Hi, I hired a web development ltd company to create an ecommerce website. All started really well, the 2 guys seemed nice etc. Note that it was a referral from another person i know in the design field. Estimated 4.5 total, done on the 'cheap'. as they called it. To start required 50%. Fine done & paid via business account. to what i Think the directors personal account or so he later claims is a business account. We in turn received a VAT invoice for the amount. One month was allotted to the project, first month went by, some light work on the design was done, not functioning very well. Month 2 I then sent a detailed plan of what was needed schematic if you like of the intended system. To keep them going they requested the request of the money, (50/50) optional, the stage was literally the design, no backend or anything. I said no, i havent seen enough to be satisfied to do that, they then said other projects will take over to help their cash flow, i said fine ok as long as its done in reasonable time for Christmas. There after they vanished from my skype/emails for about 2 months. I knew they are active because they have a website, and my designer is good friends with their client, word got back recently, sent me an apology letter. Before this recent letter he has cited personal fatigue issues and spent a month out of work (highly doubt), and the partner about to take leave. They were excepting far too much work in my opinion. Its now December i did get revised deadline of 3rd today, emails have exchanged. I decided i want my money back, he flat out declined and said if i wanted to continue the project i would now have cough up in full. It is their first year of trading and im definitely sure they have assets, but he did say to me in a recent email its not doing too well and may go into other areas.. I feel very cheated, i trusted these guys and the only thing i can think of is to go small claims. I only have NDA official agreement with them. i need advice on how to fight these guys, his responses when i became legal were very prompt, but he was very arrogant, stating he would win. I genuinely am from a poor background, i run a company which i built up with my uncle from the ground up, and we still dont make a great deal of money for the 75+ hours i work every week and That is a lot to me. Its these sorts of people that hinder the growth of this country. Thanks.

Hi, as if i didnt have my own problems..... im getting fraudulent mobile applications to our address one on my mum. Recently one came from Lowell Portfollio I this was using my mothers name and our address!! She has very poor credit.... she has used orange for the past 5 years! How an earth was she approved?! - £21 call/rental, early termination.. £97.06 I find this astonishing, i dont even have a contract phone, i had to pay £100 deposit before they would even give me a 30 day rolling contract! Yet the second fraudulent claim had my initials in it!!! £1,123.97!! given the name was 90% was wrong..it started ASH....scary... i think this bill is extraordinary. This one is from westcot, claiming for O2 These letters are the first we've received from either company and they both happen to be debt collectors! Is it possible to get a previous address or even phone calls these people made? They must have somehow got a phone and sim card to rank the bill??! I have a suspicion its neighbors. a lady who used to live upstairs asked the council to make the letters communal... therefore open to anyone picking our letters up, every flat in this house (6) has its own letter box on its door.. how can i get them to block the letter box again? Should i contact the local community police? I had might aswell call myself the wizard of OZ and get the best damn phone i can find.... If you commit fraud your rewarded... you do things honestly and they ask you for deposits?! i mean what kind of system do we have?!! Any help/advice would be appreciated! Ashley:|

haha yep, i will do. Our lawyer managed to get a hold of the rent officer in the afternoon, I think our lawyer tried to adjourn the case again or settle the arrear payments outside court but since the arrears are actually a lot more than i thought. the officer said unless we pay £2000 upfront to clear arrears we will go to court on the proper agreed date Febuary 25th. Our laywer said that they will dismiss things like back payments of housing benefits as is not relative to whats is actually being paid a the moment, is this accurate? We have another lawyer dealing with back payments of rent.

Basically our lawyer said that it was a mistake. We were petrified for the whole night. She rang PCHA to ask what had happened, but couldn't speak to her. Our lawyer spoke to a manager who went on to say that it was very strange that they would send a possession order without letting us know and that it was on mandatory grounds. Therefore she says its the courts error, temp staff perhaps. They usually have multiple cases in one go and apparently my mother may have got mixed up. Thanks for the support though its really appriciated, its happy ending (sort of) at least for now

Just curious but isnt that itself breaking the law? I mean, if the letter from HMCourts came any later we'd have already been thrown out surely? I think PCHA was a charity but i think recently became private and incorporated with Genesis Group or something, i mean they are building a huge 36 canal side flats down the road, i couldnt believe that. I think is a council house sort of agreement. Otherwise the rent would probably be 2x the amount we're currently paying, weekly.

