Hi all My stepson aged 30 recently left the family home after living with us for over two years and moved in with his girlfriend. Although his mail came to our home, he was never on the electoral roll as residing here. Having cleared his room following his departure, we found a large quantity of unopened mail from creditors and a CCJ from a few months ago demanding he maintains his agreed £100 per month payments. Yesterday, a bailiff turned up at our home demanding £1,750 that my stepson has run up as a debt, but with whom I don't know. I told him that he moved out in November to an address I didn't know. The bailiff was adamant that the £1,750 had to paid there and then and said that if I couldn't pay it, then he would require access to our home to remove goods to that value. I told him that there was nothing of my stepson's in the house which the bailiff said was of no concern to him, and unless we could provide receipts for our property, then he considered it fair game to remove. Not wishing to see our house stripped of its contents, I paid the £1,750 and the bailiff went on his way. Had he gained entry, should I not have paid, would he have had the right to remove our belongings if we couldn't provide receipts? I'm sure this won't be the last visit, it seems my stepson owes a great deal of money to various companies and I'd like to know where my wife and I stand in readiness for the next anticipated call from the bailiffs. Thank you

Hi there, I am self employed and have worked successfully with TaxAid to get rid of any fines, so I know exactly what I need to pay. The debt is about £9,000. How can I best negotiate with the HMRC Taskforce without taking the bankruptcy route? I have heard of asking for the debt to go into remission, which basically pauses it for a length of time. I can afford to pay about half of the £9k up front. But I don't receive a monthly wage, it comes in unpredictable chunks throughout the year. Does anyone have any advice about how I can propose a repayment schedule? (I will also try to get advice from Business Debtline. I do have other debt that I am paying £1.25 per month for but I am looking to write CCA letters to those debt collection agencies.) Many thanks for reading

It's only taken them 20 months to tell me this. I applied for council tax online in Feb last year and got a letter in standard size print. Ok, fair enough, there's no option for letters to be sent out in large print. I spoke to someone in the council and asked for my letters to be in large print. I was told this would happen. It never has done. I've asked every single time I've received a letter and have been told each time it would happen. In August, I was told they had put something on my file stating that I needed my letters in large print which someone had missed. I was then told that they'd put a pop up on screen, which would mean you couldn't miss it. I put in a complaint. The response was it's not possible to provide letters in large print because of the software used. But they then said "Whilst individual letters can be presented in a larger font size if they are copied to an application like Microsoft Word, this would only be possible if your claim was being reviewed by a Housing Benefit assessor." I was told to print the letters out myself. But why should I? if I wasn't disabled, they'd send the letters to me in a format I could read.

Hi All, A friend of mine is having a problem that I'm helping with. He purchased a secondhand Mercedes sports car for £26,000 from what he considered a reputable car dealer (not main dealer)it was delivered Thursday 13th July 2017. They are FCA regulated (Ref No 658267 ) and a representative of (MBI) Limited (Ref No 312143) He paid £10,000 deposit cash and the rest on finance with Close, the first day he noticed problems which were reported the second day, he thought there were gearbox problems and noticed the active intelligent lights were not working. He was asked not to drive the car and either get it brought back or taken to a local garage to see the problem, he managed to get it into a Mercedes specialist on the next day - there was a 9 page faults list including electronics, possible not Mercedes front lights and engine misfiring on some cylinders. He did not drive the car as advised and called dealer supplied the report and asked for a refund, the dealer said he would consider it, I helped him draft a letter Monday 17th saying under the consumer right act - right to return, he would like the car picked up, and a full refund based on the independent report and his right to return a faulty car. I listed the main faults, I also noted the cost he had incurred in taking the car to garage getting home then having to pick it up again, he also had to pay for engine oil and other expenses. I sent this to the finance company as well asking for acknowledgment, they haven't as of yet. So far the dealer has refused a refund and said they won't accept responsibly until they have an independent report done, I pointed out that they have had that for 3 days. it's nearly a week and they have the car, the report, his money and he doesn't have any transport. Thoughts?

