Sorry to hear of your family distress Shelley. It's never easy no matter how many people we support at the end of life events just ignore any comments from those who should know better. We all handle such in our own ways there is no right or wrong way to die or grieve. Citizens Advice have their own solicitors who will be able to assist around administration matters without huge bills to worry about and the Probate a Registry are great. Thinking of all of you, especially you and those who are looking on.

Their website security is not efficient I've been getting huge rise in touting calls all with Indian accents with attitudes deserving of the traditional northern backfist response. I'm accepting nothing from them and I'm already looking at the market ready for when my current contract ends.

Tesco are no better. Similar story a week to refund but they reckoned they'd rung the door bell five times and got no reply. In 24 years at the address we've never had a doorbell and on the delivery day the door was open as we were in the hall decorating!! Liars I'm afraid.

Did you get anywhere with asbestos matter? Uk Asbestos Authority help? I am particularly interested in whether any asbestos dust and debris was left behind and if so how was it removed without risking your health

If a DCA does successfully obtain a Charging Order then an amendment to legislation is urgently needed to grant a breathing space of six months to allow debtors to reorganise finances. If not, It is possible many thousands more families will be.homeless placing a huge burden on council tax payers already stretched due to increased homelessness as a result of welfare reform. I would ideally like to see OFS suspended for a year to thwart growth in debt industry.

Hello Count, yes, i would have difficulty accepting this if i'd not been on receiving end. Council woman was adament and i assume they get round DP regs by issuing access keys under guise of protecting funds. You can go on http: www.who calls me? where some known DCA phone no's are logged. Put them in your phone under some term or other then you will see caller id and not bother to answer them. Just one DCA is known to use 17 different numbers.

My understanding is stat bar kicks in 6 years and one day from default date or date debt was last acknowledged in writing. Limitation Act Sec 5 et al.

Dont let them get you down. I was harassed beyond measure by Capquest three years ago. I still have all the paperwork. I dont have a scanner at home but maybe tomorrow I will nip into library and scan in letter I sent them which pinned their ears back and got rid of them. These creeps play on vulnerabilities. I feel for you because my brother had a breakdown and is not well again. thank god my problems are physical only and i dont scare easily. Real life will beat you up... be cool with yourself and they cant actually 'do' anything to you. If you own property though you will have to put in some nifty footwork to protect yourself. I am off air now but back tomorrow. TTFN

How i knows is adult son and partner split up. He came back home sorted himself and debts out. I got phone call on my mobile from local council asking to speak to him. I asked woman where she had got number from and she admitted council had agreement with DWP to look at their records online. As my name initial is J his is W stupid mare wasnt paying attention and noted my number. I made formal Data Protection complaint and council justified it as protecting public funds. But - no monies were owed and he could prove he had paid them off 4 months before.!! Barstewards. I dont know about tv licence but i have long suspected there is a national database of tel no's and Facebook is really worrying since it trawls your email box to 'suggest' friends you may want to have on Facebook. I suspect the reality is some black suited mob are compiling a database of whom we associate with and would defend themselves under some anti-terrorism laws. I am going to buy a whistle and give it some hard welly when they phone... Phone is old and i have a couple of spares... i wonder if ear drums are available on the net? Creeps.

Re Limitation, I wish you well and agree they are trying it on. I defaulted on Barclaycard Nov 2001 due to hospitalisation. Barclays issued CC proceedings. I made payment offer of £1 per month through court as income was £53 PW. They cancelled claim, said court costs now added to debt & sent letter saying selling to Olympia group interest would continue to be added and AK/Thames started up. Went on until 2008 I sent them prove it, a forged NOA came with no partics and a dodgy looking CC agreement. I specifically said no debt was acknowledged. Next month 90% off letter came just before Xmas which ignored. Total silence til last week. Now getting 6 phone calls per day to ex d mobile. Suspect theyve got number from DWP as know they sell rights to view their records. I hope they are short of money as suggested. I am now severely disabled and also caring for someone terminally ill. I dont answer calls and await a threat letter so i can take it further. Best of luck to you all.

Many thanks for response. I have a file gathering and make a note of everything so hope they do the respectable thing under the circumstances.

