Thanks for all the advice - it gives some good ideas of the questions to ask and the avenues to go down, and yes I should have realised that the mental health teams will be used to issues such as these, but its also been really helpful to be getting some sense of how to tackle things from your relpies here. I'm concerned about the financial aspects getting sorted correctly as initial indications suggest that I will only ever be stabilised rather than cured and the possible knock on effect on employment. I also know that I'm likely to be spending quite alot of the next 6 months with periods in hospital, so the more things can get going in the right direction now the better Many thanks again for the help, it's very gratefully recieved

Many thanks for that. I'll get the council sorted soon. I've got quite a few few days with psyciatrists and mental heath teams coming up next week, but will get to the council asap. after that. It in my name, so I assume that I rather than my partner needs to deal with it? SWALEC dealt with me directly. As for the electricity it was someone on behalf of British Gas, but I don't know who. I have a paypoint card from British Gas though to pay for electric, so assume that it was done directly for british gas Do you think I'll need a formal diagnosis before moving forward with things? That will come soon. I'm also currently fairly lucid but may need people to act on my behalf - is there any process for this or will mental health team know.

Many thanks for the reply. We owe all of 2012 council tax - around £1100 - Liability order issued and bailiffs have called but no agrrement entered into and nothing further heard from them. Bristow and Sutor As of March 2012 we are now in reciept of council tax benefit. £50 per month - water severn trent - I don't know the balance or when this aggrement was made - sorry - but we've been paying this for around 6 months. Electricity bill with british gas - agreed to £233 per month and am up to date having paid one installment, but next due tomorrow. Regret that I just agreed, to the best of my memory £1500 outstanding. We live in a rented property and have no access to gas or electric meters as they are in a locked basement to which we have no access. Gas bill with SWALEC- £104 per month agreed a couple of weeks ago. No payments made yet but they said that they will take directly out of my benefit payments. (I've never been on benefits before this yeasr, so am still getting used to the system) I'm unsure about the DVLA end of things - will see if I can find out. There are a few outstanding debts fro bank overdraft/loan from 5ish years ago - unsure of details, nothing being paid on these at the moment. One old store card one of £300 has CCJ £80 per month provident loan of around £550 that we got out to pay december 2012 rent on the house. A loan from HSBC from 3 years ago being chased by Fredricksons - not able to face dealing with that but will soon. There may be a few others, but the ones above are the ones that are most pressing. My partner is on maternity leave until the end of August

Within the last week I was sectioned by the police and taken to a secure mental health unit. I was allowed home and the crisis team who visited me have have indicated that there is a long journey ahead of me with treatment and medication, meaning that for the first time in 25 years I'm unable to work. (it appears from initial assessments that I've not been overly well since 1992, but have built up numerous coping and concealing mechanisms which have given the appearance to the outside world of relative normality) I have been particularly '"less than well" since the beginning of february this year, and since then I agreed to arrangements from a couple of doorstep agents collecting debt (both from utility companies) approaching £350 per month. There are additional debts and last years council tax is in the hands of the bailiffs. We now have a limited family income of under £1800 per month with a few young children. There are also a few other issues that have a financial bearing, including faliure to SORN the car at the beginning of the year when I became unable to drive (the car wasn't used but for some reason I just wasn't in the correct mental place to SORN), and a number other outstanding debts. No-one in the family smokes/drinks/used drugs etc, we have no telly, no landline, and have cut all spending to the bone over the last 12 months. At the moment I'm really unclear where to go from here, or who to contact to get things worked out in the right way so any advice would be really appreciated. I feel that were just about treading water at the moment, but in-laws are very kindly propping us up by helping with children's uniforms and clubs etc. I hope I've been as clear as possible here, I may not to be able to reply quickly to posts as I have quite a lot of appointments with the Mental Health Teams and the assorted medications that I've been started on have altered what my usual perception of normality is. Many thanks

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the best Bank and/or account for those with a poor credit rating, including an outstanding CCJ? All that needs to be done in money to be paid in and a debit card facility to allow for online payments (particularly for council tax) Many thanks.

Many thanks for the fast reply - I'll do this straight away!

