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.

Hello everyone So around 2009 my fathers business was stretched and he was getting some hefty charges from the bank £40.00 for going over the agreed overdraft etc which I know is considered illegal. He fought for a couple of years to try and save his business but a couple of events outside his control meant he eventually closed it down. HSBC ended up selling the debt on which he eventually re-paid, and the same with his credit cards the debt was sold to others and he has managed over the last five years to pay everything. Now in his 70's he doesn't have much left and I wondered if it were possible for him to claw something back from these institutions? So am I right in saying despite his business closed down, he repaid all his creditors, so if there was anything untoward i.e. unfair bank charges, any loaded PPI on cards he can claim this back and keep the proceeds rather than surrendering them? Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated at this time. Thanks everyone.

Hi I had a Nat West Business account with overdraft until 2012 when they decided to close it, without even trying to negotiate a repayment plan, last couple of years for been tough with work and health issues but I was just beginning to get back on my feet. I have never signed a overdraft renewal agreement with them, they just kept renewing the overdraft. I have had thousands of pounds worth of charges taken. Today I have received the attached letter in the post from a company I have never heard of requesting that I make contact to discuss the overdraft, referring to a recent letter I should have received from Nat West ( never received any letter last communication was April13). Not sure what to do, would appreciate some help. Confused49

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.

Almost forgot to respond to PCN issued 24/10/14 by VCS from 'breach' at Liverpool International Business Park - see attached PDF's. i realise I've left this late and I may only have a few days to get a response to them. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. I stopped to make a call between appointments at local clients. The 'Road' I stopped on was a cut-in pretending to be a side road but it actually stopped at a fence then a field just behind the car in the picture. The majority of roads on the park has double yellow lines, but the cut-in the car was stopped on does not have double yellow lines; they stop as the kerb begins to turn.

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

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.

Hi I have been struggling with my business for several years, I have 35k spread over 3 credit cards, 1 loan and 1 personal overdraft which are in payment plans of £5 p/m. I also have a business overdraft up to the tops of 15k which the bank recently refused to renew but gave me a six month extension, they recently started sending me " letters of concern" unfortunately i signed as personal guarantor on the account. Does anybody know that if i have not signed the authorised overdraft facility( I haven't for several years) does this have any bearing on the guarantee? Many thanks

Hi all, Should hopefully be a quick answer to my question. I run a company which i had to recentely dissolve, the company owed some debt on credit cards and the debt collectors have been chasing for it. One especially made a trace enquiry on my credit file, when i noticed this i updated my score and it had dropped. The company was a LTD company and i signed no personal guarantee on any debt taken out under the company name. My question is are they allowed to carry out a trace enquiry under my name? Am i allowed to request this gets removed from my search history? Thanks.

Hi All, Just wanted to share my experience with everyone. I'm hoping that someone somewhere will pick up my story and this may aid ofgem and other authorities to put pressure on certain (you know who) energy companies to conduct business in a much more ethical manner. Recieved a call from a young lady pretending to my current supplier (eon) telling me they had sent a few renewal letters to which i havent replied. I had been away for 2 weeks so thought maybe the staff havent updated me and agreed a contract over the phone which turns out to be with BES through a closely linked broker of theirs. I think everyone is probably aware of how they opperate so this post is more about what impact it had on me and my family.... Wife suffered from depression and was diagnoised with cancer a few years prior. Im sure the stress of loosing our business after just 8 months had a huge part to play in her death 1 year later. Like I explained my business had to shut down, in the process i lost my home as we couldnt afford the mortgage. My 2 daughters eventually had to move back home in a small rented accommodation as i could no longer support them in their studies at uni. This has not just had and impact on me but its had an snowball affect on the whole family who have nothing left, everything has been taken away from us. I just hope some of the people involved with this company and some of the dirty tactics would just stop and think about the impact they are having on peoples lifes. Although i got bes off my back now and am trying to rebuild my life. I have a friend today who is currently in the same situation and i hope this story will help him and many others who are in the same situation. Cj M