Have you got any further with this matter? I ask as I am aware of a similar matter where they have left an 84 year old lady with 3" of water over the ground floor of her house after a water meter fitter cut the wrong pipe and then couldnt stop the water flow for over an hour when a second fitter arrived. They then brought in a dehumidifer and plugged it to an electric supply which was wet through and left her to deal with it alone. She had pneumonia and was very ill so spent 0ver 10 days in bed with the water still there. She had terrible trouble getting anything from them and I am wondering if you finally got them to deal with it adequately. Good wishes and I hope you got through OK.

ATOS just part of problem. Update from 21st December - ATOS info had apparently not been received so DWP mandatory interview lot placed him in work focused interview group. They arranged a taxi which arrived 30 minutes early today. Chap could not get in as he was too big taxi firm left him at roadside in cold. Over 45 minutes later mandatory interview lot on partners phone quizing her as to him whereabouts. On going outside she found him collapsed on the grass. He had been lying there all that time. No further taxi had called. A strong complaint to mandatory interview lot revealed he should have been placed in support group as unfit to work yet 27 days later the info had seemingly not been passed on. Article 3 of human rights act clearly states "No one shall be subjected to torture or degrading treatment or punishment". It is hard to see what more he could have done to assist matters and this has hardly helped him get better.

I know of a chap who told them beforehand he had 28" biceps yet when he attended their blood pressure cuff thing would not go around his arm. They are no more than quacks. He has been awaiting an MRI scan for 9 months as they dont have machine his shoulders will fit in now this ultimate humiliation. He remains haviong fits/blackouts and the 'medical assessment' was nothing of the sort and served no helpful purpose beyond no doubt the DWP hoping to starve him out. He cannot drive HGV's as he is having the fits....

Hi Slick, No he is in England and Barclays never got a court order (CCJ?) instead they cancelled and just added the issue costs etc to his debt!. He is looking for the letter but has moved house 5 times since then so it is well hidden. He has not paid anything since 2002 and last wrote to them 2004 (Thames) saying he had no money to offer them. He has requested a breakdown of the balance which has never been acknowledged nor has he ever until last week received a statement from them since 2002.

A close family member has come to me in desperation over the actions of these two entities. It seems he defaulted on a balance of £700 on a Barclaycard back in 2002. Paperwork suggests they put it into Northampton County Court and he applied for a Time Order at £1 per month due to his dire circumstances (made redundant after directors of employing firm jailed for fraud). Barclays then cancelled the court case, instead sending him a letter stating his offer was not acceptable, the court costs would be added to the balance owed and it would now be sold on to Olympia Credit with an interest rate of 1.45% to be continually added along with the instruction to the DCA the debt was never to be written off!!. (He is looking for this letter currently so I can post it up. Harrassment from Thames Credit started in 2004. Despite the CCA approach all he has ever received is a look alike document, no partics, which I doubt there will be an original. He has heard nothing for two years now he has heard from Aktiv Kapital stating the balance is now £2,700 + and so on. Clearly limitation is an issue here but has anyone else dealt with a case whereby a bank have cancelled the court action, added the costs with interest because it did not glean the result expected? They always knew he was living on unemployment benefit having gone from £35K per annum. Any advice would be great, as he is at his wits end. Incidentally, he is now totally disabled having had 2 major breakdowns and so is unlikely to work again and needs looking after.He lives in rented accomodation.

Today I have bene told it has all been passed to their London Lawyers and I am to communicate from now on through them so I take it they have grounds to be concerned. There was no police presence/vehicles/personnel, all other floors were evacuating past the doors from the jobcentre at ground floor level - it was ludicrous. It remains to see what if any defence is offered. Blatantly no fire doors were in use and everyone had to leave through the same door by which they had entered yet on leaving the building all other floors were using all exits it seemed. To compound the issue plenty of adjoining concrete and glass buildings were not told of the matter as indeed I called in at Regal House/Welfare Rights immediately i left the building. Had Heron House gone up/down the blast would have damaged several adjoining buildings and glass would potentially have spread over a huge area. Let's hope measures will be put in place so no one is ever killed while going about legitimate business at one of these public access buildings.

Thanks for responses. Jobcentre Plus occupy the ground floor. The rest of the 5 storey place is also occupied by public access services eg the County Court. The main fabric is concrete and glass built on stilts car park underneath. At the very least i feel there should be more than one door into the ground floor area.Access ansd agress were by the same door and in all honesty I got the feeling the 'security' men were more interested in preventing other people evacuating the building at the time from trying to get into the ground floor to access a fire door as the main entrance to the lobby is also very narrow. I am just glad to be alive but I found it to be a very intimidating and disturbing experience. I will follow the matter through as we live in heightened security times and no one should be compromised when using any building to which the public have access.

