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

http://www.focusondisability.org.uk/brates-1.html The sticky thread is closed; so can't post in that. If site team would be so kind to stick and close this one please. Cheers.

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

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

I am confused about the new rules for interest on discrimination awards in the Employment Tribunal when the case spans the 29th July 2013 and the rate changed from 0.5% to 8.0%. I understand the bit that says interest is payable at 8.0% if the respondent does not settle within 14 days of the remedy judgement but am having difficulty with the rest. For example if a discriminationary event took place on 29th July 2010 and a liability hearing on 29th July 2012 found in favour of the claimant and a remedy hearing on 29th July 2014 awarded compensation for injury to feelings and psychiatric damage plus an award for loss of earnings what rate of interest is applicable? Does interest accrue at 0.5% up to 29th July 2013 then 8.0%? Can anyone give an example with numbers?

Hi. Need some serious advice and help here. Closed my business down March this year. I was liable for business rates from sep 13 to march 14. Totaling about £3600. I closed the business as we were not doing too well and struggling to make the rent money let alone bills. (we had been trading for 3 years but moved to a bigger location - more rent and now business rates etc). I was aware of the business rates of course but with the other bills piling up of course the business rates bill went on the pile. It is now 6 months later and I am now receiving letters form the local council. At forst they said I owed £9000 but they were unaware I had moved out in March and were charging me for the year 2014/15 as well.. I also got a court summons in the post, it was due 1st October 2014, I called them and explained I have only just received their letters (they were locked in the old business premises) and they have now took back the court summons and will no longer have to go) (for now). I have emailed them to say that I am unable to pay the £3600 (year sep13/march14). As I am only surviving off the remaining stock I had form the business selling online. Spoke to one lady and she said if you can pay £600 a month until the end of the financial year then that will be OK. I said I cannot even afford this, more like £50 a month. They said they will have to issue another court summons and a liability order to get this money back, but I said why would they take it to court if I am on the phone looking to set up a payment. I am eager to get back in business, and any other money going out right now is going to seriously cripple my chances, I need as much money as I can to get me back into business. What can I do about this? Is there anyway i can loophole around paying the business rates? Is there anyway I can get them significantly reduced? Look forward to your replies.

I am looking for help with the issue of First Plus interest rates on a loan. Has anyone else tackled these people over re negotiating their loan to a fairer agreement? Thank you.

Hi Everyone, I haven't been on the site recently but i have a question in relation to MBNA and reclaiming, etc I sent MBNA a SAR request, which arrived last week, but looking at the statements, there are a number of charges and interest payments that i don't understand, i hope somebody will tell me what these are and what exactly i can claim back. The payments that are taken are Special Cash Interest Posted Cash Advance Interest Posted Retail Interest These payments were taken every month and each month totalled around £60 There was one other payment that also got taken each month, Posted Credit Insurance fee, that appeared on the statements for about three months and then disappeared. Can i claim all these payments back or is it just the ppi fees and the other excessive fees associated. Cheers cuzznx

Hi guys I have a query regarding overtime rates for employees who receive a shift premium, i have scoured the internet but can't find anything relevant. I receive a shift premium for working day/back/night shift, averaging out at 37 hours per week, over 8 weeks. When I work overtime on day/back/night shift, my payment is calculated based on my basic salary, without shift premium. I would assume that my premium is paid for my contractual 37 hours a week and any further shifts I work in overtime should include an additional premium for those hours. Can anyone confirm if this is right and direct me to some legislation relating to it. Thanks in Advance

Hi chaps, need a little assistance for a mate. I know there is a code of practice for gas and electric companies as regards accurate billing and back billing, but is there a similar thing for water rates? And, if so, can anyone post me a link please? If not, then I'll be back with yet another tale of woe! Thanks in advance.

http://www.focusondisability.org.uk/brates-1.html Can admin please post this in the sticky for the new benefits rates? Thanks. It's closed.

Hi can anyone help me find the historical 3 mnth Sterling LIBOR rates going back to 2007. I have a Kensington Morgage based on these figures. Many thanks Stuart

The team are trying to get the Mortgage rates you are currently paying during Repossession. Could you please post this information to get a snap shot of how the lenders are behaving with interest rates when in arrears?

