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Found 13 results

  1. I'm having some trouble with my manager at work. She has never been supportive about anything that I have requested, but today I felt, was the last straw. I requested permission to leave work an hour early and have the hour taken off as annual leave (because my partner has had to fly overseas to see her father who has been hospitalised and has been told could be terminal, thereby leaving me with no childcare at such short notice), to which she replied that she wouldn't normally support this, and that she will have to have chat with me about this. This is the same person who allowed one of my colleagues to leave four hours early on a saturday couple of weeks ago in order to attend the office party. I am seriously considering my options in terms of whom I can speak with regarding the behaviour of this person who seems to be constantly saying No to any of my requests, but an easy Yes to any of my colleagues who are much younger (yes, she has clearly shown herself to be ageist, but that's another issue). My question: Is taking time off to attend the office party considered fair whereas taking time off (annual leave) to care for young children who will be on their own due to unforeseen circs, unfair?
  2. My mum was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia, she has been with Virgin Media since 2011 starting out on a 18 month contract. Five months ago my mum came to live with me, I then went through the process of obtaining a Power of Attorney so I could deal with her housing arrangements ect. A month ago I phoned Virgin Media to cancel her TV services, they said they would need to speak to her and she would have to give them her password. After telling them I had Power of Attorney and my mum had Dementia and could not remember what she did a few hours ago let alone remember a password she was given 6 years ago they said they would have to send her the password. Luckily enough I still have the keys to her old flat as Social Care will not let me surrender the tenancy until they assess her as if I did they would look on it as me making her intentionally homeless.(whilst she waste's £600 a month on rent ect) Virgin Media said they would send a new password in a couple of days, after waiting a week I checked the flat and there was nothing from them. I phoned again weeks ago, again was promised they would send out a password. I was in the flat again last night and all there was from Virgin Media was a new bill for the coming month. I have now cancelled the Direct Debit. Who am I best to contact regarding this.
  3. HI I have been dealing with MYJar over a text loan from a fair while back. it was paid monthly via stepchange for a while and then when i left them i offered to pay monthly. I only borrowed £300. They said i owed them £276 and i was to pay £1 a month for 10 months and then the remainder off. Anyway, i was paying £10.00 a month and in February i sent a payment on the 1st and one on the 28th. They then got in touch 2 weeks ago and said as id missed march payment then the plan was cancelled, the loan followed its original credit cycle and additional charges were added as per the original agreement and the loan was forwarded to Secure Recoveries. I have checked my credit record and there are now 2 entries from MyJAr 1 for the original loan being showed as paying back and the other is for £1543. I called them up and they said it is Secure recoveries. What can i do I sent them my income and expenditure months ago and a covering letter as i couldn't afford to much payments. Shall i keep ignoring Thanks
  4. Hi and thanks in advance for any assistance you might give me. I run a small building company and we recently purchased a VW Passat from a dealer in Sutton to use as a company vehicle. Although we noted what appeared to be a few minor issues we were initially happy with the purchase. Within a few days a loud whining began from the gearbox and so we took it to our local garage, who takes care of all of our vehicles and is tried and trusted. He diagnosed gearbox failure and also ran a diagnostic which found that the throttle flap mechanism wasn't working correctly, another serious fault. He advised that the vehicle should not be driven until repairs had been made. We contacted the dealer immediately to explain and he advised us to drive the vehicle back and he would carry out repairs. We advised that is wasn't safe to drive, but he kept insisting it would be fine. This was repeated a number of times until we decided to write to him explaining that we would not drive the vehicle. We also do not believe we should pay for the vehicle to be recovered to his garage for the repairs, something which he is also insisting on. The vehicle has now remained undriven since the inspection and we are running out of patience. We are prepared to arrange for the repairs to be done at our local garage but the dealer is refusing to cover the cost of this. It looks very much like we will have to go down the legal route but any input would be appreciated.
