Hi All, We use Virgin media business 150mb. We moved on the 28th of Oct and really need broadband for our business. However, they are saying they cannot install until the 19th. We need to be with Virgin as we are still in contract. I find it really hard to believe that they would expect a business to survive almost a month without any internet. Does anyone have any feedback on this?

Hi - am in more than a slight panic!! (I have posted this problem elsewhere then remembered how helpful this forum was in the past.) A week ago I received 5 years worth of Business Rates demands - 2002/3, 2003/4, 2004/5, 2005/6 & 2006/7. There was no letter just the outstanding amounts. I had had during that time, a running battle with the Council about these rates due to my feeling the amount was unfair due to part of the property being unused, I didn't pay the landlord rent for it and I didn't receive any income for it (it was also pretty derelict and not fit for use). As a result the Valuation Office sent a nice woman out who agreed it should be split and the empty part be the responsibility of the landlord. His wife then hit the roof when the Council sent them a bill and it was rejoined (due to her bullying tactics no doubt!). The debate then went back and forth to the Council and was never settled properly (each time I got sent a new bill, I contacted them, challenged it and it stalled - I did make payments however). I left the property in late 2007. Eventually I packed up my business to care for my elderly disabled parent (which I am still doing). In 2009 (I think!) I was sent similar - just the bills, no letter. I had met a guy who said not a problem he would sort it out as it was his line of work. He duly got involved and I heard no more. Until a week ago when the same 5 bills appeared And then this morning I received a threatening letter stating a Liability Order had been issued on 19th May 2003 for £2927. And if I do not pay by this Wednesday, they will send in the bailiffs! I would NEVER ignore any court summons etc. and I was still at the property at the time. When I looked closer at the bills, the 2002/3 bill to which this LO presumably was for, the amount owed was £1131.40. The date of this bill was 1/4/2003. There was a small charge of £50 costs but it does not say what for and anyway it predates the LO anyway . No further costs on any of the subsequent bills. There are no names of contactable people on any of the correspondence. So what do I do????

I popped in to a Metro Bank branch in South London recently to open a business instant access deposit account. Their website says "No Metro Bank Business current account is required." They tried to sell me their business current account, which is not free unless you have more than £5,000. When I refused, they asked me why I wanted an instant access account, and I told them that I just want a basic account. They said that you cannot make an online transfer out unless you have another Metro bank account, so I opened a personal current account, and I was accepted for that, but a credit check was made, so it affected my credit rating. The business instant access account needed to be approved by a business manager. I called him the next working day. I work as a professional but I am not a member of a professional body (it is not illegal in the industry that I work in). He said they can't open an account because of this reason. I submitted further paperwork to his colleagues by visiting the branch (which is not in my home town) and waiting for about 25 minutes, after convincing him over the phone that would be acceptable to open an account. He then called me the next day saying that the account will not be opened because I will be using the business instant access account as a business current account and that I will be using it to deposit payments from customers He also said that they have a right to close it if I do. Nowhere does it say in the terms and conditions that you cannot use it as such. Also, their Account features state that you can use it as follows: • Receive electronic payments (CHAPS, BACS, faster payments, SWIFT, standing orders and internal transfers) • Pay in cash and cheques He also said that I cannot use the account to make an online transfer to my personal current account, even though I was informed by the customer service adviser who opened my personal current account that I could. To add insult to injury, I asked him to send me a letter or email saying why he is refusing to open the account, but he wouldn't do that, saying "we don't send out these letters." They have wasted my time. The business manager didn't say at first that a business current account was required. The excuse he gave me for not opening the account at first was that I was not a member of a professional body. Now he says you can't use the business instant access account as a current account, even though their website says that you don't need a business current account to open an instant access account. I made a formal complaint by telephone to the business centre. I explained what happened, but they defended him. They said he had the discretion to refuse to open an instant access account if it was to be used as a business current account. I challenged them to tell me the exact clause in their terms and conditions, but they couldn't find it. This is ridiculous. Why does he have full discretion? What if someone made a complaint against him? Now I am left with a credit check, which was made for a personal current account that was missold, and no business instant access account. Please do not trust anything this bank says about this account. They will try and sell you a business current account to make money out of you from charges, and they will refuse opening the instant access account by saying you cannot use it as a current account, even though there are no restrictions as such in their terms and conditions.

