Well all is well, Meeting was me is a small room with two recovery officers, It started with lots of listening to them with lots of yes, yes, yes. They said I could pay this current years by instalments and provided I did that I could pay the outstanding off bit by bit. I agreed, once they had looked over my income and expenditure sheet they asked how much I could afford to pay, (very little) they could see my circumstances are due to change in September. I then offered to pay a lump sum, upto now the mood was slightly hostile, I offered £2k and they were shocked .... and asked me to confirm... mood changed for the better and I went over to a payment desk and paid £2200, went back to the office and explained I have paid £2200 off because I could afford to but hadn't offered that much first in case they tried to haggle with me. They said these meetings don't normally go this smoothly. And off I went. So now have this current years spread plus £500 from the outstanding spread over the months between now and (including) march 14. It would of been better to work it out like this ages ago instead of sending stupid letters stating that if you don't pay all the outstanding in full £xxx will be added to your bill and you have 14 days ect because they just get filed and forgot because I couldn't pay the whole amount. Thanks for your help.

Just had a call of landlord, He has a letter from council something about us having moved and not paid council tax. I get on well with him and explained that going in too see pay in the morning. Im going to see the letter later.

Thanks DD for your time, i'll see how I go on. I tend to work harder and longer rather than stopping and getting paper working in order and hounding people to pay what they owe. 90% of my work are breakdowns so are unexpected costs for the customers, this then puts me in positions like I have been in for quite a while. Then you go down the refusal to provide a service till bill is paid at the risk of them getting someone else in and putting your bill at the very very bottom of the pile. But I am getting round to the thinking im better off sat at home than working for nothing or a slow payer.

The pre committal letter had almost £4k on it but the actual amounts are £2700 upto 31/3/13 and £1200 13/14. Im a bit confused with the way I could choose to have the meeting with the council at anytime or day ect thinking it a friendly chat through income/expenditure till I started searching on the internet about being taken into room to admit liability and then straight to court. Paying £2200/£2700 will clear me out till someone pays me, and this amount is only available due to me harassing people who owed me money which I hate doing but the pressure is on now.

Hi, Im just after some advice. I've got a pre committal hearing in the morning for £4k of council tax which takes me upto 31/3/14. Im self employed and honestly have not had the means to pay, I want to pay and agree the council need the money for services but im on the bones of my bottom. I admit I have not acted on the letters but they just keep coming and putting food on table roof over head and diesel in van to earn tomorrows food ect has been priority. I have arranged this meeting tomorrow and I specified the time and day, (Friday as I have some cheques due to clear my bank this evening @ 9pm) Two things, will this be a friendly chat or will it be into the magistrates court? Secondly do I make a payment of £2200 before the meeting? If it makes a massive difference I could beg/borrow to get up to £2700 which would clear up to this years as I have another cheque clearing Friday evening. Thanks for the help

Any advice appriciated

Edited : Sorry think this is in the wrong section, please move. Hi to all, This is my first post here and im looking for some advice. We have already learnt lots from what has happend over the past month and wont make the same mistakes again but here goes. We have recently moved from a property which was rented through a letting agent.First rented property. We moved in the property March 08 on a years ASTA and paid a cash deposit of £800. We renewed the ASTA in March 09 for a further year. We vacated the property march 2010. There was some damage which was repaired and inspected by the landlord at final insection. He stated the the repair was not upto the standard expected but acceptable as there was very little to do to the house before he re-advertised and the the deposit would be refunded. This was verbaly. THEN..... A few days later whilst waiting for our deposit to be retuned we received an email saying he had changed his mind about the damaged and this was wrong and thats missing ect. When we initially viewed the property he said we could paint the bedrooms. We changed the small box room from white to pastal yellow. Now he says we never asked to do this. Re-decoration fee £80. (we re-papered the living room 3 weeks before we vacated to cover a 2ft mould patch due to cavaity problem as a good will gesture with his verbal permission, he has no problem with this belive it or not) We now have a figure of £250 to be deducted. Followed various emails and phone calls and threats about him claiming for as much as possible to make it worth his while if we dont accept his generous offer of £250. It was like he had us over a barrel. Then with google and this website we discovered are deposit should be held in a scheme. We had no info ever. emails between landlord and agent for 2 weeks. Agent got rude saying that its safe so whats the problem, the act came in after we signed the agreement, they cant find policy details ect.... After informing them that we know that it has to be held securley and the schemes had not been able to trace the deposit all went quite.... Then we get a policy number. Call DPS and ask when the deposit was registered 3 weeks after we moved out of the property. Now do we take the landlords offer of £250 then see if we can claim for him not protecting the deposit or do we not take his offer and still claim. Would accepting his offer put us in a worse position. I am not the type of person to go round claiming against people but this guy has got my back up with the way he has been over this. One conversation told me he was well educated regarding the law and has lots of boys that could sort this out if we choose to go to war.. Sorry for the long post but its hard keeping it short. Thanks for any advice.