  5. My father passed away on Tuesday last week and we are totally devastated as you can imagine. Mum is in care as she has althzhiemers. Dad left a will which said that he wished his half of the house to be divided between my brother and I and obviously the half my mother owned would go towards her care under the asset rules. (i believe anything over £14,000 is used to pay for her care) We have since learned that mum and dad owned the house under a joint tennancy which means that dads share of the house doesnt become part of dads estate and passes to my mums sole ownership. The house needs to be sold in order to fund mums care and as her daughter it falls to me to do that however in order to do it i have to apply for a "public guardianship" which means that I have to pay a bond to protect mums finances and this is something like £500 (annually i believe) so in effect the government are wanting me to pay for the right and privialige to sell my parents home and then give them the money! To be honest there was barely enough to pay for the funeral so my brother and i have had to use our savings to do that and at this moment I dont even have £500. So my questions are: 1. what would happen if i just refused to deal with the sale of the house, would someone be appointed by the government to deal with it? 2. If mum was in care due to being sectioned and currently funded under section 117 of the mental health act, does that mean that she will be continued to be funded by the government? I know that this is a sticky one but dont know where to turn, unable to get appt with cab for weeks and really at the end of my tether. Dealing with the grief and organising funeral is bad enough but having all this over my head at the moment is making me ill. i just hope someone on here can help. Thanks Monx
  6. I once had a 3G dongle, which persistly crashed and i had many wasted hours having to redo things, so much so i had to either go out with it, or wait for a passing satelite to be favourable to me. I repeatedly complained to 3G, and I asked what happens if I want to end this. In reply I was told if i dont pay £15 at end of the month it would automatically be switched off. This was desperate after months battling with it. It was on a plan, sold to me rather hastily in a car phone shop. So 3G was well aware of the problem, and that i intended to end the use of it. All was going well, that was back in 2008. Now in 2014, I get a letter from lowells, saying i owe £239 !! Following advise I got off reading sites, I asked them to prove it, asking for full statements, contract which they stated I had signed, Notice of assignment etc. All for something I didnt know i owed! Well they sent me notice of assignment, supposedly sent to me in 2012, in place of a full statement i have got a bill dated for the following may, for £39, the other £200 being early disconnection fee, which hadnt made it on to a bill for 3G even though their bill was dated 6 months later. I never received the first bill, much less any notice of anything until 2014. I know i have moved once, but I'm not hard to find. First I knew was actually an ex partner writing to tell me Lowells had discussed with him a bill I had for 3G, I wasnt impressed as this person is not allowed to contact me under any circumstances. This week it has been handed to Red. I should add I made classic mistake of phoning them, and giving my date of birth, tel number etc in the first instance. Phone number has now been changed due to their never ending calls
  7. Hi Please could any of you provide some advise please. Sorry for the long post My mother died unexpectedly on 24th April. My brother and I are her only surviving next of kin being her son and daughter. We found a will dated 2003 naming a certain solicitors as executors and trustess of the state and my brother and I as her beneficiaries. Looking into her estate it would appear that it is insolvent, there being approximately £3500 in her bank and a further £3500 in an over 50's plan. She had two credit cards debts for approximately £3500 and £4500 and a credit agreement with a furniture store for £1500. There is no house or anything other of value such as a car as she had a mobility car and was declared bankrupt in 2006. She only started a funeral payment plan 3 months ago which is obviously not going to pay out. Ive done much reading the past few days and sought legal advice as well as spoken to a probate practitioner and a bereavement support advisory service. The general consensus appears to be that as next of kin and not personal representatives we can pay a reasonable amount for her funeral, including a wake and a headstone and wrie to her creditors as next of kin advising them of her death ( we've already phoned and told them) and advise them of the insolvent estate and ask if they will consider writing off the debt. I would also get a firm to value the contents of whats in her home but I am pretty sure its not worth anything of value. My understanding is that there is no duty to settle an insolvent estate and we should then leave it to the creditors to settle the estate if they want to reclaim what is left. I was also advised to put a notice in the London gazette re further creditors contacting me. I contacted the said solicitors last Tuesday lunch to request that they stand down as executors given the situation. My brother and I being unable to confirm her funeral arrangements until we know that they will stand down and we can safely use the monies in her account to pay for her funeral. We do not have enough funds ourselves at present. I phoned the solicitors again at 4.30 that day and was initially told that my mother owed them money, when I was put through to their acounts depeartment I was first told that they could not give me any information as it was confidential, then later told she didnt owe anything and that someone would be in contact though they couldnt say when.Two days later I received a call from the firm advising that one of the partners would be in contact. I should add at this point that this is a firm who I had dealings with recently and took to the Legal Ombudsman due to the poor service I felt I received. I won on certain points lost on others. The Legal Ombudsman pointed out that