reasonable repayment plan? My original debt was £668.94 Today they added on a compliance stage fee: £75 and an enforcement stage fee: £225

Hi everyone I was hoping someone could help as I have gotten myself into a conundrum. I received 2x parking tickets that were issued in October 2014 from the council where I live for £60 each. I ignored them and just forgot about them, a few letters were sent saying I owe them money for them but again, just ignored. Heard nothing for about 6 months, fast forward to now and I have a letter from Equita about the tickets for a total of £350. I can't afford to pay in full, and I've emailed the council to ask about the tickets as I've totally forgotten about them and don't even remember why they were issued. Should I just continue to ignore? I've had alot of parking tickets and usually just ignore them and nothing serious happens, but I don't want to scare my partner when I get the threatening letters. They are [removed] , using fear tactics to try to extort you. I would gladly just not pay and wait it out until they leave me alone, but was wondering if there is something else I could do? thanks

I received two parking charges that weren't paid in time and therefor got handed to equita! When I went to council office they said they weren't able to take the debt back so inhad to sort it with equita. As a result I am reluctant to pay their fees so, so far I have paid both fine amounts of £82 each but none of equitas' charges! However today I got a letter (hand delivered through the door) saying I owe £310!!! Their breakdown is as follows... Client debt: £82 Court fee: £0 Compliance fee: £75.00 Enforcement fee: £235.00 Total paid: £82.00 Total outstanding: £310.00 My question now is, are they allowed to charge that much and how do info about disputing it & stopping the visits to my home. I'm reluctant to call them after reading various articles but would like to know what's my next action to take. Many thanks Naomi

I hope someone can give me the advice I need. I have a broken arrangement with a bailiff and I received a second visit today. Obviously I did not answer the door and he put an Attendance Notice to Take Control of Goods through the letterbox. The debt is now for just under £1,100 and although my car is only worth about £200 I am concerned he will clamp it just for spite. If he does can he still return to attempt to get the rest, or does he have one attempt only? I am self employed and need the car to go to clients - does this make it exempt? How often do these guys normally leave between visits? Thanks for any advice. David

HI All. I received a letter which was hand delivered this morning while i was home from EQUITA LTD. The did not knock or attempt to see if anyone was home but have added two charges to my debt. 1) Compliance Fee £44... 2) Enforcement fee £235 I really would like some advice but i guess you would need the details so here goes..: The original debt was from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for £469.24 in 2009 I refused to pay them as i thought the bill should only be £80 as when i lived in this address i was out of work but they charged me the full amount. In 2012 I finally got sick of the constant letters despite ringing them to tell them that they were charging too much so I rang the council tax office who had already passed my debt on at this point so i was advised to await correspondence from EQUITA. The letter from equita stated that they had been ordered to collect a debt in the sum of £469.24. When i received this letter I set up a direct debit with them which went smoothly for 7 months at which time the account i was using to pay by direct debit was frauded. When this happened I rang EQUITA to let them know that fraudelent activity meant that i would have to cancel the direct debit and re-set it back up again however the bank was overdrawn for a few weeks while the fraud team worked on refunding me which caused me to get behind in my agreement with EQUITA. I was £10 in arrears at this point and had also been ordered to come out of work to be a carer by social services. I rang EQUITA to set up the direct debit but as i did not have the £10 on the day i rang them up they refused to set up the direct debit and told me i had to keep ringing and paying until i had caught up however because i was out of work i wanted to come to a new agreement to pay less as I had already payed off £300. They told me that i must stick to the original agreement which as i explained to them was unrealistic for me as i came out of work. I also tried asking on several occasions whether they would at least phone me to take the payment as they were unwilling to set up the direct debit and i couldnt afford to keep ringing them. They refused this offer too so despite being poor and out of work i kept ringing and paying until i got to the point were my phone bill was getting ridiculous. Also if you try to ring equita directly they usually hang up halfway through the conversation so you have to ring them a few times before saying the necessary. Ok so at this point I cannot afford to ring them and i had already paid £381.50 of the £469.24 owed so in my eyes i owe £87.74? SOoooooo i rang them again in correspondence to an "IMMINENT VISIT FROM ENFORCEMENT AGENT NOTICE" a couple of weeks back and again attempted to set up the direct debit at an affordable £10 per week but the reply i got was "The outstanding balance is overdue and we must take payment in full" so i explained to the advisor my circumstances and asked if i could arrange a callback to make a payment as i cannot afford to keep ringing the premium rate number provided. The advisor told me that i can pay online and therefore do not need to ring them. I thanked the advisor for this as it was great news to me i didnt have to ring them so i said i can make a payment soon. Before leaving this conversation i asked the advisor "so, if the bailiffs knock on my door and i am making payments i can tell them that the debt is in dispute?". The advisor said "NO". So the way i took it was that no matter if i made payments or not they were going to add bailiff charges regardless and decided not to make that payment. Saying that it was only two weeks ago when i rang them Any advice for this article will be greatly appreciated Best Regards Mr Tin Ed Thats all the details to this date when i received this "ENFORCEMENT NOTICE" Which states that the "AGENT" came to remove my goods. Wish i had a camera pointing at the door to be honest because nobody has knocked on my door today as i have been in all day Are the two charges they added legal giving that i have never refused to pay off this debt?

