I am looking at a mortgage hopefully next year so thought i would give the file a look. Good job i did as its in a right mess. 1. I have a debt of my fathers somehow on there, in my name but showing his date of birth, will this be a problem getting it removed? 2. Several debts with Lowells, which are all past 6 years old but showing recentish default dates, which are NOT the original default dates( shopacheck, vanquis). 3. A couple of debts that didnt default for ages, literally showing as red box with numbers in for 3 years befire a *D* 4. Debts that show as settled, plenty of red months ( i never settled them) but past six years old, shouldnt they be gone? Any advice much appreciated.

Hello everyone, My current dilemma has now brought me here looking for some advice and information regarding my rights. Several months ago we had a knock at the door from a guy offering window cleaning services which we agreed to start using. Due to unforeseen circumstances we are cutting back on unnecessary spending and this being one of them. My partner called the office number on the card left to cancel and they came and cleaned again she called again but they are still coming. I rang them personally leaving a message and the guy called me stating that if she had called they would have cancelled and I suggested they were calling my partner a liar to which he advised you are doing the same. My partner advised she had actually spoken to what sounded like a young male. he put the phone down on me stating he would contact a debt collection agent which we could really do without. I have since looked on their website and read the T's and C's which state either email or post contact to cancel. A contact form on their site states this is not to be used for cancellations and must be email or post, there is no email address on the site nor is there anywhere on the internet. I would like to know what my rights are with this? I believe if someone comes to your home to sell you goods or services your rights increase? I read a bit online but there was a mention of services under £42 this does not apply to so therefore does any verbal contract count? Thank you in advance.

Hi, We have been looking at cleaning up my girlfriends credit record there where 2 entries from Freemans and one from Atlantik. One Freemans account stated it had been settled and closed in 2010 with the last record update in 2010. The other Freemans entry defaulted in 2011 and although not stated on the record, it was settled in 2013 through debt collection. We wrote to Freemans and they say they will update the record to reflect that it was eventually settled. The matter we have issue with, is a record for Atlantik that shows a default in 2010 for £357 and they last updated the record in 2015. They claim this is another Freemans debt which my gf doesn't recall. We're not wanting to get out of paying this, I would pay it today if I have to. Our worry is the fact that if we settle this today it will still be other credit record for the next 6 years, whereas if it was in fact settled year ago then it shouldn't be in this state. We wrote to EOS which is the company listed on the credit record for Atlantik, asking for more information. They simply responded with a bill for the £357. So a couple of days later we responded with the following letter: We heard nothing back, so later sent the following: They responded a few days later, acknowledging the complaint saying they have passed it to Atlantik F.GmbH (Freemans Oli) and that they have put the account on hold. 4 weeks later we received another letter from them saying: Now the credit agreement they sent has not been signed or even completed with any contact details. It is simply a photocopy of an Oli.co.uk credit agreement. It says in big letters at the bottom IMPORTANT: THE RETURNS SECTION OF THIS AGREEMENT MUST BE SIGNED AND SENT BACK TO US AT... So why can they not supply us a copy of the signed agreement? 9 days later, they sent a letter to my girlfriends fathers very old address (Luckily after 2 moves, he now lives next door to where he used to live, so he got passed the mail) saying they are trying to contact the addressee on the letter regarding a personal matter etc. . I think it's a standard fishing letter when trying to find someone. 2 days after that, they sent another letter to her fathers old address (Please bare in mind, all previous letters were received at our current address) saying: Before we were passed these letters from her fathers neighbour, we had already responded with the following: And finally, this week received a response, again to her fathers old address: With this letter, was many pages of computer screenshots showing monthly statements of purchases, payments, and many Dolt Reminder Fee's. For completeness, her is the letter we received from Freemans.com: Both account numbers mentioned by EOS end with A701, so is it possible it is in fact the same account? What should my response to this now be? They can't supply a signed credit agreement, and can't even get our address right. Like I said to begin with, we haven't got a problem paying it, but this only came to light when my gf checked her credit records and noticed it, so it's been lingering on her record all this time, and if we settle it it will linger for another 6 years. Thanks for any input.

