Thank you RMJ - yes you're right, these boxes on the claim form are blank. And if the practice is to apply pressure then it does work, I've actually had a few of the usual DCA letters relating to other old debts that I completely ignore without worrying too much about it! Thank you for the link, that's very interesting.

Hi silverfox, thank you so much for your reply. My last payment to them would have been at the end of 2009 at some point. I can't check my old business bank account as everything is long gone! Do stature barred debts also apply to businesses? I was a sole trader, I'm not sure if that makes any difference, and these letters are addressed to me personally rather than to my old business. Thanks again for your help.

Hello, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. My apologies if not. I took out a contract with Unicom in 2008 for my business premises, which I closed down in September 2009. I remember getting a big bill for cancellation of contract which I could not afford to pay. I can't remember the details but I know it went on for a long while, with many telephone calls and letters. I have heard from Unicom again today - so six years after my initial problems with them. They have written to my home address, which is different from the home address I had six years ago. There were two letters, t he first dated 1st September (I got them both today as I have been away and had a pile of post waiting to be opened!) They sent a draft county court claim form, saying that they are claiming £490. They said in the covering letter that if I pay £184 in the next two weeks this will clear my outstanding balance. The second letter is dated 16th September saying as they did not hear from me then they are now submitting the claim to court for £587. Where are all these random amounts from?! As it has been so long since I closed my business, I have no trace of my original contract or previous correspondence from them. Does anyone know what I can do, apart from just wait and see if a court form actually appears? Also, I check my credit report each month with Noddle - and there is no outstanding debt on there from Unicom.

Thank you for your replies. I will definitely request the CCA for the barclaycard for now, especially as they are being particularly mean and ignoring my correspondence! Thanks for asking how I am Vincentfan.. I'm ok... I'm better than I was last week so that's got to be a good thing! xx

Hi everyone, Am very slowly sorting my life to a point where I need to confront these DCAs. I'm going to request a CCA for my Barclaycard, as I think I opened it about 10 years ago, and they've randomly sent me a new card and a new card number within this time. I'm being chased by Calders at the moment and they seem to be ignoring my correspondence with offers of £10 p/m payment. Anyway, I have two other credit cards, one with HSBC and one with GE Capital. Unfortunately these are very recent, from 2007. So do you think that it's very likely they will have copies of the CCAs as the accounts were opened so recently? Thank you!

Hi 1stlifeline, Was the letter adressed to you, or just to the occupier? Ground rent is payable by the owner of the property AFAIK, and the lease it refers to should mean the landlords lease rather than your tenancy lease. I'd definitely contact the landlord and see what he/she says about it, as I'd be suprised if you were liable. Good luck x

Hi Andy, thanks for your reply.. At the moment, I think it's going to cost me more to close down completely. I'm tied into contracts with my card machine, my business broadband provider, and I would have to hire a van to remove all the stock and furniture and find somewhere to store it until I can sell it. As my bank account is empty I can't really consider it right now. I'm going to just have to see how it goes for a while...

Lol Jalow I like it, that did make me smile, thank you! Well, I have a job interview tomorrow morning, and another interview on Friday. AND I phoned up to enquire about tax credits and was told that we may be entitled to £55 a week - that will feed us well!! That's the good news. My earnings this week so far are incredible, £14.00 in takings so far. The petrol is going to run out soon, but with the job interviews at least I feel as though I'm doing something about it. Another blow today though, got home to a court summons for non-payment of council tax. My OH and I have one each. I was supposed to be applying for benefits for that as we couldn't afford to pay, but I got so confused with the self employed issue and I was waiting for my accounts to be done. I actually tried to phone the council about it yesterday to ask what information they needed but I couldn't get through, now this court summons. This is crazy, there is something new every single day, I can't believe I have got myself into this situation. Especially as, with the business, I've worked harder than I ever have in my life! No evenings off, no weekends! And I'm not planning any for a while either. If I manage to secure a job I'm going to work in my shop at the weekends. For the time being, just to see how it goes. Oh and I got a text message today from a different dca who are apparently going to start legal proceedings against me re my barclaycard. Luckily, because of what I have read on here, that didn't bother me as much as it would have a while ago. The court summons however I know I have to take seriously. I've started to print out the benefits claim form but I think it might be too late. Also confused as it is relating to our old flat, and we have moved now, so don't know what to put on the form.. another telephone call tomorrow I think.. Oh and the direct debit for my mobile and my landline phone have both failed this week. Cue more bank charges. Yay!