Wifes car was run into last week so rang Hastings to register claim which is going through ok as they admitted liability. However realised today due to a big phone bill the call was charged at 41.75+vat. I am completely shocked at this especially as it wasnt our fault. I've registeted a complaint with Hastings to try and sort this out as this seems totally unacceptable to me. Has anyone else had similar issues? Who is the best ones to turn too if no luck with Hastings?

I bought a Denon AV receiver about 7 months ago from an online retailer. I now need to return it for a replacement power supply as it is making a humming noise. The retailer tells me I need to purchase packaging, arrange a courier and they will contribute £10 for carriage. This is a large and expensive item so packaging it safely will be a big job and I am not sure that £10 will cover carriage and insurance. They tell me repair could take up to 4 weeks which is very inconvenient as this is a critical part of our media system and used daily. I realise being without films and music isn't the end of the world but on the other hand I am annoyed that such an expensive item has failed so soon and is causing this inconvenience. I see The Consumer Rights Act says: What constitutes "significant inconvenience" and should a large item be expected to be returned with all costs, including packaging refunded?

Sorry of this is not the right place. My dad sent a large amount to me this morning via faster transfer. Was sent from his HSBC advance to my Co-op account. We set up the details the other day and sent £50 to test it was right and the payment this morning was via the automated phone system using the details which were already set up so they are 100% correct. Its 9 hours since and no sign of anything my end, he is not home and comes from the 3 day transfer age so doesn't seem concerned but I am pretty worried as I know its almost instant now. This must surely of been flagged up for further checks or something, HSBC did boot me out last year without reason so i'm hoping that is not an issue. Does anyone know what might be going on or the process for this?. At what point is there a serious issue?. I do need the money fairly urgent so it is a pain. Should of just got him to draw £300 a day for a month.

Hi - not sure which forum this belongs to so will try here. Firstly (I say this first to make the situation clear) I deliberately did NOT sign a contract with these guys because I didn't agree with the terms. I was sent reminders to sign all the way up to the date of the first DD.. and then they duly took the first and subsequent DD payments without the agreement signed. (What is this type of contract called where some basic terms are implied by the exchange of money? "Implied Contract"?) this is for car insurance. My favoured insurance broker uses Close Premium Finance for payment installments via a credit agreement - they get the money upfront, you pay 5 monthly installments to the creditor. My final instalment of £47.51 didn't go through as I didn't have the funds. This was on 16th October. On 18th October I receive a default notice dated 17th now claiming £77.51 because of an added £30 fine as per the "agreeement" (which I didn't sign). Several days later they tried to take this from my account by adjusting the Direct Debit amount. I should say here also that I did not sign a Direct Debit agreement either with Close Brothers but only gave my bank details to the insurance broker for this purpose as part of the data they needed to enable payment by installment on their system. The default notice gave me until 6th November to pay this increased amount (the total called "arrears") or they would terminate the "agreement" (which I didn't sign..) . I still didn't have the money until this week - am self-employed and had a backlog of invoices to send out and be paid - and also busy so made no contact or payment. Today I received in the post a letter saying they have terminated the "agreement" and are threatening to demand the remaining six months' insurance premium from the insurance broker and pay themselves the arrears, now increased by a further £15 to £92. If they do this, they will both cancel my insurance, get £150 odd back from the insurer and take their £92 (and return £58 to me from what I understand). Yet I'm only £47.51 short of the full amount (£315 I think total - some £70 odd was paid direct to the broker upfront). I'm at a loss as what to do as I don't know where I stand! I have a few questions: - I did not sign the agreement deliberately so as not to be held to the penalties (they call them "fees" of course") so can they even default me at all and does the Consumer Credit Act come into force for ANY loan, whether you sign a contract with mention of it or not? - Can a creditor default someone after just one day and without sending a notice of arrears first? - By me allowing them to take the payments as scheduled and by them acting to take the money, do we have a contract at all and if so what are the terms? Can they automatically include their full terms or is it only a simple implied agreement of supplying the basic credit in exchange for the scheduled payments? - Have they violated Direct Debit rules by both not getting me to sign a mandate explicitly and by then changing the amount from the schedule that was set out? At no point had I agreed to or been informed of a variable Direct Debit. - What steps can I take to prevent them from taking the remaining premium and paying themselves the fees? Or better still stop them from cancelling my insurance with the broker? (although they've stated they've cancelled the loan?) Any help would be much appreciated as I've no idea as to my rights here or what steps to take (I realise thought the amounts may be trivial compared to some other's difficulties!).

