I would value your advice on how to respond to an offer from Xercise4less that hopefully would result in the closure of a dispute over my son's alleged membership arrears. In brief, my son and his friend joined Xercise4less last May on a monthly rate of £9.99 four months later when they went away to university they both cancelled. A month or so later my son noticed the monthly fee was still being deducted he cancelled the direct debit. Shortly after that he received a letter from Harlands claiming he was in arrears and that he owed monthly fees plus administration charges of £25. Others followed a month ago CRS sent him a letter (followed by a text) asking for fees of £66.50 as part of alleged arrears now totalling £166.45. He tried to contact Xercise4less by phone (no one ever answered) and by email (the company replied by referring him back to his local gym as central office hadn't received any evidence of the cancellation of his membership). More emails to the gym manager followed until he was told that in fact he was not a member of that particular gym - but of another one 6-8 miles away!! He had used the local gym for 4 months but no one had ever challenged him on the fact that apparently he wasn't even a member there... By this time the whole situation was annoying me as much as my son. I am regularly in pain and sleep is often difficult I vowed to resolve this matter once and for all. I emailed Xercise4less two days ago and this afternoon they replied. They asked for evidence of his cancellation from the gym (it was a verbal cancellation with nothing in writing). They asked for proof that he had moved to university (I have an email from his university with an accommodation tenancy agreement). Then came the money part of the offer, the bit I need your advice on... They said if evidence of relocation is provided a request would be submitted for his membership to be recalled from CRS. However this would need “a final £9.99 payment and a £20.00 administration fee” for the account to be fully closed down. My question is: should I pay any or all of those fees?

Hi Over the Christmas period I was charged by Santander £25 for DD failure, 2x £25 for two standing order failures and £20 for an unarranged overdraft request (which I didnt request or receive). I have spoken to the bank who refuse to withdraw the charges so I have withdrawn my money and arranged for my pay to go into another bank prior to the charges being applied. Now they have applied charges to the empty account and written to me saying I can write to the Ombudsman etc and that the Supreme Court ruled charges fair. Any positive advice? Thanks

