Have you filled in a TC846 and kicked off an appeal? Have you also sent a letter saying you are appealing? Have you looked at the Tax Credits COP 26 (code of practice?) to see if there are other grounds under which you can use to strengthen your appeal? Have you considered making a Tax Credits claim? They will take re payments off your entitlement, you can even ring them and ask to use the whole thing to pay back the debt? Simply writing to them, as you did, will have no effect at all...

It took them 5 weeks to get my SAR stuff together. Go look at the Web site tax credit casualties. They will take you through the appeals process and what to do when you receive the SAR information. In fact I would recommend setting a couple of hours aside to study it. I used the information to mount an appeal and shove their £12 k 'overpayment' where the sun doesn't shine. The system is completely and utterly broken!

Or your other way of stopping them is working in a self employed position, they will not be able to / are not allowed by law to deduct anything from your income. You would also be in a position of being able to make a claim also!

Taking back control

It's also good to know that none of this will affect your credit rating! Also if you now made a claim for Tax Credits and were entitled to even just a fiver a week they would stop chasing you and start deducting from your award. That's how utterly broken the system is! Might be worth considering as a quick way to get them off your back!

Ok something I don't understand . In your case they have gone from 0-100 in 2 seconds, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Straight from writing to you to an AOE in 3 weeks ?!!! Firstly you have a right to appeal this decision within 30 days. Looks like they haven't paid any attention to that. Also please look at the Tax Credit office 'COP 26', https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-credits-what-happens-if-youve-been-paid-too-much-cop26 . Special interest to you is on page 16. If your partner has left you, you , you will not have to pay back more than half. That is their own code of practice ! Ohh and once I'd received the SAR data, there were holes in it wide enough to fly a plane through! If it makes you feel better I got them to shove their £12k overpayment where the sun doesn't shine. Sorry to say, I'm not very impressed with your employer either! Regards Jonathan

Hi there, Better and more experienced minds than me will soon be on to advise you, The general advice is to ignore them as they are powerless. They have already put a default on your credit file, which will fall off your file in 6 years. Aside from sending you more threat o grams, the worst they can do is try to give you a CCJ in the hope that you won't defend it. If and when that time comes there is loads of advice on here. Even you did end up with a CCJ it isn't the end of the world. You own your home, and don't need to get a mortgage. CCJ's do not show on your file forever, and also drop off after 6 years, so it's not terminal. PRA are really crap, and I have ignored them for years, (They are chasing me for £500).

An email to your local elected head of the council can't hurt either Dear XYZ, I wonder if you can help, hopefully I am contacting the correct person. Put simply, I got behind on the Council Tax because of illness and inability to work. I'm now back working and would like to start paying off my arrears. I completely understand the importance of paying back this sum, however I have been visited by bailiffs who want to charge me an extra £375 in their fees. I'm quite happy to make a solid arrangement to pay back the council tax but my weekly income is only £xyz per month, this fee means I would need to either not eat or fall into rent arrears for the month! I can supply you with all details necessary if need be, Kind Regards' This is what worked for me! You should be able to find your local council details on the web. Talking to anyone in the contact centre is a waste of time, they are so poorly trained they have no idea of their own vunerable person policy. It took the head of the council less than half an hour to sort it for me , by the way! regards Jonathan

It does seem a little far fetched how something that I could knock up on MS Word in 15 minutes could actually be enforceable

Good point ! Honestly I don't mind paying it off say at £50 per month , or whatever ! I suppose I am looking at it from DX100's point of view. If it's not enforceable why pay the DCA.? Regards Jonathan

So on this agreement, should I just sit this one out and see if they issue a claimform . Then defend if they do? Regards Jonathan

Yep ! Should I just forget about it and wait for any claimforms if they ever come? They do have my current address.