Hi Do any of you know how to get entries removed from 192.com and similar sites. I've noticed that a few of my familys details are wrong (including my partner who is listed as 20 when she's really 36!) I'd rather that the details were not on there at all as I find it really intrusive - it's my data to give out to those I choose and I certainly haven't chosen to allow 192! Many thanks

Pay the council directly online through their website rather than the bailiffs.

True - but would it be a fairer, more transparent profit than the current system? Having learnt the hard way when dealing with both bailiffs HCEO's I would rather that my fee went into the government system rather than feeding the bank accounts of the private bailiffs - best of two evils you may think!

I personally think that the solution to this whole issue is to replace all certified bailiffs and HCEO's with officers directly employed by, for example, the Ministry of Justice. They would recieve a wage in line with other civil servants, and be publicly accountable for their behaviour. They would be properly trained and licenced under a professional body with the ability to be stuck off or fined and even imprisoned for incorrect practice. In addition there should be some sort of penalty for illegally impersonating a bailiff or HCEO. I think that fee's are unavoidable, but if operating under the umbrella of for example, the MOJ can be standardised and afforded a level of transparency. The fee's imposed by the system of private bailiff companies is motivated by profit only, remove the motive of profit and things will change. It may be that some capped percentage system or scale of charges reasonably proportionate to the original sum owed, for example not to exceed 15% or 20% of the amount owed? but also with a degree of proportionallity added for the legth of time that the debt has been outstanding, so for example if less than a year only 10%. I don't see a problem with them still being called bailiffs, the important thing is radical reform of the system.

I had to submit an N244 last year when The Sherriffs Office were hounding me. The Judge was lovely, spoke of his annoyance that DCA's HCEO's and the like hardly ever bothered to turn up to hearings - thanked me for having the decency to attend and wishing me luck, granted the stay. It was a really positive experience in contrast with the bully boy tactics of the HCEO's. I have since completely paid the debt off to the company I owed the money too, dealing only with them directly, and have not given a penny to the Sherriffs Office who contacted me only once after I had been to court to demand payment of their extortionate fees in a remarkably aggressive letter and then nothing since. Good luck

Many thanks for that - on close inspection of the copy of the plan that is supplied with the leese there is a faint line where the path is, so I'm just checking to see if is mentioned in the deeds. I thing that they are after a bit of additional cash, will speak to our solicitors later

We're now waiting for the judge to come to a decision on monday (he hadn't had to deal with an n244 before so went away for the weekend to fully understand it and the implications!) so the next step is to complain about the actouns of the bailiff - any tips?

Many thanks for getting back, it is a leasehold property that we own and we deal directly with the company that owns the freehold. This company owns the freehold of many properties in the london area

We are in the process of selling our London flat which will release the funds to clear all our personal and business debt. This is currently an urgent process and some of the debts are with enforcement officers. An offer has been accepted and the conveyencing process has moved on to the buyers solicitors. It's now almost 3 months after the offer was accepted,and all delays seem to be down to the leasholding company who yesterday have stated that they require a Deed of Variation to include right of access over a path (about 30ft of path) - fair enough, they also want £350+vat - no problem with that - but they are also asking for 2% of the current market value of the lease before they will consider doing the variation. There is no indication of what the market value is, but in 1974 it was £9500 Then they will not release the deed of variation until other conditions have been met, "all areas of rent, insurance premiums and service charges (where applicable) must be paid before the deed will be sealed and it will not be granted if there are any other existing breaches of covenant, such as unauthorised alterations" (one quote from a letter which raised a number of other similar considerations) Can the leasehold company (a large one with a considerable number of properties) demand this and is transfer of lease or deed of variation therefore conditional, in law on these being met? When the flat was purchased in 2002 there were outstanding monies owing re service charge and ground rent etc left from the previous owner of the flat. At this time the leasehold company (the same one) stated "Since the transfer of the lease is a private thansaction between you and the previous lesee, it cannot involve the landlord" so the outstanding monies owed by the previous owner were paid by us. They will now not allow the transfer of the lease until all is paid upfront (as far as I can understand) I hope that the above is clear - can they charge the 2% and place a raft of other conditions on the granting of such a seemingly simple request. The indication is, as well that they want all the money up front, but this was not fully clear (all letters from them are suitabley ambiguous) , so hopefully it is on completion Many thanks in advance