Hi, I did post on here some time ago about this problem with Robinson way but I thought it had been resolved and now I can't find the thread. I'm just abut to write to Robinson way but I need some advice/reassurance before I do so I would be ever so grateful for some! Recap: Got hassled by Robinson way for years (from 2005) until I sought advise and started writing to them and told them I would only deal with them in writing etc etc in about 2010. Asked them to produce my signed credit agreement (2011) to which they replied saying they couldn't, but did send me all the other stuff requested in the SAR, everything they had. In their letter they wrote "....we have been unable to obtain a copy of the agreement from the original creditor. Whilst this means that credit debt may unenforceable through court, it does not mean that the debt does not exist or that we are not entitled to pursue you for the amount outstanding." This letter was dated 20/4/11 and 4 days later I received a 'doorstep visit' but I told the guy to get lost and that I would only correspond in writing. Immediately I wrote to Rob Way and said the following: Please be advised that I will onlycommunicate with you in writing. I have noted your repeated attempts to contactme by telephone over the past year. Furthermore, I received a “doorstep call” at 19.05 on 24thMarch 2011 - please be advised thatunder OFT rules, you can only visit meat my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make such anappointment with you. There is only an implied license under English Common Law for people to be ableto visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and peopleasking for directions etc (Armstrong v Sheppard & Short Ltd [1959] 2 QB384. per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke license underCommon Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and, ifyou do so, you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action willbe taken, including but not limited to, police attendance. I have written to you twice requesting a truesigned copy of the Credit Agreement associated with the above account alsostating that statutory notice was given on 24th March 2010 underSection 10 of the Data Protection Act to cease processing any data in relationto this account with immediate effect. This means you must remove allinformation regarding this account from your own internal records and from myrecords with the credit reference agencies. Should you refuse to comply, youmust within 21 days provide me with a detailed breakdown of your reasoningbehind continuing to process my data, as you will see in the enclosed copies ofmy original letters. I also never a receiveda response detailing your continued processing of my data. I have, however, received several letters ofdemands for payment since the timescale for your compliance had elapsed on 14thApril 2010. I am familiar with the ‘Office of FairTrading Debt Collection Guidance’ which states that it is unfair to senddemands for payment to an individual when the account is in dispute. I have also written to GE Money for a SubjectAccess Request, for which they have 40 days to comply, a copy of which is alsoenclosed. I would also point out that the OFT say under the Guidance that it is unfair topursue third parties for payment when they are not liable. In not ceasingcollection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debtyou are using deceptive/and or unfair methods. You have 7 days to acknowledge your fullunderstanding of this letter. Otherwise I will have no option but to advise the OFT of your actions. This is the last piece of correspondence I can find that I wrote to them, and I have nothing else from them while I was at that address. I moved house in February 2012 and had heard nothing. On 21/10/13 they wrote to me at my new address asking if I was the same person as they were writing to at my old address. Knowing full well that this debt is over 7 years old and thought had been dealt with I put the letter to one side but was still thinking about it. Another letter arrived dated 7/11/13 saying "we are authorised to negotiate payment of the account with you. If you fail to pay it may mean blah blah but they have said their local doorstep collection agent may visit to agree a payment plan" Admittedly I have received much nastier letters from Rob way in the past but this seems to be opening up an old can of worms and my biggest fear is that someone will show up at the door when my partner is in - he will go mental if he thinks I've got debt collectors chasing me. I'm pretty sure (unless the law has changed) that they are just trying their luck but I need to make sure no one comes snooping around here. Luckily the last time he was out when the guy showed up but I was pretty shaken up for a couple of days, until I spoke to someone on here. There is a note at the foot of the letter saying that Rob way has been acquired by the Hoist Group - are they just going through their losses before they change hands? Any help with the letter I am about to write would be much appreciated! Thanks very much!!!