I have recently moved out of my first rental property after living at the address for over two years and I have recived a email from my landlord looking to claim £400 from my deposit of £700 for cleaning. I thought this was a unreasonable amount as I spent a lot of time cleaning the property prior to leaving and got it to a higher standard in places than when we moved in. Here is a breakdown of the invoice: Item Description Unit Price Quantity Amount Hours Work carried out at xxxxxxxxxxxxx. 1/ Cleaning inside oven/top of electric oven and completely stripped down gas hob controls and burners to clean hob top. 2/ Clean all kitchen cupboards inside and out. 3/ Clean fridge freezer and kitchen sink . 4/ Scrub all bathroom tiles and grouting, sink and toilet. 5/ Mop bathroom kitchen and entrance hall floors. 6/ Vacuum throughout all property wash down all doors and skirting's. 7/ Clean down stairs toilet sink and door. Overall cleaning cost £300.00 MILEAGE Travel to and from xxxxxxx. £117.00 Total cost £417 Foolishly I did not take pictures of the property prior to leaving but I did have a look at the check in book we received when moving in and most of the areas listed on the invoice were listed as dirty prior to us moving in. Any advice on what we should do would be much appreciated.

Hi, I've just terminated a rent agreement for a residential property that was under a business let with my own company - was accommodation used whilst contracting away for home. The letting agency are being quite difficult about the cleanliness of the property when I moved out, even though I cleaned extensively and left it in good condition (I've been renting and letting my own property for 15 years and I have never seen anything better, tbh). However, their inspection has revealed some dust and a few other items that could be attended to. They are asking for around £250 for what is, at most, a couple of hours work!? They are also asking for the carpets to be "professionally cleaned" and will not accept that anybody other than a "professional cleaner" is able to do this, even though this is not in the contract. FYI, there are no stains on the carpets and they are in good condition, as described in their own checkout report. Additionally, the carpets are not suitable for using a wet vacuum cleaner and I suspect that the only option is normal vacuuming (which I have already done) and the application of dry cleaning powder of some description. Of course, they have refused to detailed what professional cleaning actually entails and there is nothing about this in my contract. How can I challenge this requirement? I have offered to do the work myself or via a local friend (I do not normally live locally), but they have refused to let anybody other than a professional cleaning company back into the property - they reason that this is because my agreement has now ended. The only alternative they have provided is that I may source a "professional cleaner" of my own instead of using theirs. I'm not aversed to spending some money to put this right, but the amount that has been proposed is absurd for the work that actually needs to be done. I've lived there on my own for a little over 8 months, returning to my main residence every weekend, and basically only using the property for a small amount of the day. Throughout that time I have treated it like my own home and kept it very tidy/clean. I appreciate that there may only be limited options to resolve this dispute - the letting agency has no interest in compromising, despite my efforts to come to a reasonable agreement with them. Would appreciate any input from those with experience as, beyond getting a third party to clean, I am not sure where to go next. Thanks, J

June 2013 we were quoted for the cleaning of our offices by a company called GCC. We agreed a scope and a price. The contractor who took the job was rubbish and we complained to the head office. They got worse and we complained again and told them we no longer wanted to work with them in December 2013. They wrote back saying that because we had signed a 2 year contract we had to go through their official complaints channels and we could not leave them. They made lots of empty promises and promised better cleaning. This did not happen and in fact the cleaning got even worse. We had a couple of incident of the cleaners using toilets without closing doors when clients were in the office (yep that professional) and no shows. It reached a head and we finally just told them they had to go as we were paying them almost £200 per month and our staff were having to do the cleaning as they were doing nothing. They have now sent us a final bill saying we owe them until June 2015 as want to end the contract early. Surely we dont have to pay this do we?? We gave them plenty of chances to provide the service we agreed on!! Surely the T&Cs of their contact cant keep us bound to them for 2 years when they are not providing a service. Let me know if you have ever dealt with the same. thanks