I hope someone can offer any advice re a current problem concerning my son in law and his business. He quoted for a 'gardening' job, it was accepted, now the customer states she is not happy with the completed job. She is demanding a refund and says he has '...broke the law.' The job involved the laying of artificial turf. The customer had her 'front' lawn covered by artificial turf but wanted something thicker for the rear garden. This was achieved and she was happy with the job on completion,however, she then called my son in law and left a voice mail message admitting it was her own fault but she thought she had chosen the wrong product. She complained she wasn't given a sample of the product despite the 'turf' having been in her garage for a month before the job had begun. She states he has 'broke the law' because he did not provide a receipt, she was offered one and at the time declined. She is now threatening legal action if my son in law does not refund her the price of the job plus agree to redo the job at his own expense! His business is a very small landscaping/gardening job. He has never had a complaint before and this is causing him stress. Surely her admitting it was her own fault she chose a product which she later didn't like is no fault of the business owner? Any ideas where he might proceed from here? I understand this a family member and some may believe I am 'protecting' him but he is a genuine,hard working bloke, I would not help him if I didn't think this case was someone attempting to receive something for nothing. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Hi all. I've just started up my own company and am gradually getting to grips with all the perks and pitfalls of running a business. I have a good accountant who advised me to use the company to pay for my mobile contract. (To be fair business does make up about 80% of its usage.) But do i go for an O2 or EE business contract or personal contract? The only real advantage i can see is shorter contracts. 12 months or so. I noticed O2 lease. Looked into it but am concerned about the chances of being penalised for returning a phone not in great shape. Anyone have experience of this and can put the pros and cons in layman's terms? Cheers.

I have just had a letter from my Local Council stating that there is an outstanding balance for the period 26/06/2001 to 29/08/2001. Is this debt statute bared?

Can anyone help on this one? We haver taken over a small business (fitness centre) this is in a larger building (a rugby club house) and is leased from them. The rent in 2008 was £10000 pa. We have half the first floor for an office, changing rooms, reception area, studio and gym, total area 350 sqm. The other half of the first floor belongs to the rugby club and has an office, reception area, changing rooms and a bar/conference centre/kitchen, total area 350 sqm Both premises were valued by the VOA in April 2014. We are valued at £16250, the other half of the first floor is valued at £7000. At first sight, this seems horribly iniquitous (as well as putting us at a major disadvantage relative to other local fitness centres) and I'm trying to work up to the formalities needed to contest this. But before I start, am I missing something obvious… is there a reason that I don't know about which will explain the discrepancy?

I used to be a sole trader selling music by mail order lists, vinyl and compact discs. My business closed down nine years ago due to me having severe debts, personal problems and so on. I suffer from severe mental health problems after several breakdowns and more problems that I won't go into here. I still have a business bank account that I never closed down due to hoping that one day I may get better and then just forgetting more recently after further health setbacks. I've been getting Income Support with disability additional money and then ESA after it changed paid into this bank account all that time. My Dad died in September 2013 and left me £15,000, my share of his will after it had all been divided up. I got this money in the autumn just gone and declared it to the DWP. I sent them bank statements showing that I'd used most of the money bar for a few thousand on things like new furniture, clothing, a holiday and paying for my Dad's funeral costs. I sent them receipts for everything and bank statements and they were satisfied that I hadn't spent the money frivolously and the little bit that I had spent on personal items to enjoy such as DVDs and days out, I have been getting a small amount taken off my fortnightly payments to cover that. Anyway to get to the point, today I got a B16 form in the post with no explanation as to why, the only thing I can think of is that because I never closed my business account they assume I'm still in business. I have no records of my old business, just a name on a bank account. How do I prove that I'm not trading to them? It's messing my head up even worse, I could do without all this. Thanks for any help.

BES closed my business Back in 2011 having decided to invest in a small bar restaurant to the tune of £120k from money i got from a life insurance following the death of my wife, i was conned by BES and its associated companies (who BES denies any affiliation with) proven by some considerable investigation linking names to leases on premises occupied by such companies. I was monied and had good credit. After the second invoice of nearly £700, (british gas was £289 at this time) I knew I had a problem, thats when i had to find out what the state of play was with this company, one word sums it up,, say it with people I changed the legal entity of the business, BES ignored this, they continued to bill me, they then took me to court under the ltd company status, (doing this, they legally acknowledged the cOt= change of tenancy) BES then obtained a warrant to disconnect the original business, not the ltd company, the warrant was granted and the power was cut, my business was over that day. Can you all see what BES did wrong here?, its easy to see, if any of you had this happen , you are in a strong position to action against them, along with other breaches they committed against me of course. To date they have filed for bankruptcy against me for none payment of invoices, umm. let me see now I am a father to three young kids, I have no income anymore (thank you BES) No assets and Im on benefits with no money, BES incurred many of my debts by their action and have the audacity to send me bankrupt. I am now putting my case together with legal help to sue for damages and like i mentioned I need just ten more victims of BES to initiate a class action, we can stop BES if we pull together.

Does anyone out there have any detailed information on the definitions of Business against Private mileage in a company car? I am at loggerheads with my employers with regards to the 'within a 5-mile radius of a permanent or temporary place of employment' ruling by the HMRC. Any information or pointers would be gratefully accepted, thanks in advance.