I may have further compliants in future as my case was still ongoing. Wanting to move on with my life I didnt complain until it turned out that they had misbilled me on several ocassions and then wanted more money, which I paid along with making an official complaint which I have yet to receive a reply and will no doubt have to go to the Legal Ombudsman again for. To say I have no faith in the sods is an understatement. Ive posted previously on this site about this matter if you want to bore your self with the details This morning I phoned again and was told by the secretary that whilst they had located my mothers divorce file they had not yet found her other file. I was also shouted at by the secretary when I asked when someone would contact me as I just wanted to bury my mother. She apologised imediately but thats not the point. I sent the following email to the partner I was advised was handling the case Dear Partner A, I am writing to you in respect of my mothers estate and on behalf of my brother and I as sole beneficiaries. My mother passed away unexepectedly on 24th April 2014. My brother and I have located a will dated 2003 which identifies your firm as executor and trustees. Can you confirm that there is not a more recent will with your firm. Having looked at my mothers financial situation it would appear that the estate is insolvent. There being approximately £3500 in her bank accounts and a further £3500 in an over 50's life insurance plan and approximately £7500 in credit card debts. Due to my mother being made bankrupt in 2006 there are no other assets such as a house etc. My understanding, after seeking legal advice, is that there is no legal obligation to settle an insolveant estate. My brother and I would very much like you to agree to stand down as executers and trustees of her will so that we may then access her funds to arrange and pay for her funeral. It has now been over a week since I first contacted your firm to request this and am disappointed that as yet no one has contacted us to discuss this or made a decision on the matter. Until you do agree to this my brother and I are unable to make any funeral arrangements for her. After calling your office today I am advised that you have located her divorce file but not the file containing her will as yet. Please could you ensure that this is done today and that a decision is made so that we may arrange her burial. The current situation is becoming quite intolerable. If you require any further details please do not hesitate to contact me on ********** I received this email this afternoon Thank you for your e-mail of this morning. I was sorry to hear of your mother’s death. I have spoken to my partner, solicitor A with whom you have already been in touch and she is currently looking into whether there is a more recent Will that that referred to made in 2003. You will appreciate that papers have to be recovered from store and this does take time. You say it is “over a week since I first contacted your firm to request this and am disappointed that as yet no one has contacted us to discuss this or made a decision on the matter.” Presumably you mean the request for the partners to stand down as Executors as of course solicitor A was in touch with you last week by telephone. I do not know who has been advising you but the personal representatives of an insolvent estate have a duty to act in the best interest of the creditors of the deceased rather than the beneficiaries under the Will. Debts have to be paid before any legacies and personal representatives may be personally liable to pay money back into the Estate if this procedure is not followed. Before myself and my partner partner B are prepared to renounce Probate we will require an indemnity from you and your brother that you will personally pay to us any liability that we incur as a result of us renouncing Probate. Apart from the indemnity that I refer to we will also expect the costs of the Deed of Renunciation which we can prepare to be paid by your brother and yourself. There is no reason why you should not arrange the funeral and it may be possible for funds to be accessed without a Grant of Probate, given the assets to which you refer. The information you refer to in your final paragraph concerning the Divorce file is incorrect. Apart from the indemnity that I refer to we will also expect the costs of the Deed of Renunciation which we can prepare to be paid by your brother and yourself. Please let me know if you are prepared to agree to proceed on the above basis. Yours sincerely. I want to write to them advising them of the their incorrect presumption that my brother and I would be acting as personal representatives and that we would only be acting as next of kin. That whilst I am aware that creditors come before beneficiaries when there is an insolvent estate I am aware of the order that debts should be paid is as follows 1.reasonable funeral expenses 2. administration costs (your firm) 3. creditors. That my brother and I intend to pay for her funeral from the estate and should her creditors wish to administer her estate themselves that will be up to them. There is no duty for anyone to administer an insolvent estate. That the only people who appear to lose out from this situation is their firm, therefore I believe there is a conflict of interest, nothwithstanding the fact that I have grave doubts about the level of service they provide as evidence by my previous complaint to the ombudsman and a currrent complaint they have yet to respond to, and that I feel that they are dealing with the matter in a prejudiced manner given the complaints I have made. I also want to ask them to confirm by the end of tomorrow whether or not there is a more recent will and what information they require from us to prove her financial position, and that if I do not hear from them I shall proceed on the basis that they have agreed to stand down. Obviously I shall try not to use such long sentences and huge number of commas. I am so angry and upset with them. We just want to bury our mother and get on with grieving and not deal with such selfish, callous turds. Is this the right thing to do?Is it stipulated anywhere that there is no duty to to administer an insolvent estate?
