Thanks for this, we are just composing a couple of letters, one been to the mortgage company to advise that the rent has been paid and that the charges are in dispute and not to pay them. The second letter is back to the Solicitors to attempt to get them to clear the charges. Whilst my brother was writing emails to them which they did not respond to the Estate agency were adding charges for late payment. If they had responded to my brothers enquiries then the fees would not have accrued. Do the estate agency have the right to add whatever charges they want to the balance? He has never signed anything with them and even in their introduction letter never gave details of when the payments were due. The difficulty is there is still an outstanding balance for the charges on his grounds rent account and he is looking to sell the property soon. As always your help is greatly appreciated. Kate

Hi guys, some further advice on this will be good. We haven't heard anything further yet from the Solicitors, but before he paid the rent he did get a letter from the mortgage company. It seems the Solicitors had been in touch with them and in turn they contacted him. He has spoken to the mortgage company to advise the rent is paid and it's the charges he is disputing. He is worried as it appears the charges maybe added to his mortgage as they are saying he is in breach of his lease. I will attach a copy of the letter the mortgage company have sent. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Letter from mortgage company natwest letter.pdf

Hi Andy, So if we are responding to this letter the Solicitor sent what do you suggest our defence to their come back would be? Thanks, Kate

Hi thanks Andy, I am going to copy the letter that we sent to the Solicitors and the response we have had. Would really appreciate some further advice on this. ***** LETTER TO BRETHERTONS ******* Dear sir/madam, I refer to your letter dated 1st March 2018 in regards to the non-payment of ground rent for the property ***. Please be advised that the payment of £200 has been made to your client via bank transfer on the 13th March 2018. In relation to the outstanding charges for your client’s administration fees, and the referral to you and the administration cost, I do not acknowledge them and will not be paying them. The first request for the ground rent payment for 2018 was a final demand on the 29th January 2018 which also included administration fees. I wrote (emailed) to your client on two separate occasions asking them to contact me and to check their records as there had obviously been an error. I have had no communication from them in response to my emails. I would also like to point out that it is only in November 2017 that I received request for payment for the ground rent for 2017 and I paid this following that request (which was the first time your client had contacted me to introduce themselves). I have records of all communication with your client and a record of all the financial transactions. I would like to bring to your attention that your client is in breach of Section 166 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 on numerous levels. As a result I will not be paying the the further fees that have been added as I have not even received an initial letter in a prescribed form which your client is legally required to do. A copy of this letter will be emailed to your client for their reference. Yours faithfully, ***** REPONSE FROM BRETHERTONS **** Dear Mr , I refer to the above matter and further to previous correspondence. I am advised by my client that they are in receipt of a payment in the sum of £200.00 from you. This has been allocated to your account and I attach an up to date statement for your records. Whilst I appreciate your frustrations, it is the responsibility of the leaseholder to ensure payment of charges are made on time and in accordance to the terms set out within your lease. Your conveyancing solicitor should have made you aware at the point of purchase of all charges, their due dates, your obligations to pay and the consequences of default. Failure to receive a demand is not a valid dispute for late payment. My client has served all demands and subsequent reminder letters via Royal Mail first class post to *****, which is the correspondence address held on record by my client. Post has not been returned and is therefore deemed as served. If you reside at an alternative address and updated my client in writing prior to the instruction of this firm, please provide evidence of the same by return an I will ask my client to investigate the same. As such, administration fees levied to your account for the credit control processes followed remain due, together with the interest accrued and legal costs incurred by this firm. The balance remaining for payment is in the sum of £483.02 and is broken down as follows: Arrears: £300.00 (see statement attached) Interest: £0.02 Legal Costs: £180.00 Disbursements: £3.00 Total Balance as at 20-03-2018: £483.02 Payment must be made to Brethertons LLP and can be made by credit or debit card or by bank transfer. Our account details are as follows; Lloyds TSB Plc 14 Church Street Rugby CV21 3PL Account Number: 00918958 Sort Code: 30-97-17 Reference Number: It is important that you quote our reference number when making payment by bank transfer in order to ensure your payment is allocated correctly. Should you wish to make payment by credit or debit card, please contact this office on 01295 661515 quoting the above reference number. Please note, should the balance remain unpaid, this matter will be passed to the County Court issuing team for their consideration. This may result in proceedings being issued against you in the County Court for the remaining balance with a view to obtaining a County Court Judgment. This will significantly increase the legal costs incurred to date and will have a detrimental affect on your ability to obtain future credit. *********** Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Although he has been in the properly for a year now the Estate agents only introduced themselves in November 2017 with request for the first payment, which was paid immediately. The only communication he has received since was a final arrears letter. He has never received a letter or schedule of payments from any party so had no idea when payment was due and assumed he would receive a letter when it was next due. Thank you in advance, Kate

Thank you Andy Can anyone please help me with this?