Hi All, First post, I've done a bit of searching around and found similar issues but nothing quite the same... so please bear with me as this whole thing is quite complicated... hopeing someone can help. Basically, in October 2006 I moved into a flat with my cousin (that sounded dodgy... er, separate rooms !!). We were both full time students at the time, I was at University, and she was at College, and went on to University the following year (same course, so I believe it is classed as a 'continuation' or something similar). Anyway, she moved out in January 2007, and I moved out in March/April 2007 (can't quite remember which). A couple of months ago, I got a letter from a DCA advising that GCC had instructed them to recover £854.13 from me Obviously, I phoned them to query this - they told me it was for the property that I had lived at above, for CT year 2007/2008. I advised them I did not live there at that time, and told them to send it back to GCC as an error, and thought nothing more of it. I gave them my mobile number (stupid, I know) to call me back and let me know it was sorted. Never heard a word back from them. In June, I received another letter giving me 14 days to pay before they would take legal action. I hit the roof at this one Phoned them up again and asked them what they were playing at... "oh the council say it's up to you to prove you didn't live there". Hit the roof again, told them I'd sort it with the council and to send it back to them again. With that I spoke to some snotty woman at GCC, told her I didn't live there and explained the circumstances of moving out so quickly (see details below). I was told that it was up to me to prove I didn't live there ! I also made it clear that even if i had lived there, I was a FT student so wouldn't have been liable anyway. "Prove it" was the response. So, I drove to East Dunbartonshire Council HQ in Kirkintilloch, spoke to possibly the most helpful council official I have ever dealt with, explained the problem, and asked her to give me a copy of the CT exemption form I submitted to them in 2007... she went and got my file, and gave me it in less than 5 minutes ! Armed with this, I then went down to Glasgow City Councils office next to George Square... took a number and sat in line to speak to someone about it. In contrast, the woman I was met with here, was the most hostile, abrupt, and downright rude person I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Told her "I didn't live there", "prove it" was the reply. Gave over my student exemption form from 2007 showing my parents address "Oh, this doesn't prove you didn't live here, you can live in 2 places at once" (?????) At that point she says "Oh, we have this form already anyway, it's not your student status that's the problem, it's your cousin, her college course ended in April 2007 so we're charging you full CT from April-October 2007 (when the lease ran out)." At this point, I explained the circumstances regarding moving out (again, see below), and just got met with "Prove it" after every sentence I made the point, that surely it's up to them to prove I DID live there given the mountain of evidence I can supply that suggests I did not - bank statements, pay slips, etc etc, all showing my address changed sometime between March & April 2007. They then made this suggestion: "The easiest way to make this go away" is to get a copy of your cousins student exemption for the following academic year, so 2007-2008. Now, she never bothered with this, as when she moved back to her parents she got no CT discount anyway as there was more than 1 non-eligible adult living there.... however, we have since got a CT form from EDC, sent it to her Uni, and they have returned it, filled in for that academic year. Apparently this is not acceptable to GCC. So, I have now lost the plot entirely, and told them to take me to court. I'm actually looking forward to it I think... as far as I am concerned, I owe them nothing. I have plenty of documentary evidence that I had moved elsewhere, yet they continue to say I need to (somehow??) prove I did not live at that address, at that time. Now, i'm no lawyer, but if I remember correctly, they can't demand I try to prove a negative... It's up to them to prove I DID live there ? Since then, I've had the DCA phoning me on my mobile several times a day... at first I was telling them I wasn't liable and that they should speak to the council, then I got fed up with them and told them to stop phoning me, put it in writing etc, now I just dont answer the phone to them. I have also now had a letter saying they intend to instruct sherrif officers to arrest my wages and freeze my bank accounts It's hit the roof time again. Surely in order to do this, they need to actually take me to court first Anyways, I think I really do need some help now, because I'm obviously dealing with a brick wall and I may just be getting in over my head. One last thing, in December 2008 I changed my surname (legally), I have my amended birth certificate. They are still wirtng to and addressing me as my old name. Does this matter ? Any thoughts much appreciated (again, see below for further detail). Thanks, Chris. Shortly after moving in, there were serious problems with the flat, flooding, being the main thing - Barrat had managed to build a block of flats that wasn't watertight. Muppets ! We then started receiving letters from the landlords finance company, GMAC (initially addressed to him), stating that he hadn't paid a penny towards his mortgage (found this out later when I started opening his mail). I tried for several weeks to get hold of the LL, to no avail. Now, technically, I was renting from his company (ironically, a plumbing company), rather than him directly.... so I checked companies house... the company was put into administration a few weeks after I signed the lease. A recorded delivery letter I sent to him stating that if the problems weren't sorted I was terminating the lease, was returned to me undelivered marked "property boarded up." I still have a copy of the letter, but have chucked the returned envelope away. What I was told by the letting agent (and Barrat), on the quiet, was that Barratt had given this guy 50k cash back on each of the flats that he'd purchased (so at least 100k), and that he'd then put his company into administration and disappeared. They were also trying to get hold of him. The flooding issue then started affecting neighbours properties, so we had no option really but to let Barrat Homes come into the flat and do remedial works to stop the flooding - both for our sakes, and the sakes of the neighbours below. They had to effectively remove the whole wall and rebuild it - something about the damp course/vents being installed the wrong way round, so directing water inwards (the rebuilding of the internal wall never got done). So we were now living in a damp, draughty building site with no internal walls, the landlord had vanished, his company was in administration, and his mortgage company were threatening repossession (I'd started opening his mail at this point). My cousin, who suffers from asthma moved out either right at the end of December or the very start of January as the dampness and draughts were causing her health problems. I had assumed I was going to lose my £1000 deposit, so I couldn't afford to just upsticks and move out... so I held on a little longer. One moring I was woken up by an estate agent who had keys and had let himself into the flat "to survey it". I then started receiving notices "to the occupier" telling me that the flat was being repossessed, got the notice to quit etc etc etc, and then got a notice saying sheriffs officers were coming to reposess the property, change locks etc etc.... so I eventually gave up trying to contact the LL, and moved back to my dads house as I couldn't afford to move elsewhere. I had kept a hold of all of the documents etc, the repossession notice, lease, returned mail, rent receipts etc etc... until I had a clean out about a year ago - figured I wouldn't be needing any of that stuff ! Even after explaining all of this to GCC, one of the the things they said is that my lease was from October to October, so I was liable for that full period. Now, it was a Short Assured Tenancy... I'm pretty sure those have a 6 month break-clause that can be exercised - but the point I've been making to them is that the lease was terminated 'by frustration'. Hope someone can give me some advice regarding all of this. Thanks for listening

