Hi there For nearly 2 years I have had a complaint about my mortgage company with the FOS. My mortgage company were preffered, then accenden and now engage- (although I settled the mortgage on April 2011.) My complaint was mainly: In 2009 after being made redundant I fell into arrears, 3 months worth. I made an arrangement with them and was told as long as I stuck to the arrangement no further action would taken. some months later I checked my credit profile on Experian and they had marked my mortgage account as being in default. I was never sent a notice of default so had no knowledge of this. Also I had asked to capitilise the arrears but I was told that as I was in a fixed period it would not be possible to do this until fixed period ended. Also they were heavy handed with the charges on my account. Today I have received a letter saying they ombusman have made their final decision and that the agree the default should stay in place. They say I was offered the chance to capitilise the arrears but I declined, (why would I do this??) They say engage have "notes" to prove this but this is a blatant lie. They agree the charges were high and have award some refunds, about £500 and 8% interest. I ended up selling the house because the situation was making me depressed and I now rent but it seems I have to now spend another 3 years waiting for this default to drop off the account. I feel let down by the FOS for just accepting what this suspious company say. I have 2 options, I accept the decision, take the money-(assuming I get it!) or I reject the decision and fight through the civil court. I'm looking for advice on what I should do? My heart tells me to just take the money and move on but I'm so angry it just doesnt feel right. Furthermore even though this was settled in full in april 2011 they still havent updated my credit file to reflect this, I have asked several times. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, I have received CC papers for a debt owing to Moriarty Law on behalf of MotorMile Finance. The total amount is for £350 for a loan taken out in 2013. I have sent in a defence saying that I do not recognise the debt and requesting further information. I have received a letter from Moriarty Law with photocopies of their paperwork. I now have a mediation appointment booked for next week. I am worried because firstly I have never been to court before and it scares me. Secondly, the paperwork does not look correct. The signature in the box that I am supposed to have signed is definitely not mine. They say that they paid the money into an account number XXXXXXXX, but I have changed banks since 2013 and I don't know if it is mine or not. It is possible that this is genuine, I have had payday loans before, but there is also a chance that it isn't (the fake signature is what worries me most). What should I say in mediation? I don't want to end up with a CCJ. I can't afford to pay £350 and I am also disabled so going to court will end up a nightmare as my nearest is the other side of a different county. If I offer them something like £25 as a gesture without admitting liability do you think that they will go away?

Hi everyone, I hope I have the correct forum I need help with a debt relating to management charges on two apartments. On the 24 February 2014 Northampton County Court served us with papers in respect of outstanding service charges. A1111111 name of apartment one in the amount of £3752.01 A2222222 name of apartment two in the amount of £3812.03 We challenged the figures sought by the managing agents and their solicitors, advising the Court that we had never received (and still haven't) statements of accounts. We agreed we owed service charges but believed the figures due were much lower. The County Court appeared to agree with our figures. They made a ruling in the case A22222 relating to apartment two. Judgement was ordered in favour of the claimant in the amount of £1531.27 on the 10 July 2014. We immediately paid that figure and the CCJ was removed from the register. No ruling was ever made in relation to A111111 - apartment one. As with apartment two we strongly disputed the figures claimed by the management agents and their solicitors. The Court ended up closing the file as the solicitors for the claimants apparently didn't respond to their queries. NRAM, our mortgage company, confirmed to us in writing that they had been advised a CCJ was registered against us in respect of apartment 1 in the amount of £1932.54. NRAM confirmed that they paid this figure to the claimants solicitors. We were very upset as the case was not heard never mind a ruling made. We believe the claimants solicitors sent NRAM a copy of the CCJ entered on apartment 222 in order to get the fund for apartment 1. Now a year later, the management agents have again changed at the apartment block. They requested the 2015 management charge but allowed payments by instalment. We paid the first payment on both apartments in January. By return we received a letter from the new management agents stating that as we were in serious arrears on our service charge payments they had instructed solicitors to start court action. They now claim we owe circa £4500 on each apartment. I wrote back to ask how they had commuted their figures. I advised them of the above and included confirmation from the court re the judgement as well as a copy of the letter from NRAM confirming payment. I had a very nice email back to say that they were not aware of the history and would investigate and revert. That was on Feb 9th. We heard nothing since but on Thursday we received a letter from a solicitors firm stating that they had been advised to start legal action to recover the arrears due i.e. circa £4500 per apartment. Following my long post my questions are 1) Can they sue us again over this debt when the court made a ruling and awarded a CCJ? 2) I think I need a solicitor? Does anyone have any idea how much this would cost? I believe in paying my debts and have tried to but the previous management company wouldnt accept instalments, didn't provide any reports or accounts and were extremely difficult to deal with. We asked them to request payment from our mortgage company but they said they couldn't until a judgement was in force. We bought these apartments when we were both working and had good jobs. I had to give up work due to having an autistic child, I left the UK and moved abroad. My husband still lives in the UK, lost his job and has since found another one but on a much reduced salary. We would sell if we could but both apartments are in negative equity. Thank you for your help