Hello my situation is as follows. I have recently managed to pass the 6 year mark on most of my two relatively small debts. I have a CCJ that was paid but remains unsatisfied on my CRA that is just over 5 years old. My partner and i are looking to apply for a mortgage we have as a deposit £17 - £20,000. I was thinking about the CCJ and i remember years ago i was sent a letter by Northumbria water threatening to take it to court and i managed to prove that it had been paid. Could they have still sought judgement on this? I have no paperwork left to prove that i paid it, but it was at a time when i was living with friends in student accommodation and because they were late getting their chunk and i didn't have the full amount we got the late letter and CCJ threat. I would ideally like this to come off my CRA file but at the least have it satisfied, i was annoyed that it is in just my name as their were 4 names on the account. I would appreciate any help and advice in how to move forward so that my CRA file can be in its best state applying for a mortgage.

I am hoping i can get some advice as I am currently in a frustrating situation and facing costs which I think are unfair. A little background I started renting in December 2010 with my partner this was the first time we have ever rented. When we moved into the house in 2010 the house was cheaply decorated walls painted and new carpet, we moved out on 28/03/14 so roughly three years. Prior to leaving I spent best part of 2 days cleaning the house I have had a letter today listing dilapidations which were picked up on the exit of the property. One of them is a full clean of the house with the cost of £144 I have already paid them £70 for cleaning of the carpets, the company I paid to clean the carpets do the work on behalf of letting agent and actually advertise them on their van, they have also been invoiced for the £144 work to be carried out. They attached photos of the areas they see a problem with, the photos they sent me are like crime scene photos they have gone in and taken pictures of tiny specs of dust which I feel is unfair, almost looking for evidence of dirt. I spoke to the general manager and he said the house has to be left in the same condition as it was when we moved in, which we feel we have for one the oven has been dirty since day one and some of the items just generally look dirty due to age. I am sure even with a professional clean they could not been cleaned to a good standard. I checked my inventory and highlighted some concerns such as it does not go into enough detail as to the condition of the house, I raised this with the general manager who said back then the inventory where not good and now we take photographic evidence. One example is that majority of the doors look to have tiny punch marks, these are not listed on the original inventory in detail but when having a conversation they apparently have notes. Repainting of front room and landing, over the three years we hung some photos as expected they now want us to pay a proportion of the costs to paint the areas I would have thought this comes under fair wear and tear it seems not, not do they have an outline policy stating what they deem as fair wear and tear. Overall they are arguing that the property has to be returned in the same state as how we got it one quote from the Manger is that “In your case this is easy, because the house was freshly decorated” with this in mind how can anyone return a house in a freshly decorated state after it being lived in for three years. It is also worth a mention on my house inspections everything was marked excellent. I have now asked for an itemized bill of what they plan on charging me and a breakdown of costs. Unfortunately I have misplaced my contract during my move I plan on asking for this and a summary of what they deem as fair wear and tear as at the moment it seems down to the individual.

Hi i hope some one can help me i have a contract with a large cleaning company they have just announced that the place where i work they have lost the contract could some one tell me my legal rights will the new company that as won the contract sack me

