^^Ah. That's just what I needed! Thanks! ^^

My family and I have lived in our property for almost 6 years. Over that time, our letting agents have failed to do any sort of maintainence on the property. Fixed cupboard doors, broken taps, peeling ceiling paper, have, over the years, been repaired by ourselves after countless and fruitless requests to the letting agent. Things weren't so bad up until last year. Our letting agent did do yearly checkups on the property, however this year, not only has this stopped, but they have failed to even respond to emails or phone calls. My main question is: As we've been living in the propery for this long, what is the landlord required to maintain and what should we take on ourselves? We have two children and we have been "living" in the property therefore this general wear and tear which after 6 years needs upkeep. The carpeting is extremely old and we were told by our letting agent that this would be replaced after 5 years of tenancy, however they now refuse to speak to. Apart from th is, there is a good deal of repainting needed, the skirting boards have all come loose on their own valition, the cupboard doors are fallng off and many more things needing minor repair. It has gotten so that I no longer feel the property is worth the rent that I pay for it! I am considering a letter to the agent stating that if repairs are not done I will be informing our landlord. The landlord is in fact one of our neighbors. Frustrated. Thanks.

I am quite certain it is not ours, as we have paid our one and only bill to EDF in full (we have only lived in our property and been with EDF for 20 months. We were supplied by British Gas in our previous home) We received a bill for the first year and have not recieved a subsequent one. We are in no way, as far as I can see and have not been given anything from EDF that says otherwise. We have received no notice for arrears whatsoever. Even if we had not paid our bill (which we did) it's hard to imagine what my husband and i would have to be doing in our modest one bedroom home to rack up £2000 in electricty within a year!!

Hi. Hope somebody could help shed some light on this.... About 10 months we recieved our bill from EDF for £800 for the previous year which was fine. We paid it off in installments of £80 per months and have just paid the last installment leaving just 2 months before our next bill is due. During this time we are continuing to pay the £80 per month with the idea that we will be £160 ahead of the game once our next bill arrives in a couple months time. Today, someone from EDF arrived at my home. I was busy with my son and did not answer the door, but in a few minutes noticed that my power had been disconnected. I went out to find out what was happening and found a man from EDF in my meter box who told me "not to worry, love, i'm just replacing your meter. I've been sent here to put in a prepayment meter". Not knowing much about these things as my husband deals with these sorts of issues I let him continue. He then left me a letter and departed with a friendly goodbye. When I looked at the letter I noticed that the prepayment meter was installed in order to recoop an arrears of £2058.15!!! What the??? We rent our property and don't see how they are allowed to just do this?? This is more than a little annoying!!! HELP!

Then what? Do I go after them now and try and use some legal clout to get them to remove the fees or just pay what I feel I owe?

Firstly, have you given any money to Marstons? Was the fine paid in full to the court or to them? Secondly, try and relax. Marstons are a lot of talk and claim to to have powers they simply don't have in order to intimidate you to handing over cash they're not owed. From what I've read so far, It's very unlikely they have any legal ground to seize your belongings.

Funny. We contacted Devon and Cornwall police to complain about Bailiff who was repeatedly harassing us. (including phoning us up to 6 times a day) and even vandalized our vehicle. They didn't want to know and completely fobbed us off letting us deal with the matter ourselves! Nice.

Levy includes: Our vehicle (purchased a year ago for a staggering £500) Wii and PS3 and games Ikea table worth £15 and a bookcase. Needless to say, he didn't make much of an effort to levy the goods in our home. The question in that case is what to do about it. We can either send a letter detailing what we believe we owe. We fear this might be kicking a hornet's nest so to speak and they may try and create a second levy to even things out and put them in the right. The other option (my husband's suggestion) is that we stop payment where we feel we have hit the limit of what we are entitled pay and tell them that we have no intention of paying the added illegal fees. I fear this will only cause a lot of unnecessary hassle when they try all sorts of nasty tricks to get us to pay.

Thanks Feebee_71. To clarify, while I do not have the dates, the bailiff only visited our home three times, including the day he clamped the vehicle. His visits were with respect to both accounts. He did not make separate visits. I'd understand wanting the fees if he came for one account on one day and returned on a separate occasion for the other but this is not the case. Our vehicle and a few small possessions (our £15 ikea kitchen table for example) were levied twice for each account. (ie there are two levies carried out on the same day which contain the same items.) I hope that makes sense?

