Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

[janet.c]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and I'd appreciate if someone can provide me with some ways to get rid of the bailiff!

I am a full time student and should be exempted from council tax payment altogether. However, for some reasons, the council has not been receiving any of my e-mails or posts with my student certificate when i have already posted them every time I received a letter from the council requiring payments from me!

Then my case was passed onto the bailiff and I have been receiving letter from EQUITA. I then went to my uni and asked for help and made sure that the council received my student certificate. So all these happened in June.

Then I received a letter from the council a week or so ago saying that my account has been cleared with no council tax payment due. And for all those times from June until today I haven't been receiving any letters or calls from EQUITA.

But I have received a letter from them saying that they were here this morning and I wasn't in. If I do not make the payment in full and in clear funds in 24 hours they are going to remove goods from my house even in my absence.

My questions now are,
1) do they actually have the right to force entry?
2) should I really pay EQUITA even when the council posted me a letter saying my account has been cleared with my student certificate?
3) what should I do now? do i call the bailiff or just ignore the letter?
4) will they really be visiting tomorrow and break into my house??
5) is there a way to get rid of them since it is so unfair of them to charge me a fee when I am a full time student!


Please help me asap I am so confused as to what I should do now...the council tax office is closed now and my uni adviser has left her office....

I'd appreciate very much if someone can help me right now..!


Many thanks!!!

[CleverClogs]

Re: Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

I am a full time student and should be exempted from council tax payment altogether. However, for some reasons, the council has not been receiving any of my e-mails or posts with my student certificate when i have already posted them every time I received a letter from the council requiring payments from me!

The name of their preferred bailiff company provides a clue as to the cause of your problems. Your local council has subcontracted its administration to a company called Capita (aka Crapita) which is noted to be remarkably inept.

Then my case was passed onto the bailiff and I have been receiving letter from EQUITA. I then went to my uni and asked for help and made sure that the council received my student certificate. So all these happened in June.

Then I received a letter from the council a week or so ago saying that my account has been cleared with no council tax payment due. And for all those times from June until today I haven't been receiving any letters or calls from EQUITA.

That's interesting. Did they not obtain a Liability Order before they passed the account to their ba:censored:rd bailiffs?

But I have received a letter from them saying that they were here this morning and I wasn't in. If I do not make the payment in full and in clear funds in 24 hours they are going to remove goods from my house even in my absence.

Oh, that is excellent! Photocopy it, scan it if you can and keep it safely. But also show it to your local Trading Standards wallahs, as they should pass on a complaint to the OFT.

It surely goes without having to be stated that they are not allowed to remove any good from any residential property to which they have not previously been peacefully admitted. Their statement that they may is, therefore, a lie and was meant to be intimidatory.

My questions now are,
1) do they actually have the right to force entry?

No.

2) should I really pay EQUITA even when the council posted me a letter saying my account has been cleared with my student certificate?

No.

3) what should I do now? do i call the bailiff or just ignore the letter?

If you call them, they will probably tell you all manner of untruths - they may aver that you "owe" them over a hundred pounds in fees. You don't, of course, but a company or bailiff sufficiently brazen to put an untruth in writing can surely not be trusted to tell the truth.

However, you should show the letter to Trading Standards, as the incorrect statement of a bailiff's lawful powers may be a criminal offence.

4) will they really be visiting tomorrow and break into my house??

I very much doubt it. If they were to be so daft/arrogant, call the plods and report them as burglars.

5) is there a way to get rid of them since it is so unfair of them to charge me a fee when I am a full time student!

As you owe nothing to the council, their performing monkeys may not charge a fee.

[bluebottle]

Re: Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

Hi Janet and welcome to Legal Beagles.

Could you answer the following questions, please?

1) Have you ever received any letters from the council mentioning court proceedings?
2) Have you ever received any letters from the council mentioning a Liability Order?

If you have received no letters from the council with regard to court proceedings or a Liability Order, the council have no lawful authority to instruct bailiffs.

As you have now received a letter from the council stating you owe nothing, Equita should have no further involvement. If they are after fees, they should speak to the council about these as you are not liable for them. It was the council's ineptitude and incompetence that lead to them being instructed in error.

I would get the letter the council sent you photocopied or scanned tonight and have it ready in case the bailiffs do, in fact, call.

In respect of your question as to whether bailiffs can force entry to your house, the only bailiffs who can force entry are court bailiffs employed by H.M. Courts & Tribunals Service. Equita are certificated bailiffs and have no right of forced entry without a signed and sealed court order.

