Hello - I made appointments with 4 solicitors for free advice about my divorce, one of them carried on chatting away after the the free alloted time. She didn't mention I was going into paid time, and now I have received a bill for £135. So far I have seen 6 solictors on this basis and all have outlined what they can offer me, and given free advice. But this one solicitor decided to charge me. Is there anything I can do?

Well I can't remember exactly but I just pointed out that the demands they were making were illegal, and they were failing to comply with legal process. To be honest I expected them to just keep on sending me letters, they really don't seem to care if their methods are illegal or not.

Hi - well since I last had to threaten them over these absurd letters they have left me alone and are behaving in the way they are supposed to. I have defered my loan as usual and no letters from them demanding monies not owed for over a year, it's a miracle. They are such a shambles though that its surely only a matter of time.Good luck with your claim, stick with it and don't give in to them.

I agree, it's about sharing the resourses and playing the system in this way is a bit harsh on your fellow students.

So now having recieved and returned my annual deferment forms, sent by recorded delivery, I have a letter from 'Cash Collection Agency' demanding £400 from me on behalf of SLC. I don't owe them a penny and am getting so damned sick of this, surely someone must be accountable. How do I get them off my back, more to the point why should I even have to.

Thanks for the advice, it's very much appreciated.

Oh yes, all of that stuff was paid up and sorted out. I didn't hear from them for ages apart from one letter which didn't have the charges removed in the balance of the account. I wrote to them and they amend it accordingly. This is more about the fact they are ignoring telephone harrassment letters, as I said I do owe them a small amount but have stated twice by letter to them that I don't wish to be contacted by telephone. The callers refusal to give me his name or put me on to a superviser really angered me.

So now they have started contacting me at work, I've sent them a letter stating that I don't wish to be phone at work sent recorded delivery. They phoned again today and said they havn't recieved it, post office records unsuprisingly state they have. So I ask the caller for his full name and he refuses to give it to me, then I ask to speak to his supervisor and he refuses that stating he does not have to do either of these things. Surely this is extremely dodgy, I have sent them the standard phone harrassment letter twice. I do not wish to be contacted by these muppets by phone. I do owe them a small amount of money from when I had no home address many years ago, and defered several months late. They refused to take mitigating circumstances into account.

Hi noomill060 - well the removed the charges as requested by me, they actually just send a letter stating charges = £0.00. They didn't even apologise or acknowledge an error had been made, awfull people.

Update on this case, basically I was advised by the county court to write to SLC and ask for them to write back within 2 weeks stating that the admin charges had been removed from my account as agreed in the out of court settlement. What a suprise, 2 weeks went by with no letter. I wrote to the court and now they have reinstated the case with a court date early next year. All of this makes me feel nervous but I can't let them get away with it.

Sorry i should have said charges for letters they'd sent, basically they refunded about £284 of which some was a refund for payments I had made to pay off these charges and the interest I'd claimed. That left outstanding charges added to my loan for letters received by me of about £336, these are the charges that I asked (they agreed in writing) to be removed.

No they refunded fees I had already paid and the interest I claimed, also (just checked) they agreed to 'remove' £336 in charges from my account. The cheque I recieved only covered the refunded fees and interest. I have it in black and white and various saved emails.

No, what am i missing?

Yes thats right, I withdrew the claim and signed the consent form. I recieved a cheque for the correct amount and hadn't heard anything from them in months. I'll contact the solicitor tomorrow and insist that the SLC send me a letter stating that these charges have been removed.

Yes its all in writing thats for sure, I have all the letters and even emails I had with their solicitor. I could just do without the stress but would also like them to suffer some pain for continualy behaving like they are above the law, or indeed bloody useless.

O.K so they settled out of court months ago and agreed to wipe the charges from my loan, today I receive a letter from them demanding the money they were supposed to remove. What to do about this? I mean we've had them sending threatening letters when the account was in dispute and about to go to court, surely this is worse given I have it in writing and they legally have to remove the charges. I'm really bloody angry about this. Suggestions??

Well at this point I held firm despite feeling under pressure, the night before the big day they offered to settle in full. Stick with it.

Just stick with your claim, don't worry about any of the stuff they send you. They tried to claim all sorts of stuff with me so I left them to it, eventually they just completely fell on their own sword and paid up.

Hi Dispirited, the charges are illegal. I was in the same situation so I did the CCA, SAR and then issued a moneyclaim at my local court. The SLC completely caved in with about 2 days to go before court, they know full well the charges are illegal. Their practises in these matters are disgraceful. Have a good look at some of the threads on this forum and you will see the best way to proceed, don't let them get away with it.

The charges are illegal, I can't believe they are still claiming they can do this. Do not be taken in by their lies, take them to court about these charges and they will be removed as part of a 'Settling out of court' process. They wouldn't want it made public that they are ripping students off would they, hence they make sure it doesn't reach court. Total scumbags.

Well after several days of the solictor trying to strong arm me to remove my claim for interest, they have caved in and offered to settle in full. Bunch of useless inept morons. Obviously I'm delighted, I hate the fact that they say they are not liable (they are) but are paying up for commercial reasons. Still, after years of hell its great to make them pay me money. Thanks for all your help noomill060, and others. You've been a great help. Now I intend to get the arrears removed on the basis I was unemployed when these were added.

OK so I told the solicitor I was pursuing the claim in full, no response as yet. However today I've receieved a letter from SLC demanding repayment of the charges withing 7 days, also they say they have been trying to contact me for some days. This is just mad and untrue, and of course surely intimidation and illegal. Thats twice they've done this since this matter has reached court, is there anything I can do. Can I make a claim over this as well, compensation for harrasment or something??

New offer of settlement received today. This time they have offered to pay back the charges I have already paid. Not admitting they were in the wrong, but as a goodwill gesture????. Also reversal of all charges. However what they won't do is pay the interest I'm claiming on each charge from the date they were added. I think I'm going to refuse this and go for full settlement, this feels like the last throw of the dice to try and save SLC money. Noomill060, what do you think? Thanks for your help with this

Indeed, thats another court case isn't it. How do I prove it as well.

No I wouldn't give them anymore money untill this was all sorted out, basically they abruptly cancelled the repayment plan of £5 a month and demanded £70 instead. What really annoys me is that I was unemployed at the time and the SLC refused to back date the deferment on that basis, oh and the fact I didn't have a permanent address made no difference to their decision.