Hi All, I am hoping someone can help me out with a dispute I am having with VF. To try keep this brief, I will put it down in timeline form. This information is based on the transcipts I requested from VF. 14/10/2014 - I received a call from VF sales team saying that I was a Gold Customer and as such I was being offered a 24 Month, 8GB, IPad Air contract for only £8.50 a month. I double checked the price and details and said that I would accept the offer. I was informed I had 2 weeks to cancel if I wanted to. 26/10/2014 - I phoned VF to confirm contract details (as I was sceptical) and was told the contract was for £32.50 (full price) and that there was no mention of either a gold customer special or £8.50 offer. I requested they investigate and they said they raised a sales assurance request and they would reply within 2 weeks. They confirmed the cancellation period was still in effect until the query was resolved. 09/11/2014 - I phoned VF to enquire about the sales assurance request and they informed me the team dealing with them was backlogged and they could not provide me with a timeline as to when they will be able to respond. 29/12/2014 - I phoned VF to enquire about the sales assurance request and was told that a sales assurance request was not the correct request and that they have raised a call listening request which would take 3-5 days. 29/12/2014 - VF SMS'ed me to the iPad informing me that I had been misadvised and "they cannot honour the contract". Unfortunately, I was not using the iPad at this point until I could resolve the issue, so did not received the SMS. 05/01/2015 - I phoned VF to find out the result of the call listening and was informed that "they cannot honour the contract" (apparently, contracts are binding to the consumers but VF can cancel them anytime they wish). I agreed to return the iPad but pointed out that the iPad had a scratch on it (iPad Air was very flimsy) and that I wanted a full refund due to them messing me around so much. I was told I would have to raise the complaint once iPad returned. I organised a return for 06/01/2015 and agreed I would be home. 11/01/2015 - I phoned VF to query why the iPad was not collected. They said it was scheduled to be collected on 13/01/2015 (a full week after the agreed date). On the transcipts, they only submitted the collection request on the 10/01/2015, 4 days after the agreed collection date. I informed them that I cannot be at home on the 10/01/2015 and requested they change the date. They said that it was already processed and that "I must wait for the DPD colllection". 18/01/2015 - I used the online chat to contact VF complaints department. After repeating this entire timeline again to them, they informed me that they can cancel the contract but I was not eligible for a refund for costs to date. So, the 100 odd pounds they had overcharged me would not be refunded regardless of the fact that they took over 3 months to determine that they cannot honour the contract they offered. 19/01/2015 - I requested VF provide me with all the information they had on my accounts to allow me to prepare to take them to small claims court. Apologies for the long post, but I wanted to emphasis that I tried my best to sort this out at the time and VF failed to deliver any proof nor did they do anything that would result in a satisfying response. I realise that was just over a year ago, but I have been renovating my house for the last year and did not have the time nor patience to tackle VF. I have not been using the iPad air at all during this time, but have been paying the monthly contract fees of £33 (it seems to have gone up by £0.50 on top of everything else). What I would like from VF is a full refund, them to collect the iPad from a location and time of my choice, and an apology for their incompetence during this entire ordeal. I am happy to take this through to small claims court, but would prefer a simpler solution. I have seen the VF Sticky at the top of this forum and will be following it's advice once I have a post to reference. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi everyone..... I have recently got into a dispute with a landlord regarding the return of fees paid for referencing checks. I am about to file a small claims submission, but first I'd appreciate any advice/comments. Basically what happened was put in an offer for a flat that he owns, and we believe he had accepted the offer (see email chain below). However when the tenancy agreement came through it was a higher amount than we agreed. I contacted him and he said he never accepted our offer, and the price is fixed. We therefore decided not to move ahead with going for the flat because what he was asking was too high for the standard of the flat, and we didn't think it was safe to work with someone who acts in this manner. I have tried talking to him about it but he refuses to accept that he should return the fee. I sent him a letter giving him 14 days notice before taking him to court, and he has again written back saying he will not return the fee. He says he never accepted our offer, and the price was on rightmove.co.uk. Here are the emails between my wife and this landlord (I've blanked out names) where we put an offer to him, his response. I can't see however any way in which this can't be seen as acceptance of our offer. We responded to this by negotiating an early release from our current landlord, so we could move in to meet the new landlords timescales. There were no subsequent discussions about the rental amount until I queried the amount showing on the tenancy agreement. EMAIL TRAIL STARTS HERE.... Hi Charles, Thank-you for arranging the viewing today, Graham was lovely and very helpful. We liked the flat and are interested in renting the property from you, the only issue we have is it's slightly over what we had originally planned to spend. Would you be willing to consider £1200 per month please? Thank you, Emily ============================================================================== Hi Emily, Really pleased that you liked the flat and had a good viewing with Graham. Graham said you are a really nice family and would be well suited in the flat and good tenants so I am keen to offer the flat to you. What will help me make my final decision will be when you could take the flat on, do you have an ideal date to move in? I would also ask if you can help give me some more info by filling in the attached document and send back to me. This will also assist with referencing if we go forward. Thanks again and speak soon. Charles

Hi CAGgers, Since having left BG early 2015, I seem to have had a charge added toy account. Prior to moving I confirmed that my account was up to date (bar about £20 usage for the 2 weeks before I left). After leaving, I was initially bombarded with calls from foreign call centres chasing a new debt for £140. Despite disputing this and reminding them that there's an open dispute from a few years earlier I was blatantly ignored. In short: Every call I made to BG was logged (transcribed against a date and time with persons name etc...). At some point in 2013, it was noted that I was quoted one set of unit rates, but when I checked my bills a year or so later, I was getting a whole other set of rates (about 70% more expensive). The actual call dating the unit quotes, reference number and persons name is logged... As at the time I was a user of theirs, and had some debt, the relied on that to pursue the debt rather than address the issue at hand. The temporary outcome for the price dispute came to a £50 refund (which is about £200 short of what I was missing). I contacted BG's CEO thanks to ceoemail's website and got a fairly friendly person to approach the situation. Despite trying he still insisted that £140 was outstanding. I contacted him again after discussing this after leaving, (sept 2015, also logged with the rest), I literally get no replied further from them... As it stands, They've put a nasty marker on my new squeaky clean credit record which I managed to get back to health and no matter what I do i.e. call them, contact the CRA's, nobody is budging. What's the best way to approach this? I was hoping that my clear and concise logging of each and every call, email and letter would clear the way for an easy transition but things still seem a bit grim. It was suggested that i send the CEO a daily email to literally bother them into resolving the situation, but I feel that this could amount to harassment. Any ideas as to how to dig my way out of their hole? Cheers, A

