I need some advice here.
When I met my partner he'd just had a long illness and missed some council tax payments. He was/is self employed so very little support was available.
When he got better he contacted the council/started paying again and was told that the arrears had been passed to this Equita company. He paid off most of the amount up front half of which was fees. There was a repayment plan for the rest and it was all under control.
Now this company have stopped taking the DD. They won't respond to any letters they just send threats all the time. This sum could be paid up front if needed but a payment plan was a better option overall. The money is there but they're not taking it and they won't explain why.
The stress of this situation has started to make my partner ill again. My view is to pay upfront but this company are so inept I don't know how to make them take the money and properly acknowledge the receipt of it. His view is to just send the money to the council and keep writing to this company (who don't respond).
It's not a lot of money but it's a huge amount of stress at a difficult time (bereavement). They keep threatening to come round and all sorts.
I'm not a confrontational person but I've heard a lot of bad things about this company and I think they need to be forced to be professional, no amount of letters and contact is going to do it.
Does anyone know how we should go about this or if there is any legal terminology or process that might shock either Equita or the council into actually responding?
Obviously there are other people in similar situations who wouldn't be able to pay and that's awful. We're very fortunate that we actually can. But they won't take the payments or communicate. Surely this isn't legal? Has anyone dealt with these people?