Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

[Guest]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

Unless they have already gained peaceful entry to your house they can send a fleet of vans and an army of bailiffs but you will not be liable to them for a single penny.

Without a valid, legal and signed Levy or Order for Walking Possession the bailiffs are attending to collect money and not goods and therefore the attendance of a van is entirely unnecessary and certainly not a matter that you should be obliged to pay for.

Irrespective of and not withstanding any Liability Order, the above course of conduct de facto constitutes a criminal offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and a further offence has been committed under the Administration of Justice Act 1970 by way of harassment of a debtor.

There can be no justifiable reason as to why bailiffs send these deliberately menacing letters, but rather this is a clear use of an unlawful tactic adopted by bailiffs generally, as a form of harassment, calculated to alarm, intimidate and harry and to elicit a response. This is de facto unlawful and actionable.

You need to step up your efforts to have the account returned to your local authority, which they can do but do not often acknowledge. The local authority is interested only in money and they frequently do not care how it is collected.

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

they have refused to hand it back stating they can only do it if the council request so,but after looking at the bailiff "rules" if they refuse to accept payment then it should automatically passed back to them....
thank you for the above input cetelco i cannot thank you enough!! its put my mind at rest .. i shall print it off and stick it to my front door if i have to!!! i wonder what they will think then?
just to clarify they havent gained peaceable entry to my house ever...this is about their 7th letter since the middle of Jan..i think i will share your information with them actually and write another letter.....
once again THANK YOU
big kisses!!

[Amy]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

They haven't passed it back to the council because they won't make any money if they do.

If you continue not to let them in and refuse to deal with them, they will have no choice but to hand it back to the council.

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

im hoping thatll be the case amy to be honest. ive sent a letter this afternoon with the information cetelco gave me which im hoping will be the final push. Ive told them ive reported them to the court and OFT ,they shouldve got that letter today.....so i hope that theyll return the debt back to the council and hopefully will get into trouble off OFT or the court which would be great.
if i now pay the council direct does that mean i can start the claim for the £1 charge they added to the account?? will i be able to pay using the card to pay the council? if so im going for it...:beagle:

[Guest]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

Once the account is handed back to the council, you may pursue the bailiffs for the fraud perpetrated on you with the non-prescribed fees.

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

thank you

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

not sure where my last post went ?? lol
i had a letter off equita saying they were handing the debt to birmingham city council as i had said that i would be paying them directly now.
i did type the letter up and it saves restored post draft but i dont know how to get it back up??
can i now claim the fraud thing?
also had a letter off the OFT saying they were looking into my complaint.
i havent heard off the courts yet?

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

ok just got in and low and behold ... i have a hand delivered letter from the bailiff saying
BAILIFF REMOVAL
payment due in full in 24 hours
i have attended today with the intetion of removing your goods and chattels as are necessary to discharge the outstanding council tax liability order and any additional enforcement costs incurred.
please note no further arrangements are acceptable and payment is now required in full by clear funds only
i will re-attend at your address with immediate effect and may remove goods even in your absence. should you wish to avoid thisdistressingcourse of action, contact me immediatelyon the telephone number below to arrange prompt payment of your debt
no contact will be taken as your refusal to pay.
p downing
bailiff in charge
so what on earth is going on ?
theyve told me twice now in writing that its been handed back to the council only to have equita letters sent a couple of weeks later??
ive phoned him and left a message saying he shouldnt have come to the address due to equita saying the account is not being handled by them and that im forwarding the letter to the courts and OFT
i have heard off OFT and they said theyre looking into it.... just spoke to the courts and they dont deal with the complaint they just forward it to the council... who ive already made a complaint to and theyve ignored.. just spoke to someone else in court who advised phoning equita and asking for person who wrote the letter saying that it had been passed back what a nightmare!
any help is gratefully received
please?
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
what a shock ,bailiff just phoned......:O
he said to find out paper work and call equita hed leave it for a few days in order for me to try and sort it out!!:O
to be fair he sounded really nice and he was helpful last yr too, but equita on the other hand!! GGRR

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

i phoned equita who wouldnt speak to me and said i was wasting my time as the case was with the bailiff now, so i phoned birmingham court and spoke to a lovely lady who phoned equita in birmingham for me and got them to call me back. the account has now been passed back to the council, thanks to the lady's call from the court.(took about 10 minutes!) BUT.... equita did call and told me that this had happened cos of the payment i didnt make at the end of Jan.... i told them they hadnt waitied for it before requesting the full amount and sending the bailiff out.. she didnt know what to say.
then she told me i hadnt paid anything off my council tax bill cos apparently ive been paying for a year for flipping charges they put on my account last yr when a bailiff called due to them taking 3 weeks to process a payment!!! ARRRGGHHH
charges are:-1st and 2nd visit£42.50(only received one calling card though)
levy £43.50
and a van for £130!!!!!
i said it doesnt cost that much for a van she said it does!!! how on earth can they justify this?
please advise on where i go from here as this is ridiculous now. i cant believe ive spent a yr paying of their fees and not the actual bill

[Amy]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

Have you had a response to your SAR yet or your Form 4 complaint?