Hi, Here's one for you. I work as a freelancer. In June last year I agreed to work with a business, the deal was that I would sell my services through their brand and receive 60% on my billings, for months when I did not bill, I would receive a cash payment to tide me over. I signed an acceptance of offer letter with them and started working with them at the beginning of July. All went well and I quickly secured an opportunity to deliver some highly complex services to a large business I know well. I was concerned at my associates capability to support me with delivery and asked them if they wished to be involved. As the business would be worth several million over a 5 year period they readily reassured me. at this stage I pointed out that if we were going to bid for the work, it would have a significant impact on my short term sales. They told me not to worry. By Mid October, I had spent 6 weeks preparing the initial bid, the timescale with the client had slipped to early 2015 and I informed my associates, this time I offered them the choice of backing out of our relationship if they no longer wished to take the risk of supporting me whilst I bid for it. Again, they reassured me that they were very keen to remain involved and supported me 100% as well as thanking me for my excellent work. Despite this I was beginning to get some pressure to generate short term income so I started to work on a few smaller projects. This pressure increased and I began to have concerns around their capability to deal with a large and complex project especially from the financial perspective as the concerns seemed to indicate that cash flow may be an issue. On 30th November my invoice for October's work was due for payment. 3 days later the money had still not arrived so I wrote to them asking if they had processed the payment and received a cryptic reply along the lines of 'what was due to be paid has been paid'. a week later still nothing. At this point they started to demand information about my clients which was above an beyond the call of detail. I said i wold be happy to share it once their outstanding invoice had been paid. I chased it on two further occasions and was told by them that it was due to be paid and in the process. Again they asked for the detailed information, again I told them that once the outstanding invoice was paid, they would get this information. At this point they showed their true colours. I received a very aggressive email from a the other owner of their business stating that he had 'blocked the payment' because he was unhappy that I had not provided details that I was 'contractually obliged to provide' he then went onto libel me saying he had received information 'concerning me and my character' from 'anonymous individuals' . This email was shared with e 3rd party. I immediately wrote back stating that I did not respond to threats and that the email was libelous as he had not provided the information that he was party to nor had he identified the source - merely implied that it was negative and that he also shared the email with a 3rd party (which he did). I also pointed out that until Monday this week they had not shown any concerns over the quality of the work I had done to date, quite the contrary I had emails from them as well as two telephone conversations (recorded) where they praised my work to date and thanked me for it. I also pointed out that they had accepted the invoice and had been asked on 3 separate occasions where the money was and had on all those occasions been either directly reassured or reassured by implication that all was in hand. The response to this was to send me a copy of some terms of business which I had never seen and which were dated July (I had signed in June). They stated that I was in breach of contract because I had - a/ set up another similar business outwith their arrangement with the intention of 'cutting them out' (this business predates the relationship with this company and I have always been public about its existence, on twitter and on Linkedin and the business offers services that are in a similar field but completely unrelated to the business I had with the associate. Additionally the associates were well aware of the existence of the business and had never raised it as an issue in the past.) b/ in witholding the detailed client information they required I was in breach of their contract (the terms of business that I had not seen before). These state nothing about information and only state that if they deem that (unspecified) work is no carried out to their satisfaction, they can pursue me for all money paid to me prior to the date. I wrote to them informing them that I had never seen these terms before and on top of that had never been given any previous indication that my work had been substandard, in fact I had received plaudits for the quality of the work. The reply I got was to 'stop playing games' and that I had 'signed the contract and the terms in July (I actually signed it in June) and that I was bound by it. He also directly accused me of lying and shared the email with two 3rd parties. at this point I had had enough and informed them that our business relationship was over due to non payment of invoice and that I was handing the matter over to a debt collector. They wrote back again telling me to 'stop playing games' and accusing me of breach of contract and demanding that I repay them all money paid to date and returned a laptop by tomorrow (friday) or they would report me to the police for theft. - Since then (tuesday) I have received several emails asking me what I intend to do. I have not replied. - Now I did some checking up on these guys and don't like what I hear. The partner I appear to have fallen out with fancies himself as an amateur lawyer and his emails are full of faux legalese that doesn't make much sense at all. (My late father was a judge and I have a pretty good understanding of what this looks like). It appears he spends most of his time logging online claims through the small claims court so I am concerned that he is going to attempt this tomorrow. Now my reason for posting here is to get a 3rd party perspective on this. I intend to do the following: 1/ hand the debt to a debt collection business and instruct them to pursue it in writing as well as verbally 2/ I have written down the entire sorry saga as best as I can recall and tomorrow I intend to visit a commissioner of oaths and swear an oath on it and post it to myself recorded delivery 3/ pay my lawyer to write a cease and desist letter to the individual who has libeled me threatening him with action if he does it again. 4/ I am considering reporting them for fraud over the 'terms of business' which I had neither seen nor signed My main concern is 2 fold - 1/ to ensure that should he attempt an online small claims bid his claim will run into deep water quickly due to the defence I have and the counter claim. 2/ to make sure I can prove to the police (should he report me for theft) that the matter is civil, that return of the computer in question has been given an unreasonable timescale especially at this time of year (48 hrs) and that as it is a civil case and I am owed money by this business, I have a right to hold it for security and have indeed informed them that I would return it once the invoice was paid. Are my tactics sound and is there anything else I can do? I have limited funds for a fight? Research and having spoken to several people who have carried out the work I have done for them in the past shows that they are not to be trusted and I have heard similar stories. They are very foolish in acting in this way because I am very well known in the industry they work in and could make life very difficult for them in the future. I have not done so yet nor have I threatened them. thanks in advance

