My son now gets disability allowance and I have just started to receive carers allowance as I had to give up work...not sure if that is of any relevance!

Hello, I really need some advice. I am in such a stressed state that I cannot take any info in. I took a LBL to pay medical fees for my child. The first I took out in 2006, I took another in 2007 (I had to meet the agent in a carpark!) The last two years have taken a real toll on us as, amongst other things, the ill-health of our child has cost us a small fortune in trying to get a diagnosis—his eventual diagnosis is o a neurological disease that has no successful treatment on the NHS so we are paying privately for everything. I have emailed LBL with all this info and asked for a one week extension on the default—I am not hearing anything from them and the reports on this site make me feel sick. I have nowhere to hide my car. Is there anything at all I can do.

Hi everyone, could someone advise? I sent a request CCA request to Cabot Financial (who are chasing me re a Next account (from 2003) that I don't believe I ever had!) and have had a letter today (outside the 12 days) stating "The Cabot Financial Group is not obliged to provide this information but we are pleased to help...." Is that true? Thank you

Hello again, I am hoping that someone on here can offer some advice. Due to redundancies etc we ran into problems with unpaid council tax that dated over a few years and we were forced into a repayment schedule of £300 per month. We have paid this since last year. A few weeks ago our child was diagnosed with a chronic long-term illness and we needed to take him to see the only paediatric specialist in that condition elsewhere in the country. I emailed and wrote to the council to tell them that we could not take our child and still pay the £300 and asked for a month's grace. I said we would assume agreement unless we heard different. Our payment was die on the 6th of htis month and on Saturday I received letters from the bailiff's company informing us that they were visiting us, within 7 days, to remove goods. I obviously can't contact the council until tomorrow morning. I just needed to check where we stand. I have told the whole truth of the situation to the council-we have had ongoing nightmares with the bailiff where they will refuse payment (telling us there's not arrangement), lie to us that the council has told them they can do what they like etc so we now talk directly to the council-and we had no choice but to do what we did for our child. I don't really know what else we could have done. I would be very grateful if someone could let me know what could happen if the bailiffs do turn up. I am here on my own with my child, who suffers with terrible anxiety as part of the condition so this will be awful, and whether I should be alert to anything specifically. Thank you.

Hi, would be grateful if anyone can advise. We have an ongoing argument with a company that provided a service for us. They won't agree to deduct some money from their bill etc and the argument goes on. They have now visited our house twice, the first time was "a friend of one of the company director who lived closeby" and the second time was one of the directors. Each time they've left a letter and telling us "it's getting really serious". We would rather keep everything recorded and in writing but I don't like this coming to our home twice and wondered if this is usual practice? I feel it's an intimidation attempt as they keep mentioning that they live nearby and all they do is leave the same letter?! I'd be grateful for any advice. Thank you

Hi, I had some problems paying the last two months instalments on our catalogue account but I have been in contact with the company/ I tried to talk to them and email them but I started to receive multiple calls each day from them. I stated time and time again that I couldn't pay, with good reason, until 3/4. I subsequently sent them the harassment letter from these forums. I had a response back today that includes the following: " Your comments have been noted, however, it should be made clear that whilst your account maintains a debit balance, moreover, outstanding arrears, we will continue to contact you either by letter or phone, in an effort to recover at least any overdue amount, which currently stands at £31.56, and £42.08 including this months payment. There are notes on the account relating to you notifying us of financial difficulties as a result of illness and an offer to pay the outstanding arrears on 6th March 2008, which was accepted. We appreciate your communication, however, the agreed payment was not received. In difficult circumstances, our policy is such that we will make every effort to assist customers to make a suitable and mutual arrangement for future payments that meets their current circumstances, where possible, and we feel we have acted accordingly in these circumstances." They accept that I cannot pay until the 3/4 and have accepted that in another email but still continue in this way...can they just say that? "Tough, we'll just keep harassing you"? Would be grateful for any comments, thank you.

Hello, would be grateful for any advice on this. We took our son to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) on 18th Jan this year-I had been told that, because we are going to Immunology, we are eligible for a refund on the congestion charge (which was confirmed by Transport for London (TFL)). GOSH also gave us a parking permit for a nearby street (more of which later!) Anyway, the appointment went badly, we were stressed and tired and we completely forgot to pay the charge until we received a letter about it. I then sent off a letter to TFL enclosing the representation explaining why we were late in paying and a copy of the GOSH permitto show attendance at GOSH at that date. A few weeks later I received a letter informing me I had to pay £180...so I called them and they tell me they've never received anything from me. I sent the same again (though obviously not the representation form as the original was sent the first time). I've had a letter back today telling me that, regardless, I have to pay £180 within 14 days. I had forgot to mention in both my letters that we are actually eligible for a refund anyway which I am going to do today but I really don't have £180 to pay these people full stop. Do I have any other avenues available to me if I feel they've been harsh in their judgement? I would be very grateful for any advice as I have 14 days from today. Thank you

Hi, I tried to talk to them and email them but I started to receive multiple calls each day from them. I stated time and time again that I couldn't pay, with good reason, until 3/4. I subsequently sent them the harrassment letter from these forums. I had a response back today taht includes the following: " Your comments have been noted, however, it should be made clear that whilst your account maintains a debit balance, moreover, outstanding arrears, we will continue to contact you either by letter or phone, in an effort to recover at least any overdue amount, which currently stands at £31.56, and £42.08 including this months payment. There are notes on the account relating to you notifying us of financial diffiulties as a result of illness and an offer to pay the outstanding arrears on 6th March 2008, which was accepted. We appreciate your communication, however, the agreed payment was not received. In difficult circumstances, our policy is such that we will make every effort to assist customers to make a suitable and mutual arrangement for future payments that meets their current circumstances, where possible, and we feel we have acted accordingly in these circumstances." They accept that I cannot pay until the 3/4 and have accepted that in another email but still continue in this way...can they just say that? "Tough, we'll just keep harrassing you"? Would be grateful for any comments, thank you.