Last October, my then landlord compelled me to leave this property by threatening to ‘make your life hell’ if I stayed, as he was unhappy about me threatening to pay my final rent with part of my unregistered deposit. I loaded up my car with some of my belongings, gave the landlord back his key (as he'd threatened to change the locks), and agreed with my landlord that I’d arrange with him to return to collect my remaining belongings. My negotiations to retrieve my belongings didn’t run smoothly: - He repeatedly insulted me during the exchanges. - He was restrictive in terms of when I could attend to collect my stuff. - He imposed deadlines of when the items needed to be collected by, even though I'd told him that my work shifts meant I couldn’t attend at the times and dates he specified. - He told me that he’d only allow me to attend if I accepted a ridiculously low out of court settlement for the money he owed me for my deposit and unspent rent (but later relented). He and I finally agreed on a time and a date for me to collect my belongings, a couple of weeks after the eviction. He cancelled at the last minute, due to having lost his keys to the flat, without so much as apologizing. This was the final straw, particularly as I’d booked a day off work to attend. I told him that I’d be forfeiting my belongings. In response, he asked me never to contact him again. I’ve recently launched legal action against him, suing him for my deposit, my unspent rent and the distress and inconvenience his illegal eviction has caused. In response, he’s counter-suing me for £11 a day for storage costs, for between when I left and the date of the hearing! Does he have a case? Thanks, Jeff

Hi all... I've never had any legal issues in my life, so this is a first for me. Here's the summary: I ordered something via the internet from a large company in Germany using paypal (total cost £50.) I received the item in December. This afternoon, I received an email from the company's lawyer saying that the paypal payment never went through, and they are demanding the intial payment + attorney fees, or they are going to sue me. I just checked my paypal account, and was genuinely surprised to find out that this wasn't a hoax of some kind. My payment didn't go through, which has never happened before with paypal. So I've gone ahead and sent the payment through again (this time it went through successfully.) My question is about the attorney fees they are demanding, which are more than the original item. I've never heard from this company since I made the purchase in December, no emails, phone calls, or invoices in the post. The letter from their solicitor says that they sent me an email, but I've checked my spam folder and I've never received anything from them. Am I responsible for their attorney fee if I settle the bill prior to them suing me? That seems crazy, as I've never heard from them before about any billing problem. Can they sue me in Germany for the legal fees, and would this somehow destroy my credit history? Thanks for any help...

Hi, I am really stressed. I have received claim forms for the County Court for a HBOS debt being claimed by Lowell/Bryan Carter. The claim is for £740. I did have a Halifax account a few years ago and it went into arrears for around £150. Is there anyway I can ask the court for them to make Bryan Carter provide full information for the amount claimed as I am not certain it is this debt and can't work out how it has gotten to so much? TIA

