Council Tax Bailiffs - Equita

[onlyfools95]

Hi

Firstly, may I thank anyone in advance for any help/advice

I have 2 seperate council tax debts, both now with Equita Bailiffs.

The first one is for £700 and I paid £300 off and agreed to pay the remaining £400 off at £100 a month. When they visited, they seized the car on the driveway until I paid it off, although as I said, eventually accepted £300. The car is not legally mine and I am not on the logbook, but I am insured to drive the car. The owner of the car presented the bill of sale from around 18 months ago but the agents were not having any of it.

My question is - The agents still insist they have seized the car until the £400 is paid off. Is this legal despite a bill of sale being shown to them? Surely they could no longer seize the car if its proved I am not the legal owner.

I have a second debt from the same council and now with the same bailiffs. I got an enforcement notice saying I owed £535. Upon phoning the council, they confirmed the amount was £325 including the £75 fee for getting the liability order. Equita have confirmed they have not added their £235 fee, just the compliance fee of £75, so I believe the debt should be £400. Equita have been fairly reasonable, saying I can just pay £100 a month for another 5 months to pay off the £535.

So my second question is - Is this notice or writ from the bailiffs enforceable despite the amount being wrong? I haven't let on to the bailiffs regarding the true amount yet, but I have had it confirmed the bailiffs are charging too much.

Thanks for the help

[ploddertom]

Re: Council Tax Bailiffs - Equita

As far as seizing goods is concerned then they may only seize those goods which are the property of the debtor. The owner of the car should have made a claim in writing as to ownership & if the Bailiffs should be asking the Creditor for advice on what they wanted to do, which if necessary would have involved making a Court claim about it. The Court would then decide. They could still tackle the Council over this to try and get it resolved. How much is the vehicle worth? Given what you owe I think a value of approx £5k would not be unreasonable as they may only get 20% of its value at auction. Were you given a Form detailing the Goods seized?

As for the fees charged have you asked Equita for a breakdown? Looking at it I see:
2 x Compliance Fees @ £75 = £150
1 x Enforcement Fee @ £235 = £235
Total = £385
Have you confirmed with the Council and received the answer in writing of what you do actually owe according to each Liability Order?

It doesn't really matter about what sum the Bailiff is demanding as this can be sorted out later. The fact they have a "live" Liability Order is all they need.

[Sir Vere Brayne d'Emmidge]

Let's not forget that if the second LO was given to the EA after the first one had already gone to "Enforcement" a second £235.00 can and will be charged.