Thank you, I will respond asking for the whole case to be reviewed by the dispute service. Fingers crossed we won't lose too much..

Me again. I really don't know what's happening now. My family have told me that I don't need to close down the shop completely, just close for a little while. They say it's a good business (they have seen the accounts) and that I shouldn't give up on it. I'm still hoping that I get the job. That's my main concern now, getting a regular income in. But tomorrow will be business as usual at the shop until I know what's going on. I had a thought about my telephone conversation with the bank manager this morning. The amount we were quibbling over worked out at £45.00. Companies are millions of pounds in debt. My business is £45.00 in debt and the business bank manager can't help me out just a little bit. That's really.. I don't know.. sad?

Thanks KJD, I've just seen your reply. I might well do that, as I'm going to have to have a closing down sale. It looks like I will be closing at the end of this month. I've just come back from the recruitment agency, they have put me forward for a few jobs, so fingers very tightly crossed that I might actually be earning something soon. I can't address my debts with no income at all! It's a strange feeling. It feels like the end of a relationship, just really really painful, but then also that feeling that I have to keep busy and carry on..

Hi again, Thank you for your replies. AA99 your reply made me smile pdb30uk I can't believe you had to go to your MP! Glad to hear that it worked though. Well, I had a pretty much sleepless night last night. I got woken about 3am by the rain, then a thought popped into my head that my car is going to break down and I won't be able to get to work. That was it then, it was a nasty chain of thoughts which had me sobbing for hours. My poor OH was wonderful with me. He did say at one point that something has to give, and he's right. I called my business manager this morning for my business account to ask if he could remove the charges that have been put on in the past week. He said no. I cried down the phone at him and said that they don't care at all for small businesses. I'm an emotional wreck! I've got a little bit of money to pay in from last weeks takings but I can't pay it in as it will just cover the charges, then I won't have access to any money. Anyway, I've made a decision. My sister in law works for the temps department in an employment agency so I called her and I'm going to see her in an hour to register. I said I would do any work, any hours, just please help me! I'm going to close my shop. But I'm not going to stop my business, I'm going to continue to work from home as I was doing before the shop opened. Damage limitation maybe, or as my OH said, 1 step back to take 2 steps forward? The creditors seem the least of my worries today. I will have to deal with all that once I *hopefully* get a job.

Thank you for your replies everyone. I have alot of respect for what some of you have been through and are still going through, and now you're here giving me advice, that's really wonderful. Misscynical, I think I might be eligible for tax credits, my partner too, I'm going to contact whoever it is I need to contact on Monday about it. And council tax benefit too. When I got the letter from the council about the arrears I called them and said I couldn't afford to pay, and they sent me the benefit pack. I need to contact them and find out exactly what information they need about my business accounts etc so I can get it all together. And the big phone call on Monday too, I'm going to phone my business bank manager and ask him to remove the charges they have given me this week. The situation right now is that the charges I have had this week are about the same, if not a little more, than my weeks takings. That is a surefire way to kill my business! I haven't paid the cash into the bank as I usually would because it would just disappear with these charges, and I need it for petrol and to pay for the postage for my mail orders. Misscynical, good luck with your bankrupcy proceedings. I hope you won't lose your house. I don't know much about bankrupcy at the moment, but they can't make you homeless can they? nuthatch, thank you. My other half is always trying to get me to relax. I had another stress when I got home from work today, after opening the post of course, which is becoming a regular occurence. He told me that there is nothing I can do until Monday morning so I need to try to forget about it until then. I'm going to try. I spent all of last weekend feeling pretty ill with a horrible stress headache, I want to try to avoid that this week, and throw myself into work instead! Rachie, what a year for you. I'm so sorry to hear of your troubles, but if you can go through that then come on here and say that things are improving, then that gives hope, so thank you so much. To answer your question, I'm a sole trader. x