Hi Everyone, I'm going to tell you my experience to date so that others may learn from it. It's not quite over yet but I think it will be by next week. Feel free to ask me any questions. I live in SW Scotland and in Feb 2014 I approached a local family run company to quote for double glazed replacement windows. The sales director sent me the quote from his email address. I responded with a query and then accepted the quote by email. His email address was then automatically added to my Outlook email address book. The work was carried out in May 2014. The fitters did a really good job and I love the windows so there's no problem there. The problem started on 2nd June 2014. I received an invoice from the company asking me for immediate payment but that invoice didn't give me one jot of information on how to pay them. In fact it was very poor, it had no company reg number and no T & Cs either. I sent a quick email to the sales director (using the address already stored in Outlook) asking for payment details. I got a response which mentioned 'New bank account' signed by the director from the sales director's email address. I logged onto my bank account (Cahoot) and setup the payment online. This all happened early afternoon. Then around 4:30pm I received a second email from the sales director's email address but signed by the girl in the office. It gave me different bank details. I presumed that the company were in the process of changing bank accounts and that maybe the directors hadn't communicated it yet to the staff. It was too late in the day to check with them when I picked up the email. At about 7:30 that night Cahoot performed a security call. In it they asked me if the payment was going to the windows company to which I said yes. The next day I received an email from the sales director asking me where the money was because they hadn't received it. I was given the run around until the 11th June when I had become very suspicious and stopped communicating with him. In the meantime the bank were trying to trace where the money had gone. They sent me the necessary proof on the 20th June. I then got in touch with the company and sent the document to them on a different email address. I told them they could now put pressure on Barclays bank because they had definitely received the money. They instantly replied asking why Barclays when they were with Bank of Scotland. I sent them all the previous emails and the girl in the office phoned me and said they had never sent the emails to me. She asked me what I intended to do and I said I was going to phone the police, which I did. The police investigation is ongoing and there are now 8 other victims none of them to do with the windows company. Not once did this company try to talk to me or investigate the circumstances. Their first response was when I was on the phone to the office girl and the sales director was asking in the background if I was insured. The next thing they did was get a solicitor involved and sent me a demand to pay up. I went to my own solicitor and showed her the email. She told me I have paid. The company did a few things that made me very suspicious about them. They never chased me for the payment when I had told them they should received my payment by 3rd June at the latest and they deleted all their emails which were police evidence. I had my computer checked to ensure I hadn't been hacked which I hadn't. I then had the email headers looked at by a computer expert and they have shown that the so called fraudulent email was sent to me via the window company's server. It looks as if someone within the company logged onto a google email account (which is largely anonymous) and somehow intercepted my email but not quickly enough to stop another person in the company from also seeing my email. My next step was to complain to my bank. There had been no warnings on their screens to tell me that I wasn't protected by the Faster Payments System or that they don't check the account name. The bank's response was to tell me they didn't want the criminals to know this! I said if that was the case they could have told me during the security call. They dismissed my complaint. I went to the Financial Ombudsman. The adjudicator also dismissed my complaint twice but I appealed and it finally reached the Financial Ombudsman. The bank had very conveniently lost the recording of the security call but somehow the FO managed to get them to find it. It was because of that security call that she upheld my complaint. She says that the bank led me to believe that they checked the account name. She also said that the bank had authorised the payment and not me. She ruled that the bank should re-imburse me for all my legal costs, the debt owed to the window company and any other costs so that I am not out of pocket. This decision was made in May 2015 from my initial complaint in Aug 2014. My solicitor was amazed at what I had achieved. I would say that the Faster Payments System is not secure enough. The customer has no way of checking that the bank details provided by a company actually belong to that company. Criminals are now putting people into companies to spot loopholes in their security/admin procedures in order to send out fraudulent bank details to unsuspecting victims like me. You could ring a company to ask them for their bank details and the person you were speaking to could give you their personal information and you would be none the wiser. There is nowhere to verify that an account belongs to a company. Once you have paid the money it is impossible to get it back unless the bank made the error. I believe that in other countries they use a third check like the company reg number or an NI number. When the bank finally got in touch with me in August this year I asked them who makes the decisions on the court case if they are now paying. They said that I do no matter what the cost! They also said that they didn't want me to settle out of court and they wanted the hearing to go ahead. I have put in endless hourss of work on this and accumulated some very good evidence to defend my case. A legal debate is scheduled for 22nd October but my solicitor wants to use Counsel for the debate. They are saying they have struggled to find anything in law to help them and have had to go right back to Victorian law. They say the contract was formed via email and the company should have ensured that their email system was secure because I had relied on it. At the mention of Counsel the bank have started squirming. They rang me on the 22nd and said they were refusing to indemnify me after that date. I went back to the Financial Ombudsman with this information and she told me that wasn't quite what had been discussed. So everything is currently up in the air with the case. It looks very much like I will have to settle out of court because I cannot afford to fund this on my own. If the criminals are part of the company they will receive the money twice. I had hoped that the bank would help me see this case through to its conclusion so that I could have possibly had an outcome good enough to help others that follow in my footsteps. I may never know who was responsible for sending me that email because the police are just following the money. I now have a lovely set of windows with no guarantee.