I recently moved out of a shared flat and the lettings agent sent through a dilapidation report detailing any damage to the property, missing items etc. and the deductions from our deposit that would be made as a result. About half of their claims were reasonable, but about half weren't so we disputed what we felt we needed to. We asked for a detailed breakdown of the costs and evidence of the damage (costs had been lumped by room rather than by each item). In response they asked for a counter offer, said a breakdown of costs was not possible, and made reference to 'expensive work' that would need to come out of the deposit but that was not mentioned in the original report. At this point it felt like they were trying to intimidate us into accepting the original offer. We sent a counter offer and they said they would pass it to the landlord. We did not receive a response to the counter offer, but rather a list of costs for additional work done to the flat far exceeding our deposit (painting, carpet replacements, things like that) that had not been outlined as necessary in the original report. They made no mention of the original report, nor our counter offer, but said a compensatory charge amounting to our full deposit would be required. Their behaviour has been odd and has seemed like the longer the dispute has gone on the more they are trying to charge us. I get the feeling they are trying to intimidate us to forking over the whole deposit but I don't want to gamble that, call their bluff, and wind up owing them much more. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have a dispute with EE mobile over an unpaid bill. What procedure should they have followed before reporting to credit agency..

Hello, Looking for some advice if possible. I have got in a real mess with Welsh Water and they have reduced the water pressure in my house. I now have no hot water and not enough pressure to refill my toilet which is upstairs. A few years ago, when I ended up as the only person living in my house I switched to a water meter. I was paying on DD and all was rosey. Suddenly, somehow a bill for just under £1000 turned up. I just couldn't understand it. It turns out my water meter was feeding not only my house by my next door neighbours house!. Welsh Water came round and took the water meter off. They then returned a few weeks later to try and fit a meter inside the house but the engineer seemed to think it wasn't possible. About 2 weeks ago WW called me and stated that my water bill for 2012/2013 was due and it is £1300 based on my houses rateable value. So, after not really not knowing how to work out how much they owed me and how much I owed them I stuck my head in the sand. Now I have no water pressure. Just a dribble. Im going to call WW now and try and sort it out but was wondering can i demand a water meter? I really really cannot afford over £100 a month for water and sewerage. I really need to get on a meter. Can they refuse to fit a meter? Thanks

Hi all, I've spent a lot of time reading threads in to Harlands and am pretty confident that my situation isn't really dire or anything, however I could really use your help. I terminated my contract at fit4less Croydon by terminating my DD in online banking. I had read fit4less T&Cs on their website which quite clearly said something along the lines of "we do not enforce long term contacts" "to cancel anytime simply contact your bank" Hardlands then sent a correspondence out but obviously I know how DD's work so I needed to make up a payment for the following month because of when I cancelled the DD, which makes sense and I was told i'd have access until a date in december. There is a clear payment over the phone on my bank statement to snapdda.co.uk. Shortly afterwards another correspondence came through, this time it said you owe £0.00 Weird? or what? Now it's January and suddenly I get this letter through with further fees added to make £79.98 On the 9th of this month collection passes to a dca (still these guys I presume) incurring fees and potential court action. I'm not too worried. I have spoken to the gym and they said to me about cancelling with a letter but luckily I had memorised what I read in their T&Cs and the lady admitted there was a "common problem" with this. The gym have offered to contact Harlands on my behalf to resolve the issue as I am supposedly in the right for paying my fees as requested before. I would like to get any opinions on what the likely outcome of this will be if possible. Thanks all J