I put a claim in with our local council for damage to my car caused, there was a large dip in the road, since hitting it the suspension has no dampening in it, and there is a bad knock. I emailed the council highways dept, who passed it to their insurers, Zurich in Newcastle. They asked for a road report from highways, and after 2 months, came back to me with claim refused - not accepting liability. They sent a road report, with reports that has been made from the public - on this there is a report for the dip in February 2016 (large dip in road, can this be repaired, and council notes say - job note put out). I then hit the dip on the 25th April, and it causes damage. It wasnt repaired during this time, as it says the last time it was inspected was November 2015. A week after I reported it, it is filled - however it is sinking significantly again. Is there any templates or anyone have any idea how to write a reply to them, asking how they can refuse liability, yet on the report sheet the job was reported to them 10 weeks prior to causing my damage? Thankyou. I have the response letter I can take photos of and post on here if needed.

I run a small limited company, and in the past we've referred our clients onto another (much larger, huge international) company who supply products and services that accompany our own. Way back in 2011 we requested some loan/demo equipment from them to exhibit at a trade show. The other day I got a letter from them saying that the loan was for a period of 1 month, and they are going to charge me a daily penalty rate for the period since (over 5 years!), unless I can prove that it was returned. The letter states (potentially misleadingly) that the value of the equipment is £1000, but it doesn't mention their 'penalty' charge rates . I don't even know exactly what their standard hire charge for the equipment is, but at a guess even that could work out at £4000 over 5 years. Looking back at my records, I did sign their loan agreement, and it does mention the duration was one month (although I don't recall this being stipulated during our telephone conversations prior). It also mentions that late return may incur penalty charges at their daily rate. I also wrote to them a couple of days later to cancel, before any equipment was delivered to us. Now, I've looked around and I can't find the equipment here, so I don't know if we ever received it, or if we did and then returned it. And if we did return it, I'm not going to be able to prove it - whatever delivery service we used (probably Royal Mail) isn't going to be able to supply proof of delivery for such a long time ago. Does it seem acceptable/reasonable that they haven't mentioned anything about this for 5 years (after supposedly lending the equipment for just one month)? No requests for it's return, or advising that we are incurring 'penalty' charges. Even now, they still aren't saying how much they think we owe. It just seems like a fishing trip to get me to offer to return it now, which would presumably give them a case to charge us £1000's. Where could they go with this next? If they go the legal route (small claims?), would they have a realistic prospect, given that they've sat on it in silence for 5 years? Presumably statute of limitations would stop them after 6 years?

Hi Bought a used car form large dealer Oldham cars fine but had a private plate on car we p/exd, salesman said he'd sort the transfer no problem as part of deal (we have evidence of this) BUT they sold our old car with reg still on now we cant get it off as DVLA say only registered keeper can transfer it and they wont, dealer basically ignoring our calls etc. as I've asked them to cover the cost of the plate but wont. Any one any idea on what if anything I can do? Thanks for looking.