Hi folks. I'm new here. Hope this is in the right section. In short, I rented a shop and ran a business. I signed a lease for 2 years, commencing April 2012. At this time, I opened an account for supply of gas and electricity with British Gas. By April 2013, I decided to close the shop. My landlord agreed that I could vacate after just 1 year as we came to a financial arrangement. At this time, I contacted British Gas to advise them that I was closing up and asked for my account to be closed. I was issued a final bill in May 2013 and I paid in full. The account was closed. Recently, I've received a DCA letter at an address I now have a new business at, chasing £1400+ on behalf of British Gas. I called British Gas and, apparently, in September 2013 my ex-landlord called them to state that I was actually still occupying the premises and that the account should be re-opened in my name (and not put in to his name by default)! British Gas apparently did as the landlord requested and so from September 2013 until now I've apparently been accruing standing charges for a premises that I vacated a long time ago. British Gas are telling me there's nothing they can do, it's a "third party dispute" between myself and the landlord. I don't understand how an account can be opened in my name without my knowledge, for a property I don't occupy, on the say so of an apparently rogue landlord. Any ideas guys?

Hi, My business partner and I are going to be registering our company very soon. I know that somewhere into the process, we're going to need to open a business bank account and designate that as our main account for the business. About 3 years ago, I opened a business account and had a business loan that was connected with that account when I opened it (by Lloyds TSB). This company was as a sole trader and wasn't a registered company. I had some payment issues and the business account was eventually closed, as I'd missed some loan repayments/late payments, etc. Ultimately, the loan was sold on by Lloyds and I've been paying it back ever since. I didn't go bankrupt or anything like that, and the loan wasn't a large sum of money. But I lost the business bank account in the process. I've been paying off the loan ever since through a debt consolidation company and all is fine in that regard. I was wondering if I'm likely to experience issues when opening a business bank account now? I'd use a different bank and I wouldn't be looking to get a loan or anything like that. It would purely be myself and my business partner using it as our official business bank account. Any help on this would be much appreciated,

Basically I had a hsbc business account which I shut due to the fact I slowed trading for for a while. Started to use my personal account for a bit and then a lot of business subsequently got asked to leave for breaking t&c. Left me without an account, 7 defaults and 3 arrangements on my credit history in the last 6 years. Ive put in an application with Coop for a cash minder, they seem to of lost my application in branch which is a pain. Had a look at the bank groups and basically hsbc aside I had history with all except Santander, figured I had nothing to lose by putting in an application for a business account. Went basic no overdrafts, loans etc. Had an email off them yesterday with a questionnaire which I completed honestly, emailed it back then today received this. "Thank you for choosing Santander Business Banking. We’re pleased to let you know that your Business Current Account is now open and ready for you to use. What’s next? In the next 7 – 10 days we’ll send your card, card PIN, Online Banking passcode and registration number separately (for security purposes) to the home address you gave us." Is that it?, I've been accepted?, can I have a beer to celebrate? or is there something that can go wrong from here?. Other than my credit history I have no other skeletons in my closet or anything. I know all banks are as bad as the other but I did not expect to get a highstreet account in a million years with my account history. I was thinking best case I get a cash minder and a pre pay. I had a large loan and Credit card with Abbey national which were paid in about 2007 but did reclaim a lot of ppi.