Hi, I got a parking fine from the council and replied back to them in asking more details about the evidence through e-mail to the council within the 50% discount time of Penalty payment. I haven't done any appeal or anything, just requested for additional details, as the pictures in the parking fine doesn't show number plate clearly and any violation of rules. After sending e-mail, I have cross verified with the council by calling them, if they have received my e-mail or not. They confirmed that they have received it and they will respond back. After that, there is no communication from council team for my e-mail. After 6 months, directly, I got a letter from Equita about Notice of Enforcement. When I call the council team, they were stating that they sent letter to my address with rejection of appeal and 2 other letters, as they didn't got any response from me. I didn't got any letters from council team and I informed the same to them and I didn't even appealed rather I asked for more information. But, council team said they cannot do anything and I have to pay the amount. Can anyone advice, how to proceed and how I can STOP the enforcement from happening and also to get the case to the initial state of Parking fine? Your response is much appreciated. PS : Due date to pay the amount before enforcement commences is 13th June. Thank you.

Hi guys, I hope someone can give me a little bit of guidance as I'm really not sure what to do... So myself and my sister have a council tax debt from two years ago when we lived together at a previous address, and this was passed to equita. I contacted them as soon as they contacted me and they allowed me to setup a direct debit for £80 a month whilst I was trying to find employment, with the view to increasing once I had done this. I'm a lone parent of a three year old. Anyway I was transferring my half of the £80 to my sister monthly, and she was making the payments. I discovered on Wednesday just gone that whilst she HAD been making the payments, they had been late for the last few payments. So whilst there were no 'arrears' as such, obviously we had broken the agreement by the payments being late. I learned this because an enforcement agent turned up at my door with an enforcement notice. Our debt is £3,000 and is strangely split up into 4 different accounts. The enforcement agent that came to visit provided me with an enforcement notice that showed the amount of only one of the accounts, it was £459.75, to which he had added on £75 compliance fee and £349 enforcement fee; making the total £883.75. The day after he arrived, four letters turned up from Equita addressing each one of the accounts we have with them saying if we didn't contact them a bailiff would be round - which is ridiculous as he had already been round! They are refusing to speak to me, telling me I must speak to the bailiff. On the day he visited, he said he would speak to the office about my case but I was yet to hear anything back so called him back this morning and he simply said "I'm driving so text me your account details and I'll look at it and call you back" ... that was a few hours ago and haven't heard anything yet. I'm a bit concerned because I know that they're likely to clamp and try to remove my car if they decide not to let us reinstate our direct debits. I wonder what the likelihood of them reinstating our direct debit is and also I wonder if there is anything I can do to get them to put a hold on what they are doing due to how they have handled it, i.e. not giving us a chance to come to rectify this with the office before passing onto a bailiff. Thanks in advance for your help xx

Hi I am just wanting some advice, I recently received a letter from equita requesting £187 for a parking fine from 2 yrs ago, they sent the letter to my old address, I called to advise they had sent to the wrong address and they said my car was still registered there I explained the car was written off and SORN, and that I had updated all my details with the DVLA as I should. (So they were obviously lying and never checked where I currently live). I offered to make payment of £60 a month to clear this was refused they want full payment which I did not have at the time as the engine on my car had just b lown up. I meant to get some help on here but then I have had a recent bereavement in the family That wasnt expected and has knocked me for 6, so it got forgotten as my head is a mess still, but I had a letter today saying enforcement notice and added a charge of £235, why posting a letter costs £235?????? Myself and house mate were both home he didnt even knock!!!! Just wondering what my next step should be. Breakdown of charges Client debt £112 Court fee 0 Compliance fee £75 Enforcement fee £235.00 Total £422 Is this even legal?. Any advice would be appreciated thanks.

My son had a parking fine and like the majority put head in sand and its gone expensive. Had a letter from Equita saying that an Enforcement Officer has attended. Gave us a date !. We were home all day 2. No paperwork left to say he had been. I've emailed to get proof but how should i proceed.