Hi, wonder if anybody can help me here. Although I live in England and the contract undertaken was signed by all parties at my place of business in England and the contract is being serviced by a depot in England, I am being sued for non payment of invoices in Scotland as the petitioner's head office is in scotland, Now, I do have a legitimate defence to this, however, I am disabled and cannot travel the 300 miles to the scottish court to defend myself. I have spoken to the court and they have told me that i can challenge the jurisdiction of the court, however, to do that i will need to attend on the hearing date. Under no circumstances can i travel, and yet i am told by the court officials that if i do not attend judgement will be made against me. So, 2 questions, is it possible to get this transferred to my local county court so i can attend and defend myself, and secondly if judgement is made against me, can it be enforced in England? it all seems terribly unfair that i am required to travel that distance to defend myself when i am simply unable to do that. The amount involved is £4500

I SUCESSFULLY SUED PLUSNET/BT IN MY LOCAL COUNTY COURT ! In February 2014 I contacted PLUSNET to install a phone line & supply a modem & broadband at the new house I was moving to. I paid them £72.98, I received confirmation of my order (a contract ?)in the post the following day & 2 appointments were booked for a month later for the work to be done. I moved to my new house & waited, I took 11 hours off work unpaid to be at home for the BT Openreach engineers, but no one turned up, I tried to contact PLUSNET on my mobile several times only to be told I was in a queue & had to wait over 40 minutes, I also tried to contact them by using the local call box - again I was in a queue & would have to wait over 50 minutes. I wrote to PLUSNET to complain & demanded my £72.98 back plus my lost salary circa £400 including compensation for breach of contract & explicitly gave them 14 days to comply or I would take them to the small claims court, their response was to offer me a miserly £25 for my inconvenience & my money back if I formally asked for it, "HOW OUTRAGOUS!" So of course I made a claim through MYCOL the online small claims service, I offered mediation & waited for their response, NOTHING for approximately 12 months ! so a hearing date was set & surprise surprise I start to get phone calls & an offer in writing of £150 to settle this time from BT LEGAL. I now know that PLUSNET in their incompetence failed to book the 2 appointments with their parent company BT OPENREACH thus wasting my time & causing my financial loss. The case was heard on 03/07/2015, PLUSNET/BT didn't even bother to attend simply sending a letter, I had a very thorough, & severe but legally professional examination of my claim & my evidence by the justice I'm not going to mention his name) my award was just shy of £300 & they have until the 25th of July to pay. I shall keep you informed. I would urge anyone who has issues with utility companies be it water/gas/electricityor telecoms to do as I did & use the small claims court – that is what it is there for ! At the time of writing this BT have 5 CCJ’s against them dating back to 2011 (& now 6 with mine) this company & its subsidiaries simply don’t care if they break civil law – it’s time we ALL complain & use the courts to get justice. Eriko.

Hi Caggers My son has got himself into another mess.... He had a joint tenancy (AST 6 month contract). He was unemployed for a while, we gave him money for his rent which he decided not to use for that purpose. The net result was that he ended up at the end of the tenancy with about 4 months of rent arrears; his flatmate also did not pay for at least the final month. The letting agent has now issued a court claim for the rent arrears and a load of other charges (and is of course withholding the deposit - which we paid). Some problems I have spotted: 1. Can the letting agent sue for the rent arrears - surely only the landlord can do this? 2. No LBA was received prior to the papers from MCOL. 3. The figure in the claim has no breakdown, but appears to include the rent arrears from the joint tenant. 4. My son agreed a payment plan with the agent, and made the first payment on this plan. The claim form states that no plan was put into place (we have an email trail showing it did). The claim was only received today, so we have a few days to respond. Any advice on a suitable response (note my son owes some money - but not the total stated on the claim; he is in a position to pay off the arrears in installments). Many thanks Bacon