Hello, My wife (unknown to me, though not through deception of any kind understand) opened a PPI refund case with a bank via Black Pearl PPI firm. The case was against our joint bank account. Note - My wife joined the account in 2003. She (alone) signed the Black pearl forms of consent, so they could go off and make a claim against the bank. Bank has agreed to a miss selling of PPI on a overdraft which started in 1999 (before wife was part of the account) to 2007. I am wondering if technically, wife legally doesn't need to pay Black Pearl their fee based on ... 1. I didn't sign a consent with her, for black pearl to investigate the account in question. 2. The PPI insurance started before my wife became part of the account. I cant for the life of my find Black pearls T&C's!, which I'm sure would answer my question, so hoping somebody with knowledge in this could advise please kindly. I'm happy to pay black pearl (with a grudge), but would rather not

Dear all. My tenant are asking me to repair the rear fence. However, because of the different configuration of the garden behind us, our rear fence is actually the neighbour’s left hand fence. If this is the case, then are we still definitely responsible for this fence? The deeds do not say whose fence it is! Does anybody have any ideas please?

Hi, My 75 year old Mam bought a laptop from Argos on 9/2/2015 via their own Store Card, she only used the laptop twice and due to family reasons has been away from her home for a few month. This week when she tried to use the laptop again it will not boot up at all, either the laptop shows the message "Toshiba diagnosing problem" and the screen hangs and the cycle starts again or it requests a HDD password. I along with my Mam took the laptop complete with original packaging and the receipt to the store where it was purchased and that's when the fun began. The 3 staff who eventually dealt with us opened up the laptop messed about with it,kept repeating that it was out of the 30 day period when it wasn't under it in the first place, lied about info on the receipt and disagreed with me about the contract i.e. between my mam and argos and not Toshiba, at first said they would send it for repair then together decided that as printed on the receipt we should contact Toshiba to sort it and Toshiba will give us a ref number, what the heck?? Basically before I lose the will to live what are my Mam's Stat Rights concerning all this please? Any advice to the legal side would be greatly appreciated. I think that it should be Argos that deal with the contacting of manufacturers etc ultimately I want a replacement for this laptop which is defective and not numerous repairs and telephone calls. Will be contacting the customer helpline and would much appreciated the ammo to help me out with it all. Cheers

Hi all This is my first time posting so please bear with me if I don't make much sense! I joined a gym in January this year as it was on my way home from work and my sister had already joined. I was then unfortunately made redundant in May but managed to get a new job in June. My new place of work is now more than 15 miles from the gym and in completely the opposite direction to the route I now have to take home. I was (thankfully!) given a copy of the agreement and T&C's that I signed by the gym when I signed up. In the T&C's it states the following: "Your right to cancel this agreement We will cancel your membership during the minimum membership period without any further obligation on your part if you are not reasonably able to access the gym in the following circumstances. You must either (a) provide a letter from your doctor to prove that you have been advised not to use the gym for the foreseeable future for a medical reason; or (b) provide written confirmation (e.g. a letter from your employer) to prove that the location of your main place of work has changed and is more than 15 miles from the gym; or © you provide written confirmation (e.g. utility bills) to prove that you have moved more than 15 miles from the gym." I therefore got a signed letter from my employer on letter headed paper stating that as of 15 June my main place of work had changed and was now more that 15 miles from the gym and sent it to Ashbourne with a letter advising I would therefore be cancelling my DD, which I did. Ashbourne then wrote back to me saying they wanted a copy of my employment contract, so I emailed them saying I wouldn't provide this (as didn't want them having all that personal information) as I had already provided a letter as indicated I should in the T&C's. They then replied saying that I could only cancel if my place of work was 15 miles away AND if I had moved 15 miles away. So I wrote back advising them that the T&C's stated OR not AND, and as these were the T&C's that I had signed these were the ones I had agreed to and were bound to and that I had complied with them. I have since emailed them a copy of the contract I signed about 6 times and they ignore me every time and just keep sending letters demanding more money. Any help on how to get them to stop would be greatly appreciated. (I've also attached a copy of the clause I refer to) Thanks