Hello everyone, I'm getting tangled with a bit of a situation with my estate agents over the professional cleaning of the property my flatmate and I have now vacated. The contract says: "To return the property and the contents at the end of the tenancy in the same clean state or condition as they were at the commencement of the tenancy and to ensure the property and all fixtures and fittings have been professionally cleaned. A copy of the professional cleaning invoice may be asked for as proof." The estate agents suggested we let them deal with the professional cleaning after we moved out, calling their cleaning company. Since the estimate they presented seemed more expensive than the average tariffs proposed by other cleaning companies, we arranged our own professional cleaning team to come in and carry out the cleaning before we vacated the property. However, the estate agents still disputed the "cleanliness" of the property. We were not provided an official list of what further cleaning was necessary and, although our cleaners were available to come back and complete the cleaning for free, the estate agents arrange the further cleaning with their company, without letting us arrange further cleaning from our cleaners. This happened despite the fact that I went to talk in person with the estate agents right when I was notified that further cleaning was required, in order to arrange our own cleaners to come back. I was made to wait and could not speak directly with the property manager as she was apparently too busy at the moment. While I was waiting, they arranged for their own cleaners to come and clean, which I was notified only when they had already started cleaning and I was told that telling them to stop cleaning then would incur into a service canceling charge that my flatmates and I would have to pay anyway. This seems quite unfair to me, especially considering that we respected the contract. I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to proceed on this situation. I am afraid that the estate agents will want to charge us with the further cleaning, taking the amount out of our deposit, so there won't be a way for us to stop this payment. This is my first post here, I'd like to thank everyone for their help, I've read a few threads and this community seems to provide an invaluable service to people who encounter this kind of problems.

Hi all I have now decided that it is time to drag my butt out from under the debt rug and sort it out ! I am now in work and want to get my credit report looking a lot nicer than it currently does ! I have a couple of questions though and wondered if you guys and gals could shed some light on them for me. Im not the smartest smartie when it comes to dealing with financial companies and the lower level so called companies... My credit report is Very Low ! no suprise to me, but I would like to get my act together now and sort it out or at least try The 2 main ones I have concerns over are 2 for Welcome Finance Ref 1 Account Type: Hire purchase/Conditional sale Started: 20/08/2004 Current Balance: £6,433 Payment Terms: £246 x 49 months No default date - states 6 payments late in the status column Last payment they have recorded is in the 59 month section ref 2 Account Type: Loan Started: 30/11/2005 Current Balance: £4,309 Payment Terms: £99 x 37 months Default Date 06/06/2008 Last payment they have recorded is in the 55th month section I have the paperwork for both these, somewhere ... What I want to know is. I havent had any contact with Welcome for at least 7 yrs. After reading a few threads on here I am supposed to be getting annual statements ? Yet I have had nothing from them since the accounts were defaulted I dont want to contact them and awaken the debt as if I am reading things right the 2nd loan will be removed from my credit report on 06/06/2014. I am assuming they are keeping the other one open and have no intention of defaulting it ? I also read that they are not in a good situation as a company, so how does that affect me with the outstanding debts to them ? So what do I do with these ? Sit tight on them ? I have a few other minor debts on my file which I intend to get information for and clear off. I have 1 that will be 6 yrs on the 13/09/2013 as its default date is 13/09/2007 i am assuming i should leave that be and concentrate on others that wont clear for a while. ? Hopefully that made sense to someone somewhere lol I am just trying to get my act together at long last and ahavent a clue where to start other than pay .. Any advice is much appreciated Thank you in advance