Hi, I was hoping for a little help and advice please.. .. In 2009 I took out a Business Loan from Barclays for a business debt of £20,000. I have an signed Agreement and have been paying £230 per month ever since. I have never missed a single payment. Today I received a letter from Barclays saying that the debt had been transferred to Westcot and to contact Westcot to make arrangements to continue payments but this time direct to Westcot. I rang Barclays to see if I'd ever missed a payment and why it was going to Westcot, the lady was helpful and said I had never missed a payment but Barclays had sold a lot of accounts to Westcot.... My question is this, I know and have read about Westcot and I do not like what I have read and I don't trust them . I was happily paying off this loan and now this is tainted for me as I know where this will head... . CAN I DEMAND THAT BARCLAYS KEEP MY ACCOUNT AS I HAVE NOT DEFAULTED AND THERE SEEMS NO REASON WHY IT SHOULD HAVE GONE TO WESTCOT? Many Thanks for you time in advance. Q

Hi - I have just received in the post a claim form from County Court Business Centre issued on 13/08/15 for an alleged debt for Shop Direct from Lowell Portfolio. The form has no official stamp and does not have a signature only a typed name IAN MARSDEN which it says is the claimants solicitor, who are Brian Carter Solicitors. Is this form genuine? I have never received any proof of this debt. I have just tried the contact number 0300 123 1056 and it just rings (its Saturday). There is something on the form that says I should go online to moneyclaim.gov.uk and it also gives me a password. HELP!!! Sharon PS : FYI you helped me out with a Lowell claim quite a few years ago and they wrote back to say that they would be writing off the alleged debt of +/-£2000, so your advice most definitely does work!!!

I am new to the forum so appologise if this is in the wrong section. Several years ago I was in Ltd company. We managed to secure bank funding but when the company failed we stopped and both the other director and I have been repaying the bank our debts in installments. We both signed a persobal guarantee. I have since discovered that for about a year he has stopped his repayments and because of the PG the bank is happy just to chase me. Is there something I can do to get make him continue paying and bringing his share level with mine? Is there also a way to pursuade the bank to split the debt equally? Thank you for any thoughts or advice, Jay

Will try to simplify this down and not elaborate too much, I have a tendency to over communicate. long story short, I am 38. Took out a loan with NatWest I don't remember how long ago but it must been in my mid to late 20's. Was unable to make regular payments, it went back and forth actually for years, sort of on hold. I commence work and commenced payments, regular every month for several years, £250, £150, £100 etc. It was never agreed in writing by me I just started to pay, NatWest did write to me once to ask for my budget details, I responded with a £250 payment that month. Fast forward it must be 10 years now ? £15k is now longer outstanding or what ever it was. Its now under £2k. Right this is were it gets interesting, I was working with a debt recovery agency, every month I would log into my online banking (not NatWest obviously) pull up make a payment and send £150, £250 My last payment was over £700, The debt collection agency which I had paid over £10k with over the last few years now, they suddenly wrote to me and said. Dear xx We have been instructed we are no longer managing your account hence do not make any further payments. Roughly that is what it said I was confused by this as I had just made a huge payment of over £700 and was down to a 5% or 10% of the orginal amount. Why would NatWest pull the account back. I will be honest and say at this time which I understand was just before Xmas last year, I feel I had around £1800 left to pay. Ok please continue with me. I was out at lunch time today and decided to pop into Natwest and ask what are they doing with my account ... so understand my surprise when this happened. Till girl, thank you bud01 (me) for providing your account number and sort code (I didn't have the sort code had to tell her the branch). I can see that your account is £2000 in credit. Can you double check that please. Sure, your account is £2000 in credit, (my current account). I explained the situation and she asked that I call the collections team. Fast forward past me buying a coffee and sandwich and taking over a meeting room to make a call to Natwest. I speak to a guy in the collections team, he is only interesting in knowing if I own my own house and I am who I say I am, which I honestly explained, I am renting, and I am mr x etc. He says I have to go through to another department, debt department or some thing I cant remember. I get though to a girl and explain the situation and ask her the following. 1- If my account is in credit why haven't you communicated to me and how could it be I am in credit 2- Why have you not communicated to me, and why did you dis-engage the collection vendor that I was working with monthly, and were is your communication to me irrespective of the monetary aspects. She went away and checked with another team and came back and said. Your loan account has had to be closed. You have a corrupted loan. Your debt has been moved to your current account. You are not in credit but in debt for £2000 At this point this upset me, I did the only thing I could think of and asked that every thing be documented and sent to me Has any one even heard of any thing like this? A few of my thoughts. 1- I should not have contacted Natwest, I knew I owed around that figure or maybe £1200, I should have let them finally come back to me, or maybe never come back to me. Obviously that is being un-unethical which is not the way I am living my life, hence I wanted to go into the Bank today and look into this. 2-If my current account is in credit, it is credit, there is a big difference between being -£2000 and being in credit by £2000. If I owe £2000 and my current account which is still to this day is in credit by £2000 then I don't owe any thing, their mistakes or issues is not my concern. 3- If my loan account is closed then unless that has been communicated to me in writing, the moment that account is closed then my loan is forfeited I don't know what is going on here but some thing fishy is happening, if my current account was minus or in debt £2000 then I could have walked out of the bank and would have taken it on the surface as 1+1 =2. Canceled my on going working payment schedule with debt recovery vendor. No communication for nearly a year current account in credit by the same amount of money I am in debt. Loan account closed. What do I do here? if every one is in agreement Natwest is fine here and I should pay then I may simply make four £500 payments. I am 38 years old. Work in IT in banking area. After my July pay review I am on £53900 (excluding over time) £2k loan is not a big issue, What do I do here? What is this called that NatWest is doing? Loan account closed = loan closed ? Thanks any one that can help on this. And if any one from NatWest is reading this, you are very unprofessional in the manner you have delt with my account, you stopped me making my regular payments which I was actually enjoying doing, the recovery company sent me a stupid letter with zero on it about what was happening, and then you do not communicate to me for nearly a year, now I find my loan account closed and my current account in credit, but also in debt. What are you guys doing?