I joined Fit4less a long time ago (over a year) It was know as Energie Fitness. I have never had a problem with them until recently. When the gym became Fit4Less tehy asked me to update my DD details with them so I could continue my membership. I did so and was told I could cancel anytime. My partner gave birth to twins in June and since then I haven't had the time/energy to attend the gym. 3 months passed with me not going once so I thought well I'll just cancel my Direct Debit. A few weeks later I received a letter from Harlands redirected to my new address. Dated 15th Sept, 2 days after I cancelled the DD. The letter stated: Your bank has advised us that your final instalment has been returned 'unpaid' "instruction cancelled". We have therefore, added a £20.00 administration charge which means tehre is a balance due of £39.99. Then they go on to say I need to call this 10p per min line to collect the money. They also I could send in a cheque before the 22nd Sept. They also gone on to say they assume I do not wish to renew my membership etc. After reading similar threads on this website. I emailed this morning the following: Dear sir or madam, I refer to my membership at Fit4Less gym in Croydon. I cancelled my direct debit mandate in the middle of September 2015 and this was adequate notice of my intention to cancel. When I joined Fit4Less over a year ago (previously named 'Energie Fitness') I was told there was no contract and I could cancel at anytime. All they asked me for was my direct debit details, I did not sign anything and was not given any contract or terms and conditions. However I realise now I should have made one final payment for the September 2015 payment and offer to pay this to you now. I will not pay you any administration or cancellation fees - these are penalties that are unlawful and unenforceable. If you confirm in writing that you'll accept the amount of £19.99 in settlement of all that I owe, I will pay you promptly. If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days or you demand any other payment, I will pay you nothing and my offer will be withdrawn. Yours faithfully, Domo I hope I said the right thing, anyway you can clearly see on their website: f4l.com 'Fit4less Croydon is a great value gym at only £19.99 per month & No contract! I can't find their terms and conditions anywhere on their website and I certainly wasn't given any when I joined. Hope you can help me, any advice would be greatly appreciated as I really can't afford to be paying out extra expenses at the moment. Kind Regards

I'm newbie .. sorry if I'm post this in the wrong place .. I'm an individual .. I lost a legal case against two powerful organisations. The statement of their legal costs is unbelievably high .. How can I resist/dispute that in an attempt to make it reasonable?

My vehicle was involved in an accident with public transport the incident was settled but Stagecoach are disputing payment for the hire vehicle, which the insurance company Direct Accident Management let me keep for three weeks after the settlement. Now it is going to court and I've been told I've got to attend. The solicitors Armstrong have a statement and told me hopefully it will be settled before the court date and therefore I would not have to attend . I have received another letter telling me when I'll be collected, the date and time. I am assured that I will not be charged for the time I had the hire car so do I have to attend because as far as I concerned my part in the case was settled. I have requested documents in my file but the request was ignored I dont even know what the case involves, or if documents exist. As it apparently went to court in February which I know nothing about.

Hi all, newbie here needing advice before possible court action. I was in dispute with Aqua over charges applied after they closed the account and my account was being managed by their dispute team. However, Aqua sold the debt refusing to accept my dispute. I had been getting hassling calls from DCA and kept asking them to return the account to Aqua. Eventually after about 5 calls in 2 months i sent them a Cease and Desist email (I know it should be by mail but they confirmed receipt of the email and later in writing.) They have since just sent me copies of statements showing the balance being claimed matched the last statement. Conveniently they had no record of the dispute with Aqua. I dont dispute all the debt and offered them same as I offered Aqua (750 of a 1000 balance - the extra being i believe unenforceable charges --In brief they've closed the account because they withdrew the product from all customers apparently. I have a letter showing this and sent it to DCA. At that time Aqua should have closed the account (to confuse matters Aqua never actually closed the account when they said in writing they would) but had they done it, i no longer had a line of credit and my argument is you cant charge overlimit fees once the limit is removed by closing the account. I refused to pay them anything all the time they continued to charge me these fees, hoping common sense would prevail I suggested to DCA they have 3 options - return to Aqua, accept my offer which is still probably double what they paid for it or take me to court.. NB Till now, they have not yet sent me a copy of the original CCA so i suspect they are unlikely to go to court without it. Just to add all the comms between me and Aqua were via their secure email as part of my account and i attempted to get a copy of those mails and Aqua claim they are no longer available so evidence of the exchanges cant be found. Hence i am looking for general guidance about : 1) Can a CC sell an account in dispute? 2) Can a DCA refuse to return an account in dispute with the original CC 3) As part of the C&D letter I told them I would start charging for my time if they contact me further unless its to accept one of the three options - i wont physically invoice them but presumably can keep a record and if it goes to court and i win ,deduct it from my settlement? 4) Any thoughts on my statement that once a CC account is closed by pure reason of them no longer offering the service, can they charge overlimit fees still (and interest on that overlimit fees) when i no longer have a limit. Surely it now just a debt which needs to be repaid? Thanks for your attention...

