Hi all Thanks for all your advice along the way, my husband has given in and paid it today. As they may have applied for a CCJ or visited the house and as we have much more serious stresses to deal with at the mo. At least it's all over now Regards

Hi there We got a second letter from Regal today advising us that they will advise their client, Enterprise, to apply for a CCJ against us. Will they actually do this? We owe £136.55. Won't ruin our credit as we're both bankrupt anyway, so not worried about that side of things just don't want to pay for this when they could have had the money in April!! Thanks

Hi all, This is in relation to a mortgage with a bank so wasn't sure to post here or not but I am sure I will have this moved if in the wrong place. We have a residential mortgage and in 2008 moved to France for a 6 month trial intending to lead to permanently living there. We came back early for various reasons. We had PTL on the property but couldn't get a tenant (one of the factors we came back for) so as soon as we came back to the house we told the bank who said they'd amend the records. I asked for a copy letter shortly after, regarding something or other, and never received it. They confirmed it was sent which got my alarm bells ringing. It turned out in September of that year that they had sent every piece of paperwork to the address in France!!!! They still didn't rectify it until Dec of that year (I told them in June I had moved back). I formally complained, and they offered £75 compensation which I laughed at. Anyway, 3 traumatic years down the line and we are so cross because our fixed rate was up in June/July of that year and because we never got the letters to advise of this, we never had the opportunity to re-mortgage. Now we can't, as in order to pay our mortgage we both went BR to clear all our debt. As we are on a SVR, we have seen no rate cuts, and still pay almost £800pm on interest only. We feel like we can't carry on paying out so much, I've had to take a lower paid job due to the nature of my work changing. We feel like the bank are partly to blame for this, due to their DP breach and 'IT error'. Has anyone had any experience fighting the banks over something like this? All we want is for a better rate, a fixed rate or for them to give us permission to let. They won't give us any of these things.

Hi thanks for your reply. Just wondering, when you refer to 'a court would force them to give it' do you mean if it came down to the point of repo proceedings, or is this something we can push forwards ourselves? We live in Manchester, we hope that if we can rent it out one of the many employees of the BBC who have had to move to Media City in Salford may rent it out as we're right near tram links to there! Renting to us seems the best option, although I suppose we could try to sell - but in the end I think that will be futile right now.

Hi all We want to move abroad, and sell our house. We owe more than we can sell for and after speaking to the bank today for advice we are no wiser (as obviously they can't give 'advice' as such). If we want to sell for less than the mortage o/s then we need to reduce the mortgage balance she said (not possible) or put a written proposal in to them, of how we would pay the difference back. I don't mind doing this but what if they refuse our offer? Secondly, we could rent it out in the hope that maybe one day we may have equity in it again and then sell, but this is a problem as we would never get our lenders consent, and even if we did this we may have empty periods which we could not cover the mortgage for. I can't think of any other thing to do than let it be repo, but I have read into 'handing the keys back' etc and I know it is not as simple as that, and we could end up owing an absolute fortune. We want to do it right, but at the moment we feel trapped to bricks and mortar when a better life is out there waiting for us. (We will have a house abroad funded by family moving with us - we have no capital anywhere, both previously bankrupt so no finance available or wanted by us). Any advice about how to get out of this 'trap' would be much appreciated.

OK since yesterday morning we've had a call on our landline every hour up to 10pm from an unknown number, which I tend not to answer. Is this likely to be Regal? It is possible that Enterprise rent a car gave them our number. Also, what will happen if we don't pay and ignore Regal? I'm not bothered if they come to the door, we have a rather large and mad dog who will sort that situation out. I'm not bothered if they ring, I'll just hang up or bar their number.

Do you think it is likely they will apply for a CCJ for £136.55? Or will Regal start adding fees on to make it more to make it worthwhile? Shall we ignore Regal?

As someone who had to go bankrupt I'd be interested to know how much you owe before offering advice, I had 50k so it was definately worth it for me.

