To get a full state pennsion one has to have 30 qualifying years. When I asked for a state pension forecast in 2006 ish, I was short by 6 years, i paid four years contributions volunarily as this would increase my pension from 24/30ths to 28/30ths of the full pension. I have since purchased a further year. I concluded that this was money well spent as I could (at that time) draw my pension in 2014. Now I cannot draw my pension until 2019. So to put it another way, I was expecting a return on my voluntary contribution much earlier than I am now going to get it. I have taken these funds from one form of saving, so have lost that return, based on the information I had regarding the return I was going to get come 2014. I do feel cheated as the goalposts have moved, there was lots of talk in the press at the time about it being the best investment one could make to top up their state pension - and i agreed - but now my funds are sat in the governments coffers not earning any return!

A few years back I was short on my pension years and had the opportunity to make AVC's to buy the missing years. I based my decision on the fact that I could claim at 60 so in the long run I would make my contributions back within 3 years, so it was a wise thing to do. Then they changed the pension age for women, now I cannot claim until I am 64. This is not the return on my investment I envisaged and indeed if I do not see my 64th year, I am about 4k out of pocket! With all this talk of people being missold just about everything - does this fall into the same bracket? What do the forum think?

Northwood are termed my 'tenant' in the contract. I allow them to sub contract to tenants of their own, having made an agreement to accept £xxx for the full year. The contract clearly states that they will remove their tenants if I cancel with them. Just like all contracts, seems they can breach (habitually late payments), but when you want to do the same (and keep the tenants) that is not allowed!

I am a landlord who has the platinium scheme with Northwood Lettings. This is a scheme wherby my rent is gaurenteed for the whole period, thereby granting peace of mind to the landlord. This worked well for the first 3 years, but for the last two I have had to phone every month for my money, being paid as late as 6 weeks in arrears. I am now being asked to renew with them for a further year, but do not wish to do so. The nub is this - he will emove his tenants - is there any way I can get round this - for example by proving his breaches of contract re payments? I would add that according to the contract he is my tenant....has anyone manged to leave this comnpany without losing their tenants?

Hi Aqua2 Yes, you have it in a nutshell. LBA went off yesterday, with schedule. 13 days and counting....

Hi Gladstanes As far as I can ascertain (hence why I want all the notes), LTSB lumped my daughters solo account which was in arrears (by £2 less than 6 yrs of charges) and her personal loan as one debt and achieved a cjj upon it as she did nothing to stop them. As she did not enter a defence, the payments set by the court led to a warrent of execution being issued as she could not meet the payment required. With my help she is applying for a new payment to set that she can afford - all closing the gate after the horse has bolted - but some people just need help with all this stuff when life overwealms them. I should maybe say we are abroad, so she hid a lot of this from us, but mama is fighting now lol. I am hoping by proving that part of the ccj is unsound that we might get the whole thing cancelled and she can enter into a payment plan for the loan. Might be wishful thinking, but worth a shot.

Hi Aqua 2 We are claiming for the joint account at the moment as we had all the information we needed to progress that claim - the standard response above is the response we got. So do we wait the 14 days to expire and then take the next step or is there a template letter to respond to this response (if so please point me in the right direction). For the solo account and her personal loan, which are the subject of the ccj, we are currently awaiting a full list of statements (not available on the net as a closed account) and any notes to make sure we are claiming every penny we can. They responded and said as no charges on the loan account, they would not cash her £10 as they could not provide anything - we used the clock ticking template latter and reminded them we asked for notes etc. We have also sent for form N244, so once we get everything in order we will hit from all sides. I hope that makes sense and thanks for your patience - I get confused and I understand (I think) what we are trying/hoping to do lol - and now for my sins my sister in law is beating a path to my door for help - but hay thats what makes the world go round, folks helping folk.

Hi everyone We have had a response to out LBA request for payment as follows The Office of fair Trading has published new guidelinesd on credit card default charges. We're still talking it through with them, but the important point is that the guidelines are about 'default' charges that people pay when they break an agreement with us. This doesn't apply to your charges as these were for dealing with your request to go over your agreed overdraft limit. They are not default charges because you haven't broken your agreement. They are our prices for the service we provide in the situations. This seems slightly diferent to the standard responses I have seen on the forum - sure it is just a response but how do we respond? The claim was for all the usual stuff - returned DD, SO as well as od fees and interest claimed on the charges. Thanks in anticipation

Hi Aqua 2 and others Thanks for all your advice, the ccj against my daughter is made up of two elements , her solo account and a loan. We have now sent off for details of this loan as well, with the aim of fighting them together as they are both the subject of the ccj. So a delay here, but hopefully a prudent one. In the meantime we have sent off the PBA letter for the joint account and await the outcome of that, claiming interest pertaining to the charges element of the outstanding debt, so 14 days and counting. I also figure if they pay back charges on the one acccount that is not the subject of a ccj - that just adds weight to our claim to have the ccj removed. Will keep you all posted as to progress.