First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong place. Anyway, I moved out of my 4 bedroom rented house last Wednesday. The Tuesday before, I had arranged for ECOPHY, a cleaning company, to conduct a full end of tenancy clean, including all carpets and the cooker. The cost for this was £350. After the clean, I had a quick look around, said I was happy, and paid them the sum in cash. So the day after, I meet with the landlord to do a handover inspection. It turns out that they had barely touched the kitchen. None of the cupboards were cleaned inside or out, the tiles above the oven were greasy still, the fridge hadn't been cleaned, the surfaces hadn't been cleaned and the floor was sticky (I believe they had mopped them, but with what I have no idea). On top of this, there are still marks on the carpets in most rooms. On that Wednesday, I phoned them up to complain and they said they would send someone out to do the kitchen again this week. I still had not had a confirmation from them, so emailed them today saying it needed doing ASAP, or I would have to do the work myself. In this case, I would expect a full or partial refund. Shortly after, I recieved this as a reply: "Dear ***** Regarding your email about the cleaning we conducted, I am sorry to hear that you are not happy. On the day you was shown around the property and you said you was very happy, then after the inspection you paid the account in full. The point you make about the cooker, we cleaned hundreds of ovens and it all depends on where you are starting from, the oven we cleaned for you was in a very state and not cared for, so in the time allowed the clean was exceptional. The same applies to other areas of the property including the kitchen, the floor had a thick film of dirt that was about 2 mm thick in parts and had stuck fast. When it comes to cleaning, there is only so much we can do in a set time and it depends on how dirty the item is when you start, and sorry to say we was starting from ground in dirt. However, under the circumstance you so that you could remove some of the stains in the carpet, I do not believe this possible as some of things are ink, I am will to refund £25 as a good will gesture. I am not prepared to send a new team to the property as I believe the £350 including vat was good value for money, and this was a discounted price already. The property was fair dirtier than expected and the job conducted was over and above, we even cleaned urine of the walls and scrub the skirting in the downstairs toilet which was covered in urine. Please provide you bank details for the good will gesture so we can send you the £25. Regards ***** Ecophy Cleaning Services Ltd" I am considering a small claims case against them, but I am unsure of my legal position. Can I claim money back for a job poorly done? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Wonder if anyone can offer any advice on a situation I am currently dealing with? We have had a cleaning company come and do a weekly clean at our house for the past 3 or so years. They would send a team of two ladies to do the work, usually the same lady - D - who I was confident knew what she was doing, and a variety of other ladies, none of them for more than a few weeks or months at a time (they often seemed to give D new staff to work with and train on the job). In general we were happy with the work the cleaners did, but were increasingly feeling unhappy about the company itself and the way they do business (in particular finding out that, although they have insurance in place in case of accidental breakages, they refuse to use it and take the cost of any breakages out of the wages of the cleaners themselves - the net effect of which is naturally going to be that the cleaners are unlikely to admit to damage/breakages unless they have to). These various niggles came to a head when D decided to leave the company and the loss of the one trusted cleaner who we felt comfortable with was the trigger in us deciding to terminate our contract with the company and find an alternative cleaner. At about this time, when we were looking at contacting other cleaning companies, but had not yet contacted the current provider to cancel their services, our downstairs toilet started making odd noises (the day after the cleaners had been and cleaned). The downstairs toilet is a Saniflo unit with a macerator in it, which means you cannot put anything other than toilet paper down it, or the macerator may clog and break. We are obviously very aware of this and make sure to never put anything down the toilet and I had made sure the cleaners were aware of this - in particular D who we were quite confident was very careful in this respect. In the 3 years that we've been having cleans by this company we have actually had to have repairs done to the Saniflo unit in the downstairs bathroom on two previous occasions - the second occasion actually requiring a replacement unit (at a cost of £250!!). On both occasions it was found that the macerator unit was clogged with some kind of wet wipe. We never raised this issue with the cleaning company on these occasions (other than asking the cleaners if they had put anything down the toilet - which they strenuously denied - and reiterating that nothing should be put down there) as we felt that, even though we were sure that we had not put anything down there, it was our word against theirs and we had no proof the cleaners had put anything down there. As the unit had started making noises again not long after the cleaners (without D who had now left the company) had been, we once again arranged for a plumber to come out to look at the unit and I wrote and informed the cleaning company that we wanted to cancel their services and explained that before making final settlement of any outstanding invoices, we would need to see what the plumber found and, if the unit was found to be clogged with a wipe, we would be deducting the cost of the repairs from the money we owed to them. The immediate response was a complete denial of any responsibility and a demand for immediate payment of the outstanding invoice. I politely replied that I would wait and see what the plumber found. As expected, the unit was found to be clogged with a wet wipe. Expecting the company to be less than reasonable (the owner's unprofessionalism was another reason why we decided to dispense with their services), I took photos of the blockage in situ and as the plumber removed it. I have also kept the remains of the wipe as evidence. We then paid the outstanding invoice, minus the £50 plumber's fee. The company owner's immediate response was to a) deny responsibility, and b) insist that the proper way for us to have dealt with this would have been to pay her invoice in full and then send her an invoice for the plumber's costs, as otherwise she was unable to balance her books. We replied that to balance her books she simply needed to issue a credit note to us for the amount we had deducted to cover the plumber's fees. She then basically said we would be hearing from her solicitors. I have today had a letter from her demanding the contact details of our plumber so that her solicitor can contact him and also saying that she had consulted a plumber of her own who told her that the plumber's receipt (which we scanned and emailed to her as proof of the amount he charged us) was "unprofessional" (it was just a basic receipt from a receipt book, detailing the works done and amount charged but he said he would be happy to provide a more detailed report on letterheaded paper if needed) and also that he had "vastly undercharged" for the work done, *if* such work had indeed been done. She's stated that if she doesn't hear from us within 7 days, she will assume that we don't have the plumber's details (so basically she is suggesting that we are lying and never had any work done on the unit at all) and we'll be hearing from her solicitor. I intend to reply to her letter giving her the plumber's details and also informing her that I have photographic evidence of the work done. What I would like some advice on is where things are likely to go from here. For all her talk of solicitors, I am guessing that all she can really do is take us to small claims court. If she does so, does anyone have any idea of what the outcome is likely to be? I am very aware that this basically boils down to our word against hers. However, we are adamant that this damage is not our fault as neither my husband or I have ever, or would ever, put anything down the toilet. The children do not go in the downstairs toilet unsupervised and nor are there any wipes in the room. The owner of the cleaning business is adamant that her staff do not use any kind of cleaning wipes and says she can provide testimonials to that effect from the staff and business records going back 6 years that show that she does not purchase cleaning wipes. I don't know if the staff do using cleaning wipes or not - I've never seen them do so but my husband says he has. We do have packets of baby wipes around the house so I can only assume that either the cleaners do use cleaning wipes or for some reason they pick use one of my baby wipes or pick up a discarded wipe from somewhere and instead of putting it in the bin (which has been emptied as part of the cleaning process) dispose of it in the toilet. This is now 3 times that a wipe has been found blocking the toilet and it's NOT us and the only other people it can be is the cleaners. For us, it's not really about the money now but about the principal of the thing - this is the third time we've had repairs needed to the unit and we know it's not our fault and we're damned if we're paying for it again! Thanks for any help - sorry this turned into such an essay!