Hi all, I've been told this is the very best place to come for sound advice, so here goes - it's a long convoluted story but I'll keep it as short as I can. I live in a one bed flat that occupies the front half of a three story town house. Last year, unbeknown to me, Scottish Power messed up billing on my account for electric (something to do with them changing their computer system to a new one). Then out of the blue I received a bill for £1100 - on top of what i had already paid / been paying. I questioned it (obviously!) They said the figure was correct and based on actual readings. I continued to question it and raised an official complaint. I have no TV and use my washing machine once every 2 weeks. I have a desktop pc that is on all day and a fridge freezer. That's pretty much it apart from small items like LED desktop lamp, phone chargers etc. So there's NO WAY I could be using the amount of electric they claimed I was using. So while this complaint was being processed by Scottish Power (A whole other nightmare!) I continued to pay £100 a month off the debt they said I owed. As obviously I would be using SOME electricity, just not the amount they claim. Few weeks back, out of the blue, a debt recovery agent turns up at my front door, threatens me with all kinds legal fees, court costs etc if i don't sign his paperwork and agree to having a prepayment meters fitted. Feeling intimidated, I signed his paperwork. This morning an electrician from Scottish Power turns up to fit my prepaid electric meter. He takes one look at my meter and says, "Can't change your meter, there's a problem". Well the problem, according to the electrician is that my meter has other stuff wired into it, which he guesses to be, the communal power for the entire building, hall way landing lights on every floor, fire alarm, AND another flat - again guessing it to be the little bedsit behind my flat, but on the same floor. So my questions are: Has a crime been committed? Where do i stand legally? What action should i take? (Can't afford lawyer - I'm on benefits) What should i do about this money Scottish power still insists i owe them? This whole situation has been massively stressful. I've actually developed Alopecia which I directly attribute to the stress of the alleged debt and the excruciating frustration of trying get coherent answers from Scottish Power. I don't need to tear my hair out, it's falling out all by itself! All suggestions welcome and greatly appreciated.