Hi, would be grateful if someone could offer some advice. We have asked a catalogue company to hold on for 2wks until we can afford to pay the outstanding instalment on our account...we are two months in arrears. They have just emailed back to say that they cannot freeze the account and payment is due...which doesn't help us any and I would like to respond but am unsure of the best way to proceed as a) I'd like to keep the account and b) am a bit annoyed that they cannot even consider holding the account for 2wks until we can pay! we've explained the reason to them for the delay in payment but they appear to be completing ignoring a genuine request and just saying "no can do, pay up" which is understandable but I can't see that they don't at least have to be realistic about this and at least try to help? Would be grateful for any advice.

Excuse spelling. I have a young son trying to type along with me (my excuse, and I'm sticking with that one.)

Thank you Chris. I don't have any other comms with them on this account (we have had payment schedules in the past with them) other than my informing them by letter that we were moving and asking for a final council tax bill. They then sent me the bill which I didn't pay immediately so we recieved another letter informing us that "a liability order would be applied for if we didn't make arrangements to pay" which we did by retirning the direct debit form. They responded to us agreeing the monthly payments and confirming dates and amounts; the first payment is due this month (though their direct debit is still not set up.) In the New Year we received a letter telling is that "they had been granted a liability order on 10/12/07 in relation to account number xx" and we have been trying since that point to get an answer as to why they continued with the order when payment arrangements were in place...and here we are! I understand why they've done it but I didn't think that was the proper process to go through? Thanks again

Hello, I've reposted this thread here (I couldn't work out how to move thread) and would be very grateful for any advice (I've copied my original thread and replies below): Hello everyone, I would be very grateful for any advice. I have an ongoing issue with Richmond Council and Newlyn bailiffs; I have begin to accept that dealing with Newlyn isn't easy but I have learned to accept this! My latest problem is a worry as I don't want to give Newlyn any opportunity to turn up at my door. We recently received a letter from Richmond Council informing us that we owed x amount of council tax for the period before we moved out of the borough. They said that we could avoid court action by returning the enclosed direct debit form etc. I duly returned the form and they subsequently sent me an acceptance letter detailing the payments to be made, starting Jan 08. Last week we received another letter telling us that they'd been given a liability order for the same account and that we needed to pay or etc etc. I have tried to contact the council to find out what's going on and no-one is getting back to me. Can anyone advise on what I can do? To clarify: we made an arrangement which was yet to start, which the council had recognised and accepted, the first payment was yet to be made and we then receive the liability order notice. Many thanks Sequenci replied giving me some very good advice The current situation is that I received the following email from the council: Dear xx Thank you for the e-mail below. I apologise if you have not yet had a reply to your query. I can confirm that you have a Special Arrangement in place, on your Council Tax account, and that it is being paid by Direct Debit. I can also confirm that we have a Liability Order on your account as you were summonsed for non-payment of your bill. No further action will be taken on the Liability Order, as long as you continue to pay the agreed installments under the Special Arrangement. If your Direct Debit is cancelled for any reason, the Council has recourse to further recovery action, without having to re-apply to the Court. Once the current year's bill has been fully paid, the Liability Order becomes inactive. I hope this has clarified the situation. xx Council Tax Officer I had an agreed repayment schedule and they went ahead with the liability order...is that how it works? It certainly isn't what the form I completed (ie when completing the direct debit to arrange a payment) said at all. It said that "to stop this action you must arrange to pay" etc. Does anyone have any advice on this? Thank you

Hi, I wanted to post the email I've just received from Richmond Council re my situation: Dear xx Thank you for the e-mail below. I apologise if you have not yet had a reply to your query. I can confirm that you have a Special Arrangement in place, on your Council Tax account, and that it is being paid by Direct Debit. I can also confirm that we have a Liability Order on your account as you were summonsed for non-payment of your bill. No further action will be taken on the Liability Order, as long as you continue to pay the agreed installments under the Special Arrangement. If your Direct Debit is cancelled for any reason, the Council has recourse to further recovery action, without having to re-apply to the Court. Once the current year's bill has been fully paid, the Liability Order becomes inactive. I hope this has clarified the situation. xx Council Tax Officer I had an agreed repayment schedule and they went ahead with the liability order...is that how it works? It certainly isn't what the form I completed (ie when completing the direct debit to arrange a payment) said at all. It said that "to stop this action you must arrange to pay" etc. Does anyone have any advice on this? Thank you

Hello everyone, I would be very grateful for any advice. I have an ongoing issue with Richmond Council and Newlyn bailiffs; I have begin to accept that dealing with Newlyn isn't easy but I have learned to accept this! My latest problem is a worry as I don't want to give Newlyn any opportunity to turn up at my door. We recently received a letter from Richmond Council informing us that we owed x amount of council tax for the period before we moved out of the borough. They said that we could avoid court action by returning the enclosed direct debit form etc. I duly returned the form and they subsequently sent me an acceptance letter detailing the payments to be made, starting Jan 08. Last week we received another letter telling us that they'd been given a liability order for the same account and that we needed to pay or etc etc. I have tried to contact the council to find out what's going on and no-one is getting back to me. Can anyone advise on what I can do? To clarify: we made an arrangement which was yet to start, which the council had recognised and accepted, the first payment was yet to be made and we then receive the liability order notice. Many thanks

Thanks very much. I have emailed the council as I couldn't get through. I will wait to speak to them before I speak to Newlyn I think as, from previous experience, Newlyn use any small problem to force the issue. Thanks again