Hi please can anyone help me with some advice? I have received a claim form from the County Court, Cabot Financial (UK) Ltd are suing me. It says that I owe Lloyds TSB £413.17. I don't owe Lloyds any money though. I did have an account with them but I closed it because I didn't use it. It was a zero balance when I closed it. I have looked but I no longer have the paperwork for this. I want to defend this as I don't owe the money, but I am scared as I have never had to do anything like this before. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks

Apple sued over 'shrinking' gadget storage Apple is facing a lawsuit for not telling users about the amount of memory required by its flagship operating system. The legal complaint revolves around iOS 8 and the amount of memory it reserves for itself on iPods, iPhones and iPads. The complaint alleges that it takes up so much space that far less than advertised is left for people to store their own data. Apple has yet to issue any official comment on the lawsuit. Update upset The complaint has been filed in California by Miami residents Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara who say that iOS 8 can occupy up to 23.1% of the memory available on some Apple devices. In addition, upgrading devices from the earlier iOS 7 to 8 can cause people to lose up to 1.3 gigabytes of memory, said papers filed in support of the legal action. The amount of memory taken up by iOS 8 can mean users run out of storage and, the pair allege, this is helping Apple force people to sign up for its fee-based iCloud storage system. The lawsuit is seeking millions of dollars in damages for those using Apple devices facing the storage squeeze. So far, Apple has not responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit. The latest upgrade to iOS 8 was released in late September but Apple was forced to withdraw and then re-issue it because the first version meant a lot of iPhone 6 and Plus handsets could no longer make calls. Apple issued a public apology over the botched update but said only 40,000 people were affected by it.

I recently came in to possession of a digital file which I printed with a view of selling copies. I have received an email stating that there is a copyright on the file and that the "theft" of the file is being investigated with a view of court proceedings being issued and to discover the identity of the person being found out. What do I do???

Hi - I came across this website and there is some great advice being given, so I was wondering if someone could assist me. I worked for 10+ years as a sales agent/fitter for/with a large UK provider in Ireland. My contract made it clear that I am a contractor, rather than employee. I have always lived in Ireland and all work I did for this company was in Ireland. They recently terminated my contract, as they indicated that I owed them €3,000 in amounts collected which i had not paid up. Five others also had their contracts terminated for the same reason. I was happy to stop working with them as they were quite unprofessional in many ways, but I contested that I owed this amount, as they had agreed to pay me a higher level of commission and also agreed to pay me for a training session I gave. I may however, owe them €500. I wrote to them explaining this and providing evidence of my claim and asked for an agreement on installments for the €500, but received no response. (The €500 I owed, was used by me to pay the expenses (travel etc) involved in doing my job and would have been taken out of my next pay packet, this was standard practice). Today I received a letter informing me that the matter is before an English Court. The company is seeking €3000 and I have 7 days to respond. Can I contest this jurisdiction from Ireland. If so, how does one go about doing this. I do not have the money to pay for a solicitor in the UK, or for flights to the UK. It seems very unfair that I can be sued in a country that I do not live in and did not work in, just because the company I worked for have their principal office there. Alternatively, should I just begin paying by installments the €500 I owe, but contest that I owe the rest in writting to the Court? Any help and/or advice would be appreciated.

okay so my previous employer has overpaid me by what amounts to be around £400. i did not realise this however, i received a letter in the post a few days ago, (although my employment terminated from this company on August 10th 2012). The company did not pay me when i was suppose to get paid and so my pay was backdated into one lump some, so you can imagine why i was not suspicious of the overpayment. The entire some of money has indeed been spent (in good faith), and I simply cannot afford the repayment. The letter demands an immediate repayment of the full some of money. However, I am a student with no money! what should my next course of action be? Someone please help...