I would email Equita tonight and if you can scan the letter, attach it to the email. They can't argue with that. I would also explain to Equita that you have repeatedly sent your student certificate to the council on x occasions and it wasn't until your uni advisor intervened that they stop playing silly buggers. You will probably get denials about the email or what the council did from the bailiffs. It is in their DNA to lie.

You also need to email the council and tell them to call Equita off.

DO NOT open any doors to them.
DO NOT leave any doors or windows open and make sure they are locked - ON ALL FLOORS.

If they start making any threats of any description, call the police and tell them someone is attempting to break into your home. Making threats is an offence under Section 4A, Public Order Act 1986 (Causing Intentional Alarm, Distress or Harassment). In your case, it could also be an offence under Section 21, Theft Act 1968 (Attempted Blackmail).

Could you please indicate who you local council and local police force are?

[janet.c]

Re: Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

Thank you very much for the advice!! Such a relieve to know that they are not allowed to enter my house without me being here and letting them in!!

I have actually received Liability Orders and Court Summons but I immediately e-mailed them my student certificates every single time when I received these letters and then called the council. The answer from them every single time was that I do not need to worry, they will freeze my account. But then I started receiving letters from the bailiff all of a sudden. As soon as I received the first bailiff letter I called the council and asked why I was receiving them. Then they said they never received any student certificates from me and said that I never called them up before to enquire about anything. But that lady once again said she would freeze my account and the bailiff will not take any further action.

So then I sent another certificate off and then waited. By June I was receiving letters from equita stating that I should pay them 600+ GBP, with around 3xxGBP being council tax, 9xGBP being court fees and the rest their added charge. That morning I called the bailiff immediately and he asked me to pay first and then once the student certificate reach the council they will be able to refund me with the council tax payment but the bailiff fee they said I am entitled to pay no matter what. And he threatened me that if I did not pay in full immediately while he was on the phone with me, the charge would just increase by 1xxGBP every single time they make a visit to my house.

So I called the council with my other phone and talked to 3 different people and all said I have to pay for the bailiff charges even if I am a full time student since I have not been sending them my certificate ( which i did! ). and then the last person in the council office I spoke with that morning told me to go into the City Hall in Victoria and hand in my certificate by hand myself and so I did. BUT!! by the time I reached the City Hall, the receptionist told me that nothing can be handed in by hand anymore and the whole of the council office knows about this. So once again i had to make all the calls to the council tax office AGAIN, and then FINALLY, that lady who I spoke to gave me a different e-mail address: westminster.counciltax2@secure.capita.co.uk and I immediately scanned my student certificate with my ipad and sent it off. That was the first time I got an auto response e-mail saying they have received my e-mail.

The next day I went to my university's Student Adviser and she called the council up and asked whether they have received my e-mail but they said they couldn't check so the adviser had to explain the situation to the council tax officer. Then the officer said she would put my account on hold for 20 days and guaranteed that the bailiff wouldn't be sending me letters or coming to my house.

Last week, I received a letter from the council saying that my account is now cleared upon receiving my certificate. However I received the letter from bailiff this morning saying I still have to pay within 24 hours but it doesn't say how much I have to pay.....I am trying to find that letter from the council stating my account has been cleared..!! I might have thrown it away since I thought everything was solved!!!!!!



I live in London and it's Westminster Council... Should I be contacting the police first to keep a record..?


I really appreciate your help!!!

[CleverClogs]

Re: Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

Tell Private Eye about it.

Lord Gnome does not like Crapita.

[janet.c]

Re: Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

Who should I be contacting to make a complain about equita..??but I have thrown my letter away which can prove that my account has been cleared... And I do not have any proves that I sent off those certificates through posts and emails since I did nt make recorded delivery and my emails wipe out from time to time...

Any way out still...??

[bluebottle]

Re: Urgent help needed please with bailiff harrassment!!

Update: Looks like scummy bailiff ain't told his certificating court that he's working for Equita. So, he may have problems trying to levy or demand fees. He's also trying to charge what looks like excessive and unlawful fees. Not only that, his certificate expires on 02/08/2012 - this coming Thursday. OP advised to make sure Equita and scummy bailiff and local authority get the full works, i.e. OFT Credit Fitness Team, Department for Communities & Local Government, Ministry of Justice Bailiff Department, scummy bailiff's certificating court, local councillor and MP.