Hi Guys,

I have a story for you, so bear with me.

19th Sept 2008 we left the house we rented having been in a long term and heated dispute over various issues with the landlord having lived there for over 10 years.

We had paid our Council Tax to KBC right up to when we left, and even sent them a letter to say we where leaving the area.

We where then effectively homeless for 8-9 months, we came down to Sussex so my wife could be close to her little sister who is medically in a very bad way.

So we stayed in a "Winter let" Until 1st Jan 2009 in a holiday caravan that was 3 feet deep in rain water, then we moved to another holiday let for 2 months in a house in Hastings. The lady who owned the caravan invited us back and said if I did some key maintenance to that and her other caravan on the holiday site, we could stay for free until she had a holiday booking.. Which we jumped at and we took great care of both her caravans, she was a really nice lady and I felt duty bound to do whatever I could for her.

During that time Kettering Borough Council called me and sent letters to the site (and we got into trouble for that, no mail rule on a holiday site apparently) telling me I owed them just over £200.

I politely told them to leave me alone and explained the situation, they said that Ctax is a priority debt, and I explained that I failed to see how I owed them the money and actually I have some rather more priority issues at the moment, and whether I owed Ctax to somewhere I used to live was rather low priority to finding a home for my family.

So we found a home, not what we wanted, in fact we can't stand it here, but it's better than a caravan again (I was a VERY stressed bunny in that van).

KBC have now sent thier Bully Boys, Rossendales, before I joined here I just made a payment of about £26 and agreed a payment of £100 over 2 months..... Which was fine then, now jobs have gone, savings have gone.

So Bully boys told me they are coming to collect my stuff after charging me £110 + Vat (Yeah right, I've read up on here what they can and can't do, they can stick their Vat right where it came from thankyou very much).

So I sent the standard "Got no money can you freeze for 6 months" to KBC via email and Recorded post. And got the following back.... I feel there MUST be room for futher negotiation, and can I REFUSE to deal with the bully boys? WE DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING WE CAN OFFER THEM, I made it clear and sent a balance sheet, so they know what I have coming in and out.

Not only that but we paid the Ctax right up to when we left, so I don't really see how we owe them anything.

Dear Mr *EDIT*

Thank you for your email regarding your Council Tax arrears at *EDIT*

Although I can sympathise with your current financial situation I am unable to hold payment on this account. Council Tax is classed as a priority debt and as such needs to be collected as non payment can ultimately result in committal to prison.This debt relates to the 2008/2009 Council Tax year and so should have been paid during that financial year.

As you are aware the debt is currently with Rossendales our external bailiffs. Due to your situation I have contacted them and requested that they make a more lenient arrangement with you. In order to discuss an alternative arrangement please contact Rossendales on 0845 644 4100. If you fail to contact them to make a new arrangement the current arrangement that is in place will continue and the bailiffs will seek to recover the payments for the agreed instalments of £100.

Due to your circumstances I would advise that you contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Welfare Rights office to discuss your financial situation.

Regards

*EDIT*

Billing & Recovery Officer

Income & Debt

Kettering Borough Council

Municipal Offices

Bowling Green Road

Kettering

Northants

NN15 7QX

Web: www.kettering.gov.uk

Please feel free to contact the *EDIT*

Well, the idea WORKED, I sent an email with the CAG harassment letter to rich fairbank, and follwed it up with an email for EVERY call they made to mine and my wifes, and my SKYPE AND my HOUSE numbers. (New number, ex dir TPS listed, only had it 2 months not given to anyone)

I got a Letter saying thankyou very much for your letter to Richard Fairbank, he's passed it to me and we havn't broken any of the laws you listed (yeah right)... But the calls have stopped.

Keefy, ISP was the wrong term, it's "email supplier" really, a company I have used for a number of years for personal, business and charity uses, they are an ISP as well and have hosted about 8-10 sites for me over the years, if you want details, PM me, I won't pass that out in public, they are a small company and I don't want to get them into trouble.

I just received a reply from my ISP stating that if I replied to Mr Rich every time I get a call on my phone, that if he reported me for spamming him, they would "take into consideration the level of telephone calls the offending company have provided".

