Are all the other unsecured loans still with the original creditor or have any of them been passed on to Debt collection agencies? The reason I ask is because if they are already Sold on they might not be enforceable and you may not need to pay them anything?

Also under no circumstances allow them to steamroller you into PAYG meter. You will be paying it off until you are 120

I have been in this situation, I was too scared to look at the £3k bills dropping on my doormat. Best to ring them up, see if they can spread it over 2 years, or even 3 to pay it off. Also it might be worth you asking, I think they have a scheme to write of debts for households who's fuel bills are 20% of their income. Who are your other creditors? I think this is key, some others on here will have better information than me. Have you defaulted on your other creditors yet? If they have been sold on to a debt collection agency they may not even be enforceable?

From my Council Tax arrears (Nearly 5 K!!!) the bailiff 'visit' was something like £375 added on to the debt. There were also several liability orders at £75 each. I managed to get the Bailiff fees waived as my wife was ill and unable to work so she was classified as a vulnerable person. Realistically, what I think you (the OP) can achieve via the local councillor is 1. A 6 month affordable agreement, even if it's only £30 per month (she must keep paying this) 2. The Bailiffs off her case I think it's unlikely that they will remove the bailiff fee, although it won't hurt to ask, and it's almost impossible that they will waive the liability order fees. Long term there is no way to escape council tax. My wife became much better, we both got better jobs, and in the end the council took an attachment of earnings, that took 2 years to pay off the whole £5k debt.

A good letting agent should have a 'before' report, with photographs. Rather like when you rent a car, scratches and blemishes etc. There is also going to be a degree of wear and tear on a house. Totally agree with post 2. We have just brought a house and are finishing off a rental, and have been very firm with the letting agents. They know that a court case is going to be a whole lot more headache than the £300 they are trying to withhold from you, so just be firm.

Please listen and act on this advice, it worked for me and has done for many others on this forum Call / email your daughters elected local councillor / elected head of council. Their numbers / Emails are on Google and are public information. They will take the bailiffs of your daughter's case and make the council accept an affordable offer. If you need any advice on how to word things, please post on here.

Do as I said above. My circumstances were similar to your's in that my wife had been very ill. I offered medical records, GP letter etc but the whole thing was cancelled without me needing to provide anything. By all means copy Phoenix Commercial in on the email but they will only respond when the council tell them to get off you. Google your local Council's code of practice too. It should clearly state that they will not pursue anyone who they consider vulnerable, there is no doubt that a triple heart attack falls under that description. I did mention that in my email too. FYI it took less than 24 hours for the Bailiffs to be called off.

Hi there, I'm a broken record on this. Ringing the Customer Service will get you nowhere. Below is how to put a rapid end to this matter. Email / Call your local councillor / elected head of council My words would be along the lines of. 'Dear xyz, The council is still using bailiffs to recover our £250 council tax debt. This is despite me explaining repeatedly to the customer service department that my partner has had 3 heart attacks this year, and that any any added stress could cause another. I trust that you will deal with this issue and remove the bailiffs from this case immediately. I am happy to supply any GP /Consultant notes as necessary.'

9 years of Austerity means that councils pay customer service staff peanuts and as a result, get monkeys. A little empathy training would really go a long way with many of their staff. It's almost like they are told to fob you off, no matter how bad your problem. Explaining to them that you can't afford to pay your rent this month unless you can come to an affordable arrangement is like trying to explain Quantum physics to a dog. Fortunately in this country, we have a lot more power than we think, the local council system ensures that local government representatives have their mobiles and email addresses publicly available. In my case my head of local council, replied to my email almost immediately, and told me not to worry. By the end of the day my attachment of earnings had been removed.

Good advice above but your immediate problems can be sorted out very rapidly. Google, your local councillor / head of local council Call local councillor and send an email explaining your position, copy in and ring the head of the council. These are elected people with an interest in protecting their constituents, who also have the absolute power to override Bailiffs, The Revenue department, and anyone else. Someone gave me the same advice when I was in a desperate situation with C/tax, honestly I wasn't expecting anything but it was resolved within 15 minutes. If you need any advice on what to say, let me know,

Fair enough, but as they say, Man plans, God laughs. But just on an even more reassuring note for you, just in case. Not one of the UK debts who were chasing me in Canada, ever took anymore action than threatening letters even when I came back to the UK. I returned 9 years ago and they are all off my CRA files and long since statute barred by now.

I lived in Canada, had UK debt companies chasing me. I can confirm they can't do anything to you, and it will have no effect on your Canadian credit file.

I used to be the lucky person at said lab . Lots of poo, blood, pee, kidney stones waiting for me every morning. Lovely !

I had more than £11,000 written off. It would seem that you have already found the online COP 26. 9 times out of 10 you will get a negative answer if you ring up. Send it to them in writing , giving details of your illness. I recommend a note from your GP/ Consultant explaining medications, side effects etc. Also take a look at this thread https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?481277-Tax-credit-Overpayment-..-PLS-Advise-**-RESOLVED-**&p=5088400#post5088400

First thoughts on this, have you questioned the £9K tax credit debt? Send a (free) SAR, it's incredible how often they A. Make a mistake B. Make stuff up For example I was shocked to find that they had lied about a phone call that never happened and had inflated my salary by £6k Per Annum. Despite clearly having contradictory evidence on their own computer system. Then, once you have found out how much you really owe, make an arrangement for £50 pm to pay back Tax Credits if necessary. Also take a good read of the Tax Credits (COP 26). Google it, find out if anything on their applies to you.