  8. Can anybody advise me as to what to do? I found a job advertisement on the 'jobsearch' website, and sent off my CV to which I was asked to attend an interview. During the interview I was at no point advised that the position was one of self employment or that I would have to supply the business with a self employment number and invoice for my wages. I was told I would be paid straight into my bank account on a weekly basis and never advised that I would have to do anything in order to receive my wages. However a month passed and I didn't receive payment, I was told various excuses on different occasions and even advised that payment had been made when in fact it hadn't. When I said I would be taking the matter further in order to receive payment I was advised that I can not legally be paid without a self employment number and that "I was being given a favour by not doing this previously" when I had never previously been advised of this. I have sent a letter to the company advising that they have committed an act of 100% deduction of wages but have not heard back. I received a text this evening saying that payment would not be made until they receive an invoice and my self employment number. What do you advise I do? As I am unsure where I stand legally for the money I am owed.
  9. Hi, My mother has a difficult and complicated problem with Kensington. I have only just found this forum and reading the experiences people have had with this company has got me very worried. My sister died at the end of last year. She and my mother have been resident in the property for almost thirty years. The property was in my sister’s sole name and it was left to my mother in my sister’s will. My mother holds the Grant of Probate and is administering the estate (which has no value apart from the property). My sister’s main mortgage was with GE Money, but following some financial difficulties she took out a fixed sum loan with Kensington in 2006 which was secured against the property. Until my sister’s death the payments were kept up to date, but no payments have been made since then. My mother has negotiated with GE Money and they are prepared to let her stay in the property as long as she keeps up the ongoing mortgage payments to them, which she has done. The first mortgage with GE has around £190,000 outstanding and the loan from Kensington was for £24,000. In July my mother received a letter from Kensington saying that they were commencing possession proceedings. Since then, she has had no communication from Kensington or their solicitors although she has received an account statement for August which includes fees for a solicitor’s letter, solicitor’s fees and court fees. Since my sister’s death Kensington have been adding a monthly arrears fee of £50 per month to the account which now has £26,000 outstanding. My mother wrote to Kensington last week asking why the court charges and solicitor’s fees were added to the statement as we had had no communication from either and asking for a complete transaction statement for the account. She also asked them to provide a full and detailed explanation of how they calculate their arrears fee. Today she received a letter from Kensington which answered none of the above queries and simply asked if she intended to sell the house and that they were entitled to charge arrears fees. The property is in a poor state of repair and has been converted for a disabled person (my sister was tetraplegic). We doubt that its sale would even cover the outstanding amount owed to GE Money, so Kensington are unlikely to recover anything from the possession. My mother is 76 years old and is terrified that she is going to lose her home, so if anybody here on the forum could offer any advice it would be much appreciated. Thank you.