I'm new here so I apologise if I'm posting this in the wrong section. My wife and I purchased a business a few years ago that we closed earlier this year. The seller tricked us into buying the business by inflating the figures and we fell for it. Anyway.. we have lost our entire life savings trying to keep it going and earlier this year when we had no money left we had no choice but to walk away as we could not find a buyer after trying so hard to sell it for over a year. We have a business loan for £45k with Lloyds which we have personally guaranteed (I've been told the PG is watertight). We also have a £4k overdraft. They've sent us a formal demand for the loan and overdraft. I called them last week to set up a payment plan and I was told that they would contact us back. I wanted to know if anyone has been in a situation where Lloyds have accepted a payment plan for this kind of situation or will they force me to sell my house in order to pay them? I'm quite worried as I really don't want to move. My wife and I are currently working but we have only been working for 6 weeks so we will not have the right paperwork to remortgage the house.

Hi All , need some help with a very long , ongoing saga with natwest.... has a business loan from natwest for £59.950.. . this was back in 2005 ( bought village shop) long story short had to default on loan as business failed in 2008 , limped along until 2010 .... ........ was hoping it was a recoverable glitch due to losing all passing trade as a result of a major build in the area .. ......was hoping to build business up again after opening of housing estate and race course etc from 2010 natwest went for bankruptcy and failed via a stautory demand they also went for a charging order on residential property but failed recently been to court for repossession whereby they won possession order........ ........... submitted a defence that was immediately thrown out.............. refuse permission to appeal still trying to negotiate with natwest four weeks on, as since 2010 been unemployed but an now working and would like to resume payments as even thought business is no longer trading i am actually living at the property after marriage breakup Issue i have is that natwest have now doubled the repayments from £574 to over £1000 a month which i cannot afford what i want to know is , are there any arguments that can be used concerning the fact that the increase is unreasonable? i know that this is not the same as a rental agreement BUT i am living there and there are rules about excessive rents and i am sure i have read about there being regulations that concern a minimum amount that you need to live on. this is in rural wales and the average income round here is not one that would allow for that sort of repayment each months , if it was repossessed and sold at auction no one local could afford a grand a month just at a loss as to want i can do to keep a roof over my head, i know there is nothing that can force them to accept, however certain regulations and their credit licence guidance says they must exercise forbearance and work with you if you are in difficulty. it seems all along all they are doing it working against me. running out of time now and dont knwow hat else to do i would be very grateful for any suggestions

