Equita lying and being agressive!Help!!

[dadofsail]

Since May 2019 we were paying off our Council Tax debt through Equita. We created a payment plan and paid every month. 1st of November should been the last payment, but in middle of october I received a text message from Equita representative Robert. Had no clue who it was and why he texted but he basically asked when I will make the payment. (Just to add, I emailed them multiple times to ask for remaining balance and received 0 replies). So I asked this Robert guy if you could send me account breakdown and his remaining sum didn't match with what I had in my notes. I paid my last payment and didn't hear from them since. Now in 18th of December I received an Enforcement notice(First letter stating anything about enforcement). I contacted council and Equita and double checked the balance break down that Robert had sent me earlier and noticed that in September they had added 235 enforcement fee. Not only they had never given me enforcement letter before, nor have ever visited, nor left a note of visiting, description of our appartment was absolutelly wrong! We live in appartment building and our house description for them was (White doors, semi-detached residental), while we have clearly brown doors and that is appartment block and nowhere looks like semi-detached house.At the current state - they are enforcing 185 pounds(Which shows that I actually overpaid £50 if we take away enforcement fee). So To break it down - no enforcement was ever required cause we paid every month, enforcement never happened, enforcement notices never reached us, and enforcement notes about visiting our property are completelly wrong. So today i was calling back and forth to council and Equita. Talking with Robert, who was so rude and kept shauting at me and treatening to come to our house now to talk in face, was droping his phone off multiple times. Called council and ask them to stop Equita from coming to our property, till they investigate our complain, called back to Robert and told them that council ask me to call him and let him know that they cant do anything until the 2nd of January, and he told me that he doesnt care what council says. Im on strong antidepressants and quite upsset with the rudenesses and the tone he was speaking to me, cant calm myself down, and im scared of their next move, as they love to lie. What can I do now? Thanks a lot for reading this long paragraph.

[ploddertom]

Let's go back to the beginning over all this.
Which year does this debt relate to?
Did you receive notifications from the Council about it prior to any Court Hearing? If so did you respond to them?
How much was the Liability Order the Council obtained against you?
When did Equita first contact you and did you respond to them?
How did you arrange your payment arrangement & who with?

Just so you are aware a lot of Councils outsource their back office procedures to a company called Capita, they in turn also own 2 enforcement companies, one of which is Equita. There is a good chance therefore you have never spoken to an actual Council employee.

Have you also checked the Bailiff Register to see if Robert is properly Certificated - https://certificatedbailiffs.justice.gov.uk/

[dadofsail]

Let's go back to the beginning over all this.
Which year does this debt relate to?
Did you receive notifications from the Council about it prior to any Court Hearing? If so did you respond to them?
How much was the Liability Order the Council obtained against you?
When did Equita first contact you and did you respond to them?
How did you arrange your payment arrangement & who with?

Just so you are aware a lot of Councils outsource their back office procedures to a company called Capita, they in turn also own 2 enforcement companies, one of which is Equita. There is a good chance therefore you have never spoken to an actual Council employee.

Have you also checked the Bailiff Register to see if Robert is properly Certificated - https://certificatedbailiffs.justice.gov.uk/

*Hello,thanks for replying!
The debt was for last years council tax.Yes , we received the notifications and got liability order.and thats all fine. In May we got contacted by Equita(received a letter) and I made a payment plan through their website. I dont know Robert's surname

[ploddertom]

Are you saying you have never spoken to anyone to make a payment plan?

The letter you initially received from Equita would have been a Notice of Enforcement and you would have been charged a £75 Compliance Fee for them doing this. To find out more from Equita you will need to serve a SAR on them asking for any and all information they hold about you including any telephone, text messages or emails.

[Guest]

When sending a SAR Notice make sure you include proof of who you are, a letter of any description showing it is a receipt in your name, as they will respond asking for these details, its just a delay tactic, and annoying. *