Yes. The possession order letter came directly from HMcourts with no prior knowledge to the court dates being changed :-| This is not a private rental. Its a housing association.

you need to let the court know ASAP in the morning that you only just received the letter - We've tried that, apparentely their computers are down, how convenient. if your renting your propery is it a private rental? Rental from PCHA housing association if so do you have a contract? I asked my mum that yesterday, we've been here more than 10years so thats a no. if the answer to the above is yes CHECK the contract they usually have to give you 2 months notice to vacate did they do this prior to the eviction order? - was the letter you received today dated the 13th sent recorded or special delivery? (i.e. did you have to sign for it?) if not this again may help - To confirm that the letter was NOT Signed For or Recorded contact shelter first thing too Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity - choose your location they sometimes have one of their legal bods in court (in my case it fell on the wrong day but you may get lucky) - I think we'll see our lawyer first? As its a charity i feel guity for using their time. how much is still outstanding? - £1800 remaining Although this was more than £3,500 at one point but i think housing benefits have trickled through we are paying as much as possible my mother says she has proof of £800 worth of payment to PCHA. Housing benefits owe large amounts of money in back payments. Although we have another lawyer dealing with that as its a seperate issue. do you have evidence that you can take to show how hard your mum's been trying to clear the arrears? - Unfortunately no we dont, PCHA have the proof of payments although my mother asked for a copy of payments on the phone, they said it would be sent but it wasnt recieved. Since we have JUST received the letter yesterday, the possession order is for FRIDAY 20TH!! WHICH LEAVES US WITH 24HRS NOTICE. It says "Order For Possession" in the top left corner.

THANKS SO much. I probably will need some assistance with a statement not sure how formal etc it needs to be. We just went to our lawyer, her secretary phoned her and asked wether we could see her and she said no and i asked whether shes actually read the letter and she rang back and asked. The secretary said she did, but personally i dont think she did. I think this group are taking to many cases my mother says that shes visibly stressed. I havent met her. I think there is a form of negligence. Although my mum said shes used her twice before regarding the similar cases and we've won, i just think we've been taken by suprise. I dont want to waste your time so we'll go again at 12Pm today. if she doesnt do anything i will pursue this with your help and i'll let you know asap. Thanks Very much Ash.

Hi, me and my mother and brother have been given an Order for possession for our home. We have lawyers on the case BUT, I wanted to seek some more advice. Firstly this letter came today 18th. They are chasing up Arrears for renting our property. The original court date was January then was adjourned to 25th February because of the benefits decision. Today the 18th, we got a letter stating that the court date was infact on the 6th February. Having not received any letters before that the court date was changed again, we did not attend court which meant we had no defence and completely and utterly lost the case. My mother went to drop a copy of this paper off but she was apparently in a meeting with another client. Benefits have commenced payments and also my mother has been paying 100x more than the courts have asked in order to catch up the arrears. My friend tells me our lawyer has made many mistakes and that she should have known all of this? Although there was no indication at all that the court dates were changed. Just this letter written on the 13th Feb recived today and surely they cant leave us with TWO days to pack our bags.....and we havent been given any notice. My lawyer/student friend says that we need to get a Emergency application to post-pone the eviction although she says shes not 100% on the regulations and what exact forms there are. Rented property and housing association, my mother has been granted housing benefits.

Okay, will do. What sort of response should i be expecting from the bailiffs after the letter? Will be sent tomorrow, i'll keep you updated.

My mother is 55, she has been granted for benefits recently and i did ask them for a break down of fees, This is Equita's response: I dont know what to write, i thought there was templates hovering around that i could use and edit to suite.... im worried about the continuation date. If we told the baliffs that my mother was now on benefits would they give the case back to the council or should i deal with the council directly?

Yes, and they've said we've paid nothing. Although my mother had another year which was with them, so it could have been that one which was paid/contributed to.... i'll have to find out on that. For now i need a to know what to write to the council to get 07/08 year back to the council.

My mum has been able to get the deal with the council so its the council shes paying starting March £25 PCM for all 5 years except 2007/2008 which i need to get back to Westminister Council. To be honest the bailiffs have been really difficult to understand. The only things they are good for sending are how much you owe opposed to how much you've already paid them. My mother has paid Equita quite a bit, but it seems to have gone into a blackhole. However, i got it wrong, my assumption was incorrect!! There are so many papers i got it wrong i got my mum to make sure. As the chart says, Its 2007/2008 that is still with Equita. This time one stop made sure it was that 2007/2008 year was still with the baliffs.