Received a letter today from Hamptons Legal threatening me with a SD. This is the first I have heard from them. It apparantly relates to an old Co-op credit card. The letter goes on about what action they may take, and finishes with "we would be willing to accept £50.00 a month till the debt is paid" etc etc. This is one that has been passed around a few times, and on each occasion when asked for s.78 request they have not complied and passed it on to someone else. The letter says it is a Lowell account which is puzzling as I have had no communication from Lowell. Should I now send Hamptons a s.78 request? Any advice welcome. IRM

Hope I have started this in the right forum. Quick summary of dilemma. My OH needed to do his tax returns for 2012-2013....I thought I would help by finding an accountant. I found a firm which looked like they were quite professional. They gave a quote for their fee for approx £120....and sent a form for OH to sign and also all the information about his self employment....earnings, profit and expenses etc etc. The accountant calculated what the OH had to pay as tax and NI contributions. This is where it went upside down. Just before we were deciding to go ahead my OH received news about a family member that had passed away and he had to go abroad....he is still there as his mother is also terminally ill. But before he went he asked his friend if he would help him submit his tax return which he did. I sent an email to the accountant advising that OH had to leave due what had happened.....since then I have received several emails from the account requesting that we pay his fee of £120.00. The last email he sent was yesterday : We notice that you have not settled our outstanding account. Unless we receive payment within the next 21 days, we shall consider issuing proceedings to recover the outstanding sum. This may involve you in further costs. In accordance with our terms and conditions, we shall also charge a further £25.00 plus VAT for chasing the debt. We look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards We have not got a copy of their terms and conditions...all communication was done via email....but will double check to see all the same. The last thing I want is to get involved in any sort of legal proceedings but do not know what to do. Yes we did contact this accountant and the figures that he added were less than what my OH submitted to HMRC..... Now this accountant wants his full fee even though we did not advise him to send off the information but he did send HMRC the form my OH signed saying that he had instructed them. HMRC sent a notification to the accountant that my OH had submitted his tax returns. It was not our intention to do this...but the accountant is asking his full fee but we did not use that full service....now he is threatening to issue proceedings....plus I cannot do anything until OH returns which to be honest could be a while....and I do not want any claim form landing on my doorstep either. Please could anyone advise how to sort out this stupid mess I seem to have got us in? and does the accountant have the power to issue a claim in such circumstances? If I had to file a defence this will all look so ridiculous in court.....I would think? Thank you all in advance for any help on this matter.

This is not exactly your everyday situation, however, I have tried to find answers on other websites but failed. I found this site and hope somebody can help. I am a distant relation of those involved and have tried to keep things simple but this has got to stop as been going on for a while. For information, the eldest, who has confided in me, is extremely ill, physically and mentally (this unnecessary stress is obviously making them worse). The youngest (who is causing the problems) is married with children and works full time. It surrounds the fact that the younger brother has been sending threatening texts to an elder sibling, and in telephone calls threatened to report the elder to DWP for, as he calls it ‘benefit fraud'. Indeed, the information the younger brother has obtained, has been done by way of threatening texts/phone calls which may even amount to blackmail or an offence of harassment, at least. My 1st query is if the younger brother goes ahead and reports sibling to DWP, how does the fact, the way he has obtained information/intelligence/evidence affect any potential prosecution? Could the way the younger brother has 'handled' the situation and obtained information, make this situation difficult for DWP to prosecute as the information/evidence was obtained unfairly (to the say the least), and as I think illegally, which could taint any evidence that the DWP seek to rely upon? If it is the case, that because of the way intelligence/evidence has been obtained by the potential DWP informant, and thus making any prosecution difficult, this would obviously put the eldest’s mind at rest, and will obtain further legal advice, if such a need arises.