Yep, best idea will take you 5 minutes, nobody ever thinks it will work because they think that all local councillors just sit around and do nothing. Reality, is your local elected councillor / head of council have absolute power to overide, Jacobs Bailiffs, the council collections department, the jobsworths in customer service who all frankly don't give a rats a**e that your step daughter will need to skip meals in order to pay their debt. Even better, it's a quick google to find their phone numbers and emails. Phone / email your local councillor plus elected head of council. In my situation, the head of my city council had the whole thing sorted in 15 minutes ! My email would go something along these lines. Dear XYX, I have fallen behind in my council tax payments, I am in a very precarious financial situation right now but I am being harassed by bailiffs to pay £250 per month which would mean me either not being able to eat or make my rent. I've tried to make an affordable offer to the council but it has fallen on deaf ears, they have even charged me £XYZ for the bailiffs. I really know that councils are strapped for funds, and therefore how important council tax is. I would love to be able to get back on track and could afford to pay £50 PM for the next 6 months, and review at that point. I would be very greatful if you could arrange this for me and remove Jacobs Bailiffs and their fees from this case, I look forward to your response '

The DCA buys 100 'moved abroad' debt's averaging $5000 each for 3 cents on the dollar that's $150 each., that's $15,000 for the lot. If they send out 100 scary letters to each one, how many do you think will cr@p themselves and pay up everything or something! They only need 10% to fall for this in order to make a massive profit, I bet it's more like 30% who pay up! When they can get such a huge return, for the price of a few international stamps, why on earth would they risk losing a super expensive UK court case for the people who (quite rightly) ignore them.

As you have been told by the most knowledgeable posters on here, this is vanishingly unlikely. I can comment, having had Canadian debt which I completely ignored and nothing happened. Even if the 1 in a million chance came to pass and they managed to chase you up, this is an unsecured debt, no one is going to take your property away. The risk of you throwing 10's of thousands into the rent blackhole over the next few years is far, far, far more serious !

I know it's an old thread but I just SAR'd HSBC They produced all of my statements etc going back to 2001, pretty impressive I thought. They also made it very easy and broke down the charges on a separate sheet.

I've just got a mortgage, with my wife. Between us we have 3 CCJ's and 3 defaults. This means that we have had to stump up a bigger deposit and are paying around £150 a month more due to higher interest. However we can look at remortgaging at a lower rate in a few years when our credit files are clean again. Also anything is better than throwing money on the bonfire that is renting! The only thing to make sure of when you move, is to let all your creditors know your new address, so that they can't do a backdoor CCJ.

No need to fear any mail from a DCA

If you need to discuss financial hardship with us, but exceptional circumstances such as a family crisis, mean that you don’t have time to give us the full details, please try and give us a quick call to explain this. We’ll put the recovery on hold until you can discuss your situation in detail. When you phone we may ask you about any family circumstances that may lead to extra living costs. For example if you’re looking after someone who is chronically ill or disabled. In some exceptional circumstances, we may cancel an overpayment altogether. If you can’t pay for your essential living expenses such as your rent, gas or electricity and: • you’re paying back an overpayment directly • we’ve reduced your ongoing payments so you can pay back an overpayment, or • we’ve asked you to pay back an overpayment

Ignore Pastdue. Make an arrangement with Tax Credits / HMRC, for a monthly arrangement. I was told around £50 per month when I thought I would have to pay them back. Past Due are a powerless DCA who need to be ignored. Please do not go and get yourself in Credit Card Debt Please see the link below to COP 26, Tax Credits own code of practice. Page 11 is of particular interest to you. You can mention this if they refuse to help you. You may need to send them an income and expenditure sheet. https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/pdf/COP26.pdf

The areas suffering from hosepipe bans now all had low rainfall last autumn, winter and Spring. That's the time when rain actually isn't taken up by plants, and doesn't evaporate rapidly, therefore has time to fill the underground aquifers. In fact summer rain does very little, apart from making the grass green! Here in Oxfordshire, we had abundant rain, for the last 9 months, (before this drought started) plus a load of snow melt. This is still percolating through to underground sources. This is why Thames Water are saying there won't be a hosepipe ban this summer. However, if the next 9 months are dry then we will have a problem.

I sound like a broken record here, but the value of sending an email explaining the situation to the head of the local council concerned, along with the local councillor for the area cannot be underestimated. This has worked for me and for countless others on here for a quick resolution to the problem. Along the lines of ' I understand this is something I need to pay off but I am signed of on ESA, this means that I cannot afford the £235 the bailiffs are demanding from me. I would be very grateful if you could arrange to take this out of the Bailiffs hands. I would be more than able to pay the council back directly £x per month'