Hi Aqua2 I am quite happy with the form and will make use of the wording you have suggested and the spreadsheet also. I am just putting the finishing touches to her claim, I am using the complex spreadsheet as we can claim the overdraft interest on charges element now, but wonder if she is entitled to do so as the charges equal the debt? I am still trying to get my head around the question of - has she suffered any actual financial loss or is this all a paper exercise? Likewise with the 8% later? We could of course try and let them dispute it! Now the other question is this - should they have taken her to court in the first place, they know full well that charges can be reclaimed, so were they making a false/fraudulent claim for payment? In cases like these, would not a prudent (one of the criteria of accounting) bank reduce a claim by any charges the defendant has incurred to ascertain the true value of the debt? Will await your opinions with interest lol

Thanks Nearlythere, can understand that point of view and agree with it! However, I found the following on the web, worth a go THE REMOVAL OF COUNTY COURT JUDGEMENTS Much of the information and advice in this area is designed to please rather than help. What appears here is what you can and cannot do. The process is clear and straight forward. The County Court will remove a judgement to correct an obvious injustice. This process is known as setting aside a County Court Judgement. The defendant named in the County Court Judgement (C.C.J ) can apply to the court for the judgement to be set aside. For such an application to be successful you would have to be able to satisfy the court that one of the following happened: You did not receive the original Claim form You changed address and mail from the previous address was not sent to or redirected to your new address an order was made against you whilst you were unavoidably absent the judgement contained an error You want to raise a defence that you were not able to present during the proceedings certain rule of procedure were not followed. DEFAULT JUDGEMENT If you choose to completely ignore the proceedings and not send back the "Acknowledgement of service" form then a default judgement will almost certainly be recorded against you. A default judgement may have also been recorded against you if you did not, within the stated time allowed , send in the reply form asking for time to pay. This type of judgement means that the court has disposed of the case before it by deciding against you without hearing anything about you or your defence. A default judgement MAY be set aside if you did one of the following: Sent back the acknowledgement of service within the time limit. Entered a defence within the time limit Sent in the reply form asking for time to pay within the time limit The court May set aside the default judgement if despite the fact that you did not send in the reply form within the time limit if it thinks that: You have a valid defence to the claim. There is some "good reason" for the judgement to be set aside MAKING THE APPLICATIION You need to obtain the form N244. Such a form can be obtained from the Court Office. FEES a fee of £60 is payable to the court when you make this application . If you are on a low income or receiving certain benefits you may not have to pay the fee THE PROCEDURE The Court will tell you if a hearing is necessary to decide your application. If this is to happen the application will be transferred to you local county court. If the matter can be dealt without the necessity of a hearing than you will hear back from the court that the judgement has or has not been set aside. THE EFFECT OF A JUDGEMENT BEING SET ASIDE If the judgement is set aside the proceeding are put back to the claim stage. A claim form is sent to you for your response. It is important to appreciate that having a judgement set aside does not eliminate the proceedings. The details will be removed from the County Court register until a new judgement is made. Will let everyone know how we progress

No, she did not do anything about all the debt mounting up against her. Ostrich head, comes to mind. When I asked her why not, she said because she was just out of abusive relationship, had to get court orders etc to get him out of family home, was applying legal aid etc etc. On top of this she lost her job so knew she could not keep up any payment plans and indeed defaulted on those she did make, so when things got heavy, she thought well fair cop I owe it and let things take their course. She has managed to keep paying the mortgage and other household bills to keep a roof over her and the three kids heads - just. But when she finally gets him off the house deeds - waiting on the courts for that - she will need to remortgage and the debts keep piling up. The old vicious circle. I will read up about claiming against a CCJ, it was Oct 2006 I think, but in truth she should have argued it before the event, but on the other hand, these facts were not known to her then - and yes, just to reduce the debt would be wonderful!

They serverd her with a Warrent of Execution for this debt, plus a loan. I paid that demand for her and she has applied to the courts to pay a lesser amount, so no write off, still awaiting the courts decsion on what she must pay. Total CCj is for 7K+, we have sent the stage one letter requesting info on the any charges that may apply to the joint loan as well. I am fairly sure the loan is all due to be paid to the tsb, however the solo account was all their damn charges!

Hi Everyone Helping my daughter with her bank. She split from her partner late 2005 and ran into deep financial trouble when she then lost her job. Back on her feet now, but debt ridden - and he pays £5 a month for kids. LTSB have a CCJ against her for her own account and a joint loan, which was finalised in Oct 2006. She also has a jnt acc, which she has reached a payment agreement with them on. Anyway, sent off for details on charges, Jnt acc will see a reduction and that is no problem to sort. Interestingly, the sole account has accumulated charges of £2641.10, but her od stood at £2639.91 when they pulled the plug, since then the only activity has been the o/d interest each month. So she has a CCJ on the back of their charges over the last six years! I have trawled the site, but have not seen a case like this. Does the fact that a CCJ has been issued, which she effectively ignored by not challenging it, now present a problem for claiming the monies back (debt written off)? We have sent off for details of any charges levied on the loan as well so will tackle both together, any advice, in addition to the usual process would be welcome. Thanks SAVBS

Hi Recent events have lead me to a position wherby the TSB has gained a CCJ against me for approx £4000.00. I recently asked for details of the charges i hace incurred over the past 6 years - and they amount to just short of £6000 with the interest added. I would like to fight this - has anybody else done the same? Or do I simply request the refund and then pay the CCJ off - except it does impact my credit record. Any advice welcome.