Hi All We are facing a horrid time with the Bank of Ireland Litigation team and are in urgent need of some help to set aside a repossession judgment. As time is of the essence I won't go into all the issues we have with how we are being treated by this Bank here (but will return to explain more later) Basically we have a very small portfolio of properties which is instead of a pension. So my wife and I are trying desperately to hold on to them as you can imagine. We have an adopted child with some special needs and financially we are struggling. The Bank of Ireland hold two of our mortgages and have instructed TLT Solicitors. Yesterday I successfully defended a repossession application on the basis that the Bank served the paper work to the wrong address. The judge agreed that as the Bank had written to us at our current address they had incorrectly served by sending papers to our previous address which the Bank claim is the only address they have on their computer. The judge ordered them to re-serve at the correct address and awarded us costs of £100. I now find that they have served again at our previous address for another of our properties and it has already gone to court. As I didn't know I obviously did not turn up for the hearing. The hearing was on May 10th. We have a tenant moving in this Friday. I urgently need to apply to have the judgement set aside but I don't want to make any mistakes. We cant afford a solicitor. Although the Judge in yesterday's case, in awarding us costs commented to the plaintiffs representative on his objection, "You're lucky it's only £100, it would have been considerably more if they had instructed representation." What do I need to do? Can I mention our case from yesterday as a president? I did not take any evidence of my earnings to court so the judge couldn't award anything for this but could I include evidence of my income in this application and request compensation for my time defending this. So to be clear our position is the Bank were fully aware of our postal address as they have written to us at the address prior to serving this repossession notice. We have also been talking to them and their solicitors for several months and no one mentioned this action. They have served at the wrong address. Please help us asap as we really don't want to lose our property. Man thanks to you all. We are so grateful for this forum!!

Hi all I'm sure this question has been asked many many times but I can't find a definitive answer so thought I would ask myself. I received a letter from Moon Beever Solicitors in relation to a pay day loan (£201). They have advised if I dont contact them they will apply to Northampton County Court to arrest my wages. My question is can they do this through an English court or does it have to be done in a Scottish Court as I am domiciled in Scotland (always have been)? I seem to be finding conflicting info so thought I would ask. I am going to contact them but just wanted to know for my own information. Many thanks

I CCA'd 1st Credit and they didn't respond in 12+2 days (I haven't yet sent them a failure to comply letter). I have been getting many phone calls and today a letter threatening CCJ action. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thank you TG

Hi Well yesterday a Bailiff visited my flat, posted a latter through the door and disappeared. the letter (attached) stated that they had attended to seize goods, except they never even knocked on the door, they just posted the letter, they say they will return in 48 hrs with police if necessary. please note, they have never attended my property before, neither do they have a walking possession. I contacted them 2 weeks ago after the 1st letter, and offered them £130 p/m to clear the debt of what say £445. they refused and wanted all the money in 1 go. so i told em, it's tough luck. i have contacted the council who refuse to take the debt back from the bailiff, even though the debt now is actually less than £100 apparently. please note. i have paid a total of £670 in the last 2 months to the council, yet they still refuse to help. the initial liability was for £533 they sent some payments i made to the council to the bailiff, but not all of them it seems. either way though, where do i stand? I offered to pay, I have actually paid well more than i would have been forced to pay if i had stood in court. am i being unreasonable in wanting to only deal with the council & not the bailiff? as far as the council are concerned, as I say, they say i owe less than £100 on the liability order now. but the bailiff is still wanting £445. attached are the copies of the letters from the bailiff. [ATTACH=CONFIG]45990[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]45991[/ATTACH]

We moved into this house in March this year the supplier was for the gas supply was with British Gas, I had tried to change suppliers to another company, however they blocked it claiming a bill hadn't been paid, this bill was for £16.68, and yes I had missed it, the letter they wrote stated that the reason for blocking the supply was this unpaid bill which was fair enough even if it was only for a pathetic £16, this was then paid and I thought nothing more of it, and expected the transfer process to go ahead. I next received a bill at the beginning of August from British Gas for £372.24, stating this payment is due by the 9th August, things went into a panic as there was no way I could afford that. I had never agreed a contract with BG, and tried to move away from them, I am also on the standard tariff which is far from the cheapest. "then followed a letter which says in large bold letters across the top Your gas is now at risk of disconnection" My wife called their very unhelpful call centre and offered all we could manage right now which was £70 every month starting on 15th Sept (payday), he said no chance and they want £150 by the 20th September or it would be going to court. I wrote to them following this call letter below clearly expressing the fact that we could only afford to pay £70 per month I received a response to my letter basically saying they are refusing to set up a payment plan (the spelling/grammar mistakes are not mine) I have no intention of calling them after they way my wife was spoken to on the last call, they were extremely rude abrupt and demanding, and wouldn't listen to a single thing she said, simply saying that the offer wasn't enough and action would be taken unless we agree to their terms, we only use gas for cooking and hot water, we hardly ever have the heating on, the only reason this bill was as high as it was is because we had a burst mains water pipe in the loft causing a lot of damage, the heating was on full for around 3 weeks constantly to try to dry everything out before work could begin on replacing the electrics, sorting the plaster out and putting new floor down. When she called he also said there's no way we know that you have set up a Standing Order so you could be lying to get more time, so we sent a printoff from online banking showing the payment was set up as she told them. There is also no way they are fitting a prepayment meter, I have had them before they are terrible, and also much more expensive. Now today (our anniversary which should be a happy day but has just been destroyed) received another letter from BG, the paid was made successfully on 15th for £70 we said it would hence the lower balance. If they had switched suppliers at the start after I paid the pathetic bill I received then this wouldn't have happened, I forgot to mention that in my letter, after the bill was paid they had no legitimate reason to block the transfer, they also never contacted me to set up onto a tariff at any point they simply started billing I had no idea how much we would be paying until the bill came through the door. This isn't we don't want to pay, its that we cant pay the amount they are demanding, as I have said we have set up a SO for the most we can afford right now, yet they are refusing this, can they do that? Also can they refuse payments simply because it is a SO and not a DD which they can set to whatever they want without us having a say in it.

