Hi I am hoping someone can give me some advice please. I live in a leasehold property and pay ground rent of £10 every 6 months making a total of £20 a year. I received an letter from the Ground Rent agents stating that I was in arrears and despite several emails had not paid the last 2 instalments. I then discovered that they had sent me 2 emails, one for the 1st instalment and 1 for the more recent one. These emails had aoutomatically gone into my junk folder. I hold my hands up though that this is entirely my fault and that it is up to me to make sure bills are paid on time, I have absolutely no arguement with that. What I am querying is that for this I have been stung for £54 in 'admin charges'. I rang the company concerned and told them that I thought the charges were unreasonable and that I would like a breakdown of how the charges were calculated. He told me I would have to put it in writing. I agreed to do so and stated that I wished to pay the outstanding amount of ground rent £20 bring my grouond rent up to date. He refused to take the payment saying that I could pay the whole amount (£74) or nothing at all. I don't know what to do. Half of me wants to just pay it and get rid of the hassle but the other half is saying don't let them get away with it especially as we don't have an extra £54 just lying around as my husband only has his pension and I am currently on sickness benefit, so things are pretty tight. has anyone got any advice for me on what to do about this please? Cheers Molly

Hi all, I haven't been on hear for a while due to health issues,again! Thankfully, though things have been pretty quiet lately. Until last week. I started getting calls from aq company called Apex credit management. They wanted me to confirm details for DPA but of course I refused and aksed them to put everything in writing. It turns out that they have now turned up, I am assuming instead of Westcott asking me to call them as they REALLY want to help me! I am thinking that I need to send off the CCA request again and to Apex as opposed to RBS. There are all the usual threats of course but things are definately getting better as they don't scare me anymore.

Thanks dx, I was just about to post again when yours arrived, we must have been typing at the same time. I do know what you meant, just ignore me, I am having a blonde moment:) If I go to the FOS, which I am going to do, do you think I have a case? Also, if they make a decision in Peugeot's favour do both parties have to abide by that decision. For the speadsheet to calculate charges I used the one on the MSE website for reclaiming bank charges. It was simple to use and also calculated interest at 8% which brings the total to around £350, more than the amount they claim is outstanding. That is how I know they are claiming all charges. Also, they have sent me a copy of the CCA and according to the records they have also sent me (despite claiming they have never received a cheque for the SAR) I have clearly paid more than the amount signed for on the CCA

Hi dx, thanks for looking so quickly. I am really sorry but i don';t know what you mean about 'go to the FOS' Cheers Molly

Thanks again DD for your reply. I guess it is worth another £10 because it seems they really do not wish to send me the letter they sent saying that my account was closed. I have just been re-reading the docs they have sent me and there is a comms log of telephone calls. The call was logged when I rang them and asked why they had closed my account because the full amount had been paid and then sent me another letter saying I owed more money. Their reply, according to the comms log is.. "Explained to 3rd party, (that's me acting on behalf of OH) that last instalment had been missed, contract to be extended by us moving due date so end of contract letter was sent but relates to the finish date of the contract." So they are saying that they moved the payment date because I asked them to but then didn't update their system which then automatically sent me a letter to say that the contract had ended and paid in full. I don't know if you have read all the thread but I really want a copy of this letter and still have not received it. I think they know now that they have messed up. They cannot claim the letter wasn't sent because they have admitted sending it on comms log, but they know I cannot find mine and really don't want me to have one. So, the questions I have are; Can they send me a letter saying the contract is ended and then suddenly decide it isn't and start chasing me for more money. They also say that 1 instalment is missing because of change of payment date. The monthly payment was £175 and now they are chasing me for £262. I have more than paid the total amount on the agreement so the amount they want me to pay is ALL Penalty Charges. Can they really take me to court when they tell me the account is closed and then go on to claim Penalty Charges even though the amount paid is over what was agreed on the original agreement?