Apologies in advance; I just found this forum via google and I think this may be something people here can assist with. My business has a lease on a shop in London. Lease commenced February 2012. The shop was previously larger (it is now approximately 1/3rd of the size it was) and changed class from restaurant to now just retail. There was a previous tenant here for 12 months following the work. They went bust, and my business moved in. Since moving in a bill for business rates has never appeared. The last tenant did not pay anything either. Truth be told initially the business would have struggled to pay it in the early days, but business has grown and I now could as expected. Everything else is paid up to date and for example the business paid the SDLT on the lease, its registered with land registry correctly. It previously was shown as "delisted" on the VOA website. A rates surveyor I know looked into it and its now not shown on the VOA website as delisted; it does not exist under the postcode at all. My questions are as follows; My gut feeling is that whilst there has never been a bill, it is the sort of thing a council will one day notice and we will be hit with a backdated bill. The property has never been remeasured (there is now a duplex 2 bed flat where most of the previous property was). Can this happen in respect of the backdating? Alternatively, can a rates surveyor be enlisted to agree it now and start paying it moving forward if the VOA/ council are approached and there is demonstrated willingness to pay, or will they likely say thanks for alerting us, here's a huge bill going backwards and now forwards for your honesty? Or head in the sand until its discovered as they can't get us - I don't really see how it can be our "fault", as I said there has never been a bill, its never been measured, and according to the surveyor I spoke with the onus is not on us to tell them. Apologies for the length of the above, if any of it is vague please let me know and thank you in advance for any help on this matter.

Hi all Does anyone have historic purchase interest rates from 1992 to 2005 on Barclaycard Visa and MasterCard, preferably with start and end dates of variations

One of our neighbourhood businesses is boasting to us that he is not paying any business rates, we all on the other hand are like everyone else struggling to pay ours, but we are paying!! The council have, as far as we know, sent in the bailiffs, who couldn't take any equipment, as it is all owned by the landlord of the premises and rented by the owner of the business, which is a limited company, so we assume that the only items that could be taken is stock unless of course he has had it on account and so therfore is not his until he has paid the supplier for it? What if anything can the council do to force him to either pay up or shut him down, as this situation is obviously unfair for everyone else in the neigbouhood who are towing the line so to speak? His lease on the premises runs out in September this year, and we believe he will just walk away at this point having pocketted any cash he can without the bills, we know he doesn't like paying bills and he likes to accuse staff of dipping into the till and refusing to pay them before they are sacked, we have lost track of the amount of staff he has had and disposed of. Cheers

I have today received a letter from Equita bailliffs saying they are coming around to sieze goods for Non domestic rates when I took over a tenancy on a pub for 6 months in 2002. The council says the bill is £7000 but to this day I have never seen a bill, statement, request for payment. We took on the pub but due to being burgled twice we simply couldn't afford to pay the rent and the landlords entered and took posession of the property and kicked us out. We've finally got outselves relatively on track, but still have numerous debts to contend with and this is one that we simply cannot afford. There is absolutely no way we can pay it and there is not a cat in hells chance that we could find that sort of money. What on earth do we do. We've moved around alot with the pub trade so this is the first I know of it and I am absolutely at my wits end here. I don't know who to contact to see what can be done. I don't own anything of any real value so they have no way of getting hold of £7000 from my goods so if they sieze what few goods I've got it wouldn't even clear off £500 let alone the full amount. The baillifs will of course add on their fees which bang the price up even more. What on earth am I going to do...

Hello and straight away thank you to anyone who will be willing to help!!! As most of cases here, it is very personally important issue for me: I opened a Gallery and Boutique a year ago in Lewisham. I am a platform for the local Artists to display and sell their works and I organize art workshops for the local Community as well. My idea was always to give back to the community which took me on board 8 years ago when I came to live in this country. I wanted to act and contribute to the community, that's why I decided to become a CIC. I took 15 years lease not knowing the truth about the business rates as the landlord chosen not to share the knowledge with me. When I acknowledged the amount of the business rates I have to pay I started my battle to get any small business business rates relief. Even though I am a CIC and they are always qualifying for small business business rates relief in most councils - they do not here. I've been fighting with my Guardian Angel Business Advison not to die down for 10 months now. I pay £1250 rent monthly plus almost the same amount in business rates which is outrageous for me. I'm a small, locally orientated business and if I were to pay those business rates, I will just have to close in no time. I had the gallery re-evaluated - didn't help. Now we wrote a petition and collecting signatures to take t to the council at the end of May. Is there any other way I could fight? My Gallery is my baby, everyone loves it so much, customers come here to rest and to have a chat and a cup of tea, this sort of place we are. Please help. I believe there is many people much smarter then I am business - rates - wise and someone will be able to help. Thank you so much for reading. Just to give you a better idea what I am fighting for, below I pasted my petition: PETITION Save Our Community Businesses Wethe undersigned strongly believe that Lewisham Council should reconsider itsposition regarding Discretionary Rates Relief in respect of Community Groupsand Community Interest Companies. Weare particularly concerned regarding the current level of rates that aredemanded from our community assets and which make them unsustainable. We areparticularly aggrieved with the current situation regarding the new communitybased business, Doopo Doopo, located at 15 Dartmouth Road, SE233HN. Webelieve that assets within the Borough that are social businesses and clearlysupporting the local community should receive discretionary relief on the samebasis as neighbouring boroughs and trust that you will reconsider this decisionand re-evaluate the current charges. Thispetition is supported by: FORESTHILL SOCIETY And SHOPREVOLUTION: deliveringPOP-UP SHOPS for SEE3