Hi, I recently brought a small claim online against a large insurance company (following a recorded delivery warning letter giving them 7 days to respond, which they ignored), they did nothing so when the appropriate time had expired I applied online for judgement against them, specifying I wanted the full amount, plus interest, costs etc, paid immediately (the original loss for which I claimed was 6 years ago). I now have the judgement as of 30th September, and confirmation arrived by post from the court yesterday. The MCOL service show the next step as to issue a Warrant, but it then states that this is only possible for claims up to £5000. The judgement is between £5,000 and £10,000. So, what would you recommend is the best way to get them to pay up? I'm looking for the easiest, rather than specifically the quickest method (though the quicker the better obviously). Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi All, Just today it has been confirmed to me that my beloved male dog has a large cancer within the muscle wall near his hind left leg. We found the lump last week and immediately took him to be checked - the lump is huge and very hard. Prior to this he had been his normal bright self, not off his food, not losing weight so nothing to suggest he was poorly. We have been told he can have surgery to remove it however they would have to also take a substantial amount away from around the tumour and then it would be major reconstructive surgery to close the wound. There is about a 25% success rate that it would be removed with additional complications due to the nature of the site of the tumour. Has anyone else had to deal with this type of thing and if so did you / would you put your dog (or cat) through such a major surgery at this age or would you try to manage his pain as good as possible before putting him to sleep? Thanks for reading.

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

Hi, Sorry if i'm posting this in the wrong section, i'm not even sure that it is something that people may be able to help with. Anyway, i won't go into full details, but a family member is owed a large (six figure) amount of money mainly due to unwise business decisions and also being, well conned is probably the correct word to use. So if it is something that someone may have some good advice on recovering the debt i will post the whole story so people may be able to help. P.S. Not trying to portray a sob story but the person concerned is in their eighties and could possibly be made homeless quiet soon due to this situation. Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated.

I wonder if anyone can help I brought a laptop on buy now pay later for £399, which was up in july. I havent recieved a final statement, just a statment through saying that my paymnet was due on the 12th of July and here, have some interest of £154!!!!!! After ringing them, they have basically told me tough, i can send a letter in if i like, i should of rung them??? ( I have been waiting for the final statment) They will not remove the interest...................... is there anything i can do, this seems like over the top bully tatics to me

Hello all, i'm new to forums and here and just looking for a little help and advice. Today after picking my mail up i have received a letter from Department for Works and Pensions, telling me that their records show i owe them just over £15,000. I was shocked and horrified, at first thinking is this some sort of joke. But the letter is short and looks genuine. the letter tells me that if they don't hear from me from a certain date for repayments they will accept this as my choice and issue no further reminder letters. The next step would be to recover the amount from contacting my employer or asking a debt collection agency. I have not been on any form of benefits for about 18 months now as i got dismayed and lost with the whole system in general a nd managed to get by where i can. I have no fixed address and not employed. Do i make contact with the DWP to resolve this by entering into a contract as to speaking to them? Is there anything they can do in my current circumstances? I'm lost and speechless at the moment sorry.

Hi, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, bit of a long story but here we go.. My girlfriends dog had a bad leg so we took him to the vets, suspected cruciate ligament damage so booked him in for an x-ray, we were advised if it was cruciate then costs could be £2k ish, only verbally by a lady who worked in the vets. She has insurance so we checked and insurance covered first £1500 of a cruciate so were expecting £500ish bill. The dog went in for his xray, they operated there and then he stayed overnight and came home the next day with a buster collar on and leg stitched up. We caged him as advised so he couldn't move around too much on it. Next morning came down to find he had chewed all stitched out because the buster collar the vets had provided was too small (he's a big dog) so we called the vets, they said bring him back in, they put him under and re did the stitches and he came home later the same day. No mention of costs, not asked to sign anything, this time they heavily bandaged the leg and put a shoe on so he couldn't get at it. He went back for numerous check ups to check the scar was healing, stitch removal etc, and during none of these visits were any costs discussed with us or were we advised of how much the whole thing was costing (at any point). He is now nearly fully recovered a couple of months down the line and this morning she received a letter from the vets giving he a warning of overdue payment saying that she owes them £2060 so we called the vets (couldnt speak to accounts as its a saturday) receptionist pulled the flle up and said yes that it was owed after insurance, range the insurance who have confirmed they have paid £1,500. There wasn't even a breakdown of costs. I expect to find on Monday that they have charged for the second part of the operation under the assumption that the insurance will just pay it when in fact it was due to their own error of not giving him a correct buster collar or bandaging over the stitches in my opinion. It is a company called pet medics we have used who are part of a large group of vets. I'm not sure where we stand on this, my girlfriend has no income and doesn't own her own house, has no credit etc, so if they chase her for it the won't get anywhere but that is only a last resort we would much rather sort it fairly, I was going to pay the bill for her expecting £500 ish. I can't imagine any other industry where you could not advise somebody of costs and just send a letter owing £x so how can a vets get away with it? Any advice greatly appreciated before I call the vets on Monday to sort (when I have calmed down ) Thanks