Hi all, coming home from work today I received this letter: ENFORCEMENT NOTICE I have called today to execute a liability order issued to us by our client havant borough council. I am authorised by the court to remove your goods/vehicle to satisfy the outstanding balance of £726.24 If you fail to contact me in 24hrs I will have no alternative but to re-attend your proterty to remove your good for sale. to avoid further action call me on **** Client debt: £416 Court Fee: £0 Compliance Fee: £75 Enforcement Fee: £235 Total: £726.24 .................................................................... I Also live in a flat that you have to gain entry through a communal door, and then my front door. I have rang the number and he told me I need to speak to friends and family, I can call him back to pay tonight or in the morning because I have got till tomorrow to pay it. Can anyone give me any advice? Can he gain entry by force in anyway or use a locksmith? has he really been to court for this as there is no court fee? what are my rights? please help. many thanks

Hi all having a few problems Had a liability order against me and the OH I accept no probs, I have defaulted on the agreement with the council as money dried up and had to choose between food and heat or paying, I have paid just over 1/3 £950.00 remains They have given me 14 days from 15-12-10 to pay in full.or they will pass to the Baliffs. they go on to tell be about the Admin & enforcement act amended 2006 From what I have read on the forum this does not sound right.( some is but not all) 1st no distress 24.50 2nd 18.00 leveying distress 24.50 for 1st 100 24% 100-400 4% 400-1500 no need to go on as £950 then Walking Possession 12.00 Close Possession 15.00 per day it says these are fix by law at the end it states If the baliffs are unsucessful, the council will make an application to the court for your comimtal to prison, It is not that I won't pay it's I can not pay at the moment until the money cones in. The other thing at the start of the letter it states Various properties year outstanding 2010. I don't have or owe for any other property, so what is that about. Questions 1- Can they charge all of the above, I undestand some of them, but not the close possession @ £15.00 per day. 2- And what of the chances of being sent to prison. 3-what is the variuos property's about? 4- do they have to give me more time as there are some bank hols in between. Hope some one can help, as just found out the OH is expecting, It's alright for these people in recovery they get there monthly wage, sometime I get no payment or very little for 2-3 months at a time. Thanks in advance Leakie

Can someone advise on the new pcn/equita fees had one last month £119 now one for £364.04 with a enforcement stage fee [nothing enforced] so Doi go with the old fee and argue the new fees not allowed or can the implement new fees thank you

Hi was looking for a little advice, I have an outstanding ticket for parking, never disputed it but for the last 2 months had an awful lot of problems and forgot, yes I know my own fault and could kick myself. This morning an equita agent turns up claiming I now owe 407.00 and I have until the end of this month to pay it! I am right now a single mum of 5 children under 16.Partner is in prison so ive had to survive on income support and child tax credits.I have to pay towards my rent due to benefit cap and told this agent basically your telling me I either pay and make my children go hungry or not and you take my car and goods? He was horrible telling me I should be thankful he isnt taking my car right now because he could and he doesnt care but I have to pay in full by end of september.Thats 100.00 a week?! Im really worried and stressed now and only way I do this is by getting a loan to pay or not feed my children, now I, ll be in more debt! seriously can they demand this from me? I accept the debt and willing to pay but in such a short amount of time?

I have just received two 'notice of enforcement letters from Equity in respect of two amounts they claim I owe from 2010 and 2011. As far as I was aware, I was up to date with council tax. How can they suddenly start claiming amounts from 3/4 years ago. And they have applied the £75 enforcement fee to each. I am barely managing to pay my current council tax bill. There is no way I can afford to pay this. I would be grateful for any help or advice. I have had dealings with these people in the past and managed to climb my way out of the debt and I feel sick at having to deal with them again. Thanks

I have received a letter today from a company called Equita - My Husband has also received the same letter addressed to him as well. It says its regarding HM Revenue & Customs - Unpaid Tax Credits..... ... I have not received tax credits for well over a year now. I did speak to someone and explained that I have always given them updated information as soon as I knew it and in fact a couple of times they have told me to ring back because I have been telling them about something that would be happening within the next few weeks... EQUITA are saying that HM have passed my debt to them with instructions to recovering the outstanding debt of £1,097.81 in full. They say if I do not take action to resolve this immediately they may recommend to HM to commence enforcement action against us. taking control of our goods legal action through Courts with any judgement entered against my record. What do you suggest please I am really worried someone is going to turn up at the door and take all my belongings...