Just a heads up: TalkTalk business apparently have a new billing system which they are piloting. This is somewhat ruthless and is going through past accounts and sending out bills for dormant or shut-down accounts. It also appears to be automatically escalating to DCAs (in my case). I had a TalkTalk business account in 2012. I moved the DNS records (website and mail provision) and internet service from them in January 2013. Stupidly I did this half way through a billing cycle. I settled up with talktalk, who agreed to write of the part-billed month. All good, heard nothing from them for about a year until I received a bill out of the blue & nasty letter threatening to cut me off... for a service I wasn't receiving. Phoned them & they explained it was sent in error & cancelled it all off again. I received another bill via email on 29 December 2014 for £9.19 and then a letter from "Debt & Revenue Services", their chosen DCA, this morning, demanding £49.92 Spoke to the DCA who could offer no explanation as to the billed amount or where the bill arose from. I then phoned TalkTalk who couldn't explain the amount on the DCA letter, but attempted, after some audibly confuddled calculator thrashing, to explain the £9.19 as the part-billed month from January 2013 that they'd already agreed to write off! This amused me somewhat. I suggested that billing a customer out of the blue after two years was probably not acceptable, nor was failing to reconcile their accounts for two years, immediately raising it to a DCA was a bit dim and it would be interesting to hear what offcom* would say on the matter. Perhaps they should consider writing off the amount? NOW. Cue some time on hold while they went off to seek guidance. The guidance was given and the "debt" (remember they'd agreed to write this off back in February 2013) was written off. The explanation given for the out of the blue bill was that they are trialling some new software and it's being a bit ruthless with old accounts. I'll still complain to the FOS about the DCA letter, as the amounts remain inexplicable & I like the idea of them being charged £550 which they can pass on to TalkTalk for being stupid. Hopefully this will be the end of the matter. I suspect though that I'll hear from them again in error. *offcom don't actually adjudicate over broadband, you have to speak to either CISAA or the Ombudsman Services: Communication people

I was offered out of court settlement for money owed to my company.Which was refused and have asked the the assistant of a firm to prepare me particulars of claim for a fee so that I can take up my case myself. Error were made on the PC by the solicitor and my claim strike out for being misconceived, with cost to myself. The other side want their cost and have promised to stop me progress with the fresh claim. Also threatened to make me bankrupt and once am bankrupt I can no longer be director of my firm again---- What do I do as I do not have money to pay this court cost-- which I am appealing at the moment and the appeal is not going well as the judge want 50% of the cost paid before appeal can be looked into------any help

Unfortunately my business came to a pretty sudden ending, 2 dead months and things effectively stopped dead. The only real debt I had was £1150 to a Postage Franking provider for postage. I did agree to pay them £50 a week but in honestly it was too much and after a couple of weeks I stopped. I was just a sole trader so the debt is in my name. This morning I've received a default notice off them, its dated 29th May 2014 in an envelope dated 03/06/14 giving me 5 working days from the date on the letter to make payment via a cleared method. By my maths the entire thing is totally impossible and the date to settle has long passed. The letter states that they will now be adding interest and pursuing legal action, court etc. They also state that they will be be claiming damages. Can anyone advise the best way to go from here?, I am willing to pay via instalments more realistically i.e. £20-25 a week which I can afford but is there a way of going about this?. Should I keep the mess that is the default notice to myself?, its pretty much catch 22, even if you got it the day after the letter date to pay within within the 5 working days would be tight as cleared payment would take 3 days anyway. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.