Basically I told Mr Rich I would email him EVERY time We got a call, and to be sure I wasn't reported as a spammer I contacted my ISP and let them know what was going on, and they in aroundabout way don't seem to tell me off for what I plan.

So if you get a call, send an email... Simples

Deleted

So would that be a case of "don't bother" then Keefy, my handle is Hentooth because I used to run a site where I found items or information that was hard to find, as in "rare as Hens teeth", if they bounce this one, I'll find the new one.. "Simples" (*funny squeek)

What you are saying, is "Don't bother", which I thought is the total OPPOSITE of this sites purpose... I'm not a legal eagle person, but I'm good at sniffing things out, so I'll pop in with little things like this, other than the odd cash donation, it'll be my small contribution... It took some digging to find this, so I don't appreciate a downbeat idiot running down my research.

If we don't at least TRY to complain, we won't get anywhere, I just gave a FOR NOW Direct avenue to the CEO of Cap One, so EXPLOIT IT

Erm, sorry I skimmed a bit, but get the general consensus that everyone here is a bit pee'd with "what's in your wallet".

So Annoy this email address [email protected]

That would be the CEO (I think American, but then it would take it higher than C1 EU) of Cap one.

Everyone Email the Mr RICH and tell him what we think of his organisation.... I just did after 50 calls demanding to speak to somebody I never heard of and them ignoring letters and emails.

Bit of an update, CSG have passed the debt back to 3G, who sent a normal invoice for the alleged debt, which is 1 months rental and some admin charges, which made up the £54.

So I just sent the CCA letter.

And don't worry, I will donate, in fact I'd decided to donate every time I use a letter template as a "legal services" fee, but it'll be small each time, because I'm on a very low income.

We received a UKPC "fine" a few weeks ago when my wife parked in the local small co-op's car park to wait for my daughter who WORKS at the co-op.

I'm also a VERY regular customer of the co-op I spend up to £200 per week in the store and am well known in store, so I complained to the store manager.

Who promptly phoned UKPC and told them to cancel the fine... Which they did.

Capital one are w*nkers, me and my wife recently got made redundant, we both worked for the same company, and we have 4 CC's, we made agreements with all 4 inc Cap 1, and have stuck with them, and paid what we agreed, but cap 1 even tho it's in my wifes name insist on calling my mobile to chase the balance, this would not be an occaisonal call, it would be 5 times a day, up to 10pm and as early as 7am and right thru the weekend. And it's ALWAYS a rude Indian.

I threatend them with a Offcom/FSA complaint, which stopped them for a couple of weeks, but found this sentence gets them to hang up immediately.

"For Legal and training purposes, this call is being digitally recorded"

all I can say is .. WHAT'S IN YOUR WALLET???? a Whole heap of trouble, don't go near Cap 1

Hmm, it seems dog bites are more important than my question.

This time CAG does NOT get a paypal donation because idiots have taken over my thread.

Linus and Jon thingy, you can now feel proud that U just shut off a CAG donation.

My thread had NOTHING to my with dogs, but ta for jacking my` thread

AHA...

I received this from CSG

"Dear Mr XXX,

I have looked into this account it would seem that this agreement is not regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

Credit Solutions Ltd does not enter into any disputes between the customer and our client, however I would advise you to check the terms and conditions associated with the use of a Hutchinson 3G mobile handset. The terms and conditions should provide all the responses to your queries regarding liability for this debt. All other questions of this nature should be forwarded to our client"

Does the fact that it's not regulated by the CCA 1974 mean that it's NOT ENFORCEABLE????

Also, the last part seems to be passing the buck back to 3G Hutchinson, IE "Hot potato, throw it away quick"

I have already reported 3G to Offcom and the OFT over this, so I think this could possibly ?!?!? be the end of this one.

I have also told CSG if they don't desist that they will be reported to the FSA, the OFT and Offcom (repeated calls and texts to MY phone, NOT my wifes who's name the mobile dongle was in.. CHEEK), and to the MPS (Lots of letters) because we are registered with them and really because it looked good adding somebody else we could complain to LOL

Linus, that could be very useful if they press the issue further. The "land" is quite simply the extent of the entire plot the house is built on in that case, which would of course include gardens, drives, paths etc.