Thank you again goldlady, that's a lovely message. I'm working tonight on the creative side of things and it's helping me to feel better. Will have to stop and go to bed soon so will try not to let all those nasty thoughts creep in so I can get an ok night's sleep. My partner is very supportive, he is a calming influence and keeps me going. He isn't in any debt himself, everything is in my name, which is a bad thing and a good thing in some respects. He always says that it's both of us though, as it was because I supported us both for a year that we, or I, got into so much debt. I filled in so many forms for benefits over that time, but he was too proud, so I never sent them off. It's caused a great deal of arguments but we seem to be in a better place now, and he's said that he is happy for me to look into benefits now, but I'm still not quite sure where to start..

Thanks Goldlady. I definitely run my business for love rather than money! The business has been running for just over a year, and I expanded into a retail premises just a few months before Christmas. Strangely enough, my opening day was the day before the 'global recession' hit the headlines. It was never going to be easy after that! I'm glad to hear that your business survived. When I'm not too busy despairing of eveything I do have some confidence in my business, and I'm willing to work as hard as it takes. If hard work will even get me through at the moment. I run an art/craft/gift shop. Started up, as I think I've said in my ramblings, after I had to give up my job due to depression. The love of my work got me through that, so it's very special to me, more than just a job. (Although isn't a job supposed to earn you money by definition?)

That is a fantastic letter!!

Thank you very much for your replies. I have looked at the letter again and it says "we have received quotes from our contractors and they are as follows.." followed by an itemised list. My other half thought he would write back and ask to see the actual quotations, which I think is what I was trying to ask, as they do seem too high. They include £90 to clean carpets. There are only carpets in two rooms. And £190 to deep clean the entire flat, although I don't agree that this needs to be done, not £190 worth of cleaning anyway! I only wish I'd taken photographs of when we moved in and when we moved out, I wasn't expecting this! Do you think it's worth me taking it to the dispute service instead of waiting for them to do so? They have asked us to reply listing which items we dispute, but it's difficult to do so really.

Thanks for your reply Mkandy. I managed to get myself feeling more positive this afternoon, then I got home to a letter from my business manager to tell me my debit card has been blocked. Apparently they have tried to contact me but I haven't received any messages. As I said, the phone has been very quiet this week. (No it hasn't been cut off, personal calls and texts are still getting through!) Cue floods of tears again and apologising to my boyfriend for being a failure. I called the number on the letter and they said I have to call back on Monday morning and speak to my business manager. Closing the shop. It's crossed my mind, but I'm in contracts for my card processing machine and my business broadband which i need to keep paying, if I cancel I have to pay the entire contract in one go. I've only been open a few months and people are just starting to know about me, if I was to close I would lose my few regular customers too, and it would look really bad. But it might have to come to that I suppose. I know how my business account got into such a mess, it was me trying to start paying off debts. The £10.00 cheques I sent to my credit card providers, plus a £40 cheque to readers union to get their dca off my back (although it bounced, I would have been better off not paying it), then my quarterly (I hope it's quarterly!) direct debit to BT for the business line etc.. it all took me overdrawn by £60.00. Now they have added a £70 charge on top for the bounced cheques. And there are more cheques out there which will also bounce. I have a little bit of cash in the til now, but I can't pay it into the bank as I need it for petrol to get to work next week, and to pay someone who I owe for sale or return goods. I've got a few big orders hopefully on their way which will help, I need to keep focused on work so I can do these. That's what got me through today, focusing on work. I love my job, and I don't mind that I work almost every waking hour, I just wish my business was working. I'm not so sure it is, and to close my business would mean going bankrupt, as I would have to pay to get out of contracts. I can't do anything about my bank charges yet, but I guess I can start looking at the credit cards, as I am unable to carry on with my £10.00 a month offer - look at where that has got me! I knew I couldn't afford it but I still posted those cheques, and now I'm in an even worse mess!!