Late 2010 I met an old female friend of mine who was going through a divorce (we hadn't met for around 30 years) and she decided that she wanted to come out to Canada from the UK to get a way from everything. Without much consultation with me she arrived and stayed for five weeks. At that time I was moving into a new apartment of my own and was about to purchase furniture on a rent to own basis. My 'friend' went out and bought a whole set of furniture and fittings against my wishes. Over time she has insisted on me repaying the money back that she spent of the F&F. I told her often that I would sell and send her whatever I got as a result of the sale. Each time she insisted that I don't sell and agreed that I should make monthly payments to her Barclaycard. I made one payment which was rejected by her as she is now re- marrying and is demanding that I send her a lump sum in the amount of $20K (could be GBP - not sure) which I do not have. She is threatening legal action to get her money back but my stance is that as she has said often 'I own everything in the apartment' and therefore the F&F are hers to sell and recoup some of what she spent on the items. It's not like I have sold the items for any profit -they are still in the apartment, they belong to her and I really want 'her property' out of here. She willingly paid for me to fly to Scotland not long after we connected in 2010. When she asked me to come over I replied 'no' as I didn't have the funds to do so at the time but she insisted on paying to fly me over so that we could meet. She did send two money transfers for approx $2800 (rent payments) which I have continuously agreed that I should repay. The 20k she claims is my debt to her includes the furniture, the two rent payments, flights and hotels amongst other undefined items. Now she is threatening to sue for repayment. If she files/sues in the Scottish court would I be required to hire a Scottish lawyer and fly to Scotland to fight the case or would the case be heard in Canada? I believe there maybe a 'jurisdiction' issue with me not being a UK resident and have also heard that she cannot sue someone in Canada through the Scottish court. She has been silent for over two months but today she indicated by text that she had a lawyer and the DSS (didn't think that department existed any longer)chasing me through my parents. She also claims to have contacted a Canadian DCA to try and recover what she perceives as my debt to her. What can the Canadian DCA do if as she says they have been hired to in an attempt to recover the 'debt'? My apologies for the long-winded post but I wanted to relay the facts as accurately as possible. Any comments or advice would be appreciated. Thank you. 5scot6

Hi All, I really hope someone can help me. Long story.... Basically I run a non profit (No money involved at all) blog on a popular blogging website. About a year ago I bought access to a well known German photo website and proceeded to use their images. About a week ago the log-in stopped working, although I found a way around it by using an old login registered to my real name and home address (*shakes head*...I know, I know...) So this log-in worked until Monday, then a message stated my account was "locked" appeared...Like the idiot that I clearly am, I emailed the company asking why my log-in was blocked and when I didn't get a reply, I registered again with a different email address. Yesterday they sent a message back advising that they would "Pass my details to one of their UK partners who would take action against my activities using their website" Then I got a message from the blogging platform I use, warning me about copyright violations. I emailed them back asking if it was specific to me or whether they were sending it to all their users, they then replied and said that they had receieved a complaint from a copyright holder about images I had posted and advised I should remove them. They also stated that if the images are removed, no further action will be taken - although I think they mean by them, rather than the photo company. I will be the 1st one to say that I have been a complete idiot, I am in the process of removing all images from this company but I am completely terrified of being sued. I am just a normal person and I don't have the means to pay a large settlement fee or even hire a lawyer. I am just asking for advice as to how to deal with this situation. If the company makes contact, do I acknowledge their letters or just ignore? Thanks.

Hello Everyone, First post after being directer here. Me and a now ex friend started a business X limited. (name removed). My business partner did all the accounts and admin side of the business whilst i done the physical work. The company was registered in 2010. We are EQUAL partners of the limited company On 24/04/2012 my now ex friend also registered X (norwich) limited. Norwich being our main location of operation. (her relationship partner and my relationship partner also had Y ltd and on the same date he registered Y (norwich) ltd) After my business partner attempted to withdraw funds from the bank for herself I had the bank changed to counter signature required. This means neither of us can touch the money unless we both sign. My business partner then refused to pay any of the bills and left me unable to do so. As a result and to fulfil my duties to look after the company i started trading as a sole trader under the name of ?'s X (sorry to be vague but the ? is me and the X is the company name) The limited company account now has circa £5k in funds and had outstanding bills to suppliers and service providers. Whilst sole trading i have cleared all these debts. Her relationship partner started to trade on their company and was interviewed last week under caution for fraud and deception after forming his own company and attempting to pass himself of as my partners company (they were both equal directors and her partner resigned). He also invoiced my partners clients for work. Today low and behold a court claim has arrived for the amount of just over £6k. The Claim is from X ltd (of which we are both still joint directors) but the address is NOT our registered address. The claim is against ?'s X. The POC reads : Now my issues, apart from this being a total false account are: 1) Can she issue these papers from the company against me but use an incorrect address? 2) the P.O.C are too brief for me to actually defend myself 3) The amount is not substantiated in any way 4) I have made her fully aware and all companies involved that monies are being paid to my company and not the limited company. these monies have been used to pay off bills accrued in the limited company name. How do i proceed please? Regards