Hello everyone, Not sure if I have put this in the right place, but I need some proper advice on a serious matter that has arisen. Last year, I sadly lost my business of 8 years due to various reasons and it went into administration. This cost me in excess of £100k that myself and my family had invested in to it. This has caused serious issuEs for me financially, and only this January did I manage to find work, all be it part time as I have 2 children to look after and provide child care for. Yesterday, I received a letter addressed to me personally at my home address from a creditor of my previous business (now closed) asking me for the payment in full of the debt. This debt was in the name of my previous company, not myself personally. The letter is from an accountancy firm which used to represent the company I owned and relates to monies owed by that now closed business, yet this is addressed to myself and demanding the money from myself. The letter is very threatening and asks for the amount of £2650 to be paid within 7 days , or they will issue a statutory demand for full payment, going on to say, in bold type, that failure to deal with the demand within 18 days, they will immediately file a bankruptcy bankruptcy petition against myself personally. This is repeated again in bold type, stating, " I can assure you that if we do not receive payment in full we will issue these demands without any further re-course and cost me an additional £1000. This is very worrying and I feel very threatened by this letter and the threats on it. I have 2 young children to support and I only have a part time job. I have no spare income every month and receive housing benefits to help with bills. Every month I have nothing at all remaining and have no way of paying this bill. Also, as this bill was of the previous business and not in my own name, should this not be the liability of that company as it was a ltd company. They have claimed I signed a personal guarantee but have no paperwork or no recollection of this and certainly did not receive any legal advice for this even if I did. Can anyone help me or advise me to my response. I really don't want to be made bankrupt as I hope that in the near future my situation will be better and I can live normally again. Thanks for reading this and I hope to hear your advice Thank you

my gas meter has not been officially read for a good few years. I have paid every single bill they have ever sent me and I pay them promptly. They sent me a letter last week that I had to sign for which said that they would be applying for a court order to get access to my property to see the meter for safety reasons. can they do this and how can they justify that it is for safety reasons when the person who will come in will not be a corgi registered gas fitter and is therefore surely not qualified to know whether it is safe or not because it will be a meter reading guy that comes around and my experience of these men in the past has been terrible . They have all been bully boys who knock on the door as if they're trying to break it down and I've had 2 of them that have stood on the back lawn for ages staring up at the windows to see if I'm in or sometimes they'll pretend they've gone away and I'll look out of the front door keyhole to see them sitting on the wall opposite the front door waiting for me. I find this very intimidating and it makes me really angry. I have extreme ocd and I can't let anyone in the house, isn't there some way around this? Couldn't I take a video of my gas meter live on my mobile phone and they could see it that way. Surely that will give them as much information as they would get themselves if they came in. Because even if they did come in they wouldn't be touching the meter and they could just wait outside whilst I took the video and then I could hand over the video or phone to them. I can't emphasize how life destroying it would be for me to let one of these bully boys into my flat. My psychologist has already phoned them and gotten the court action stopped and they phoned me today to arrange access which I still can't and won't give them. Surely there's got to be some other way than having one of those intimidating guys that try to break my door down and are very unpleasant when, on the few occasions that I have gotten the door I've had to refuse them access.

This is my first post on the forum and hope someone could advise. The solicitor acting for credit card company replied that s78 CCA requests only apply to running-credit accounts but my account was no longer a running credit account as their client served a Default Notice pursuant to s87(1) of the CCA 1974 and I failed to remedy the breach which led to the account being terminated. Is the solicitor correct in saying that s78 does not apply in this case and allow 7 days to discharge debt or else will issue county court proceedings without further notice. They added that they have the right to exhibit their correspondence in the event I file a spurious defence to the claim. Can someone help me with a response to their letter and would a Subject Access Request be appropriate as a reply I am uncertain if signed credit card agreement is enforceable as it was previously a House of Fraser store card that is now Santander from November 2007.