Hi I was hoping you could help? I have a Rossendale problem. I owed council tax from 2011 which I have paid all but £90.00 0f. As I had apparently an agreement with Rossendale to pay 40.00 a month. I actually paid what I could when I could and paid off nearly 700 quid. An agreement I do not recall but bailiff said I did, but I recall signing nothing. He visited me for the first time today and did not enter the house. But asked for an agreement to be set up over next few days. The bill he gave me was for £325.00. I proved to him via bank statements etc. that I owe only £90.00 But he is claiming default of payment arrangements due to new legislations. So I threw back that if I owe below £100.00 bailiffs are not supposed to visit houses which he checked with his office and turned out to be true. Do I have to pay the £325.00? Which seems a bit steep for apparently missing a payment. He quoted a whole lot of new legislation stuff at me which I do not understand. I have to resolve this payment in a few days. I have not had a court letter or let a bailiff in my home and neither did he ask to come in. He was quite polite but I still think the extra money on top of the £90.00 I owe is obscene seeming I have battled to pay off £700. I am struggling financially so this is not peanuts to me. It just seems odd that I was nearly finished paying this damn bill and now its nearly half of what I owed in the first place. The payment plan that was apparently set up does not include a list of items from my house as today was the first time I have seen a bailiff regarding this bill. The last letter they sent me was 4th September 2013 Yet he has tried fobbing me off that he has sent later letters and phoned my mobile. Which is rubbish as I don`t own one!. He also tried to fob me off with a rude comment that I apparently have a history of failed payments earlier due to failed credit payments which is also untrue as I have all the bank statements that show payment going out in black and white. I don`t know my rights on this, do I have anyway I can get this bill down? Any help grateful. Kind regards all.

I was driving in West Sussex yesterday night about 21.00 hrs, I hit a pothole which appeared to be a puddle. Turned out to be a 4' long by 9" deep hole with a burst water main below, it's caused damage to the steering /suspension on the car. I called the Police and waited for the to arrive. They coned the road off etc. and gave me an incident no. My question is... Should I claim for damage from West Sussex County Council, or The water company?

Got what maybe a little problem. My friend and his family he lives with are pretty rich who have a fair number of properties and commercial properties (2 they use them self and 1 other they lease out). They are pretty rich but was desperate to purchase another property and they was a little short of money in a short space of time in their bank accounts. So my friend asked me for 10k to be transferred into his account and on the day of transfer he will repay me 10k which he did (in cash as he receives mainly cash from his company sales) Now a week later he was pretty desperate and said he was literally 6k short. He said verbally he will repay in 1 month. Its now been 3.5 months and he keeps saying hes waiting for some money to come in from some place.... I am just thinking ahead here a little, i just need some advise on how if i needed to take him to court to recover the money owed. There was no agreement signed as were friends for 10+ years, however while were on good terms..etc what would be the best way to gather evidence if i was to need it later on? I have a voice recording of the time when i transferred the 5k and during this conversation we mentioned the word 'lend' but no mention of 1 month deadline was mentioned or anything. As i say im jumping ahead here... i did not ask for a signed agreement about the money because being friends for a long time asking this would probably break a friendship and come across as not trusting your friend. My question here today really is can i gather more voice recordings as evidence should i need it?