Ooops looks like I sent the letter to the wrong place, I sent it to the written enquiries section in Southend, Essex. I am not sure who my tax office is, and I'll bet my accountants won't be forthcoming......I'll update again soon

Are Regal not able to take us to court or send bailiffs etc?

I wish we could argue this point, but the contract says 'damage' (will be billed now or later) and does not define what would be considered damage/wear & tear. Personally, I look at it like this - if you would normally claim on your car insurance then it is DAMAGE and if not, then it is wear & tear. However, as I have no legal knowledge I doubt I am correct! But there are many definitions lacking from the contract we signed.

Thanks for your replies, I will find out if we have a copy of the sheet - I know we did but I would think they could provide us with a copy anyway. It was Enterprise, who we have used several times and have never had a problem with. When we arrived at our destination, we heard a hissing sound and my husband found a nail embedded completely into the tyre (could have come from anywhere but I hasten to add that the caravan we stayed in was not maintained very well and the grass 'parking space' was very overgrown). We rang Enterprise (head office as branch was shut) who advised us to call the AA/RAC whoever to put the spare on for us. We then had to wait until the Tues to go to the garage (after the Sat we had the puncture) as it was Easter Bank Hol. We were advised by the breakdown company not to use the car until then as if the police saw us with the spare on for any other trip than to a garage for repair then we could get pulled. So we lost 2 days use of the car as it was. We went to the garage on the Tues, rang the local branch to ask what to do (and obviously the garage themselves rang them for authorisation to complete work etc) and the lad told my husband he didn't know whether we'd be charged or not. When we returned the car, the sheet was signed off (as the car had a brand new top of the range tyre as they said it was not repairable) and our deposit returned. 3 months later and we get a bill and the branch manager told me we were lucky to have been billed only £136.55 as our excess was actually £600 and they could bill us for that. Just trying to find out what powers Regal have as that is the pressing issue at the moment and my husband wants to pay this now, to avoid further action, but I am keen to dispute it.

Hi all My husband hired a car in April 2011 for our week's holiday to Wales. We got a flat tyre, had to get it repaired on hol and when we handed the car back they said all was OK and gave our deposit back. However, at the end of July we had a bill for £136.55 for the new tyre!! It gave us a week to pay or they would auto-debit our card. To avoid this as we disputed it, we cancelled the bank card and then today we had a letter from Regal. I am still not going to pay, as the contract in my eyes does not specify that flat tyres have to be paid for (and the split in the tyre could have been there before we took the car for the week as it may have been on the underside of the car when my hubby checked it) and besides which, they gave us our deposit back!! All I really need to know here is what action can Regal take? I'm not worried about bankruptcy or anything like that as we have both already been made BR. What else can they do? Are there limits for certain types of action (we owe £136.55) to be taken and could this fall under it? Sorry if this sounds flippant, but we paid enough for the car and they chose which car we had and I didn't really want low profile fancy alloy wheels with their equally expensive tyres!!

Just a small update, I have now been appointed as director and my relative has bee taken off. I hope now if they don't allow the strike off and they do investigate that it will be me they check out. And fingers crossed I chose the right HMRC address of the many they have!

It doesn't seem like there has been any maladministration here, and there is no dispute that the money is owed. Councils will act very quickly when it comes to BR, especially if they think there is money to be acquired by doing so. I would suggest as a last resort that you request a Charging Order on one of the properties (I'm assuming the 10k + is owed over several properties rather than just the one?). I think throwing in the Ombudsman is not appropriate, and would be a waste of time, as they deal more with disputes and liability matters rather than how councils recover money. I would assume that selling a house or two and only cutting even would still improve the situation for you though, as you would then have no ongoing Council Tax liability? Are these houses all empty? If not then why are you paying CT anyway? The occupier should be paying. Can you clarify the situation as to how may properties you owe on and who lives in them? I have many years experience in this field and could try to assist if you wish to message me.