I have plenty of experience here! I just finished going through this exact experience which nearly ruined my life, my marriage and my mental health. It's a nightmare I wish upon noone. Don't worry. If you have paid the fine to the court then you do not owe bailiff anything. Not a sausage. They ARE entitled to collect fees and entitled to keep it if you give it to them they are NOT entitled to enforce any action to get you to pay it. You legally do not owe it. Make sense? It's in the HMCS guidline/handbook (its online, although I don't know where exactly) to encourage you to pay the bailiff and to allow the bailiff to take any steps necessary within the law or not to retrieve their "fees" even though the the person owing is not resposible for fees. It's beyond belief, but its there in black and white!! My jaw hit the floor when I saw that! Basically it keeps the bailiffs sweet and gives them incentive to continue working for the HMCS. True! So the bailiff will show up huff, puff and do whatever. He'll lie, say he's going to take your belongings, tell you a removal truck is "on its way", even say he's going to arrest you himself with a warrant he's gotten from the courts. Ours even went so far as to removed the air from my car tyre and claim it was "immobilized" until we paid up!!! I cannot say this strongly enough....DON'T BELIEVE THEM! They have no powers to do anything whatsoever, providing you have given them no money and have not let them into your home. Let him huff and puff, stay strong. Keep your vehicles safe. They may not have powers to seize goods but they WILL tamper with them or try and clamp them to persuade you to pay. If they do, just call the police. They clear off pretty quick when you do that! I wrote a letter of complaint to the court manager and recieved a reply a week later telling me swiftly where i could sod off to. I copied my complaint to Marstons, so told me the Bailiff denied everything and they believe them. The were however no longer persuing me for the fines. Gee thanks. Unfortunately, all you can do is stay strong. Eventually, he will give up when he realizes your not paying even if he may make your life hell in the interim. I'm writing a letter to my MP to strongly suggest that such appalling and illegal behaviour (sactioned by our own HMCS no less) be stopped!!! Phone Debtline or Citizen's Advice. They'll back you up and also put your mind at ease that you're in the right. Hang in there!!

Sorry. I was having some problems. I'll just do it the long way. Here is a breakdown of what's been charged as provided by Ross and Roberts (the bailiffs) themselves. Debt : 1301.80 + First Visit - 24.00 Second Visit - 18.00 Levy - 61.00 Waiting time - 120.00 WP (?) - 12.00 Total 1597.00 Payment made - 225 = 1312.00 Debt #2 (council tax 2010) Debt - 1300 1st Visit - 24.00 + 2nd Visit - 18.00 Levy - 61.00 Waiting time - 120.00 WP - 12.00 Payment made 226.50 Total - 1250.00 He was given peaceful entry. We had to go through with the levy as our car was clamped. We could have sat there all day, but I needed to be at work or I'd lose my job. He had visited us twice prior and gave no indication when he would return. We kept refusing to accept his offer as he would not enter into any agreement that we could possibly afford on our household income, therefore he returned and clamped our vehicle and threatened to have it removed if we did not pay the £450 (for both debts) upfront. We made a payment in October and according to our bank it went through without any problem. He still arrived back mid October claiming that the funds had not been recieved. We were forced to make a payment then and there as well as paying ahead the next month. This was of course, VERY distressing as we were again forced to hand over every penny we had. Luckily the bank took pity on us and although they disagreed that the money was not recieved refunded the amount. Now I could be wrong but this doesn not sound right? Could someone please critique our statement so I know what's what and make sure its legally on the level or not??

We owed a some money in CT for 2009 and then again in 2010. We were forced into an arrangement with the bailiff. Now by "force" I mean the bailiff showed up at 5:30am and clamped our vehicle and refused to leave without £500 in his pocket and a monthly owing of £250. We had to clean out our bank account then and there and enter into an agreement that is WAY more than we are able to pay a month. Previously we sent a copy of our monthly budget showing our income and how much we were able to pay to both the council and the bailiff which was subsequently ignored by both. The bailiff has been charging us for visit fees, levy fees etc.. for two separate accounts - 2009 AND 2010 which means are being charged twice for everything. This seems VERY wrong. Does anyone know for certain if this is in fact legal, cause it sure as heck doesn't seem like it!! (although, a lot of what has happened to us does not seem legal!!) Also, is there any way of getting our payments lowered. We signed under DURESS and simply cannot pay it!!

Why is it important that I get the dates? I was considering getting the dates of the distress warrant from the courts, but only to confirm when the warrant would expire and be out of the bailiff's hands. Did not recieve a "Further Steps Notice". What is that? Apparently, parking violations in Devon and Cornwall are indeed handled by the courts, so I suppose are a criminal matter??