Hi I hope you can help me? I really don't know where to start. I have recently split up with my partner of 20 year. We had to sell our large detatched house and go our separate ways. Fortunately i was lucky enough to get enough money from the sale of our house to buy my own little house for me and my son. I am currently unemployed and i suffer from anxiety and stress, i do get some help for my son from my ex. But, i am struggling now to make ends meet and to top it all off, in the next month my catalogue Buy now pay later purchases will come into affect. I currently owe over £3,000 with Kandco, and over £5,000 with Littlewoods. By the end of next month if i cannot pay them off before the interest hits, these will spiral out of control with a massive interest of over 40%, so, all in all i will be looking at a lot of money owing. I have contacted them both, to tell them that i have hit hard times like a lot of people, and asked if they would accept £50.00 per moth for both until i get back on my feet. They basically told me where to go, stated that as this would be below the minimum payment, they will not accept it. Please help, i don't know what to do, my friend was telling me that she knew someone in the same situation, it went on for a year, numerous threats, letters, phonecalls, numerous debt collection agencies, all refusing to help them, then finally they were issued CCJ'S. After all that the courts accepted their offer of £30 a month of which they had made to the catalogues in the first place over a year ago, so, why don't they just try and help in the first place. My main concern is after reading a lot of threads, is the charges they can put on my property. I am a born worrier to start with, and i know i was stupid, putting myself in this situation if the first place, i am a great believer in that if you havn't got it you can't have it, but, i just kept buying and clicking buy now pay later, thinking that when i sell my house i can pay it all off but, the worse happened, i split from my partner, he had a nervous breakdown afterhe lost his business, we tried for 3 year to sell our house. Property prices dropping all the time and i only just managed to walk away with a little house for us to live in. Now am i going to lose that too? I am at the end of breaking point, i thought that if i contacted them before the debt even happens, it might be better but, they really just dont want to know.

Hi Guys - Fairly new to this posting malarky so i'm expecting a good response from those who know: I took out a loan from Welcome Finance some 6 years ago now and fell behind with repayments on the loan shortly before this PPI scandal kicked off. Pretty sure most of the debt is now paid off however I've had a letter from Empingham chasing me for just under 3k to which clearly I dont have. I was sold PPI at the time of the loan to which i told was a condition of acceptance. I've SAR'd these con merchants and they've sent me a copy of the agreement with my signature on it. My question is how do i proceed from here in terms of going about to repair my credit file as this is proving to be a massive dent and red mark all over my credit report. Any advice on this would be most appreciated. Who to email? Write to? Sample's all would be most helpful. Thanks in advance

hi i have a question if anybody is able to help i would be most grateful. Money owed to a major bank £24k this was year 2000 ccj was granted, now i have heard nothing since 2003, nothing on credit files or ccj register. i approached a mortgage advisor as i thought my credit wasnt to bad now but i told theml under no circumstances to go to this bank, left it in their hands, she phoned me back 4 hours later and said she had a offer in principle from this bank!!!!!!! now my question is will the bank know it is me? and has this opened up a can of worms. should i stop her from doing full application tommorow? will they still have my records 13 years later. alittle bit stressed now!! could kill mortage advisors why didnt they listen to me. thankyou sorry if this is wrong place.

Hi, I am deliberately posting this question in the local authority parking sub forum as I wish to know how local authorities deal with large cars? The standard size of a car park space in a multistorey car park is 2.4m x 4.8m however I noticed a colleague had been given a speculative invoice because he drives a Jaguar XF which has a length of 4.961m. There is no way this will fit into a car park space even if you risk damaging the vehicle by touching the wall. If he had parked in a local authority multistorey car park would the council be able to issue a PCN for failing to park in a marked bay? and would the fact that the vehicle is 4.961m long be a reasonable defence against a real PCN? Regards, Banjo.