Hi Just looking for a little advice from anyone out there, My family has just moved out of a property rented for 2 years. The landlady has via her solicitor sent a letter claiming that we did not clean, meaning she spent £70 on professional cleaners. She also claims we have ruined the new carpets she put down at the beginning of the tenancy and not maintained the garden. She is looking to keep our deposit (£550) and then some to rectify the issues. Now we're not entirely stupid, we took photos when we moved in and photo and video footage when we moved out, so we can can confidently dispute her claims. The problem is that we feel at a disadvantage dealing with her solicitor, they have legal training and are obviously looking after their client. We have replied to the first letter letting them know we disagree and informing them that we have photos etc to back our position up. The solicitor has asked, quite abruptly, for us to send them copies so they can advise their client fully. Are we doing the right thing sending them the evidence? On the surface there doesn't seem in any harm in this, but we just don't know, it's all very confusing and stressful. It also appears from our search on the Deposit Protection Service that only £500 of the £550 deposit was protected, we asked the the solicitors about this in the letter and asked for the deposit ID, but they failed to mention any of this in the reply. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Mediation is a must if you want to stay on the right side of the judge and avoid the opposing party using a refusal to mediation against you during the case. Specific attention is being paid by courts to timescales in orders; and the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) such as mediation. Practice Direction- Pre-Action Conduct section 1.2(2) and section 8 asks participants to consider ADR methods before going down a more formal route, and the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) part 1.4(e) asks parties to explore the suitability to mediate. If a mediation offer is not considered or explored, refused or ignored, this is now being seen as unreasonable failure to comply with a rule, practice direction or a relevant pre-action protocol. Recently ignoring a request to mediate (i.e. not responding one way or another) was seen as ‘an unreasonable refusal’ to mediate and incurred costs implications for the offending party (PGF ii SA – v – OMFS Company Limited [2013] EWCA CIV 1288 2nd October Court of Appeal.) Sanctions can be anything, at the judges behest. The mediators opening gambit is to ask you 'what is the nature of your grounds to dispute the claim'. It is important you remember the burden of liability and strict proof. This is the ideal opportunity to find out exactly what the claimant has against you i.e. refer to the particulars of claim and do not deviate from them. Answer the claimant’s position and claim; and do not expand at this stage. The claimant will have to support their case and answer your disputed issues. This may sound like I am asking you to be difficult, not at all. You are the defendant and only have to defend the claimants claim but you will do no harm to your case by finding out what they have against you. My point being, you don't want the claimant having the opportunity of obtaining all of your argument and then using the mediation to satisfy CPR but not taking it seriously; and then tailoring a WS to defeat your position whilst giving you no such information during mediation. So initially (first 15mins) use the time to gain some idea of the actual substantiation the claimant has against you. It will help you evaluate the need to settle and potential settlement you are willing to go to as the mediation progresses. The mediation itself will be brief and probably seem rushed, as you only have an hour. It is important you get your matters of dispute out early, to leave enough time to negotiate. Take notes of their argument in case you don't settle, this will help others on here to advise re your WS. The mediator will shuttle between the two parties passing information backwards and forwards. They may play devil’s advocate and challenge your position and you will feel under pressure, but don't. The mediator wants to settle and move on, they are paid a flat fee and work on volume, don't be pressured and do have yourself prepared for the mediation with everything you want to say and have ready your various negotiating positions. Settlement can be financial i.e. a lower value over an agreed term of instalments, and can also be in relation to the actual terms i.e. the claimant with notify the defendant of a default in writing and will allow 14 days to remedy this default- as opposed to a term which states the claimant upon default by the defendant can go straight to court to claim the original amount due to a default of this agreement. You really need to work out what you can afford and what you are prepared to pay, over what period and on what terms. That way you do not waste time with basic elements of negotiation. Start with a best case scenario offer and be prepared to narrow the gap between you. That may change the more you find out about their case. Approach this mediation with an open mind and with an appetite to settle, if that is what you want. You have a great opportunity to bring closure on your terms, without having a judgement imposed on you by a judge; and avoid the possibility of attending court, avoiding a possible CCJ, avoiding the stress and the other issues that this dispute or possible judgement against you brings.

Hello-question please re CCa or lack of one, Barclaycard and Amex didn't send a proper CCA but still adding % and even late payment charge on BCard x 2 -can I send a letter telling them this is wrong whilst in dispute or are they allowed to carry on like this -I stopped payments several months ago after the terms and conditions came instead of CCA. ..can anyone help with advice on what to do next please -Thanks I have requested CCA from Barclaycard x 2 and Amex-neither sent CCA just terms and conditions. Now BCard are adding % and late payments to my account and Amex wrote saying the account is being sent to NCO for collection-help please as really worried.....