Hi, been a while since I posted, but was hoping someone could give me some advice on behalf of my brother. He has to pay a yearly ground rent on the property he owns. He has only been there about a year. He received an email from the Estate agency Braemar Estates last November introducing themselves and asking for the first year's payment of £200. Which he paid. He then received at the beginning of February a final demand for 2018 payment and an additional £150. He emailed them and advised he had not received any request for payment and there must be a misunderstanding, and happy to pay the £200. He sent them another email asking them to respond, the only response he has had is another letter from the Estate agency saying that further charges have been made and and he his account has been sent to Brethertons Solicitor, he has also received the letter now from Brethertons saying he owes over £650! Can I please get some advice how he can best respond to this? Surely these charges cannot be enforced? Thank guys Kate

Hi guys, could really do with some help and advice on this one. I would have dealt with this much sooner but had major surgery a few months ago and had one problem after another so dealing with this hasn't been a big priority. I took my young daughter's and one of their friends to the Xscape in Castleford. I am disabled and receive higher for DLA. I do have a blue badge, but I had sent it back whilst waiting for my new one. Typically the new blue badge valid from date is a few days after my parking ticket date. When I arrived I couldn't find any parking, so after waiting I decided to park in a disabled bay. When I returned I had a ticket for failing to display my badge. I haven't responded to their letters demanding payment, and now they are saying they are taking court action. It is a private car park, and the ticket is issued by smart parking . It is now with the debt collectors, DRP. Any advice would be great, thank you in advance!

Hi guys - the debt has been bought by CapQuest. I have been going round and round with this one and I can not find a template for "prove it" anywhere. I have looked in the library - any ideas where I can find one? Cheers

I am agreeing with you here ims - I think they have had plenty of time to pay up now. Looking into the charges etc at the moment, going to request a full SAR on the account and see what comes back. I will write to say they have failed to comply etc. Thank you for your help.

As far as I am aware they have bought the debt from MBNA - there doesn't seem to be a notice of assignment, this is an old debt - over 6 years old, a token payment of £10 has been made each month. Cheers

Hi there, wondered if you could give nay insight on how to respond to a letter we received from dlc in response to a CCA request, especially in light of their last 2 points - Thank you for your recent letter regarding the above account. I can confirm the following - * I acknowledge receipt of your payment of £1 in connection with your data request under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. * We are still awaiting a copy of your original agreement and statement of account from the original lender MBNA. When these become available they will be forwarded to you. * If we are unable to forward a copy of the original agreement, we will be able to supply a true copy of the document which will comply with section 77-79 of the consumer Credit Act 1974. * We would like to draw your attention to the ruling in the case of McGuffick V RBS judgment dated 6 October 2009 in relation to "what is considered enforcement", the judgment stated that the bringing of proceedings is not enforcement. It follows that demanding payment is a step taken prior to the commencement of proceedings and therefore not considered as enforcement. We will continue to report the account status to the Credit Reference Agencies as this is also not considered as enforcement. * Whilst we may not be able to enforce the agreement until the documentation is provided, the monies remain outstanding and the underlying obligation to repay remains intact. In view of the above judgement the account will remain with our collections department for collection activity to continue. Should you require anything further at this point please contact me accordingly. I will update you on developments in 21 days if there are no developments beforehand. We have heard from them since a couple of weeks ago and they are still waiting on the "documentation". They have now had 2 months to deal with this and I am not sure how we should respond or proceed. Anyone got any advice on this one please? Thank you.

Hi Guys, Could someone please have a look at this attached spreadsheet - I am not sure what I am doing wrong. The 8% interest isn't adding on, and I must have made a mistake somewhere, but for the life of me can't figure out what it is. Also - my understanding is that you can claim the 8% up to todays date, when it comes to the contractual interest it has to be thill the account closed. If this is correct how do we show this on the spreadsheet? I am assuming that the total CI tallied up to todays date and not the last transaction/statement date. Got a few of these spreadsheets to fill in and wanted to make sure I was using it correctly! Cheers peeps!

Thanks silverfox, that gives me some useful information to go back to him with and plan of action - your help is appreciated!

Hi - Trying to help a friend out who is in financial difficulty. A number of years ago he separated from his partner, upon this separation left him with a large amount of debt from different sources. He took a mobile phone out with Vodafone for her and she ran up a bill of £100's. It then got passed to a debt recovery where he has been making minimum monthly payments ever since. Whilst helping him work through his finances we sent a CCA off to CapQuest thinking the debt was actually something else. They advised that it is not a credit agreement but a service agreement and if he required a copy of the contract then he needed to go to the place of purchase. I haven't dealt with a mobile debt before and not sure where he stands with this one - doesn't cap-quest have to prove they have purchased the debt or prove the debt in someway? Also concerned that they are adding charges and interest etc as the debt doesn't seem to be reducing, but he has had little to no paperwork sent from them over the years so he is in the dark. Any ideas on this one? Cheers

Cheers dx - thanks for the input - nice long thread for me to work though, no don't just the info I needed! Best go get the kettle on, looks like I will need a brew to work through that one! Lol!

