Sorry just realised my daughter was still logged into her account. Nana

UPDATE Received a letter from Restons after their withdrawal of the attempted summary judgement basically offering a reduced sum of the alledged balance owing and offering to drop the collection charge! I completely ignored it.I wanted my day in court. Received another letter from Restons this morning assuming they were trying the same tactics but boy was I wrong They have discontinued the case YIPEEEE!!! :D:D:D A lovely christmas present. My head is still swirling. THANK YOU everyone who has helped guide me through this and I wish you all a very merry christmas Can I still pursue them for my expenses??..Just wondering:)

Thanks PGH but do you really think that would make a difference? Obviously if it will then i'll get onto them asap. Cat

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Hi Guys, hoping someone out there can offer some advice/info regarding attachment of earnings orders due to council tax arrears. A few months back, my husband got paid and we noticed it was less than we were expecting. He only found out that he had two AOE's on his wage after he asked his manager to explain what was on his payslip. This left us in severe hardship but the council told us basically that there's nothing we can do about it. As a result we've been left unable to pay gas and electric (we're on pre payment meters) and have to sit in the cold and dark night after night and that's just the tip of the iceberg! This morning, we received a letter from the council advising of a third AOE they have applied. There is absolutely no way we can live with this so i'm really at a loss now. I've tried to search for similar threads but haven't managed to find any that offer any course of action or advising if there even is anything that can be done. Another point, i checked the council website for the next district from me, and they state that if council tax arrears are for more than one year then no more than 2 orders can be in place at any time so if that's correct then how can they apply a third? If this applies to one council then surely it applies to them all? I really appreciate anyone reading this and look forward to any replies. P.s Just in case you need to know any further info here it is: my husband currently brings home £660 per month, we get child benefit of £132 per month and child tax credit weekly. We don't get working tax credit due to my husband not being allowed to receive public funds and our kids are 3 and 1. Our rent is £450 per month and we are currently trying to apply for housing benefit. If we do get it then we should get around £180 per month.

Thanks very much for that, i'm going to go to the bank again today with a print out of the guarantee and argue with them but i'll also take a letter asking for the refund plus compensation for the inconvenience and if i get nowhere i'll hand the letter over for the attention of a manager. Fingers crossed.

Yeah i've checked with them and it's because my previous insurer will only state 'more than 4 years no claims' but not the exact amount. In our case it's 21 years so the original premium was based on that when we got the quote but now the insurers say it can only be based on 4. However they didn't give me any notification that it had been increased and that the dd had been changed. I only found out when i checked the account online. I cancelled the dd straight away anyway and have now changed insurers.

Really hoping someone can clarify this for me as getting to the end of my tether with Barclays. On the 13th July a direct debit was taken from my husbands account for £94 for car insurance. Our payment is supposed to be £31 per month and is supposed to be taken on the 19th. I now know why they took too much money but they didn't give us any advance notification of the change nor any reason why it was taken early so we approached Barclays to claim it back under the dd guarantee on the understanding we would get 'a full and immediate refund' as stated in the guarantee. However, it is now the 4th August and no money has been refunded despite 5 visits to Barclays. They insist that they need to claim the money back from our insurer before returning it to us and that there is no timescale for how long that could take. They will only say that it will be refunded 'as soon as possible'. We are on a seriously limited income with 2 children to feed so i can't afford the messing about but am fed up of keep going into Barclays and being told the same thing. So am i wrong in thinking it should be refunded immediately or are they wrong in keeping us waiting? Please help.

Hunni, thank you so much for that and sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this, i've been offline for a while. I finally got e-mail confirmation of what the fine was for and it is correct so i'll have to pay it. However they did not confirm what the extra £200 was for (i know it's their charges but for what, i don't know) and at no time have i ever had any correspondence refering to charges for letters, visits etc. I made an offer online of payments that i could afford and have just received a letter this morning refusing it and telling me that if i don't pay within 7 days an agent will visit to obtain payment'. So i'm going to send a letter back telling them that the offer is the best i can do and that if an agent visits they won't be leavig with payment or goods as i have nothing at all of any value. I will then request it be returned to court and see what they say. I'm also keeping all correspondence from them although so far i haven't had much in the way of harrasment other than the letters so i suppose i'm lucky. According to Philips e-mail, the liability date was 3rd Feb 09 which i presume is when they got the distress warrant so would i be right in thinking that they have to pass it back to the court after 180 days anyway which will be August? The offence was November 05 and the date of the fine was feb 06 so i can only think the liability date relates to the distress warrant. Thanks Cat

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Thanks for the replies, i'm trying desperately to get them to let me know what it is for but no joy so far. No reply to 3 letters and so far no reply to my e-mail. I'll send another now. Tomtubby, you say 21 days but 21 days from when? Is it from when the distress warrant was issued? Or from when Philips first contacted me?

Fantastic well done

Thanks for the replies guys, I have no intention of phoning them as i know they are nasty (my brother has dealt with them before) but i have just sent off an e-mail re-iterating that i am not refusing to pay but that i simply have no idea what the fine is for (i do have some idea but they haven't confirmed it) The original fine was £85 so Philips have added £200. I've read somewhere that Philips can add £50 per letter so that would add up BUT the extra £200 was on from the first letter and has not risen with the further 3 letters which i received so i'm confused about that. I have asked them to provide me with info on what the fine was for, who was the issuing court and what charges have they added so i'll just have to hang fire until they get back to me. I really don't know who the issuing court was so can't even contact them yet. The latest letter refers to a distress warrant so can the bailiffs break in? Another post i read states that it depends on the type of fine and they usually only break in if it's for motor fines (no insurance etc) or parking tickets. Mine was for fare evasion on the north east metro system (if the fine is actually for that).

Hi, i'm not sure if i'm in the right place here so apologies if i'm not. So, last week i received 4 letters on the same day from Phillips regarding a fine for £285 telling me if i don't pay now they are sending bailiffs, locksmiths etc. At first i was very surprised as i wasn't aware of having any fines so i've wrote to them 3 times asking what it is for and have received no response. Thinking back, the only fine i have ever had in my life was almost 4 years ago for non payment of a metro ticket and it was for £85. I remember at the time contacting the court as they wanted me to pay installments at a court miles away from me and i asked them to change it to my local court which they said would be fine. They told me a letter would be sent with details of how, where and what to pay but i never received anything and to be honest completely forgot about it until now. So, i visited the CAB to ask what to do, as i've heard from other people that Phillips are awful to deal with, and was told pay it as they can break into your house even if they've never been before!! Is this correct? I'm not in a position to pay it, i'm not working and don't receive benefits, my hubby brings home £660 per month and we have 2 young children. I'm really panicking now. We are in a huge mess financially which i'm trying to work through but i really can't see what to with this. Thanks in advance

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