Hi All, I received a notice of assignment and claim form a couple of weeks ago, the notice was dated 25th April and the issue date on the claim form is the 29th. I have sent the CPR request for information and a CCA request. Today I received their replies one saying they are not obliged to provide the information, and the claim form particulars should be enough, the other stating they have requested a copy of the agreement and statements. On Friday I acknowledged the claim and have until the 30th to submit a defence, I am thinking of sending the complaint under the consumer credit act I saw on another post (link below) regarding the fact that Howard Cohen & CL gave me next to no time to settle this, going to court on Tuesday 29th after sending the notice of assignment on the Friday. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/121414-court-date-12th-december.html#post1019815 They left a few messages on my voicemail before receiving my requests for information, which were just someone saying “Richard to call” and their phone number and the persons name without reference to the company on who’s behalf they were calling, the number was 0870 and there was no indication that the caller was from anyone who had any business calling me. Below I have posted a brief history of my account over the last few months I presume this is pretty irrelevant to my current claim as the debt has been passed on. I do not recall receiving the default notice mentioned on the claim form either. Any help would be greatly appreciated; I am expecting my primary defence to be the fact that I received the notice of assignment at the same time as the claim form and had received no prior contact from CL or Howard Cohen. Should this be sufficient? I presume if I receive nothing my defence should consist of the fact that they have not adhered to the CPR in regards to providing the necessary documents or attempting to settle this out of court. ------------------- A bit of history on the account - late last year I sent in my claim for charges, once the account was in dispute I refused to make payment until the dispute was resolved. I asked them to stop calling me, they told me they would not until the arrears had been cleared. GE passed the account to Viking who demanded payment threatening potential court action, bankruptcy home collection visit etc. I had informed GE Capital several times that I was not prepared to make payment as the account was in dispute giving them the information relating to the claim which they claimed they could not verify with their solicitors. The dispute was resolved by a consent order on 11th April (the terms are confidential) and I presumed everything would be back to normal, expecting a statement from GE I did not contact them to make payment. I did not receive any contact from GE over the two weeks, just the notice of assignment from CL -------------------- Thanks, Richard

Thanks very much, will get in the post today Richard

I was sent default letters for two accounts last November, one of which has a claim stayed at my local court for bank charges. The other account is -£399.99 which I intend to pay off on Monday, IntrumJustitia sent me a letter today asking for the total. I have sent Natwest letters informing them of the account being in dispute but they seem to have lost them all and wont stop calling me. So far nothing has appeared on my credit file so I have left the situation but it looks like they are going to go for a CCJ. If I pay them the outstanding balance for the non disputed account by cheque explaining how the other account is in dispute can I ensure they only use the money for that purpose? This is the first time I have been given a total balance as opposed to two amounts, for the balances of each account. Many thanks, Richard

Sorry for the late reply, I should be getting a copy of the agreement later in the week.

Received a letter today stating that the FOS are unwilling to look into the case as it concerns a deposit made in cash as well as someone elses account. I have called the Post Office as they said they would get Cahoot to call me which hasn't happened yet, two months later. I will see if I can get my previous landlord to write to them or to provide me with some evidence of them not cooperating with her request. If I can get this I will have two examples of Cahoots ignoring these requests and could probably take it up in small claims court.

Thanks for the replies guys, the house is a HMO and we all have separate ASTs, my reason for my belief that the landlord may have access to the premises is that when I researched the issue and found this to be stated on the Nottingham University website (I'm not at Nottingham but it came up on Google). This site claims that the landlord has right of access in the case of individual tenancy agreements though I don't know if there is any legal basis for this as it would only guarantee tenants quiet enjoyment within their own room. University of Nottinghams Students: Welfare An Individual Tenancy Agreement Each tenant has a separate agreement they alone have signed, with the exclusive right to occupy their room, and the shared right of access to the common areas, eg bathroom, kitchen etc. Each tenant is individually responsible for paying rent for their room. So, if one or more of the other tenants moves out or is unable to pay rent, the landlord's legal remedy is only against the defaulting tenant(s). However, The landlord has the right of access to the common areas without your consent (unless your contract says they will give reasonable notice before coming into the property). The landlord also has the right to bring in tenants to replace tenants who move out. If you have a TV in your room you will need a separate licence.

