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maxpdaddy

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  1. Hi Guys... I know some of these questions already exist on the forums but I'm losing track of all the searches and reading I've done because I'm not the best with fragmented data... so I apologise. We are having some problems with council tax at the moment... I have been on and off universal credit since last December and I am now signed off sick with mental health problems. My wife is a carer for our disabled son (and now me but unofficially as yet) so she can't work more than 16 hours a week. We haven't paid council tax for 2 reasons... 1. We're on universal credit... nuff said 2. because I was in and out of work the rate and discount of Council Tax kept changing and they could not tell us what we should be paying a month. As such our arrears have reached £382 Friday while we were out someone came to ours and left a "Notice of Enforcement Agents Attendance" through our letter box and the balance is now £617 I have no problem with the bailiffs coming round and I have nothing to hide, But i am concerned about being tricked into things that they have no right to do. 1. Does a bailiff have the right to access my online backing statements or search for paper ones ? - I've seen on the forums that they don't have the right to do this but wanted to check in this situation. 2. Does a bailiff have the right to force me to disassociate devices that are linked to an account ? - So we have an Amazon Alexa in most rooms including a couple of the more expensive ones... I have used them to build a home automation system for my son for turning things on/off making contact etc. They are of course linked to my amazon account and would have to be disassociated for others to use them. Could they force me to do this? The same question applies to iphones and android devices... these days they are locked to an account and would need to be disassociated to be sold on. 3. If I have built something myself or modified something that is not subject to safety tests / trading standards regulations... would they take it? - so for example I have DIY built myself a compressor and welder from old gas bottles, pump and other spare parts... they are good quality and safe so while I am happy to use it myself, obviously if someone else used it and got injured I wouldn't want that to come back to me. 4. I've been bankrupt before and I remember that the insolvency agent can check back and reverse the sale of any items that I have made within a certain period to resell and claim back the money... can a bailiff do this ? we have sold some stuff recently like old camping gear and a couple of old cupboards. some of them through the local auction rooms and the cheques appear in my bank statements. Some other stuff I have sold though facebook so this can kind of come back to question 1... can they access these and find out ? As i said, I have no problems with bailiffs and what they do... but that doesn't mean I give up any of my rights when I don't have to. Many Thanks for any advice Regards Mark
  2. Hi Guys, Apologies if this is a previous topic, i've searched the forum for this but not sure the best way to term the search. My wife and I both went bankrupt in 2015 were discharged in 2016 (i should note that we were not married at the time and married shortly after the discharge)... a year later i began looking at my credit record to see how bad the situation was and noticed a few incorrect entries on my file. i spoke to Experian about sorting out the records who then also wrote to all my previous creditors asking them to update all their records. over a few weeks i noticed that although all the old accounts on my file were still marked as defaulted, the amounts owing were all changed to £0 i assume because these were written off in the bankruptcy. This happened on all accounts except 2 of them, these 2 were: PRA Group (debt collection for payday loan) Three Communications or a debt collector for them Shortly after i had contacted Experian the "PRA Group" debt started writing to me asking me to settle the account to "improve my file" there was nothing threatening just the usual annual account statement that they say they have to send me. I heard nothing from the "Three Communications" debt until last week when they sent me an offer letter to get the account settled, again "to help improve my circumstances" Curiously i noticed that the three communications account has now completely disappeared from my experian file. I have checked the paper work and both these accounts were in the bankruptcy... I have some questions about these experiences. 1. Wouldn't it be a breach of my bankruptcy to pay these creditors and therefore... 2. Do i have the right to send them a letter back telling them where to get off.. 3. Do i have the right to ask them to zero the account like all my other creditors have so that my defaulted credit balance is now £0 (even if it as compensation for harrassing me) Many Thanks for any help. Mark
