Baillifs hounding me. HELP

[bike]

Hi there

I'd be grateful for some help as I have never been in this position before. I owed just under £400.00 in CTAX. Due to a lot of financial problems following a marriage break up, I have been under a lot of strain. My council obtained a Liability Order (I don't really know what this is) against me and Equita has been leaving horrible threatening letters for me. I went to the Council today and set up an arrangement based on their advice to clear the debt with instalment payments, by March next year. However, they tell me that I need to speak directly with Equita about their own charges which as far as I know amounted to approx £1,400.00. The same day, Equita came round and left a letter telling me that I had 24 hrs to clear the arrears in full (no amount stated on the letter but I'm guessing they would have added further charges onto the previous amount). I really don't know what to do. Should I call them and come to some arrangement or should I just send in a letter directly to the council asking them to withdraw the case from Equita? HELP...I'm desperate as I don't have any money. Thank you for any help/advice you can give me
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Sorry, I note that I did not make clear that the arrangement with the council was only to clear the £400.00 they say I owed them and not any other monies.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

I'd be grateful for some help as I have never been in this position before. I owed just under £400.00 in CTAX. Due to a lot of financial problems following a marriage break up, I have been under a lot of strain. My council obtained a Liability Order (I don't really know what this is) against me and Equita has been leaving horrible threatening letters for me. I went to the Council today and set up an arrangement based on their advice to clear the debt with instalment payments, by March next year. However, they tell me that I need to speak directly with Equita about their own charges which as far as I know amounted to approx £1,400.00.

What???

They could not legally get it to that much even if they'd added in the date by mistake!

Which council is it?

[labman]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Well done for getting a repayment plan set up with the council. Are you comfortable you can afford and sustain the repayment levels they have advised. If you can't, you're better telling them now, but hopefully you are fine with them.

A Liability Order is simply what it says. It's an Order from the court saying you are Liable for £x.xx owed to them. It also gives them the right to start enforcement procedures through, eg, bailiffs.

As long as the bailiffs have never gained peaceful entry into your house to carry out a levy, or levied on anything outside such as your vehicle, then the only charges they can legally charge at this stage is for a first and second visit which amounts to £42.50. See here: Bailiff Guide - Legal Beagles Consumer Forum and also here (post 3):
Information Thread - Legal Beagles Consumer Forum

If they maintain they are still owed ridiculously large fees, ask for a full breakdown of their fees (they're supposed to give you this by law) and post back upso we can back up your verbal request in writing to see how they arrive at their total.

Do not under any circumstances speak to the bailiffs on the phone or let them into your house.

[bike]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Hi all, thanks for your comments.

CleverClogs, I'm a bit nervous about naming the council because work for them in a different department. It is an outer london borough/Kent, if you get my drift.

Labman, thanks for your advice too. In terms of the Liability Order, if I get to pay off the monies to the council does this mean I have discharged the Order. I was going to ring the Baillif to get an up to date figure of the "alleged" amount I owe.
Thanks for your help

[CleverClogs]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

CleverClogs, I'm a bit nervous about naming the council because work for them in a different department. It is an outer london borough/Kent, if you get my drift.

I believe I may have read something about them elsewhere. The reason I asked was just that I suspected they'd subcontracted their Council Tax collection to Crapita, of which Equita is a subsidiary.

Labman, thanks for your advice too. In terms of the Liability Order, if I get to pay off the monies to the council does this mean I have discharged the Order. I was going to ring the Baillif to get an up to date figure of the "alleged" amount I owe.

Do not telephone the oaf.

Not only would that needlessly reinforce his delusions of adequacy, you would not be able to rely on anything he might say because bailiffs tell lies.

Write to them instead and get a written or printed copy of the charges they have sought to impose.

[bike]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

you are so right. it has been contracted out to C. i will write to them as u advise today. do u think i shd write to C and ask them to stop the baillifs since ive made an arrangement for the £400.00?

[CleverClogs]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

you are so right. it has been contracted out to C. i will write to them as u advise today. do u think i shd write to C and ask them to stop the baillifs since ive made an arrangement for the £400.00?

No, as Crapita is hardly noted for its efficiency.

Write to the Head of Revenue at the council instead, unless he has also been replaced by a Mk. II Crapita droid.

[labman]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Do not believe what the bailiffs say you owe - they lie terribly.

Send this to them:

Ref: Account No: 123456

Dear Sir

With reference to the above account, Can you please provide me with a breakdown of the charges.

This includes:
a - the time & date of any Bailiff action that incurred a Fee.
b - the reason for the fee.
c - the name(s) of the Bailiff(s) that attended on each occasion a Fee was charged.
d - the name(s) of the Court(s) the Bailiff(s) was/were Certificated at.
e - the date of the Certification.

This is not a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act S7 1998 so does not incur a fee of £10. You are obliged to provide this information.

I require this information within 14 days.

[bike]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Thank you. All done

[Shadowcat]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

I believe its only Court bailiffs with a Court Order that have the right to enter your property or take assets, therefore as has been said, never let them in as that will be construed as your permission to take.

These people are jokers and you should be the one chasing them but I know that's not easy to do when you are down and have no fight left. The letter above is brilliant and starts the official ball rolling at which point they may flounder as there's one thing we're learning about these type of people, they're not really into doing things officially and properly. That letter will be your first defence if (and I'd be surprised) they try and take you to court for this ridiculous amount of money.

Councils are notorious for the speed in which they will take people to court so coming to the agreement with them is the only thing you need to worry about.
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Have cut and pasted that letter into word Labman, it's a corker.

[pepsie]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Isn't that letter from over the road, done and used by "ploddertom"?

[CleverClogs]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Does it matter whence it came, as long as it spells out to the oafs at Equita what information they must provide?

[ploddertom]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Just in case of any queries, anything I may have produced in another place is freely available to use for anyone who has a need for it.

[labman]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

Isn't that letter from over the road, done and used by "ploddertom"?

Indeed it is, though I didn't realise PT had actually scribed it. It is an excellent letter as it saves the £10.00 fee. Like all letters published on here I assumed (correctly reading Ploddertom's post) that they were able to be freely copied and duplicated to help others. That's one the great things about this site, we share all the good things.

[Shadowcat]

Re: Baillifs hounding me. HELP

It's just a great letter.

I have no issues with bailiffs but have had in the past when I was late on a car payment and a truck turned up to take my car, the loan was with Close Motor Finance and they were real bully boys. I was just about to hand over keys when husband got back from work and took keys saying to the idiots with the truck 'Please leave my property immediately or I'll call the police' and blasted them for trying to take the car, they had the cheek to say 'She gave us the keys so has handed over the car', I can't repeat what he then said but it worked as he had started to get a bit loud, they said they were only doing their job and nearly cried and drove off in their pick up truck. I was scared stiff, husband was angry but we never complained as it was back in the day when the borrower was made to feel like a criminal if they paid late. With the knowledge I have now I realise the loan was not only missold (told 4 years, turned out to be 5) but was probably full of errors.

As for the bailiffs, I am older and wiser now and would laugh if they came to the door, I would give them one chance to get off my drive before I called the police but there are many people out there, especially the very young and elderly, who I may meet who have problems associated with these thugs and I can run them off a copy of this letter for them to handwrite their details in.

'Bailiffs' (bullies) are high on my crusade list, it's thuggery and needs to be stopped.