I am living in a student house with four other students on individual tenancy agreements, we are unhappy with the landlord’s frequent visits to the property. The landlord’s current scheme is to call or leave a message for one of us leaving it up to us to pass on the message of her visit on; she has also sent workmen to the house without us receiving notice. Funnily enough when we moved in September the door bell was conveniently broken and has not been fixed, she uses this as an excuse to let herself in. The most frequent excuse for her visits is to 'top up' our electricity which is included (£8 per week per person in the house is allowed for bills), she usually puts a weeks worth on which has run out several times in the last few weeks meaning we have to call her to come round to put money on to our meter. Am I correct in understanding that the landlord has a right of access to the shared areas of the house? Would I be right in assuming unless all tenants have been given 24 hours notice we should not be obliged to let her in? Thirdly if notice is given do we have no right of quiet enjoyment of the communal areas of the house? I will be discussing the matter with my landlord later today and I am sure we can resolve the situation but I would like to be sure my ground in relation to her access to the shared areas of the property. It may appear that we are making a fuss over very little but the landlord is not meeting her obligations under the agreement in regards to repairs and having no respect for our privacy. This is despite the fact that we are good tenants and have caused no problems with the house, since the start of the tenancy in September we have requested repairs for problems with the house which we were informed would be repaired promptly and haven’t happened, we only had our oven cleaned two days ago which was filthy when we moved in nearly three months ago. Many thanks for reading, Richard

Hi, I made a deposit to my landlords Cahoot bank account at my local post office in June, I received a receipt for the transaction but the money was not paid into the Cahoot account. I wrote to the Post Office who have told me that they had sent the money to Cahoot who wouldnt put the money into the account as I am not the account holder. I wrote to my landlord who has written to Cahoot three times regarding the matter and has received no response, the Post Office refer me to Cahoot who say they cannot discuss the matter with me as it is not my account. I think the best way would probably be to LBA the post office as they have not provided the service they implied would be provided, fortunatly I have the receipt. Does the Sale and Supply of Goods and Services act cover this kind of transaction? Thanks for reading, Richard

My hardship letter is attached if anyone wants to use it, I received my cheque today having won by default last week, NatWest have decided to act on their previous threat to close my account if I made a second claim. I received a default notice on the 25th September giving me 28 days before the CRAs are given the information. Does anyone know a way to keep the account? My current plan is to send an LBA for my last charges in August then try to delay as the account will be in dispute (half way through court stage) when the 28 days are up. Isn't account closure against the banking code, and if so will the ombudsman be worth contacting? Edit: I was also charged £30 for them sending a default notice, should I include this in my next claim? hardshiptemp.doc

I have recently taken Natwest to court a second time in regards to bank charges, I filed with Moneyclaim last month after the blanket stay was announced. Natwest did not attempt to stay my claim, most likely because the day after I received the acknowledgement of service I compiled a summary of my current financial position and sent it to the trainee solicitor who signed the acknowledgement stating that I was in financial hardship and would contest any stay, I also pointed out the guidelines regarding hardship cases. I have applied for judgement by default so everything should hopefully be done in the next couple of days, I will post my letter if people are interested; I am a student so I found showing financial hardship pretty easy.

Thanks ever so much guys I called head office today explaining that I had been mislead by my manager. They still tried to avoid it claiming it was my fault for not claiming it and the the money would not be paid as it was too long ago. After threatening court action they have agreed to reimburse me, needless to say I will be sending in a SAR to check their calculation and will most likely be asking for the interest seeing as they have been at fault. I honestly don't know where I would be without CAG, this year I will have claimed back nearly £2,000 of money I am owed by companies. As a student thats nearly what I work all summer to make. I will be making a donation on payday

Hi, thanks for the quick reply, sorry for the lack of detail but I had the post made for me while at work. I will have around four 3 month summers by the end of the month at full time. I work for a retail chain and was told I wasnt entitled to holiday pay for 02-05 on the contract by my area manager, I will be giving head office a call in the morning. If I don't get anywhere I was planning on a subject access request to get the exact number of hours as I think I am missing a couple of payslips. If I can prove the amount of hours, could I just send them a letter demanding the amount owed threatening court action like with bank charges? I'm pretty sure they would pay up in that event but being a major retailer I presumed they would have some trick up their sleeve to think they could get away with it. Thanks again, Richard

Hi, Does anyone know if an employer can not allow people holiday entitlement by placing them on a zero hour contract? I have worked for three summers (03-05) and have been refused the holiday entitlement from them. Is there anything i can do? Richard

Hi All, Does anyone know if the £35 cost can be added to the court fees when making a claim? I will be starting my second court claim against Natwest on Wednesday, I have fees back up to February this year so the wait for a test case wont affect what I can claim for but I am hoping to have the stay removed due to financial hardship. I would assume I will ba able to add the £35 to my claim if I need to apply for the removal of a stay but have not found the subject mentioned on the forum.

I have done some reading and read about a credit agreement not being needed if the product is an bank and assume the bank will try to claim the negative balance they may say the balance is an unauthorised overdraft. In this case would I be right in believing that the bank needs to provide some evidence of a credit agreement in regards to the account? Secondly how can I request proof if a CCA S77/78 request is not possible for a bank account?