Hi Guys - Been a while since I have been on the site and was hoping for some help please. I am actually supporting a close friend who tried to reclaim her PPI from MBNA. She actually had 2 credit cards with them and has tried to reclaim on both, they were both running at the same time 2009 - 20011 - they are both paid off in full. She received a telephone call last year from them advising that she may be able to reclaim and did a brief interview over the phone, she then had to complete the questionnaire they sent her, which she did and returned. She then received a response from them advising she chose the PPI and she stated she was eligible for the PPI insurance, they also stated on both responses that if she was to find herself unable to work then she would have not been able to cover the cost of the repayments. The response was standard for both accounts and that was their final response. When she advised me of what had happened I suggested she sent off for a SAR on both accounts - unfortunately she has not kept any statements. They have now been returned and the results are "interesting" - CARD ONE - My friend was approached on the way to her holiday at the airport. She remembers very clearly what happened, and remembers saying to the sales person that she didn't really have time - they said it would take a few minutes, they would fill in the details and all she would have to do is sign. We now have a copy of that application and there are several concerns - the application form was not written in her handwriting, and the sales person had written that she was employed and worked for a company that she has never even of!!! The sales person never even mentioned PPI and there is NOWHERE on the application form about PPI - which clearly shows she never even asked for it! CARD TWO - This one was taken out about a year later, and from their records she applied for it over the internet. What we have for this one is a copy of the credit agreement, there is a section on there offering Life Style Protect, card protection one year and card protection 3 years. The box for the credit agreement signature is ticked and the box for Life Style Protect is also ticked, my friend is adamant that there is no way she would have ticked for something she hadn't a clue about and never received any literature about in the future. She is one of many people out there that has assumed that PPI was standard on all credit agreements which is why she never challenged the appearance on her statements. I am aware from my research and others experience with MBNA and self employment that that is not a valid enough reason on it's own, that they would have actually have had to cease trading with HMRC. I have that angle to work with when recontacting MBNA and also the applications process to claim they were miss sold. I just wanted to double check with you guys that I am going along the right route with this, and if you had any suggestions? I was also wondering if anyone could advise which spreadsheet we would use? MBNA haven't send copies of her statements - just a list of transactions. Thank you for you help in advance!

Hi Jas, Really sorry to hear about your holiday! So disappointing for you and I feel your frustration. Before I direct you or give you what advice I can, can you answer a couple of questions? 1) Did you take any photographic evidence? Or any other evidence about the condition of the place? 2) Can you give me a summary as to the problems you had? 3) Did you issue any complaint or speak to anyone at all about the condition whilst you were there? Just want to know which angle to tackle this from - will check in later to see if you have responded. Sorry for the delay in responding, been busy and just seen your thread. Kind Regards Kate

Haven't been on site for some time now - but Martin was one of the key players in my many successes since I joined CAG! His help and advice were priceless and I always appreciated every second he had for me. He was always patient with me and never made me feel incompetent for my lack of knowledge. He was clearly a character and had a sense of humor and I enjoyed chatting both on and off line with him. I am genuinely sadden by his loss and whatever has happened in his life he found a place to belong on CAG! His family should be incredibly proud of his achievements and remember he has helped 1000's of people. Thank you Martin for helping me and I am sorry I never bought you that beer! I promise you you will be missed and always remembered. XXX

Thanks guys!

Any help would be appreciated. Kx

Ok thanks for the input - I am assuming that you are suggesting that I sick to my guns and let it ride out? Any suggestions as to what to include in my response? K

Brilliant ims - thank you. I thought that the fos advice was they have to pay for the interest up to the date of claim, not when the account was closed? Or am I confused again? Kx

Just to let everyone know - it was worth appealing - we played it from all angles and also demanded a full investigation. She was refunded the full amount. Great result - thanks for everyone's advice and support. Kx

Update on this one - N1 submitted and AQ send off last week. Will update when I know more! Kx

Apologies for the delay in updating my thread - life got in the way! After sticking to my guns and holding fast Barclaycard repaid the charges in full including interest in restitution at 24.9%. Brilliant result. What is also interesting is that in the end they agreed to buy back the debt from the DCA and write it off. I also refused to sign the confidentiality agreement, and they still refunded. I hope this will encourage all people who are reclaiming their BC charges, especially those older than 6 years to stick to your guns. CAG is an amazing place and people here will always be on hand to help. I personally want to thank slick for his patience, encouragement and hard work. It is because of people like him that make this site work. He is totally amazing!!! Kx