Hi, I'm really worried about MMF. I got myself into a lot of (stupid) debt with payday lenders over the last couple of years. Most of it I've managed to get into repayment plans for but there were a few playing hard balls who wouldn't agree to anything. One of them was lending stream, where I borrowed £300 but after various charges and interest was applied ended up at close to £1000. They refused to budge on the amount, and eventually assigned it to a debt collector. From reading these forums I (thought I had) learned how to deal with DCAs, and CCA'd the original DCA (Moorcroft). They replied by sending me a pre-contract from Lending Stream, but not the CCA itself. I replied that there response wasn't acceptable, they then stated that they would refer the account back to their client. It then got sold on to Buchanan Clark + Wells, who backed off when I mentioned the CCA request not being fulfilled. The account got sold on to Lowells and Gothia, who I both ignored. Both of these offered reduced settlement offers when I kept ignoring them. The last I heard about this was over a year ago, and I've since moved 200 miles away. Last week, I got texted '...my name...your lending stream LLC a/c has been sold to MMF. Please call to prevent transfer to our home visit dept. 0113 8876876 ref: ...ref number...' The following day, I started getting phone calls from 7 or 8 different numbers a day (landline and mobile numbers) along with more threatening texts. None of this worried me at all, I thought MMF were just another DCA, until I did a 'who calls me' search to find out if it was another MMF number and then uncovered a thread here that they had taken actual legal action against someone with an unpaid payday loan, then I uncovered how bad they are. MMF don't know where I live, but I'm genuinely worried about getting a CCJ without my knowledge if they don't have a current address. I don't know whether it's a good idea or not to volunteer where I'm living now, as it looks like they aren't scared away by letters and unlike every other DCA I've dealt with their home visits are actually real - I know that they have no authority to do anything but my partner is easily intimidated and I don't want her dealing with these people if I'm not here. I don't know what to do for the best here, I'm more than willing to discuss repayment of what I owe ('what I owe' and 'what they claim I owe' not being the same thing), but this lot have rattled me when their threats don't seem as empty as most DCAs.

Hi, I need a little bit of advice about two things please, although they surround the same issue. I owe an amount of money for council tax, which I don't dispute and which I have been in discussion with the Local Authority about paying back. It accrued through illness and my being self employed, which they know and which is being worked through. Issue number one - Somewhere along the line, Rossendales Bailiffs have been instructed to bully me for this money. The first time he attended, I was in hospital nearly 300 miles away. He caused an absolute scene outside my house, with the police in attendance, my partner being frantic, neighbours on looking and all while he refused to speak to me on the phone and was threatening to levy a car that, while yes was on my drive, didn't belong to me. This even carried on when the owner of the car turned up to confirm it to him. He then turned up a few days ago, while I was in on my own. I know some of my rights, so as nervous as I was, I escorted him out of the garden. I told him the account was on hold (and it certainly was, the LA have confirmed that) and that I was dealing with it. Now that he was out of the garden he began to get nasty. He told me he wanted payment in full or he would continue with action. I told him he couldn't unless he did it peaceably and that I wasn't going to let him and that I knew my rights. He got really angry then. He wouldn't produce the liability order or even a notice of a liability order. He wouldn't produce any ID. He shouted really loud that I should pay my debts and then he wouldn't be there if I did and he kept coming as close to my face as he could without touching me, all while he kept saying he wanted payment in full. I told him I would confirm this was on hold and being dealt with by calling the council, however he keeps turning up when they are not open and leaving before they do. He then threw his glasses into my garden and threatened that if I didn't move, he would remove me to recover them. I told him I'd happily get them for him, but he said no. Instead he ran around the garden and jumped over another part of the fence and then squared up to me again. By that time I'd thrown them down the track and he was then even more aggressive. I was shaken, only one week out of hospital and still frail and scared and so I called the police for help. He immediately got back in his van, said there were no charges for the visit but that he would be back. I went out to take images of him and then he nearly hit me with his van while turning around. My complaint to the police was on criminal grounds. He'd shown me no ID, he'd shown me no paperwork, liability order or anything else and refused to give me a card or phone number to call his office. To me then, he could be anyone and even so, this was then harassment and it was the second time. They did nothing apart from phone to speak to him. I'm quite sure they will have gotten no-where. How should I handle this now? Second issue is the liability order and while I know there's a lot of information online and indeed this very website, a lot of it seems very confusing, so I hope you don't mind me asking for some advice here? Very typically (from what I read), even while trying to sort out my council tax, I received a dodgy summons. I called the Magistrates to ask if they'd sent it as it was unstamped and it was confirmed they had not. Then it went to 'court' and I received a Notice of Liability. Since then this very aggressive representative for Rossendales has been visiting. My issue is that while I'm happy to pay this tax (not really, but I'll conform) and I am attempting to and I can show that, I object to being bullied by the council and these hired thugs. From what I can gather: • The Summons was unlawful (sent by the council and not stamped) • The Liability Order doesn't exist (the magistrates don't have a copy as they would with any other order, which they've confirmed), the council have admitted they don't have it in any physical form and so cannot supply me with a copy and that it was done verbally in court. • Every time the Bailiff has attended, the account has been on hold. • The Bailiff has been threatening, not following CIVEA and MOJ guidelines and has been very abusive. • Typically the police in these instances knew less than the bailiff so they were no good, but while the money is a civil issue, surely violence, aggression and threats aren't? That's definitely criminal, so why are they never challenged? • How do they even hear a civil case in a criminal court and if so, which rules do they follow? So I'd like to know where I should go and what I should do please? I would reiterate that I'm not disputing the money, I will pay it and I will do so as quickly as I can afford to, however I object to being targeted by this system (and thug) and would like to challenge it. It's probably obvious that I'd tried to read a little bit previously and I know 'some' law, but this whole situation is filled with conflicting people saying conflicting things. Passing the buck seems to be their guard against being rumbled? Am I talking rubbish? I would appreciate any and all advice. Thanks - Emma