LOL Esmerobbo I'm sure the woofy things may have helped his decision, as I think my 3 could although sadly they make a lot of noise but would probably lick him to death

Aha, nice one revenant, CSG are in email contact, so I have just emailed the to thank them for their point and to point out 2.12(d), and just to be helpful I suggested the nice lady read subsection 2.12 thoroughly and sent her a link to it on the OFT website.

The bill is only for £54, but I object to them billing me after the contract had ended, I had already in may told them I didn't want to extend the contract.

I will not pay this unless a court tells me to, but am I correct in thinking that anything under £500 has to be pursued in the Small claims courts (With some exceptions like council tax etc)

Yes, I had wondered, I'm certainly no lawyer, but one thing I've always known (may be wrong) is that nobody can enter my property without my prior consent or a court order / warrant, or unless it's HM Customs & Excise , which INCLUDES the Police AND Bailiffs, and they MUST have the order/warrant in their possession.

Now somebody will tell me I've been deluded all this time LOL

Hi,

We took out a 12 month contract with Hutchinson 3G for a mobile connection, we although we no longer needed after about 5-6 months I still honored the contract. At the end of the contract 3G carried on taking money via direct debit, so I canceled the DD and called them to be told that although the contract had ended, it was still live because I hadn't contacted them 30 days before to cancel the contract.

I politely told the very rude Asian man that this was a load of rubbish, a 12 months contract is just that, and a far as I'm concerned the contract is ended.

So 3G sent a bill for 2 further payments via a DCA called Credit solutions, who I gave the same message.

I got a "we will call at your house letter", so sent them the CAG standard "doorstep caller" letter and got emailed this response.

"Credit Solutions Ltd offers a door step collection service whereby field agents visit a property to discuss repayment of an outstanding amount.

This is simply another option available to our customers to assist them in repaying their debts.

In relation to field visits in subsection 2.12 of Office of Fair Tradings’ guidelines doorstep visits must give adequate notice of the time and date of visit.

The Armstrong v Sheppard (1959) case you quoted is dependant on each individual circumstance and only such order to refuse access can come from a Court and not from the individual."

I have replied and said that under common law any uninvited visit can and will be considered trespass and the trespasser will be evicted or the police called, and mentioned that I do have a bit of a beef about the bill in the first place and invited them to take me to court.

You will note that CSG can't spell

An update, I have sent the letter via 1st class recorded, but thought I'd have a little dig around.

I called JD Williams who are the creditor listed on the letters and they could find no record of the debt at either our current or previous addresses, so gave me a number for the Simply Be debt department, who ALSO have no record (Not surprising, the original default was filed Sept 1999, dug out all the original docs and letters I sent them).

I also got the distinct impression that there was a "not another one" going on, the various people I spoke to wouldn't say yes or no as to if they use 1st Credit or not, but would only say they use "various" DCA's.

I did ask for a CCA to be posted, but they can't because there isn't one of file for us....!!!!!

OFT Next stop

Cheers guys, I just printed a statute barred and it'll be winging it's way to the lovely people at 1st Credit.

I also made a small donation to CAG, which I'll do every time I use it

Hi,

Almost 10 years ago my wife had a Simply Be catalog, which she ran happily for a while, but she sent for some boots which arrived damaged so she sent them back, using their collection service.

The £45 boots where never credited to her account so we quite naturally refused to pay for them. After arguing with them for ages and their "admin fees" pushing the bill over £100, we suggested they sue is for the money.

Since then 1st Credit have been hounding us, even after 2 address changes, thr amount is £182 now.

About 2 years ago they sent a bloke to our door, who I "escorted from the property" and told him that chasing a debt that old is illegal and if he had any problems to take it to court.

We are now getting a letter a week and I've just emailed them to politely say that they can P off and that if one of thier operatives knocks on my door it won't be my fault if my dogs bite him while he is in mid air.

What can I do to get rid of this bunch of idiots, any ideas would be greatly welcomed.