I signed an agreement with a cleaning Co. to supply me with a cleaner a couple of hours a week (as I was unwell). The co. were to supply me with a cleaner to carry out household duties as agreed between the co. and myself and I was to pay the co. a quarterly admin fee and pay the cleaner directly to her on a weekly basis. The service they provided was very poor and after 5 cleaners in as many months and as my health had greatly improved, I decided to terminate the contract (within the terms of the contract). The co. is now taking me to court claiming I breached the contract in retaining a cleaner introduced to me by the co. It has become apparent the last cleaner left the co. the same time I terminated the agreement so the co. is suspicious that she left and took clients with her. I assume they had no contract with the cleaner and so are pursuing me for breach of restrictive covenant. My defence is that I did not retain a cleaner - although I don't know how to prove such a thing?? But I was wondering whether such a restrictive covenant in an non-employment contract could be enforceable? Any help would be much appreciated, or perhaps if there is a better place to post this, could someone kindly direct me? Thanks.

Interesting....maybe the outcome of this case will see a class action by the consumers affected by securitisation: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/business/suit-accuses-jpmorgan-unit-of-broad-misconduct-on-mortgage-securities.html?_r=1

... and they may be in contempt Oh dear, oh dear oh dearVehicle Cntrl v Ibbotson.pdf

Hello Not sure how to start really. I have a read and there is an awful to digest but I was wondering if anyone could help with our problem. Link Financial put both my husband an me in court in April this year, thing is they sent my court papers to my old address so I couldn't respond. My husband did put in a written defence for what it was worth and they still obtained judgement on him and on me by default. I have completed the N form and paid £80 to have stay of judgement or whatever it was and its being transferred to the local county court to be heard in two weeks time. In the meantime Link sent my husband whats called a tomlin agreement for the whole amount and he signed and agreed to the terms etc, however, Link are still intent on suing me for the full amount as well by saying I am still liable for the debt. I thought that if someone admitted liability and agreed terms etc then the other person could not be pursued for the same debt? What help I would like is on how to defend this cos Link have said to me on the phone they will go for a charging order even tho there is an agreement in place? Blimey this sounds complicated but I really hope someone can help. Thanks

Hello everyone. I'm new here. A fine fellow over at Gallifrey Base pointed me this way, for I have a problem, and he thought some of the good people here might be able to help. I run a blog which is a just-for-fun, non-profit thing. I ramble on and say things that may or may not be amusing. In among the writing I include the odd picture, gleaned from google image searches to reflect the subject matter. A few days ago a photgrapher got in touch. I had inadvertantly used one of his images, and he was displeased. Fair enough, I thought, should have asked. I apologised and instantly took the image down. Not good enough, apparently. He wanted paying for my use of the image. I suggested that this was unnecessary - I make no money from the blog, and he was uncredited on the page I got the image from. He would not budge on the issue. I had a look on a site which hosts his images, which gives prices for the use of his images. The one I had used would cost about £38. I offered to pay £50, to cover this and make some kind of apology. He wants £350. I've asked why this is the case, but he has not been forthcoming, and is threatening legal action. I'm not sure what to do. Part of me thinks, fair enough, I should have tried to get in touch with him, and copyright is essentially a good thing that protects artists, so I should just pay up and chalk it up to experience. Another part of me think that, once I've apologised, taken the image down and offered to pay him the standard amount, he should be satisfied. It looks a lot like he's trying to wring as much out of this as he can. I should say that I did not copy and paste the image. Rather, I hotlinked from within the HTML of the blog. As things stand, he has given me seven days to agree to pay the £350. The last communication was from me, asking him to justify the large fee. He has not yet done so. Any help or advice gratefully accepted. Thanks in advance TB