Fabulous reply letter DD but the cheque was sent to them nearly 12 months ago so not much chance of getting it stopped now:D

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I would like to ask for some more help on this one if I may? I received a letter from the DCA dated 17th March 2010. They are now saying they have never received the cheque I sent them with the SAR letter and want me to prove it was sent. I replied with the following letter: Dear Sir With reference to your letter of 17th March 2010. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the delay in responding. This was due to the fact that I have been incapacitated due to medical conditions. A Subject Access Request was sent to Peugeot, together with the required fee in the form of a (name of bank) Cheque (no chq no.) on 18th May 2010. A response to this request was received by myself dated 9th June containing most of the information I had requested. The letter was signed by Paul Watkins (head of customer services) and stated that he hoped the enclosures satisfied the request and to contact him if there were are queries, which I did regarding the missing documentation which I am still persuing. At no time was it mentioned that I had not sent the fee for the DSAR which I would have expected if none was received, before the large amount of paperwork was sent out to me. I am now re-requesting the further documents as detailed in my previous letter and cannot see any reason why the receipt of my payment should be questioned at this late stage. We are now considerably past the deadline for full response to a DSAR. With this in mind I would politely request that the missing paperwork be located and forwarded to me within the next 7 days. I received a letter from them today saying their client says they have never received the £1o cheque and want me to send them a copy of the cheque (how do I do that when i no longer have it!) or a bank statment (like that is going to happen!!) to prove I sent it. They say because I have not paid then they are under no obligation to send me anything further. They are now willing to settle for £130ish. I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall. How can they suddenly tell me they have not received my cheque for SAR when they have supplied everything except copies of the letters they have sent to me, or at least something to say which letters have been sent and why? If they have no record of this then how do they know what they are up to with anyone's account? Are they really going to take me to court for Penalty Charges (their words not mine) Please help or I swear I am commiting myself to the funny farm. Any ideas folks, shot of hiring a hit man!! Can't afford one anyway!

thanks for that Andy. Another one done and dusted:) Don't hold your breath though, there will be more. Hope you are well. Molly

Thanks Colin, does anyone else have a view please. I need to get this 100% right.

After yet more great advice on here I called the solicitors last week asking for a letter stating it was F&FS. The guy I spoke to was most put out saying i didn't need a letter as it was clear in the Tomlin Order that it was the case. After much humming and aahing he finally said he would write. This is the letter I received. "Further to our letter dated 24th May we write to confirm that the settlement contained within the draft Tomlin Order is a full and final settlement arrangement. We look forward to hearing from you blah blah blah" So do you think I have covered all the bases now? Is there any way this can come back to bite me on the bum, either by Arrow or some other dubious DC if they decide to sell on the remainder.

Thanks colin I was thinking about something like that, i think you are right. I will write to them and ask them to confirm it in writing.

Colin i have read through this thread as you requested and I have to say you are doing great so far IMHO. The only thing I wanted to say is that you have come up with an excellent way of answering the question 'Do you owe this money' I think a lot of people dread that question as it is so difficult to answer truthfully without dropping yourself in it. I think you have the correct level of respect but with a 'I know what I am talking about' attitude. The only thing that concerns me a little is the last sentence. I think from 'with this is mind....' I would leave that out as it sounds a little confrontational. Thats just me of course, but I may have to 'steal' that sentence if any of my other claims end up in court:)

Colin, thanks for your reply and the link to your threads. i,m not sure if I can help at all, I am still learning myself but i will read through them all and if i can contribute in any way, I will do. If it hadn't been for the people on here I wouldn't have got as far as I have, so I would love to help others if I can.

I told them in my letter it would be standing order and they have accepted it, sorry but I just them as far as I can spit. They have also said in their covering letter that I am paying standing order and have given me the bank details. So the costs referred to in Paragraph 4 are what it is cost me so far and they will pay all ther other costs. But is there any way they can sell on the balance of around £1800 sometime in the future?

Oh don't worry they will never have to complain about late payments. I just want to make sure that they can't sell the balance on so it came back to bite me on the bum. And I am still unsure as to whether or not I have tp pay any costs. I need to make sure I have covered all the bases before I sign.