Taken out 15.5.12 They are after £1263 I didn't have the agreement, this is what they sent me. They have just printed out my name, they do not have my signature Regards Jonathan

Hi All I was hoping for some help with this credit agreement that was sent over from Capquest in reply to my CCA request. It's a shop Direct agreement and to my eyes it appears to have all the ingredients of an enforceable agreement. There is no actual signature but my name and date is printed in the signature line, there are terms and conditions along with a date. The debt will slip off my Credit file on the 27th August 2019. If it is unenforceable I am inclined just to leave it and let it fall off my file in 2 years. However if it is enforceable I would like to be able to prevent Capquest issuing me with a CCJ? Any advice would be appreciated. PS The attachments are in the form of a Zip file, as it wouldn't allow me to directly upload the JPEG. Regards Jonathan Doc 3 Sep 2017, 16-28.pdf

Your credit file sounds like a thing of beauty compared with mine, and I'm somehow getting a mortgage. If you have a decent deposit, that will go a very long way to helping. Here is what I have learnt, 1.Mortgage companies care about how good you have been in the last 12 months more than, cr*p that happened 5 years ago. 2. You might have to wait a few months after the default before you are eligible for the mortgage, no big deal house prices are stagnating anyway. 3. Pay day loans are the most toxic barriers to a mortgage, you will need to bay them off to be eligible, then wait for a further 3 months. 4. You will have to pay more interest than the average Joe, but still better than flushing it down the loo paying rent. 5. Deposit, Deposit, Deposit. This covers up a multitude of sins. If you can put down 20% you are hardly going to run off to Brazil at the first sign of trouble! Hope this makes you feel better

A moment of madness? thinking i'm doing something to improve my credit rating? I never really worried about it until I started looking at buying a house. I'll call Northants Bulk on Monday. I also have a Capquest / Shop direct agreement for you guys to look at and tell me if it is enforceable. I'll start another thread tomorrow or Monday for that. Thanks for your help Jonathan

So far, I have started paying off a Cabot CCJ on behalf of Capital One at £50 per month As for the others there are 2 Lowell one's. If I rang the court and ask for the claim forms would I be able to find out who the OC is? I noticed there is also another CCJ from December 2012 that must have gone to an even older address. Considering the age of this judgement and that it will drop off my credit file in just over a year, would I be wasting my money paying it off? Regards Jonathan

Ok, that is pretty much as I thought. The only way to deal with it is to pay up and learn a lesson?

I've had 2 CCJ's from Lowell appear on my credit file that went to my old address, this meant that I was unable to defend them. During that period Lowell were constantly writing to me at my current address regarding 2 other debts. This meant that they must have known where I live now and could have easily sent the Claimforms there. Is there any precedent for getting these set aside?

Andy 210000, They are called Just Mortgage Brokers. I've had to pay off some old debts, I've fought some and had them removed from my credit file. I have 4 CCJ's I have 20% deposit, and finally have a decent income but am still going to get rinsed on interest rates. That's why it would be amazing if I could get some of the CCJ's set aside and actually get a conventional mortgage. From what I have learnt a lot comes down to the age of the CCJ's and / or debt defaults. They are more interested how good you have been in the last year or so, than stuff that happened 5 years ago. Also the other thing that are toxic to mortgages are payday loans, my wife had some of these and it has taken ages to pay these all off.

DX100 Lowell have known my current address for the last 2 years, and have been writing to me. I also have 2 backdoor CCJ's from them , sent to my old address, yet Lowell knew damn well where I was living. ? Does that mean I have a shot at getting them set aside? Regards Jonathan

Hi Andy, This is what's known as a 'backdoor CCJ' It went to your old address and they won by default as you were unable to defend. Lowell will say that it's your responsibility to let your creditors know when you move, that's what happened to me, anyway. I have 3 of them, and I'm paying them off bit by bit. Honestly I was upset at first, but they will all be satisfied in 5 years, and off my credit file. It hasn't stopped me getting a mortgage, albeit with a higher interest rate, but it's still better than renting and I can always remortgage further down the line. It really isn't the end of the world!