Hello, We have had a letter from the LA of the property we have recently moved from with a list of deductions they will be making from our deposit, mainly cleaning and decorating, but there will be more to follow apparently. They want to know if we agree, and if we don't agree then it will go to the Independent Case Examiner. My quick question is, do they need to provide estimates to us for all this work that allegedly needs to be carried out? The agents want us to agree to £330 for cleaning etc, this is even before the kitchen lino gets replaced as apparently it is stained. This includes £15.00 to fix a broken drawer - it seems very high!! There is nothing to back up where they got their figures from, just this letter. Thank you for reading, I hope somebody can help with the answer to this one x

Thank you nuthatch x I haven't spoken to National Debtline, I will have to give them a call. My main issue is the income, because it's not as though I have any income to distribute to creditors or utilities people, I'm not making any money at the moment. I'm in work right now, sitting in a lovely shop, and I haven't had anyone come through the door all morning. The business itself isn't in debt apart from that one £600 bill I mentioned, oh and the unauthorised overdraft of £60 right now. It's just that my business banking is with Lloyds, as is my pesonal banking, and I don't want them to close down my business account. Amazingly, I haven't had any phone calls from dcas for the past week! It's very strange, it's since I sent those letters. Although I haven't had a reply from Barclaycard/Mercers, they have also stopped calling me. They didn't stop calling last time I wrote to them though. I agree that my brain is overloaded, so much so that I'm not really dealing with anything, rather just stressing about it all instead!

Wow, I'm overwhelmed by all your replies, thank you so much for taking the time to write them! Bookworm, your advice is great, thank you. I do have a parachute account but I don't use it yet, simply because I have no income to put into it! The problem I have with my overdrawn personal bank account is that it's with the same bank as I do my business banking with, so I don't want to start trying to claim back the charges etc in case it affects my business account, which I'm sure it will, as they usually close your accounts don't they? I've tried to change bank accounts for my business buy I was declined a different account, and I also have a merchant account (card processing machine) which would be expensive to cancel because of the lease. I hope that makes some sort of sense! Re the letting agents, the deposit is registered with the dispute service, and I'm just waiting for one more reply from the agents to my last letter where I sent them proof that they knew about my business and had said that it was ok, plus a surveyors letter regarding the damp, confirming that we're not responsible for a structural problem. Will see what they say then I will ask the dispute service to deal with it. I've been to the police this morning about the break in, next job is to call the landlord of the shop and find out who is responsible for repairing the door. My boyfriend had a couple of pounds in his wallet so he gave them to me so I could buy some lunch today. That was really sweet of him. We had a silly argument this morning too. I think I'm scared that I will lose him too as everything else seems to be going wrong. I can't buy food on a credit card as all of the accounts have been closed now. I contacted payplan last year, but they were unable to help me with a payment plan through them as my income wasn't enough to live on. They advised me to contact my creditors and offer £1.00 a month, and they said they would support me. All of my creditors refused and then payplan didn't return my calls when I called to ask them what to do next! nuthatch, I'm so so sorry to hear that you lost your husband. My situation has been going on for a while, and towards the end of last year my Dad was diagnosed with cancer. As soon as I found out about that, nothing else mattered at that time, so I do know what you mean. That's something I should try to hold on to as well, when everything gets on top of me. I'm about £300 in arrears with the electricity and gas. I set up a budget plan where I'm supposed to pay £50 per month but I've missed two months so will owe £150 this month. That's to pay the charges and the arrears I think.. I'm not sure.. misscynical I'm sorry to hear about your breakdown, sounds like you were under so much pressure it was inevitable That's how I got into this situation really. I put myelf under so much pressure, working full time plus setting up my business to support myself and my boyfriend as he was out of work for a year. Then it all went wrong and I got signed off, and my income went down to just SSP, then one month I got nothing because they had overpaid me. My other half didn't work so of course thats when I started being unable to pay all the bills, and that's how this started. It has just spiralled now, as even though we both work, we just don't earn enough, especially me. I couldn't go back to my job because of the depression, that's why I started my own business, rather than go onto benefits. I'm going to be writing all day if I don't stop soon, but thank you so much again for your replies.