I have received a Claim Form from the County court Business Centre. Northampton. issued 29th June. The fee is £175. Claimant Parkingeye. For parking 15 minutes overtime. The claimants solicitors name appears as 'signed' but this is a printed name its not a signature. The form has a circle with a crown on it for the court stamp, but it bears no stamp. Is this form legally legitimate. I notice it requires me to submit all personal details imaginable including my bank account balance. They want an acknowledgement of service. What happens if I ignore this unsigned for letter? Form says Judgement MAY be made against me. Don't they have they have to take me to a local county court for that or have they already done that with this form. My only mitigating circumstances are that I visited the shops but didn't buy anything then became ill with a migraine and had to take prescription medication and get a cup of tea until I felt fit to drive. The car park was virtually empty so I have not inconvenienced them to the sum of £100. Please advise me. Enough stress already for 15 minutes. Thanks

Hi, I have read through the forums and online and I am unsure what is correct regarding an Overdraft. The most recent letter from Low Life's is asking me to contact them before 11/07/2015 or they will take legal action blah blah, I think they actually mean it this time. I called up HSBC and they said the last payment into the account was September 2009 so it's not quite SB and that is my question what is the SB date on an over draft? Cheers, Flappy

As a verbal contract (which starts on the 30th June) was entered into according to Scottish Power CS when the MD was caught on the phone a few weeks ago Are there any options on how to cancel? I've asked for a copy of the Sales Call which requires a £10 cheque

First of all apologies if the answer to this exists in another thread. I’ve recently started up as a limited company business and (foolishly) opened up a business banking current account with Lloyds around a month ago. I tried to transfer my salary on Friday only to be advised there was a block on my account and I didn’t have access to my funds. I’ve since spoken to a grand total of 6 different individuals, none of whom have been able to explain why my account is blocked or specifically when it will be unblocked. I’ve also been mostly ignored by the bank manager at the branch I opened the account, fobbed off on Monday with an e-mail claiming he would look into. Despite providing my phone number on 4 occasions to 4 different people, I’ve not had a call back to explain. I want to close the account and open one with another bank, however this will negatively impact my credit score. I’m at a loss as to where to take this now, I’m beyond furious. Any help/guidance/direction to a relevant thread would be massively appreciated.

Just a quick note to all BT Business Customers. BT in their wisdom decided to add an extra charge of £12.28 per month for 'Classified Paid Line Entry' without telling anyone since December 2014. I have spent most of the morning trying to sort out this with them and finally will be getting back nearly £100. Worth checking your bills to see if they have added this to your account.

Looking for a bit of advice please , long story short if i can . Thought wrongly i was due small business rate relief on my unit as was told i was on previous unit 2 doors away but moved to new unit same sq footage etc . council took me to court the usual scenario r&r were sent round i raher than deal with r&r phoned council and was told that i had to apply for small business tax relief again . i owed part of last yrs and this making nearly £2500 my account was put on hold until my application was dealt with and i recieved full sbtr so owe nothing other than the £85 court costs which i will pay to council later today and r&r's charges =£400 odd inc £85 court costs so my question is where do i stand on paying r&r's this back as i am being hounded 2-3 times on my home and mobile a day by bailiff concerned i have had the £70 letter and 2 visits to my work address which he hasn't levied on anything as i am not there most of the time do i just pay him and be done? Many many thanks in advance .