  3. I've been with AA for breakdown cover for less then a year, in that time I've never called them out. Recently I received a letter from them congratulating me that since i've been a member for a while I've now been upgraded to their silver membership... oh and by the way we've had to increase your monthly payments from £23 to £44 !! I did not ask to be added to their silver membership and I dont recall having any kind of notice that it was going to happen or being given the option to opt out. I've yet to sit down for 2 days and read the terms and conditions from when i signed up... but it sounds like i was on some sort of new customer price yet i don't recall any thing that made me aware of that when started the cover. The letters I've received imply that this is some kind of reward for my loyalty, and of course i should be grateful for being charged double what i was paying for some extra benefits that ill never use... Just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences and whether there's anything that says they shouldn't be able to do this. Regards Mark
  4. Hi There, I hope that this is in the correct forum and acceptable. My wife and I petitioned for and were declared bankrupt in may 2015, and were discharged 1 year later. Since then we have made small attempts to repair our credit as much as is possible with a bankruptcy on our records and we have a couple of low limit credit cards each which we use and pay every month. One huge issue that we have is cars.. . for years we have been running £500 old bangers into the ground and unable to afford anything better. As an example i currently have a 2002 zafira thats done 170000 miles and gives me occasional trouble. I have been giving some thought to trying to lease a new car from one of the many companies i have found that offer bad credit leasing. I realise that this might be throwing away money and may not be the best way to go but honestly I am sick of waiting for the next time the car breaks down and spending my weekends fixing them again... I want my weekends back. Can anyone advise of the pit-falls to watch for and maybe warn me of any well known companies that should be avoided. I don't want to end up bankrupt again! Many Thanks in advance. Regards Mark
  5. Hi Guys, i haven't been able to pay any of my creditors for about 8 months now and had no contact them... in that time myself, my partner and our children have had to leave our previous home and had temporary accommodation for several weeks until i managed to rent a house that belongs to my employer. its time to start trying to sort out out debts so i wish to send them a letter giving them our new address and asking them for the state of each account etc and asking them for some time. Please could someone with a bit more knowledge read the following and let me know if i'm giving away too much info or setting myself up for something here ? Many Thanks Mark Dear Sir / Madam I write with reference to the above account(s) Since January this year myself, my partner and our dependents have been experiencing extreme financial hardship due to loss of employment and large unforeseen bills which include medical, legal and vehicle repairs. This has led to a situation where we have been required to leave our previous home and have been living in temporary accommodation with No Fixed Abode until we recently found residence in a property connected with my employer. Clearly we would like to get this situation under control therefore we are contacting all of our creditors and suppliers to ask for details of balances outstanding. Once we have this information we hope to work out repayment plans for each account. Since it may take some time to receive all the information we require from our creditors and the benefits office at our new address. We respectfully request that you hold any current or future action for a period of 31 days and consider freezing any interest charges and fees to prevent further accumulation of debt. To further advise you of our situation please note the following: · We have priority debts falling into arrears, this includes council tax and court bills but not rent. · I continue to work 40 hours + per week however my partners fulltime employment was discontinued by her former company at the end of a maternity period causing the loss of almost half our combined income. she is currently working a temporary position with a maximum of 10 hours per week due to lack of affordable child care. · We have no remaining high value assets except for a car valued at less than £1000 and a collection of tools valued at less than £200 both of which are required for my employment. · The car is required for my work to travel to different sites, and I am expected to pay for fuel expenses and then claim this back by a certain date of the month although the date these are then paid is not constant. · We also require use of the car as we live in a rural area with somewhat unusable public transport options when travelling for work. · We have only the essential home contents required for living and the care of our children. Any other items were donated or purchased second hand and have little value. Since these financial problems also affect accounts for telecommunications we are no longer available on our registered phone numbers and e-mails, therefore please could ALL correspondence be made via the postal service at our new address. If you are unable to agree this request, please reply urgently stating your reasons so that we may give it our prompt attention. yours sincerely etc....
