Thanks very much for your advice. Is she comitting any crime in chucking his things out and changing the locks? The only thing holding her back is for fear of it being unlawful to do that.

Hello, I have a friend who has been living with her ex boyfriend for a few years. She lived alone and rented her accomodation privately long before they got together. He moved in with her not long after they became an item and has lived there with her for a few years now. However, they split up a while ago but he will not leave the accomodation. He is jobless and says he has rights to stay- 'squatter's rights'. My friend pitied him so she let him stay on the condition he find somewhere asap but he hasn't bothered and has basically abused her kindness and remained in the property with no intention of moving on. My friend has informed the landlord but he is convinced it will cost thousands to take her ex to court to get him out and if he stays, my friend will have to pay his rent. My friend just wants to leave and make a fresh start and is looking to move asap but with her ex still there and preventing things from moving forward, she feels she will be stuck for a good while to come. I'd like to know what rights my friend has. The tenancy is in her name, not her ex's. If she was to wait till he'd gone out and change the locks, is she acting lawfully? If she leaves and he remains, will she really have to pay for him to live there? I would be very grateful for any advice from anybody. It's getting very desperate! Thanks very much.

Hello, My partner & I have a car on hire purchase with Welcome Finance. About 8 months after taking out the hire purchase with them we were interested in getting a loan also. My partner took the loan out in his name but a few months later our circumstances changed and we became unable to pay the loan repayments. We continued paying the Car HP as we had no choice, we needed to keep our car as we have no savings or other means to get another vehicle. We decided to put the loan account with our financial management company 'Gregory prennington Ltd'. They have negotiated with Welcome Finance and Welcome have accepted the proposed monthly payment from Gregory Pennington. Have have been in reciept of 2 payments since the programme started. However, a woman from Welcome finance has been ringing my partner's mobile non-stop and has left around 8 messages informing my partner that the loan agreement (which fell into arrears and is now being controlled by Gregory Pennington) is severely putting our Car HP agreement at Jepoardy. She said non payment of one agreement will affect the other. So basically she is making threats that we could be at risk of losing our car if we don't pay our loan! In my eyes this is wrong- these are 2 SEPERATE agreements and they are in no way linked. The car HP was taken out around 8 months prior to us deciding to go for a loan with the company. They are 2 seperate credit agreements, 1 to pay for a car, one to pay for a lpersonal loan- how can default of one effect the other? I am assuming that Welcome Finance are simply making threats to scare us into paying more on the personal loan. What do you think? We wrote to them to ask them not to call my partner's mobile and to call our landline instead after 5pm when he returns from work. The reason for this is that my partner's employer does not permit employees to take or make calls during working hours unless it is an emergency. They have ignored this request and are hounding my partner- telephoning non-stop. They have accepted and been paid through Gregory pennington but they will not get off our backs despite this. What can we do? Could we really be at risk of losing our car or is this a bully tactic? Many thanks

I am in a similar situation. My husband & I owe £1200+ and we are on a low income with bills coming out of our backsides with 2 children under 5. I have been on this site every day since I was visited by my baliff and from what I've read you should not let the baliffs in. Once they get peaceful entry they can come back without your permission and gain entry when you are not at home. It also opens up another can of worms in letting them in that first time because say you open the door and they try to push past you into the house, if you try to stop them it's classed as 'assault'. So it's very important that you don't let them in and keep all windows and doors locked when you are in and out of your home. It's a horrible way to live I know, but they have to be kept out. Hopefully they will then leave you alone and refer your file back to your council. They say they will apply for imprisonment but no court would imprison somebody in your financial position- I don't know much on the law but I know that to be right. It is every council's policy to use imprisonment threats as mainly a detterent. I was kind of tricked into letting my baliff in and now I am facing a levy a walking posession next week so problems or no problems I will have to then meet my repayment arrangement or I will lose what little we own. I really hope things will turn out ok for you. I am sure somebody in the know will be able to help. In the meantime keep the doors well & truly shut.

Hi, Does anybody know what a person's rights are when the council are using their own internal baliffs? I am in a predicament at the moment whereby the council want to levy my goods as security against a payment arrangement with them. I don't think this is very fair. We made a payment of £200 towards the account just yesterday and have offered £45 every week thereafter. The council still won't bend, they want this levy as security and haven't given us any choice in the matter. I have spoken to somebody high up in recovery and this is their decision. Do I have to roll with it and pray I will be able to meet all payments or is there anything else I can do to stop this levy taking place? Thank you.

Also, as we rent privately is there any way my landlord will find out about this? We hardly see him as we go through an estate agents but I'm worried they will get to know and kick us out of here.

Update: I phoned the woman back from the council and she told me the baliff would not be coming today as she had arranged with me. I made a payment of £200 on my account yesterday (money I had to borrow yet again) and have offered £45 per week thereafter- the deal my mother set up on my behalf. Well on speaking to the lady from the council today she has decided they still want to do a levy as security and will be contacting me next week to arrange the levy. They know we have barely nothing to sell but they are adamant they are going to do this levy. Most things we have have been given by family to us. I am now going to have to go about the embarrassing way of telling these family members the predicament and asking them to get reciepts for the things they gave us as proof we do not own them. I am dreading the levy. My mother will be with me when it goes ahead but I think I will break down when they go into my children's bedroom to levy their posessions. I am crying now at the thought of it. It really makes you ponder the fairness of life. My husband works all the hours god sends but it's never enough and now things have come to this. I could understand it if we were wasters who sat in a pub all day claiming jobseekers but we're only a young family with young children. I am very worried and depressed. I have never been in this situation before and I have visions of them raking through our things, opening cupboards etc. It's a humiliating experience. Please can somebody explain what will happen when they come to do the levy? Will they look through private things or will it be a case of straight in and straight out only looking at larger items such as beds? Many thanks

Thank you for your replies all. If the council decide they want to do a levy of my goods as security should we default on our proposed arrangement, what can I do? Obviously I don't want this baliff coming back and I don't want to put what little posessions we have in jepoardy if I can avoid it. We are only a young family starting out in life, I feel so bad for my children, like we have let them down. I don't want them to have to witness things like this- I don't want to deal with baliffs. I do not dispute the money is owed at all, we are a genuine hardship case here. If they want to levy goods as security against our repayment proposal, do I have to allow this? I am worried the council will give me this ultimatum. Thanks

Many thanks, have PM'ed you.

