I live in a houseing association house,about six months ago,i came home and found they had put metal bar gates at the end of alleyways,at back of houses,on average each entrance is used by four houses,the gate then has a padlock with a number to use it,we were told by the houseing association that these gates must be kept locked with the padlock at all times,the alleyway is not even two feet wide and my neighbour in her seventies is recovering from a cancer op,she finds the padlock hard to use,especially as its on the outside and you have to put your hands through the railings to undo it,a nightmare when its wet,also difficult to squeeze by with a push chair or bike to do it,the people at the back complain everytime its left open,and once called the police because of the noise,when my neighbour panicked and could,nt get in one night,yet the houseing association manager keeps telling her off for the gate not being locked as the other two neighbour keeps complaining,i never lock it and so far nothing has been said to me,she and i both agree that it is fair enough to lock it late at night but a pain to keep it up every time you go in or out,as we use our back door the most,the two complaining both also have six foot gates and fences and hardly use the back entrance,we just have low wire fences and small gates,can the houseing association make us keep it locked,we were not consulted and had nothing in writeing only a letter to say it had to be kept locked when the others complained,if we forget the number for the padlock it is an absolute pain. joyce

my daughter was three months behind with council tax,she paid two months and was makeing regular payments but they still took her to court for liability and sent bailiffes round,she said why bailiffes when she was paying,they said they could not stop it,the bailiffes have added £200 to the bill,the council tax has been settled but they said she will still have bailiffes charges,the bailiffes charges were only worked out by what her final bill was,not on a seperate bill,her second argument was why were they sending bailiffes around and pursueing a bill for council tax when it was for time she had not lived in the property yet,as council tax is in advance. joyce

no,only car ins with Tesco,nothing else. Joyce

I dont know how to start a new thread so put it here in hope someone can help,I have an Abbey Electron Account,did have a bank account also but closed it down as even if i was 50p overdrawn they would charge me a £20 charge,then charge me again for being overdrawn,if takeing bank charges made me overdrawn,with electron if i am by chance overdrawn I just have the one charge of £35,(luckily not so far touch wood)anyhow to get to the point for at least six months now,Abbey have been takeing anything from 1p to 40p in interest charges and as i cannot go overdrawn on a Electron account,I queried this several times,each time they apologise and refund it,say there is a fault with their system,I know 1p is nothing but wonder how many people this is happening to,who ignore it. Joyce

I took out a new loan with Black horse about two months ago,it is 40% interest,they told me it is this high because I have an outstanding Debt with Universal,(due to goods I got for my daughter and son-in-law,a suite that fell apart after two months and they said it was fair wear and tear,contacted tradeing standards but they were,nt interested) I am glad of the loan because I needed it,haveing struggled since my husbands death two years ago,(it was actually a loan to pay of an existing one and gave me about £600)get my pension next month,the loan for £2500 was given on my £85 per week,£50.55 carers for my grandson and the rest income support,I have written to cancel my payment protection plan as this is £20 a month makeing my payments £119 over four years and if it were needed cannot see them paying up if I needed it as in theory I am not working anyhow,or if I am no longer a carer are they liable to pay up,I doubt it. Joyce

I dont know the law but if any debts are in his name then that surely is nothing to do with you,one thing to make sure is that you have no joint accounts as this makes you a financial association on your credit report and affects your credit rateing,other than this I cant see anything that can affect you.if you are in a good position,from experience I would put things like utilities in your name as it is hard enough loseing someone without haveing to remember who to write to,to change things. joyce

I was in a similar position two years ago when my husband died,had to wait about two months for bereavment payment which i recieved for a year,you might be able to get help from dhss for funeral ,I recieved the £2000 also which was payed quickly,mistakes I made,over 16hrs work can get working tax credit,I worked 15,and if had been unemployed for more than six months and over 50,let the job centre help find work,can get extra help from the government,I know this is slightly off topic but you can learn from others mistakes and the only way of letting you know,there is hardly any provision it seems for widows,was left with £77 a week and had to pay anything over the income support level back in rent and council tax,I was 58,sixty next month,cant wait,its been a struggle to exist and pay bills since my husbands death. joyce

my son-in-law and daughter looked through their credit report and noticed that sun alliance have done about sixteen checks in all between the two reports,yet they have nothing at all to do with sun alliance or ever have,can they do this legally. joyce34