  6. Thank you for the reply maddie unfortunately a large percentage of the debts are credit cards and loans Hi dx the list of debts is as follows... joint loan joint bank account with overdraft myself 2 credit cards partner 3 credit cards seperate current accounts with overdrafts mobile phone contract each. the loan and current accounts plus one credit card are all with the same bank. all priority debts are 1 or 2 months overdue so far. i dont mind saying on here the debts total around £35K Regards Mark
  7. Evening All, My household has recently fallen behind on some pretty serious debt amounts due to problems with employment. so far no one has threatened any action but there has been plenty of chasing. We have been taking advice from the national debt helpline and currently we are deciding whether we can manage an IVA or we need to go bankrupt, but for starters we need more time to try to work things out so we can make this decision, work keeps me very busy and away from home a lot and along with dealing with a sick child at home getting to speak to companies is very difficult. We have been advised to send requests to our creditors asking them to hold off for a period but i was wondering what other people thought of these.. . my concern is by admitting the situation to our creditors we are setting ourselves up for a lot more trouble when the requested period has expired... sort of opening the flood gates etc. Following is a draft of the letter i have written to send, please could someone advise me if this is the best course of action and if the letter i have written is suitable for purpose Kind Regards Mark Dear xxxxxxx We write with reference to the above account(s), unfortunately due to recent employment issues both we and the rest of our household are now suffering very severe financial difficulties and we are in the process of taking advice and evaluating options to find a solution. This includes waiting for information regarding benefits we may be entitled to. We are contacting all of our creditors and suppliers to ask for details of balances outstanding. Once we have this information we hope to work out repayment plans for each account.Since it may take some time to receive all the information we require from our creditors and the benefits office. We respectfully request that you hold off any current or future action for a period of two months and consider freezing any interest charges and fees to prevent further debt. Since this request also affects accounts for telecommunications, we may soon be unavailable on our registered phone numbers and e-mails, therefore please could all correspondence be made via the postal service. If you are unable to agree this request, please reply urgently stating your reasons so that we may give it our prompt attention. Yours Sincerely
  8. Sidewinder, thank you for replying. My concern and reason for asking about the legal responsibility to provide them the information is that i thought the lack of it would be a bit of a show stopper for them. Things like passwords into certain programs and the setup instructions for a couple of core systems. However it has been 10 weeks now since i was there and they seem to be doing just fine... im assuming if there is anything he could do about it i would have heard from them by now? still this bit you wrote concerns me there are emails where i've said i will provide information, but as i said i've been busy with medical problems with my now 10 week old and quite frankly if the rest of the team were smart enough they could get around these problems so should i send the letter / email asking for the payment and see if anything else come along ? this guy is quite clued up legally and having known him for over a year i know that he loves playing little tricks and catching people out who try to take him on.. very childish if it did go to court, would there be any benefit to me from the email where he basically admits feeding me false information. Mark
  9. Hey Guys, Apologies in advance, this could become an essay. I changed jobs in mid October, and this is following on from some posts i wrote on CAG regarding paternity at the time.. I had approached my boss in plenty of time for the notice period for paternity and he told me a pack of lies about how it worked. he said that i have 2 weeks to take but advised me to not take it all in one go in case i needed more time off further on. i could take the 2 weeks as odd days here and there over the next year. i then asked what notice to give and he said we will 'play it by ear' at the time. Clearly he was hoping i would take a couple of days which he would overlook and then come back.. i don't think he wanted to go through the hassle of paternity payments etc. I then found a new job and handed in my 4 weeks notice which would have ended long before my son's due date, but after working a week of it my partner went into early labour and had our son late on the friday evening. So the Monday morning i called my boss and told him it was a complicated c-section delivery and i would need at least a week as per our agreement to support my partner who was pretty much temporarily disabled by the surgery. He told me that it was unacceptable and he needed me in after a couple of days as the company was very busy and behind on work. this caused a lot of upset and distress to my partner at a vulnerable time and i was advised to seek legal help which i did, and it was at