Thanks all, hollowitch, i have done the first letter on here which i mentioned in the first post and will have to write the second letter to the council also. My mother managed to sort out a lot of them with One Stop services under a special arrangement, the woman she spoke to said that she could not get back the year 2007/2008 which is under the baliff equita at this time. She also mentioned that Citizens advice bureu made a grave mistake in not arranging the fees properly and consequently the court charges were applied. CAB arranged a monthly payment for £30 except, this was only for ONE of the years owed and NOT ALL of them. I.e £5 for each year under my mothers budget. She gave print outs of what the computer said. Basically every single debt and money owed is under a Liability. They printed all the years and this is how its listed: 2003/2004 - £240 Liability Order 2004/2005 - £630 Liability Order 2005/2006 - £230 Liability Order 2006/2007 - £400 Liability Order 2007/2008 - £280 Liability Order - This year is under Equita & £60 Unsummonsed? Liability 2008/2009 - £290 Liability Order Comparing the letter from Equita and my mothers printed record from one stop the Council Tax regards the remaining debt to be £280. Baliff regards it to be the same but with their fees outlined in the first post it comes to £500 instead of £280. The reason for this debt is because of a benefit "overpayment" problem in 2003 concerning me leaving secondary school therefore they decided that these were not covered under benefits under their own fault we had a big problem back then. For me to better understand this is a liability what my mum actually owes? or are these court costs? My mother lives with my sick brother is there any way of getting council tax reduced? How do i get the Year that is under Equita back to the council as Equita has not been very nice to us... but thats a given i suppose

Thanks for your comment, I realise you cant stop the baliff from coming. I'm just peeved that they increased the entire debt back to the worth it was originally. I dont completely know what you are asking me to do but 2006/2007 is the council tax that Equita are after. As far as the baliffs are concerned they on came the once which was promptly stopped we did not ever let them in and previous to that hand delivered letters with notices eventually we got a 24hour notice prior to the visit. I will get my mum to ask the council about the liability but i don't understand how it will help as its likely to be unaffordable at this time. My mother owes around 5/6 years worth of tax and they keep mounting up the bills. With her out of a job also its unlikely they will be paid in full. If its possible all i need to do is get the 2006/2007 debt back to owing the council instead of the baliffs, Equita - that way we can manage all the debts with a monthly payment dependant on my mother's budget.

Hi everyone, I'm doing this for my mum shes at her wits ends with this. We've never gotten this much trouble before. My mums in a lot of debt its getting hard for to manage it all so im seeking advice on Equita and Council Tax in general. i've sent the following letter template: without my mother signing it. This is their response: £280 might not sound like a lot but the debt was that much to start with and we've made so many payments to them, i did tell my mum to pay the council and not the bailiffs but she doesn’t understand. She made the mistake of phoning them, after i told her not to, my brother decided he'd have his minute of arguing and my mother gave in and phoned them on the Tuesday, the bailiff guy ended up making an appointment for himself for the Thursday. I managed to copy the above letter and send it next delivery to them, it was too late i guess, and they still came on the Thursday. We were all prepared to go and leave but they came an hour early! Sneaky.....'""%%^&%^&s! Although perhaps we're paranoid, they phoned a few moments after the buzzer so we knew it was them at the door. We did NOT let them in and everywhere was closed. The day before my mum managed to get a local MP to phone them and cancel the appointment, but even he might of stumbled possibly and they delayed it until the 20th which is in conjunction with a possible benefit approval/disapproval. How do i get them off from that suspension and deny any more appointments after the suspension? I’d appreciate some help on whatever you would advise doing regarding that issue. My mum is going through the process of receiving benefits and is going through an employment tribunal case having been dismissed unfairly and therefore the domino effect follows we're also facing rent arrears and the housing association are seeking possession. The rent Hearing has been delayed till 25th as well. We've just gotten a packet of letters from Westminister TWICE, from what she owes from 2005/2006 to current year 08/09. Are the council allowed to add court fees to it? Would it be wise to pay what the bailiffs are seeking to make them go away? I would note to you all that i haven’t sent the second letter that goes with the above to the council as im really quite confused as to what to do or what year the bailiffs are seeking as there are so many. My guess suggestive from all the paperwork is that its 2006/2007 AS ITS MISSING. I don’t know why but all of these have, Billing Authority Costs £62, Court Costs at £3, Liability Order costs all of them £30 is that normal? I was talking to my mum about the online thing and she approves and thinks it would be better, i said there will be no loosing Receipts anymore!!!! Edit: whats the deal with excessive court costs? £100 at a time! I run a forum myself and i know it’s a little off topic but they are both issues are so intertwined, if it’s a problem your welcome to split the post or let me know. Thanks ALL..............

OHH, i'm very sorry. I will be starting our own thread. Million apologies.

Hi everyone, we're in the same situation, im responding with the above letter on my mothers behalf, thanks for that amber! Someone from Equita hand delivered the Removal notice letter buzzed and said there was a letter for you (does that count as access?). My mother rung him on the mobile number provided, explained her situation, and which the demanded the full amount within 24hours. Or he will come over and take our stuff. We simply cannot pay the amount. We have run out of time to send the letter as he says hes coming to pay a visit on wed and take stuff with or without payment, inviting himself to come along. It might be worth sending a special delivery letter? Its quite possible my mother spoke to the same person as nightnurse. Is the second letter incomplete amber? Thanks, i'd appreciate your advice asap.