We're on the verge of accepting a flat but I'm a little worried what assurances I have that the agent is a) for real and b) won't say our reference checks failed and just take our money. Here are the details and some extracts from the holding deposit agreement. Thanks in advance for help! So there is a holding deposit of £400 which is to be paid into the agent's bank account. Here are the terms and conditions of the agreement (replaced their name with 'Blah Blah' ): I'm a little worried that they seem to be able to say our checks failed without giving a reason and then take our holding deposit. Is this normal? Also, how do we know they are a bona fide agent? They seem ok.... In addition to this we have to pay £90 per person for reference checks, £50 for tenancy agreement/schedule of condition as well as £20 each deposit for two keys. Ah it does also say in the agreement that this deposit will be deducted from the tenancy agreement once signed. Again, is this all normal? I've always rented privately before.

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Thanks for the reply. DCA = Debt Collection Agency, does OC = Original Creditor? Sorry for my ignorance. When you say that they will try to fight you, do you mean that it would be necessary to take them to court, or complain to the financial ombudsman? Most of the guides in this forum seem to concentrate on getting to this point, but what to do next seems a little hazy . My default was about seven years ago now. Does this mean that a part payment with a full and final settlement would erase the default from my credit history, or would it be six years from that final payment?

I'm just about to send a similar letter to Cabot. I have an old debt which, when asked for a CCA, they have failed to reply. Would you mind posting copies of your S10 & Default letters (without your details of course ). I'd like to make sure mine is worded as best it can be. Please keep this thread updated with how you get on - it's really appreciated

But if a debt is unenforceable, what then happens with regard to your credit record?

This is my first post here, I've been reading around but getting a little bit confused with so much information! Here's my situation first: When I was 19 I took out a loan for £6,000 with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Creditguard gold protection. I foolishly left my job a few months later, was unable to find another and ended up defaulting on my payments. The debt then got passed on to Blair Oliver & Scott. At that point they totted up the total interest if I had paid it over the full term, the cost of the protection and added it altogether in one £12,000 debt and 'kindly' froze the interest on that. Since then I have been paying back around £25 a month. This started back in 2001/2002, I'm now 26 and the debt has been passed onto Cabot last year. I still have roughly £7,000 of the debt left. In that time I've suffered from severe depression, managed to get post-traumatic stress from something unrelated, and generally kept my head in the sand about the whole thing. In the last year or so I've turned things around, am no longer depressed, have a job that I enjoy and now find myself wanting to propose to my amazing girlfriend. It seems time to finally take my head out the sand and tackle this debt. So, this is where you good people come in.. where do I start? From what I can glean there seem to be a standard set of letters I should send to make sure they have a valid CCA. Where do I find them and in what order do I send them? Do you have the contact details for Cabot? Another option seems to be requesting a settlement figure - from what I can read, offering 30% and then increasing that to 50% might work? Any and all advice on what to do is greatly appreciated! I'm sorry if all of this has been covered elsewhere already and in detail