this point i found out how paternity really works. So i wrote my boss an email stating that i had taken what he told me to be gospel but that i had since discovered that he had gave me false information, so i would be taking the 2 weeks i was entitled to. He replied saying that he totally agreed with me and sorry for the upset. basically admitting he had knowingly tried to deny me my rights. For my final week, i asked my doctor to sign me off as i was still rather angry and despondent about the company and it would not have been in anyone's interest for me to go back. My final day was October 15th, on Octobers pay-day nothing was paid into my account so i contacted the accounts person at the company to enquire. She said that i did have money owing (about £250 from SPP and SSP) but that she was having trouble closing my payroll and needed to speak to sage support.. also that she was waiting for advice from HMRC about taxes etc.. also she needed to confirm the amount to be paid with the afore mentioned boss (managing director) who was on holiday that week. Im not too desperate for this money so a week later i chased her and she said that she had now got all the information and was going to process it. I assumed this was going to be immediately but i saw nothing in my account for a week.. by this point Novembers pay day was close enough that i waited to see if they were going to do all the pay together, but today there is nothing in my account once again. I was a computer systems engineer and programmer, one thing my boss wanted before i left the company was full documentation on the programming i did and the servers and systems that were in place even though i had to pull it all apart and learn it myself when i started at the company... i did say that i would get this to them but to be honest i've not had time between my new job and medical problems with my newborn. my boss told me it was my 'responsibility' to provide this information when i contacted him to tell him i was starting paternity. i think this is possibly the reason he is withholding pay, i think he can be quite childish and probably hopes it bothers me... but it doesn't. so does this constitute unlawful withholding of pay ?? and do i have any legal responsibility to provide the information they want ? needless to say if this is how they are going to be im glad i haven't provided the info. i would like to send him an email asking for reasons why they haven't paid me and point out that if there are no reasons i will be taking legal action. would i be within my rights to take legal action ? i've kept all the emails about the paternity leave and also from the accounts department stating that i do have pay to come and that it should have been processed by now. any advice greatly appreciated kind regards Mark
  10. Hi All, sorry to drag up an older thread but i didn't want to type this all again... so after a chat with the CAB, ACAS and some other legal bods... i sent my employer an email last week stating that i had come to him regarding my paternity leave and that i had taken what he told me to be true, but under advice from others i had checked the government guidelines and found what he'd told me to be a load of rubbish.... therefore i believed that i had fulfilled my obligations by approaching him in the first instance well before the 15 week notice deadline and any failure on my part was down to the information he supplied...therefore i would be taking my 2 weeks paternity. i also mentioned that he had caused quite severe distress and tension to both myself and more importantly my partner who had undergone major surgery with complications. and this whole incident had over shadowed what should have been a happy few days bonding with our newborn son and relaxing. his reply to this email was that he totally agreed with me and that he was sorry for the upset caused etc... do you think this is an admission of guilt on his part ? my first question is what could i do about this ? could i take legal action regarding this? not that im going to... im happy to just let it go but i want to know how serious it was and what power i might have... namely because of my next question. I am in my four weeks notice after resigning to start a new job... next week is my last week and this week is the end of my paternity... i really really really dont want to go back for 5 days, this incident had really upset me and my partner... it had caused me physical illness in the form of stress induced anxiety and i've been having chest pains , panic attacks and been breathless all week. I'm even more anxious about the thought of going back and im hoping to see the doctor tomorrow (if i can ever get an appointment) Not only am i angry to the point i might actually lose my temper and do or say something i regret especially if he starts trying to make excuses for why he gave me mis-information. Im also the only one of 3 computer engineers who knows how certain systems work, who knows the programming for software we develop and who some of the clients only like to work with. i know that if i go back for 1 week i am going to be harassed and drilled about work to be completed and information passed over... there is more then 1 weeks work to be completed and i shall be under immense pressure to get this done which wont help my previously mentioned temper and anxiety... you can clearly see there will be no benefit to me or the company if i go into work. Sorry this is getting a bit long... so questions Could i write to my boss and say that its not worth me coming in due to the bad feeling.. but i would be willing to work from home finishing off notes and updating documentation etc... if he wants i would finish my notice as of this week and take next week as a break between jobs unpaid etc but im still willing to pass on the information to the other engineers via private email. Should i approach my doctor and ask to be signed off for the week in fear for my health.. however could this somehow impact on my new job ? Can i use rights to time off to care for dependants as my partner is still quite poorly. Or any other ideas anyone might have... Any opinions are greatly appreciated.. Regards Mark