Hello-this is my big one-£6574-in dispute since January 2012-my name is mispelt on all paperwork they send although it's correct on the application form they have sent as a CCA dated August 1994. They have sent normal loads of papers re construed etc no details on. Saying they are not required to produce a copy with primary cardholders signature on,said they won't be entering any more correspondence re the CCA but remind me they can start collection activities and report me to credit agencies They are not charging % on this balance and haven't heard anything since Jan 2014. Shall I just sit tight ? Many thanks for your help-I am sure I have more than paid for this debt with huge % over the years so don't feel too bad

Dear All, A dispute has arisen over scattering of mymother’s ashes and I welcome any views or comments on this predicament! My mother was diagnosed terminally ill, earlier thisyear, and is still with us. Prior to this diagnosis, my mother hadasked us to assist in arranging her pre paid funeral, which we did. I am downas contact (eldest son). My mother wishes to be cremated. Due to diagnosis advance care planning was arranged (lastwishes booklet-this is not a legally binding document) and completed at mymother’s home, between my mother, MacMillan nurse and my mother’s sister. Thisnotes my mother wishes her ashes to be scattered in garden of remembrance. 10 days later, my mother had 2 trips at home and asprocedure was taken to hospital, by paramedics. My mother was admitted andadvised it would be unlikely she would return home due to her restricted mobility.Whilst in hospital, on a visit(within 2-3 weeks after the ‘last wishes booklet’had been completed), my mother’s brother informed my mother that her ashes donot have to be scattered in garden of remembrance, but can be scattered/placedat ‘family’ grave (where my mother’s mother is buried, along with her sister inlaw). This was obviously favourable as it would give a specific place to payrespects. Also present at this visit were myself & 2 other family members. We,all 4 confirmed this & an additional note was made to ‘last wishesbooklet’. My mother was lucid and understood options described. It may assistto note that on page of ‘last wishes booklet’ titled Funeral Planning, at ‘PersonI wish to be responsible for making my funeral arrangements’ is my name, not mymother’s sister. The dispute that has arisen is my mother’s sister who waspresent when ‘last wishes booklet’ completed, is demanding that 1stoption is stood by and that ashes are scattered over garden of remembrance,where 4 other family members had witnessed my mother’s change of mind, once sheknew such option was open to her, and now wishes for her ashes to bescattered/placed at family grave. Since knowing her diagnosis, my mother has always askedme and my younger brother to look after and ‘take under our wing’ our youngestbrother, who is 30 years. My mother is of the opinion that it will hit ouryoungest brother the hardest. Bearing this in mind, I decided to broach thevisit we (4) had with my mother and asked his opinion. He is more than happyfor our mother to be scattered/placed at family grave as oppose to garden ofremembrance. Even knowing this, my mother’s sister is being difficult and notconceding my mother’s ‘new’ wish. I could add more but this would only muddy the waters, save to say that not all family members see eye to eye with others! Many thanks for reading.

Hello all, its been a while since I had to come on this forum but I feel I need to come and ask you guys for some help once again I don't really know where to start as I could write pages and pages on this issue but I will keep it as short and sweet as possible, here goes.... I am a member on a certain car forum and a member had a car up for sale which I purchased, however the car did not arrive as was promised and did not have the refurbished alloy wheels stated in the original sale thread along with other smaller items. on delivery of the car he stated he had 3 wheels on another car that he would refurb and deliver to me and if I supplied him with an alloy off my car ( I have another one of these particular cars ) he would do that also... meaning that I would now have the full set of refurbished alloys that I should have had from day 1 ( putting 1 wheel back on my car )..... lost yet ??? Short version is I am 4 refurbished wheels short as per advertised on original sales advert with no sign of getting them back as for the past six months I have had nothing but excuses and being ignored. I am thinking of taking this guy to a small claims court as not only was my purchase not what it should have been... I have pretty much had one of my wheels "stolen"...... just wondering what your thoughts are...... I could go a lot further into detail but it may be even more confusing for you all but the more questions you ask then the clearer im sure it will become . Regards

Hi all, I moved into a property in December, the tenancy agreement states £85 per week, it doesn't state anything about per month or per caldendar month. When I moved in I paid a months rent in advance of £340 and a deposit of £340. I had a note left under my door today out of the blue from the landlord asking to call him, I ring him and he says I owe him money as my rent is per calendar month and that I should be paying him £368 per month, yet he's only mentioned this now, is he trying to pull one? I've been paying £340 every 4 weeks since I moved in. I phoned my local council and even they think I am up to date with my rent in their opinion after asking for some advice but I need to know for sure? He's demanding £140 from me plus an extra £28 per month from now on. Thanks.