Hey guys Need a bit of help here, just received a letter by hand from a company called Equita. They say we are in debt of about £750 and they've attached fees to make it up to about £1000. The letter also says we have only 24 hours to make the payment or the company will return and take some possessions. The company Equita is acting on behalf of is called Capita Business Services Ltd (lambeth). We pay rent to an agency who aren't very good at paying their bills (we agreed to an all inclusive amount). I have a feeling this is about council tax but I'm not sure. Can anybody help me get a clearer picture? Or any advice on what to do next? We can't get in touch with the agents as always. We have been in touch with the landlord and he just tells us not to open the door to anyone and that there is nothing we can do. Any advice would be great. Thanks EDIT: Just some more information. The 'contract' we hold with the agency is termed a 'License To Occupy and for the bills sections. We crossed out the clause that stated we were liable for the bills and the agent signed it at the time. Just thought that would be of use. Anything else you need I'll try my best to give details on.

Hi Would a SAR to a bailiff company produce the paperwork regarding accounts they have collected on Ie Statements of accounts and charges added etc? Thanks

Hi all, Some urgent advice needed please. I and my partner have council tax arrears of approximately £1000. This has been passed onto the baillifs, Equita. My partner, over the phone, made an arrangement with Equita of £100 per month with an immediate payment of £100 and monthly payments to be made on the 28th of every month. My partner consequently made payment online using the Equita website on the 28th, as arranged. However, (in hindsight somewhat predictably) it took nearly 10 days for the payment to reach Equita (even though it was on there website) and thus they sent us a number of threatening letters requesting full payment or else. My partner rang them numerous times but they fobbed her off for a number for weeks until eventually Equita said they wanted full payment and would under no circumstance take payment by installments. More recently Equita have threatened to seize goods and although I know they can't do this they are definatley cranking up the pressure/harassment and so i need to reslove this quickly. This is were I have become more involved because my partner, bless her, is at her witts end with these bunch of legal mobsters. I thought sod you Equita and therefore made my next monthly payment direct to the council online. I would appreciate advice on the following points. 1) I intend to send one joint letter to the Bailiffs and Birmingham council (by email and recorded delivery) instructing them that I will only make my monthly payment to the council and that I will, under no circumstance, deal with the intimidating thuggish behaviour of Equita. Is this approach advisable? 2) Having read many and various threads on the issue, I have quickly learnt that many bailiffs LEVY on cars, clamp and even towe away cars that they know don't belong to them. We have 2 cars which are both on HP and therfore in law are exempt from being LEIVED ON. I have a strong feeling that Equita may Levy, clamp or even towe our cars at some point down the line. My question is do I risk informing Equita that we have 2 cars but also notify them that they can not be LEIVED ON, CLAMPED OR TOWED because they are on HP. 3) Lastly, I want to make monthly payments but think £100 per month will be too much given future council tax bills also need to be met. What kind of period do the council generaly view as acceptable. For example 6, 12 or 24 months. Many thanks in advance

Hi all, I had an outstanding council tax bill. Equita attended my house on 7th April once and added Compliance fee 42.50 and Enforcement 235.00 I have now paid the council in full but do I have to pay the fees. I am going to call the bailiff tomorrow. Thanks Karen

Hi I received a letter from equita early March this year asking for full payment of £1,500 within 7 days. I fell behind with previous years council tax due to various financial and income problems while being self employed. A liability order was issued and basically I made an agreement but couldn't make the repayments. So contacted Equita who said they could make an arrangement but would have to pay £31.25 per week. i argued that this was too much due to being on a low household income, but was told that was the amount i had to pay regardless of income as i don't claim Jobseekers or income support. i agreed to the amount and started to pay. My partner injured his back and was unable to work for 2 weeks over 15th/22nd april, being self employed = no income. We get some child tax credits and child benefit so lived off that as we have no savings to fall back on. I contacted the council to ask for a reduction in the amount for a couple of weeks until my partner returned to work. They refused to discuss and said i needed to speak to equita. They also refused, despite being told of the drop in income. They told me to pay whatever i could and then return to the 31.25 per week. during these 2 weeks we couldn't afford to pay anything to Equita, so missed 2 payments. My partner returned to work this Monday, although still in considerable pain !, So on Tuesday i used the child benefit money to pay £31.25 to Equita, with a view to paying the missed weeks asap alongside continuing to make the weekly payment. Yesterday i received a letter from Equita (dated 27/04/2014) Saying that further to my recent communication (as i also emailed the offer after speaking to them) the proposed offer of £20 per week was unacceptable and that I must now pay the amount in full within 7 days or ring them immediately with a revised offer. Sorry for the length .......... So today rang them was told i needed to pay the 2 missed weeks £62.50 today and then continue with the weekly £31.25. Ok so, we have no money at all to pay this and was basically told if it's not paid the arrangement will cancel and balifs will be sent and told to either borrow it ! or pay whatever we can..... Today, another letter has arrived (dated 2804/2014) REMOVAL NOTICE saying i have been issued your case so that i can call at your home this weekend with a removal contractor when i may remove your goods to the local auction house. I would prefer that you were in attendance, should another day be more suitable contact me on the number below immediately. if you prefer to pay the balance i require full payment at this office in good time before I call I've borrowed money to pay the missed payments today, but now this last letter has arrived today I'm worried and not sure what to do. The debt is an old debt when I was on my own with 2 children, before my current partner moved in and is in my name only, I have no income of my own, except the child benefits. My partner has a car and i'm worried that they will come and take that now. The repayment amount is too high to be affordable but no-one is interested in listening to our income breakdown and looking at a smaller amount because we don't claim jobseekers or income support. Although we do receive housing benefit and council tax benefit plus child tax credits as self employed income is very low.£31.25 per week will leave us short on food, heating and electricity. And now the balifs are coming. Don't know which way to turn