Hello, I've just received my first JSA payment for the new tax year and it's still £142 (£71 a week). Was this supposed to kick in with this payment or the next? This year I have not received the usual letter from the DWP informing me of the rates increases.

hi guys new to here so thank you in advance for any help i receive. it is much appreciated as i don't no how many more sleepless nights i can manage. 1st things 1st. i owned a business but closed it down just before xmas due to a couple of other businesses opening up the same as me credit crunch ect student fees going up less students(main business). the sub lease is still in affect until november 2013. meaning we would have to pay business rates up until then. (£450 pcm) our landlord said he would end the lease for us if we paid him 3 months rent. January to march. then all our business rates would also be cancelled as you are allowed 3 months grace when closing a business. Now our landlord has gone back on his word (suspect new incoming tennents have pulled out of taking over our shop.and told us he wants us to still pay him pcm. This now means we also have to pay our business rates pcm which we simply cant afford to do as now we are only living off 1 wage. we signed the lease as a sole trader and became a ltd company a year into our tenancy agreement. so no chance of desolving. Only option for us so we have been told is bankruptcy. Has anyone on here got any advice for us about this or any other options as we are only in our early 20s and want to avoid this is we can. Will the council be lenient or is there any way of reducing the business rates to be able to pay less monthly? as far as the landlord is concerned he is not now my priority to pay. the council come at the top of my list. many thanks for reading this and i am very grateful for any advice given to try help us move forward instead of backwards. thanks again

Hi all, I started a small business from a unit in April 2010, I believed it to be rate exempt,but it transpires that it only had full relief from April 2011. I only found this out when a bailiff called to enforce a £990 debt. Apparently, i was liable for £450 of business rates plus the same again in bailiff fees. I have never received a bill and had no knowledge they had taken me to court in July 2011, this was the first I'd heard of it. The problem I had 3 years agois I wasn't getting my mail as a numbering error meant two units had the same number and my mail wasn't passed on. My thoughts are that I should ony pay whats owed and not the bailiff fee, Ive got a copy of the planning application which shows the correct numbering of the units and photographed the exterior of the two units which shows that the other unit displays my unit number,so I'm in the process of appealing What should I do about the court order? can it be removed easily? thanks

This is in the Scotland forum because I live here, but if it would be more appropriate elsewhere, please move it. I recently wrote to Kensington regarding the interest rate that they are charging on our mortgage, which I believe to be excessive. They wrote back (and I quote): I've just checked the current LIBOR rate - assuming that they are referring to the 3 month rate - and it is 0.50813%. This is more or less the same figure as at the start of December. Surely this means that the current VR should 2.55% (rounding up to the nearest 0.05%), not 3.50% as they have stated? They seem to have pulled an extra 1% out of nowhere. Or am I misunderstanding where they get their figures from? Can anybody enlighten me?

Since my "proper" business went bust five years ago I have been basically playing at getting going again, by which I mean starting slowly with very little capital and barely taking any money from it.I use my home pc to run Sage and just answer the phone if anyone calls. I have a bit of stock in a storage unit. I want to claim Council Tax reduction on low income grounds but the form asks whether I am self employed and I have said yes.I imagine this will get them wanting to assess for Business Rates but I would have thought that I'm hardly using my home for business......what do you think? I don't want them coming back at me saying I have been conning them for five years.BTW I onlt became "legit" in April when I registered as self employed.

Hi, I sub leased a warehouse, for a year and never paid business rates as couldnt afford to plus i never got a letter or anything during occupation. After i had left my landlord has started sending me letters to pay the bill but the bills are on his name and nothing is on my name? I have contacted the business rates people through email but they are asking for bills etc... Do i have to give them bills by law isnt the lease enough?? I want to pay the amount its no problem but they wont let me unless i proof them bills etc.. which i dont have any off. Need help urgent!!

I have just received my award letter from the DWP and I have been automatically placed into the support group of ESA on contributions based. I was swapped over from Incapacity Benefit. I am slightly confused over my award. It says that I will get £71 per week, plus the support group payment of £34 on top. However, when I checked the benefit rates, it says that I should have been awarded £14.80 also extra for an enhanced disability premium, but there is no mention of this on my letter. Do I contact DWP over this? Confused.