Called at Heron House Stockport last week to get form to correct their mistake in benefits - £15.50 p.w.underpaid since March. Had to fight to get a form as they wanted me to phone in which on mobile is not free - original claim cost over £27. While there fire alarm went off bod I was speaking to told me to leave the building immediately - jobcentre is on ground floor. Got to door, 'security' bod blocked door pushed me and others back bawled 'move to the back of the building' but no fire door was opened for us. They were opening windows and closing blinds. 30 or so of us were held against our will for some 8-10 minutes then finally the 'security' men told us to leave by the main door. On leaving it was immediately obvious the other 4 floors on the building were evacuating from several exits. I returned 90 minutes later and was told these actions were for my protection as there had been a bomb scare!!. We were held in an area with just as many glass windows. I have made formal complaint written to Fire Chief Home Secretary and town MP and made Jobcentre sign for letter, also asking for coopies of the CCTV images pointing out they are made for the public safety as well as their own. Can anyone else comment on next move? This is a public building. Jobcentre plus staff were also prevented from leaving. Had a bomb gone off without doubt we would all have been killed

Yes, taxi drivers are being investigated. There are some decent fellows but there are also some creeps. A friend goes to houses doing government surveys. They are selected at random but always consent so the sh*t does not hit the fan when she arrives. What the government want to know is how some of them ostensibly earning around £14k per year are affording to live in £750K houses. It seems there is some suggestion of benefit fraud or a very generous sytem indeed. Or other money making activities beyond cabbing. Frustratingly she has not yet got any results on masse and investigations has been going on for over 2 years.

I checked in my local county court following the pathetic letter which arrived and they had absolutely no knowledge of the matter. I therefore think this is deliberate deception. To my mind they would only deliberately deceive us if they were at it in some way. I think I will write to the supposed new 'owners' of the judgement and ask them to confirm their continued interest and ask if Fairfax Solicitors are duly authorised to collect on their behalf. I say this because I have reason to believe they will shortly fold. It is a one man band and the admin costs collecting £1 per month times goodness knows how many must be steep. Also, the owners may have lost their licence/gone under. Can anyone else thinkof anything we can do to ensure we are doing the right thing?

Having slept on the matter I feel inclined to go straightto the OFT and Trading Standards since I have all the paperwork over the last 7 years and they have not once produced anything of value. I have challenged them to issue court proceedings and they backed off twice when using the banner 'Thames Credit'. Well the 'signature' appears to be from the same weezle. I will commence with reference to my last letter 3 years ago which demanded they produce evidence under CPR rules as the same would be required in court. What gets to me is how these t**ds are allowed to operate in this way and not be barred or something. Just for the record, NO I do not have a conscience. I do however have a good memory and I well remember the threats and bullying and the 8 phone calls a day (until I had the phone removed) right after I had had surgery.

Has anyone heard anything more from these characters? So far all correspondence has been ignored but cheques have been cashed.

Yes, I have had one too. No mention of a deed of assignment, no letter of assignment, no letter from original creditor (if indeed one existed) and the statute bared issue. 7 years ago I seem to remember receiving the same nonsense from a Thames Credit and amazingly enough, the scrawlled signature (abdullan?) seems to be the same. Can someone please remind me of to whom complaints need to be registered? This is the first communication I have had from these fiends ever.

Hi there, yes indeed, I shall have to look into all of this information. One good bit of news is I received a private e-mail and have managed to identify a type of dressing which will assist in the management. This lady is a nurse and I thank her from the bottom of my heart. I have been trying to get the name of this stuff for over 2 years. I have tried the net doctor thanks. Unfortunately if I agree to any more surgery (pelvic exenteration) I will be worse off than now. I have already had a number of abdominal ops which has caused much scarring and adhesions. (its a good job that on the day we leave school to join the real world we do not know what is ahead of us?) I have been very fortunate though in that I have not had many minor illnesses which lay some folk up. I do voluntary work and represent the local council tenants on various committees etc. I absolutely refuse to watch day time tv........ truly depressing. Again, many thanks to everyone.