The fee for the van should be split between how ever many people were visited that day, but in any case read again Cet's opening paragraph in his post #31 - the van is irrelevant which means they cannot charge for something they cannot possibly use.

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

no i havent had the money to be able to send it off, if i send them a letter about post 31 what happens if they refuse to take the charges off? they have been really stubborn so far

[enaid]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

I am sorry Archer but this is beyond me I'm afraid, someone who can help will be along soon. Amy is good on this subject as is Cetelco.
From what I have read you do need to find out about the charges you have been paying off and I am not sure of another way apart from the SAR.
If there is another way am sure someone will be able to tell you.
Sorry I can't help Enaid x

[Amy]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

no i havent had the money to be able to send it off, if i send them a letter about post 31 what happens if they refuse to take the charges off? they have been really stubborn so far

You really need to send the SAR which will make it a formal request for your data. As you've already said, they are stubborn and will more than likely ignore your letter.

However, they cannot ignore a formal subject access request.

[archer_66]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

thanks both , ill be able to do it in a couple of weeks .. at least its back with the council now which is a big relief

[Guest]

Re: Equita bailiffs Urgent help required!! please

Since we have already established that the bailiff has overcharged you in that they have charged for non-prescribed fees and also charged van fees for a levy that was irregular and your account is now back with the council, the gloves can come off.

You have been defrauded by the bailiff and you can have your debt paid off at the bailiff’s expense.

Follow these steps carefully and complete them all.

1. Phone your bank or card issuer and ask for a chargeback form. Do not elaborate if they ask you why you want one.

2. Obtain a crime number from the police station. You do this by reporting the crime of fraud, in that you have been defrauded by a bailiff under section 2(1)(b)(i) and section 4(1)(c)(i) of the Fraud Act 2006. Take evidence including the bailiff’s receipt, printout of the relevant fee schedule and the law including section 10 of the Distress for Rent Rules 1988. If the police fob you off with the "it’s a civil matter" excuse or say that you have "insufficient evidence" or it doesn’t fit the criteria to be considered for criminal prosecution, then request the name of the officer and file a complaint of misfeasance with the IPCC.

3. On the chargeback form, enter the following reason for the chargeback.

The merchant applied undue pressure on me to obtain this money transfer for himself or another and defrauded me the consumer with fees that are not prescribed in law and committed an offence under Section 15A(1) of the Theft Act 1968, Section 2(1)(b)(i) and Section 4(1)(c)(i) of the Fraud Act 2006 and the police have given a crime number of XXXXXXX and the merchant declined several opportunities to reach an amicable resolution to this matter.

Especially with debit cards, you must show the merchant bailiff has defrauded you. Overcharged fees are easy because they are prescribed in law and charging a non-prescribed fee - including a card fee is fraud. Enclose a copy of the bailiff’s receipt and the prescribed fee schedule.

Include all copies of all the letters you have sent requesting a breakdown of the bailiff's fees and keep their excuse letter to show the bailiff was awkward. The bank can get this information for free if they want to check. Under a chargeback the burden of proof is with the bailiff who has to prove he actually posted letters and made visits giving rise to fees.

The Bailiff or his firm and anyone trading in debt recovery must have a Category E consumer Credit License pursuant to Section 21(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 otherwise they are committing an offence under Section 39(1) of the Act.

The Bailiff pays a chargeback fee of around £10 and can appeal against your chargeback within 42 days but he’ll have no grounds, you were defrauded.

Once you have your money back, file a complaint at court against the bailiff, quote the crime number if you have one and enclose all supporting documents.

There are some possible repercussions:

1. The bailiff might try and re-charge your card following a chargeback, but the bank’s fraud-detection system may automatically suspend their online terminal.

2. The bailiff could start a civil claim against you; it’s unlikely to work because you recovered the money under an Act of Parliament and these cannot be overruled by a county court.

Finally I would advise that you do not begin this unless you are willing to go all the way with it. This is litigation, not therapy and you must be sure that you are going to be able to complete these steps. I would remind you however, that since you have confirmed that the bailiff's have not entered your property, they are not entitled to charge the fees that they have been threatening you with, so this is about as clear cut as it can get.

If you would like any further help with this, just ask.