  10. My first post here, so please bear with me... I have been out of work now for just over a year, when I had taken out my debts, I was in a well-paid job and could comfortably afford the repayments. My circumstances changed when I had to give up work and I was no longer able to afford my minimum payments - debts totalled 17k over 4 CCs and 1 loan. Contacted StepChange who helped me put together my I&E forms to send out and all but one accepted my token offer of £1 payment - Sygma (or Creation Finance). They have been a nightmare from day one - I've been harassed on the phone by them and had to send a letter asking them to remove my number under the DPA. Then they were wanting to know the details of what car my husband owned - when I explained to them that it was my sole debt and that I had taken out the CC before we even met, let alone got married, they weren't interested and accused me of being deliberately evasive. I used to call them up, but they were like attack dogs on the phone and one guy in particular called me a liar and said that my husband could probably cover my debts, but I was being deliberately unhelpful to them (his words were, 'some people genuinely need our help and some people just want to get out of paying their way ). He got really nasty, I had a good cry after I'd come off the phone and I'm not an overly emotional person. Fast forward to now, they are asking to see 3 months of wage slips (I don't work), 3 months of bank statements and any claims of benefits I receive. I told them that I have no wage slips, and any benefits we receive go into my husband's account as a joint claim (we only get child benefit and a small amount of CTC). As for the bank statements, I asked StepChange and they effectively told me to inform them to go whistle. Sygma replied today, saying that they need 3 months' worth of my bank statements, as well as 3 months' worth of my husband's bank statements, because that is where our benefit payments go. If I don't then they will continue to apply interest, default charges etc. to my account which will result in the balance increasing to unmanageable amounts and will be passed on to a DCA or followed up with court proceedings. If you've got this far, well done. Question is, what do I do next? There's about £25 in my bank account, but my husband has said that they'll see his bank statements over his dead body. I wouldn't mind if he was on a footballer's wage, but we're downsizing to a new house next month as we're just about breaking even each month where we are at the moment, so it's not like we have loads of spare cash between us. Any advice?
  11. More support for the advice that you should not ignore completely but that you should make it clear that you are up for a fight. Here are some heavily redacted extracts:- Full horrible story here:- http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article3698204.ece# Shocking. I had always thought that the United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service has great integrity
  12. I owe approx £3000 on a vanquis card. I was in a well paid job and comfortably paying back what I owed when I developed a long term, chronic illness and eventually lost my job, I now receive esa. I invoked the PPI on vanquis two years ago which has now ended - during that time they received numerous copies of letters from the dwp and my hospital confirming my situation. When they sent me the letter saying that PPI had run out I sent them my income/expenditure budget statement and details of the other debts I have and the amounts they have accepted (ie, 10k bank loan have accepted £6.50 per month via their debt collector). I offered Vanquis £5.50 which is all I have left to offer them. I also made it clear in my letter that all correspondence needed to be in writing as I am too ill to deal with things over the phone. A few weeks later I received a letter that mentioned nothing about my offer or situation whatsoever but suggesting I contact Step Change (I've looked at them and tbh I dont want a third party involved particularly when the other debts are already being managed adequately and the website seems to want to push people into IVAs) I received a statement where they have added interest, charges because the interest have pushed the balance over the limit AND they have started to apply PPI charges again (even though I would not be eligible to claim PPI again). So I sent them another letter, a copy of the original letter, copy of income/expenditure, etc. Today I received a really shirty letter from them saying they have been unable to contact me by phone, they cannot accept my offer, that I should contact Step Change and that I MUST speak to them by phone! Now, I know full well that they cannot force people to discuss things on the phone and the fact that I have already told them I am unable to seems to have been completely ignored. I'm thinking that it is probably going to be easier just to wait it out for debt collectors to become involved as they are usually (in my prior experience) easier to deal with and do things properly after the initial couple of letters. Or is there something else I can do? I'm very tempted to make a complaint because stress makes my illness worse
  13. Hi, Was just wondering if someone could help me and my flatmates with a situation we're having with recovering our deposit for a flat in London. The three of us are students at present, but the rental was a private one. We vacated the flat without the landlord or a representative from the letting agency present, but did our own full inventory and took photos of this. The landlord (who deceitfully is also a director of the letting agency company) is disputing claims that the deposit will not be returned because of his own costs: £850 to repaint it?! - but we haven't consented to this or at least discussed it - or seen a vat receipt of the company that did it, as well as others for 'professional cleaning' - all despite us leaving the flat in an arguably better state than which we received it in (on moving in the boiler was barely functioning and the kitchen and living room infested with cockroaches - despite reporting it to them and they eventually being sorted. Do we have any grounds to contest this with? Can the landlord charge himself whatever amount he likes for these ridiculous 'repairs' and non-acceptance of general wear and tear. The deposit is registered with a scheme and they have means to dispute it, but we'd like to keep it amicable if we have any chance of recovering it? Any help would be really appreciated.
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