Hi all, Im hoping some of you may be able to give me some advice... To cut a really long story short my husband had a 5year lease on a pub. It was his dream and it was doing very well. 2 years ago he became ill and was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he subsequently passed away and i put a manager in the pub to keep it going. I arranged with the brewery to transfer the lease in to my own name and what happened some 12 months later. I have since hit some rocky times with a succession of bad managers and not enough time to focus al my attention on it since i had a job of my own which i needed to carry on in order to support my family. I was never able to draw anything from the pub as it didnt turn enough profit and i have ended up putting 30k of my own money into it to keep it funded. Sadly, i decided to give notice as i could no longer deal with the stress and received no help from the brewery. I have a few months left. In the meantime debts have been building to suppliers, mainly business rates and utilities. The utilities are in the pub name. The rates are in my name at the oub address. I have no money left to pay these at all. The weekly takings just about cover rent to the brewery, and unless that is paid they will jot release a beer order which would lead to obvious problems. I am paying the staff wages and other day to day costs personally where i can but its gettng hard and ive not been paying my own mortgage somtimes just to keep it going. they have recently obtained a liability order for the rates so i know a bailiff visit will be imminent. There are no assets on site that would cover it. What will they do? More worryingly, as i will not have been able to clear it before i leave what happens next? Im worried about them outting a warrent out for my arrest or something and also that i wont know about it as ill no longer have acces to the post that goes to the pub but i dont really want to give them my home add incase they then come there to take everything.... Please could someone advise what will happen and what is my course of action... Thankyou in advance... S

I've now been waiting 5 weeks since I put my application in. Is this normal? My circumstances are very simple; no loans, no credit card payment facilities, no overseas transactions and no bad credit history. I've just been promised for the 5th time that the account will be open in 2 working days.

A new folder or just a thread discussing business ideas ? We have all had thoughts about businesses that we could develop, but most will never get around it to, because of the time and/or cost. Or we find that it is already being done or could easily be copied by an existing large company. Sometimes it helps to thrash out an idea, before you waste too much time doing any work that comes to nothing. Is this something that people would like to see on CAG as a separate folder or just a thread in the bear garden ? We seem to have Caggers who are knowledgeable about many different aspects and this can be a valuable resource to have. What do you think ? My latest idea is about a website and/or app which is all about localism. A lot of the current websites/apps are about wider regions, national or international. Sometimes to filter out to your own local area, can be difficult. One part of the site or app could be to connect people who share the same interests. You might have someone living down the road from you who shares the same passion for 1970's glam rock or for needlework. Unless you happen to bump into each other and the topic comes up you would never know. If there was some site or app where people share interests or ask for local information, I should imagine it would be quite popular. It might connect people, who would normally be passers by.

Good afternoon, I'm after some work related advise; I work in a kitchen with four other people - 4 of us have "contracts" that are 5/7 & 1 is a weekend worker- Over the last three months 3 of us have changed our rota to meet the needs of the business - mixed shifts / later shifts & also 1 weekend in three - the fourth person that has a 5/7 contract has now point blank refused to do the same & apparently has said "she'll leave & she can't do weekends or late shifts" now we are at a stage were the three of us are really ****ed off due to this person, while we've bent over backwards to "meet the needs of the business" she is getting away with dictating what she will & won't work, so we are after some advise on how to handle this situation with our management, We are considering also putting in a grievance regarding this colleague due to the state she leaves the place in half of our paperwork is legal requirements which she is not filling in & also talking to us on several occasions in a not very nice manner, she doesn't clean down & does as little as possible When she started there, over a year ago I make several verbal complaints about her standards & also documented the state of the kitchen with pictures in an email - we have all recently taken photos again about the state of the kitchen so we have some "evidence" again after some advise on how to deal with the situation as a whole