Hi, This is my first post and I would appreciate any help regarding my situation. I received an invoice from the council demanding payment for the back yard they cleaned in one of my rented properties 8 months ago or they will pass on to the debt collection agency. They say they cleaned the back yard after complaints and in accordance with the prevention of damage by pests act. I questioned them that I did not receive any notice to my permanent address which i reside in. Strangely they send me an invoice to my current address . The council said they sent the notice to my rented property and obtained my details from the land registry which states I reside in the rented property. Can somebody please give me some advice on how to go about challenging this or don't I have a chance at all but to pay them? Thanks

Finding out some information on behalf of a friend. My friend recently moved out of his rented house after a split with his partner. He had no rent arrears. He gave a months notice as required by his agreement. He spent 2 days cleaning the house from top to bottom, but when the land lady came round the first thing she said apparently was that the house was filthy and in a disgusting state. Which my friend was shocked and informed her that he had just spent 2 days cleaning the house. Fast forward 2 weeks of calls and texts in regards to getting his deposit back. He eventually received a text message that she was deducting £550 from his deposit to cover her costs of cleaning the house - yes, that's her own costs for her and her husbands time to supposedly clean the house. She has also made no mention of the extra £100 deposit she asked for when he inquired about having a pet dog. He paid this then waited for the date he could bring the dog back home. He kept the text messages from the land lady in regards to this extra payment. He also suspects this was'nt payed into the deposit holding account as he thought it would, but that she kept the money herself. She has yet to provide an invoice or even any proof that she cleaned the house again, and my friend has said he refuses to agree to anything until he see's why it has cost so much. In short, it appears she is trying it on thinking that she can while he is low after his relationship break-up. So where does he stand here? The deposit is in a holding account. and i believe he has to agree to the deductions to get the the remainder of the money? - I don't rent so im not sure if i heard him correct. But surely someone cannot say that £550 is a reasonable cost for cleaning a terraced house?! Also, seeing as she says there was £550 worth of cleaning. Would'nt she have to have taken before and after pictures?