Hi I wondered if anyone can help me. I had a ticket which I was unaware of and it went to Newlyn Bailiffs. I fillied out the statutory declaration and submitted and they have passed it to the local council to stop anymore activity until they assess it.Because I was panicking when they were on the phone i paid 100 pounds towards the debt. They are now texting me saying they are coming back tomorrow because i have not paid the rest. this case is still with the council so im not sure what i should do? Can anyone help me please? peter

Hi Again Guys well another day, another issue that bites from my previous life.... I have today received a letter, diverted from my old personal address, from Marston Group Limited. The letter is in reference to a "high court writ" against a company i used to own. I had no knowledge of any court action against this company. The letter was threatnig to gain access to my property (my previous property) to collect goods. The letter is addressed to the company name, but at a personal residential address. The company is currently non trading and hasnt traded since june 2012, and there is an application into companies house to have the company struck off. The creditor who has issued the court action against the company was aware of this 12 months ago and has received a letter stating such. Anyway, I have called Marstons on receipt of the letter to inform them that I dont live there any more and the person who does had nothing to do with the company. I also informed them that that address was a personal residential address and that it never was associated with any business or traded from there. I also explained the status of the company. The lady, awfully rude, then asked me for my new address, which I refused to give. SHe said she would trace me, find me and attempt to remove goods from my new home. I explained that this was unacceptable and that the business had no assets and everything in the house was either mine, my childrens or my new partners. She said they would still send the baliff anyway and attempt to collect and that I had to prove, with receipts, that the goods in the house were not that of the business and would have to provide receipts. Any advice on where I stand with this? I havent seen any court paperwork or dont know who to speak to to stop this harassment.

Hi, I've received a letter from Severn Trent threatening me with a CCJ over a relatively small amount (£79). I'd had a payment plan set up with them but due to me leaving uni and finding a new job, I'd missed my payment in June. I've now received a letter saying if I don't make the payment I'll be taken to court and when I rang them today explaining I could pay it off in full at the end of this month I was very rudely told not only would they wait that long, but they'd be going ahead with the CCJ proceedings if I didn't make a payment whilst on the phone. I thought this was a bit extreme as I'm willing to pay, I just don't have the ability to do so until the 28th so I asked to speak to a manager, but I was simply told no and was left with no options. Is this normal? I understand that I've missed a payment, but I thought there would be a little more room for compromise given that I'm not trying to avoid them or anything.

Hello, I came through this forum as I was searching for what should I had expected from RLP. About 4 months ago, in April, me and my friend were caught shoplifting at Primark. The case is that we are not UK citizens, we were visiting London for several days. We are extremely ashamed and do not even realize how that kind of thing happened to us. when we left the shop with several items purchased, and items taken from the shop e ere detained by the Primark security, taken downstairs in a room here entered a furious man, asking to empty our bags and shouting at us that e had arrived to his country for stealing. He was very rude, he screaming all the time as a result we were totally scared and didn't know what to answer. he and the security emptied our bags and took our passports and took the items we stole to the other room. they demanded for us to write our addresses and e were told we would receive a fine. after half an hour the man came back as e were writing the addresses and told that he had called for police as the cost of the items we had taken separately as more than 200 pounds in total. the police took and cautioned us and sent the caution to our embassy, we were told we would have problems while applying for visa for UK and US next time. We received 3 RLP letters since then. The case is that only my friend received letter, which said there is a joint accusation for co-offenders, it didn't concertize ho many of us were blamed. we haven't answered and ignored them until now as we read some of previous posts. the first letter demanded fine of 300 ponds for one and 250 pounds of the fine for my friend, the second stated the same amount and the threats of court appeals. The third letter my friend received 10 days ago and it states that RLP has to advise its client to appeal and that we should answer the letter within 14 days. We are extremely worried, do not know ho to act, hat to do , we are just 20 have not finished the university yet and just cannot manage paying to RLP, but e are afraid, could advise us what to do?? Is there any chance that Primark will sue for us after RLP's notice? and as we are foreigners what will happen? All items ere returned to the store and they were not damaged but RLP states in the letters that we have to compensate the damage tothe cosmetics and other stuff the store was caused to, but there was no cosmetics at all if this matters. Thank you in advance and please help.