Hi, im sorry this is a rather long story but i really need some legal advice... my husband had a tenancy in his ltd co name with a pub company. when he passed away 2 years ago the pub co regional manager asked if i would continue with the pubs, he had another one at the time with them. Both pubs were struggling and i told them i wasnt sure. They assured me of financial and business support. Obviously they didnt want two closed pubs on their hands and i felt a responsibility to my husband to keep them. i struggled to manage both pubs without my husband and trade suffered due to various different factors. The rent support never happened and they often held me to ransom refusing to release orders without full rent payments. At the time the rents were over £1000 per week on each pub and we were trading at just over £2,000 a week so not hard to work out why struggling. I ended up putting around 50k of my own money in as each week unless i paid the rent on both, i couldnt have any beer and if bought from somewhere else they would fine me then refuse the next weeks order until that was paid!!! They never so much as kncocked a penny off anything, i paid full cost on rent for both pubs for the 15 months it took them to transfer in to my name despite having my name on nothing. they lied to me about what rent deal they would do on the new lease and also refused to give me proper credit terms etc. as a result and having at their insistance put a brand new deposit down on what was already my pub my cash flow took a battering and im now on the brink of closing altogether. various people i have spoken to have told me that they should not have let me trade for the 15 months it took to transfer then pub into my name as the tenancy was in my husbands ltd company name which legally shouldnt have traded after he died since he was the sole director And my name was not on anything. Is this true and if so can i do anything about it now? thanks...S

Hello. Looking for some advice on unfair B2B contracts. I know this is a consumer site, but hopefully looking for some discussion / collaboration as I know I'm not the only one in this situation. I invited a salesman from a well known HR company to come and discuss being our HR department. I did this after attending one of their seminars, which they told me as an employer, I could face all sorts and levels of costs if there was an employee giving problems. I discussed the contract with the salesman on my premises, in front of a witness and he told me that if I changed my mind after signing, I could cancel at any time, giving 6 months notice in writing. As I was new to this and not experienced in HR matters myself, I agreed on the basis that if it all went wrong, I would only be liable for 6 mths of payments. I thought this fair and reasonable. After a good meeting, jovial exchanges and of course the understanding of the 6 mth thing that he said was in the contract, I signed. The contract was tucked away in a presentation folder by him and handed to me with lots of leaflets to read. What I actually signed had small print saying that there was no provision for early termination of what was a 5 yr contract. I found this out 2 yrs after signing! Obviously I am a trusting person, but I don't expect to be sold something that I haven't been sold, if that makes sense. The service provided thereon has been frustrating, shocking and not as described / presented in the seminar. When I did have problems, my confidence in their advice has been zero and I used a local Employment lawyer at a fraction of the cost. It can be best described like this: 1. I sell you a contract and explain verbally that for the next five years I will make you a cup of tea whenever you like. I will make sure it has just the right amount of milk and sugar and strength to your liking. I tell you (in order to get you to sign and earn my commission) that if you don't like my tea making services, or if you go off tea, or for some medical reason can't drink tea anymore, you can cancel at any time by giving me six months notice in writing. 2. You sign a completely different contract with no provision for early termination. 3. I then, after you have signed, tell you where you can buy a kettle, cups, cutlery, milk, tea bags and sugar. I give you written instructions on how to make the tea. Neither myself or any of my team will actually come and make the tea for you. 4. You try to cancel - I employ corporate bullying tactics that force you to pay for 5 yrs. 5. You can cancel, by giving notice not later than 6 mths before the 5 yrs is up. If you are a day late cancelling, I automatically renew your contract for 5yrs without consultation. My questions are: 1. To what extent is a verbal discussion valid as part of the contract you signed, even if the verbal sale was lies in order to get you to sign and you weren't given the chance to read it fully before signing because you trusted the person selling? 2. Is it unfair to insist one still owes money for 5 yrs when I (the HR company) haven't delivered what was promised and gave shoddy advice and forced you to go elsewhere in order to get things sorted? I won't be naming the company involved but judging by the reviews on them on the net, it wouldn't be too difficult to guess who they were. So if you have guessed, please don't mention their name. (He who must not be named!) PS I have cancelled my contract in writing and paid 6 mths of payments and not used the companys services for the last 12 mths as its not up to scratch. Thank you x

Is there any advice for selling a business to a family member, and avoiding any surprises from the tax man. Paul.