My landlady is asking for the house I rent off her to be 'professionally cleaned' before I move out? Is this normal?

Can anyone advise on what to do please. We hired a carpet cleaner at the weekend as living room carpet looked slightly flat and grubby in places. Spent all afternoon Suday cleaning with a machine hired from tesco. Rug Dr. Used the recommended cleaning solution and followed the instructions to the letter. Next day carpet looked like new. Tuesday morning we noticed a strange smell which has steadily got worse. It's like a combination of wet dog and old running shoes!!! I've had the heat on and windows open. I've tried shake and vac and febreeze. Still no better and getting worse if anything. Any advice would be brilliant.

Good evening, I'm hoping someone here might be able to offer some advice to my situation. My partner and I recently had a mortgage meeting and while talking to the advisor I told her of a CCJ I have. it started in April 2006 for a RBS debt which I was struggling with and I still pay £75 pcm and currently have around £5200 left. The mortgage advisor suggested that we use some of our deposit money to clear the CCJ as it would put me in a better position which I said I'd think about. I've signed up to Check My File and nowhere is there mention of a CCJ on any CRA report, however, there are 2 default notices. one from an old Barclaycard which I had been unable to pay at the time and one default from 1st credit, who have since bought the debt. 1st credits details were listed on the report so I phoned them at 9 the next morning and rather stupidly paid £350 of a £425 debt with a debit card! I was told on the phone that this would show on my credit report as satisfied but after reading various articles online I think I should have paid a lot less ( 20 - 30%) ? or bargained for the defaults to be removed on payment? and that 2 defaults wont help the mortgage situation - showing satisfied or not? What should be my next step with these defaults and where has that CCJ gone?? Sorry to ramble a little but I could do with a little advice or input. Thanks all in advance

Hi everybody, I am a 6-month pregnant woman with a 3-year-old toddler at home. In February this year I contacted a cleaning agency in order to have a cleaning lady help me out a little bit in the house once a week. The service was mediocre (furniture barely cleaned, dust in every corner) but at least it was a relief to have someone once a week give me a hand. What really annoyed me was the lack of punctuality of the cleaning ladies, when they were supposed to be at my place every Fri from 14-16 hs, they would arrive at 14h15, 14h20, even at 15h00 once, not that they did less time, they would always stayed the two hours that were needed, but everytime I needed to suit myself to be home and open the door for them, and if I had other things to do then I would be stuck at home waiting for them (that would not even give a phone call saying that they were late). I had already complained about this issue when one day the cleaning lady totally stood me up and I was supposed to go get an ultrasound scan which of course I was late for. Two weeks ago I thought that enough was enough, the cleaning lady arrived late and I had another medical appointment, so I did not wait. When she called me to ask me where I was cause she was ringing at my door and nobody was answering, I told her to go home, that I would contact the agency cause I was fed up. I emailed the person in charge asking her to cancel my contract with them immediately and I explained why. She did not even care to answer my email. I read the contract and I was supposed to send a certified letter announcing the cancelation of the contract and I did. Only then I got an answer from the agency saying that they had "left me a voice mail" (not true) saying that I should have warned them about my disatisfaction with their services (I did warn them) and that it was not the lady's fault that her train was late. Now they are asking me to pay a fine for finishing the contract without three month's notice and I am just so angry. My husband says that we should just pay the damn fee and get it over with but I want to write a complaint letter saying how unprofessional I find their answer of "if the train is late it is not her fault". Could anyone help me word this letter in the most categorical way? I want these people to feel bad, even if I have to pay their fine. I appreciate your help and advice. Mary.