Hi Moved out of shared accommodation into my own flt but the landlord is now claiming that I have ripped the carpet and is going to keep my deposit to cover this. I vacuumed the carpet before leaving and there was definitely no tear in it and he's since sent a photo and it clearly looks like its been cut to me. This man has had more money off me than I care to admit in addition to the monthly rent and I refuse to let him get any more money out of me. How do I fight this? Let me know if you need any more info. Cheers Matt

OK, this may not be urgent as I did phone and they agreed that it was wrong, but I'm worried that there's a problem that will return. I'd appreciate any advice in getting to the bottom of it. I'm with Scottish Hydro Electic. Not got any gas. I pay monthly by DD. £30 per month up to now and when I got my last bill I was almost £30 in credit which I got refunded. I tend to be about £20 in credit. I have storage heaters and have "Heating control energy" and standard energy. My storage heaters were switched off at the wall in March and haven't been on since. I live alone and I'm careful with electricity. Energy saving bulbs, go round switching things off, nothing on standby. I got a bill yesterday. Reading from 27/2 -31/8. They claimed I owed £235 and my DD needed to go up to £74. So I panicked and phoned them, did some readings and gave the serial numbers of my meters and the employee said it sounded right and went to speak to his manager whe he confirmed that I was now in credit which sounded right. My problem is that I can see this happening again because my readings weren't that different to theirs, just that they don't make sense. It's the heating control that's gone up. From 369 units to 4751 units. 4382 units compared to my standard energy which has increased by 667. So on my (cheaper) night time electricity I owe(d?) £264 compared to £90. I haven't even been using it! As I said earlier the storage heaters are switched off and I don't use power at night. Everything is switched off and unplugged. Except my fridge/freezer. But it's on in the day as well. Does anyone have any idea what the cause could be. I don't know a lot about electricity but this must be wrong. Help!!!!

Hi All I recently left a company due to the unreasonable behaviour of my boss, however I agreed to work my notice to keep things sweet. I worked my notice and finished after completing my notice as normal, admiteddly I did take my foot off the gas and spend some time on the BBC website as they took my work off me and gave me filing to do. I had taken some exams paid for by the company however there was nothing in my contract to state i had to repay them if i left nor did i sign any agreement to repay them. I did state that if they were difficult I would take them to court for constructive dismissal (i have written evidence of this) and we agreed to shake hands as the boss was known for this type of behaviour. Anyway 4 weeks ago I got a letter from my former boss telling me i had breached my contract by emailing a spreadsheet home with a formula on i has come up with, it did not contain client or company information and was a simple calculator based on information available on the public domain. I therefore replied to them in kind but as a gesture of goodwill i deleted the file and considered things closed. Imaging my surprise today then to receive a call at my new employer from my former boss stating that if i did not repay the exam costs they would take me to court for breach of contract. Although he did not state the grounds for taking me to court other than breach of contract, I can only assume it is because i spent time on the internet during my notice period. I did not browse any inppropriate sites nor download client information. My first question is, do they have grounds for this? as i am no longer an employee excessive internet use cannot be sued for. secondly are they allowed to contact me at my current employer? I am tempted to take them to a tribunal for the constructive dismissal to spite them but I cannot see what they are trying to achieve by behaving like this other than to salve their damaged pride and harrass me. many thanks in advance

Hi Folks, I've received a letter from Hillesden Securities / DLC threatening to get a charge on my property. This relates to a debt bought from Halifax in December 2008 which had a payment plan in place for £35 per month that had been maintained with Halifax up to the date it was sold . I have continued to pay Hillesden £35 up to the present. In June 2011 - when my credit history finally cleared - I took out a loan to settle some of my larger creditors and this prompted a letter from DLC threatening at that time to get a charge on my property. I sought advise from my local CAB who informed me that because Hillesden had bought the debt with a payment plan in place my only legal requirement was to maintain the payment - which I have done. After a series of letters between August 2011 and now I have received another letter once again threatening to take legal action in order to get a charge on my property to secure themselves. I know from other threads on this forum a little about BCOBS COBS and estoppel but would be grateful if someone can give me some more details so that I can be forearmed in order to prepare a defense if necessary. Thanks.

Hi everyone, Its been a while since my last post. I need some advice about a bailiff that has just called upon my daughter. She is in a security block of flats that cannot be accessed directly without being let in by owner through telecom system. he told her he was from Bristow and Sutor and needed her to make an agreement. She said she was a single woman alone and was not prepared to let him in and would phone the office. He said she needed to let him in and do it now. She said if he didn't go away she would telephone the Police, he said if she didn't let him in the Police were going to arrest her and 6.30 am tomorrow morning. He has just gone but has left a letter for her. Is this kind of treatment legal and what should she do? thanks x

Hi All Help appreciated on this........ ......I entered into unofficial debt management plans with approx. 15 creditors around 8 years ago, interest and charges were frozen and have been paying low payments every month ever since. Suddenly last week I received a letter from Direct Legal and Collections on one account with them, saying some new credit information had come to light and they needed to speak to me urgently. Then next day another letter relating to my other account with them arrived saying they would be applying for a ccj and then a charging order. I had a good scout on this site and a few others and decided the best course of action would be to request a copy of the consumer credit agreement and sent this for both accounts last week by signed for delivery. Today I received a letter from Alpins telling me they had been instructed by DLC to take steps to recover the outstanding balance on one of the accounts. They have requested I call DLC to make full payment or reach agreement within 7 days or legal proceedings may commence. After all this time I have just managed to get into a situation where my credit file is looking pretty good and I don't want to risk a ccj at this stage. I am not sure how to deal with this. A ny advice would be very welcome. Many thanks