I am hoping some of you can help me, my daughter has had 3 bailiffs letters re a parking offence, she doesn't deny that she owes some money and she has good cause re not dealing with it, she is being treated for depression and is currently in fear of her life due to violent former boyfriend, she has made statements to police and is going to be a witness in the court case, despite threats from him. I wrote a letter ( on her behalf) to equita and explained her situation and informed them that the situation came under the vulnerable debtors, clause and asked them to send the debt back to the council, I have sent the letter twice, had an email acknowledgment , however all they did was write back, gave a breakdown of charges and ignored the vulnerable debtors bit and told her she could expect a call from them anytime within the next 7 days and they would clamp her car, she is frightened enough about knocks on the door ( with violent ex) Can anyone advise what to do next? Thanks

I arrived home today to find a hand delivered note from Equita stating someone had called to execute a liability order/distress warrant. It also states that if I fail to contact them within the next 24 hours they will have no alternative but to re-attend my home and remove goods for sale. The debt is £551.01 and they have added £235 for enforcement making a total of £786.01. This debt is for council tax at a previous address and I do not dispute the debt. I have already complained to my local council about the aggressive way I've been spoken to on the phone by employees of Equita. I was told that if Equita cannot get the debt from me they will hand it back to the council. This is what I expected to happen but now it seems Equita are not prepared to give up and of course they can now claim the £235 enforcement fee. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am a single mother who works through an agency and I'm not always working.

got a PCN a couple of months back, having parked in a council car park to go to the cinema, a gust of wind must of blown my ticket of the dash when closing the door. Sent a appeal as soon as to the council with the original ticket (i took photos for myself) which was rejected, I had to laugh as they sent a picture of the dash of the car, which had about 8 other pay and display tickets on, (Lazy moi?) I would like them to prove that it wasn't displayed in the picture! my partner has been in hospital and ive only just got round to dealing with this again, as I have had a letter from Equita saying it needs to be paid, it doesnt even say in the letter how much, but does say if its not paid soon (no timeline given) extra charges will be added blah blah blah. I have had this once before where I have genuinely paid and upon providing proof it has gone no further, just feel like the council are trying to get more money out of me. Can anyone advise, id be really grateful

Just looking for a bit of advice. I have recieved a letter from my landlord that an equita bailiff was coming to remove some of my possessions for an unpaid parking fine. I have done a lot of research into this and read a lot on this forum and i feel that the fines that i am being charged are rather excessive. Now this letter was sent to a previous address of mine and thus i havent had any letters that this matter had gone into bailiff hands. They are now charging me £421 for one visit to attempt to remove my vehicle. I have now changed my vehicle registration and council tax and have been told that another warrant for this address is in the post. The letter states that i owe £96 in a visit fee, attendance to remove fee of £140 plus the vat of £73 which rounds up my current balance of £421 on an original fine of £112. I have taken the steps to contact the council and they have kindly put this on hold for myself untill the end of this month. On speaking to the bailiff he has given me a different listing of what i owe him. £112 on origianal parking fine, £80 visit fee plus £16 VAT, £167 charge from the northampton council plus the VAT of £33.40 which doesnt even total the £421 that he is saying that i owe. Am i best to pay the money and appeal the case? Or is there any other process i go down to conclude the matter? I am very worried that my car will be clamped or removed even though my case is on hold and the inconvenience of me not having my car as it is locked up, away from any associated address and this is really making my life an inconvenice. I appreciate that i owe money to council buit feel that the bailiff fines are excessive from my research. Any advice would be highly appreciated.