Hi, I'm new to this forum and am looking for advice. Basically my husband and I entered into an agreement to repay our council tax with our local council in the amount of £136.00 per month. This has been one of many agreements with the council because we have always had problems paying them- for as long as I can remember! We live in rented accomodation and there is only my husband working as I am a stay at home mother to our young children. My husband's wage is pretty low- he brings home around £800 per month. The rent is half this figure without adding on our other bills/commitments. We do get tax credits and child benefit on top of this which takes it up to £1200 per month but we have a lot of debt, a car on hire purchase (our old car was irrepairable and we had no choice) and are behind with many of our household bills. When we get a problem ie, the car needing repairs we have to borrow money from friends & family and repay it and then our finances tend to spiral out of control- we also have bank charges and recently wrote to reclaim them but have been told to wait until after the famous test case is done. So this is why we have paid the council late on many occasions. For this council tax year we were to pay £107.00 per month (band b) but we have debt from 2006 as well. We were slowly paying off last year's debt but when we were hit with this year's annual bill we struggled and messed up. This resulted in the council making the whole balance for this year becoming due to us- payment within 7 days in full. Obviously we couldn't pay and it went to court. We then had to fill in a form with a reasonable proposal for settlement to include last year's debt also. We offered £90 but they refused and asked for double. I wrote to them and told them we could not afford it and in the end they settled on £132.00 per month. I made one payment in October but then they sent through another arrangement (very confusing) in the amount of £136.00 per month. I didn't question it stupidly and just thought I'd pay it to shut them up. However November's payment became due and I couldn't pay it. It was due 15th November and to date I've not paid. Well, today a baliff turned up. I did not know it was a baliff and had no reason to believe a baliff would visit as the council have not spoken to me personally or written to us. She was very jolly and smiley on the doorstep, said she was from the council and needed to have a quick chat about my council tax. She said her ID was in the bottom of her bag but I stupidly thought nothing of it because she seemed so friendly and let her in- I thought she was just a nice lady from the council here to help. Anyway, when she started asking questins about my car I realised she was a baliff- I should have known because she was typically butch. She already knew the colour of my car even though it wasn't here today- my husband had it at work. This means she has obviously been here before snouting about. She asked the make and model and when I told her she smiled smugly because it's quite a good make. She asked if it was on HP and how much we pay for it and also took down the registration details from me. I also gave her details of our income and outgoings. Looking back I should have kept schtum but I was put on the spot and didn't know my rights. I told her I had an arrangement in place with the council- she looked confused and didn't seem to know about my arrangement. She basically said that we owe £1400 (being this years and last year's debt) and the council were not going to let us go into the next council tax year without us clearing off a decent chunk of this debt. She said my payment arrangement of £136.00 per month was 'just the tip of the iceberg' and not good enough. I was confused because the council made this arrangement and suddenely it's 'not good enough'. I had to try very hard not to break down in tears. My little children were here with me and witnessed it all. She told me she was looking for a good chunk off of this balance immediately. I told her we couldn't afford it and she kept the pressure on for me to pay and started talking about law, prison and removal of goods etc. I panicked and told her I'd pay £100 this Friday, £50 the next, £100 the next and then £200 the next then £50 every week thereafter. I didn't know how I was going to get by paying these ridiculous amounts but I told her what she wanted to hear to get rid of her. She said she would collect it in person here at my home so that I would make sure I had the cash. After she left I broke down in tears and called my mother. We went to see the council, waited in a queue for 20 mins only to be told we couldn't see anybody and would have to make an appointment- the earliest being next tuesday. This would be no good as the baliff is coming back this Friday. In the end I phoned up and my mother spoke to the person in charge of debt. She spoke to her for 20 mins telling her how hard up we are etc and offered to pay the council £200 cash tomorrow and £45 per week thereafter. She even said she would be our guarantor and pay the council when we couldn't. The woman wouldn't bend at first but then she said she may be willing to accept and will have to speak to the baliff first. She wants to do an evaluation of our goods as security if we miss a payment again. Most of our goods in the house belong to other people- I get a lot of help from my parents as us youngsters do. My mum explained that we have nothing to sell except our beds but the woman left it that she'd speak to the baliff and phone me tomorrow. I am so worried about this. I have cried so much I have a pounding headache. I pray to god they will accept our arrangement. I don't want the baliff coming back- my neighbours already know about it and it's embarassing. I think £200 per month is a good offer- it is the absolute maximum we can pay. I thought if it went to court the court would only make us pay what we can anyway- this figure is actually more than we can afford. I am not very clued up about my rights here. I tried to call in at my local CAB today but they were closed. I am so worried it's unreal, please can somebody help me here? What can I do and what will I say to this woman when she phones tomorrow? Many Thanks & sorry for the long post!