Yep I am a suspicious so and so about those Lowell slime buckets. 1. Both debts were pretty small £400 and 800 ish respectively. 2. The first one really didn't have any paperwork, and I also probably cost them more than that in time with my pnonecalls 3 The second's one agreement was genuinely terrible, I cost them loads in calls and it was going to leave my creditfile in July '18 anyway Now I am having a lot more difficulty with Cabot and Capquest right now, and those debts have years left to run.

I agree DX100UK but, I wanted this off my credit file, and now it is! If I wasn't trying to get a mortgage in the next year or so I would have left it alone. I've also been terribly bitten by backdoor CCJ's in the past so am perhaps a little more aggressive than needs be.

Hi Catherine. This is highly typical of Lowell. In fact I was at this stage a couple of Months ago with them, from a Next Debt. In my situation they went a stage further and sent an agreement with my signature on. It was actually more like something a 5 year old could put together on word. I would expect this to follow soon! Let me show you the text of the Email I sent them that got them to close the account and mark the debt as paid on my Credit file. If they are not sending you constant threat o grams then that part of the complaint is irrelevant . Right now they haven't given you what you asked for which needs to be at the very least is a reconstituted agreement. This needs to be legible, and have dated terms and conditions that were in force at the beginning of the agreement. On the correspondence there should be a complaints email address, which they are actually surprisingly good at responding to, providing you qoute the agreement numbers etc in the subject line. I would wait a few days to see if the so called agreement arrives before sending anything. This is the second Lowell debt I have had closed this year, and I might get flamed by some more experienced heads on here, but I was on the phone to them all the time following up agreements etc I wouldn't recommend it but I think it helped waste a lot of their time, further contributing to their decision to close the accounts. (Forgive me but I enjoyed winding their agents up) Dear Liam Thanks for your reply, Re - Your Findings I refer you the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hand books in relation to S.77, S78 and S79 of the CCA. Please feel free to look this up yourself 1. (1) Failure to comply with the provisions means that the agreement becomes unenforceable while the failure to comply persists, and the courts have no discretion to allow enforcement. 2. (2) In such cases, a firm should in no way, either by act or omission, mislead a customer as to the enforceability of the agreement. 3. (3) In particular, a firm should not in such cases either threaten court action or other enforcement of the debt or imply that the debt is enforceable when it is not. I'd say the letter you sent out on 4th July 2017 (plus several others) ' Close your account for £446' might be seen by a judge as number 1, 2 and 3 on that list. Looks like 'enforcement' to me. Moving on to the 'agreement' you have sent me. I understand that under a post 2007 agreement you are entitled to put together a reconstituted agreement, but what you have sent me is illegible. OFT Guidelines below. 2 Legibility of notices and copy documents and wording of prescribed Forms (1) The lettering in every notice in a Form prescribed by these Regulations and in every copy of an executed agreement, security instrument or other document referred to in the Act and delivered or sent to a debtor, hirer or surety under any provision of the Act shall, apart from any signature, be easily legible and of a colour which is readily distinguishable from the . You have also breached the following guidelines by trying to mislead me into believing this is not a reconstituted agreement. No original document would be lacking a date either on the agreement or in the T&C's. You have failed to provide any evidence that these T&c's were valid at the beginning of this agreement. As an aside I have never seen an actual agreement without a credit limit ! 1. (2) The firm can reconstitute a copy. It can do this by re-populating a template of the relevant agreement form with the details of the specific agreement taken from its records. If the firm does provide a reconstituted copy, it should explain that that is what it has done, to avoid misleading the customer that this is a contemporaneous copy. My conclusion Right now I am at a total loss as to what this debt is all about, I've asked you to produce evidence of this alleged debt. I've asked for a copy of the original agreement, and have finally received something a 5 year old could have cobbled together in an English lesson. During this period you've been harassing me and sending payment demands and illegally sharing my data with third parties ie CRA's. I now feel like you are trying to extract money with menaces. Unfortunately the only option for me is to move forward with an Financial Ombudsman / Information Commissioner complaint