  11. Hi Bazooka, Thank you for replying, just to clarify would i send an edited version of the SB letter or the "debt passed to another DCA" ? Regards Mark
  12. Hi All, In June I had a letter from 'Commercial Collections Services Ltd' regarding an unpaid Anglian Water bill from 2006 and asked advice on here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?355026-Anglia-Water-Letter-Does-it-ever-end I left the house after a 6 month tenancy in July that year and heard nothing since so I assume this to be statute barred. I sent the standard statute barred letter (from the CAG library) in June and heard nothing back. Today I have received a letter from a different collections agency 'Lewis Debt Recovery' requesting the same payment on the same account etc. seems I might have scared the first lot off with my first letter So i was thinking that i need to send them the letter "debt passed on to another DCA while still in dispute" this letter mentions that the account is in dispute because i have requested the CCA from the previous collection agency or creditor i am confused about this as the standard statute barred letter i sent doesn't mention request of the CCA just evidence of written contact or payment. does this still constitute a dispute and can i send this letter to the new DCA ? also is it worth me sending a copy of my original statute barred letter to the first DCA to the new one... or would that give them information i would not want them to know. lastly i have moved house since the first letters arrived, but my previous address is my in laws house so i can still get the letters... im not keen on willingly giving out my new address to people who are chasing me... could i advise them that the address they have is now a care of address and that i no longer live there.. or am i obliged to give them my new address when sending them a letter. As always any help is greatly appreciated Regards Mark
  13. You make some fair points there and I'm sorry about getting stroppy... Newborn sleepless nights and all that. it's just I know what my boss can be like this appears to be typical of him and with hindsight I should maybe have done the research myself but i went straight to him because as is me I like to think people are better then that.
  14. blunt and to the point... how about a smile with some of these replies?? yes i admit i was ignorant of the law... that's why i asked my employer what my rights are and how to go about setting up my paternity, surely they should be somewhat aware of the processes since they most likely have X amount of employees who have gone through this... and im doing this for the first time...why should i need to google it ? but instead of giving me the information i needed they have mislead me and are now trying to make me come back in to work after a couple of days... they tell me that i am on paternity but its not to be taken all at once.. this is wrong i am entitled to 2 weeks continuous leave so clearly they are talking rubbish. please dont preach to me about Google either, i am a embedded computer systems designer & programmer and live my life on computers i probably use Google more times a day then you.. i dont use the automated tills in the supermarkets i go to the humanoid ones because its nice to disconnect for 5 minutes and have a chat with a friendly face from my local area... well same thing here... was it wrong of me to expect that some percentage of the population could and should still be able to answer my questions and concerns without using a keyboard? having read other posts on here you appear to be very much for the employer and not the employee... well here's a news flash... employees make mistake yes... but employers make mistakes and can also be quite difficult and unfair.. my boss made it clear in the conversation that he can not allow me my full paternity leave as they are just too busy well that is not my problem... and i dont think this would have been any different whether i gave correct notice or not... the fact remains that my partner and newborn son require care, i have to give her injections daily at a time when i would be working... i have to help her in and out of the shower and to get changed and then do all the care for a newborn baby... she is very upset at having to load this all onto me and the reaction from my employer has made this a million times worse. but having seen the level of your compassion on this site i wouldn't expect you to understand... i agree that sometimes people need telling factual information clearly and to the point... but if you cant advise in a non biased and friendly way... please dont bother...
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