Hi there, Just wanted to say hello really and I'm another one who knows how you feel. I gave up my employed job about a year ago after being signed off with depression for a few months, this was shortly after being made redundant from a long term employed position. I didn't want to give in so I became self employed, and you can see from my thread on here what a state I'm in now. Depression is a horrible illness and I know how difficult it can be. Getting medical support is the right thing to do. Have you been offered counselling? You can get about 6 counselling sessions with the NHS. There may be a waiting list but it's worth it, I found it very helpful. Good luck to you.

Thanks gloworm, No I haven't contacted citizens advice. I contacted them probably about a year ago before my boyfriend got his temp job when we didn't have any food or anything, but they weren't very much help. I was trying to see if we were eligible for any benefits. The claiming process seems so complicated, but it's something I will have to tackle very soon because of the council tax arrears. I'm glad I've found these forums.. it's horrible to read of the troubles so many people are experiencing, but it also helps a little to know that I'm not alone. xxx

Hi there.. I need to get this all down, it feels like my head is swimming with it all and I'm feeling so run down and ill, I don't know what to do. Where to start? 1. I'm in alot of debt. Credit card debts, arrears on gas and electricity, council tax arrears, owe money to family, owe money to friends.. 2. My personal bank account is over the overdraft limit and has been for months. I don't use it apart from to transfer the money to pay off the charges when I can - I'm getting charged over £100 a month on there. I rely on my business bank account for everything and it's currently £60 overdrawn with no authorised overdraft so the charges are mounting up on that one too. Ie. I have no money. 3. I have no income. I have a small business and a little shop. I did well over Christmas but not well enough, and everything has gone already on business expenses. Yesterday I didn't have one customer through the door. Today I made a few sales but I owe money to people I have sold goods for on sale or return so I have to save all the cash for this. It was only £30.00 today. 4. I can't afford food. I also filled my car with petrol yesterday but once that's gone it's gone. I travel 60 miles a day for work. I have a big multipack of crisps at work that I bought ages ago and I've been living on those. 5. I wrote to my creditors (credit cards) last week and offered £10.00 a month. One has replied asking for income and expenditure listing before they can accept. One has replied asking me to make a f&f settlement before going to a debt collection agency. The other hasn't replied yet. Two out of the three have banked the cheques though. I have no money left so won't even be able to keep up the payments. 6. My partner is a temp earning minimum wage. He was offered a permanent job 4 months ago but they are making every excuse possible not to give him a contract. 7. I have a £600 outstanding bill connected to my business. I've offered them £50 a month. I'm worried I won't be able to afford this next month unless I make some more sales. 8. My car tax is due at the end of the month. 9. We're fighting with our previous letting agency for return of the deposit. It's over £1000. The letting agency is blaming me for causing a damp problem which we complained about when we first moved in, and are generally being very rude. They have also said I was in breach of tenancy agreement as I have a business, but they did know about this from the start. 10. Our boiler is broken and most days we have to have cold showers. Our landlord was going to come and look at this but has been waiting for a part since before new year. 11. Today somebody broke into part of my shop. They can't get into the actual shop but I'm very scared about the security there now. I reported it to the police and have to go back in the morning so they can send an officer around. It appears that someone has sawn off the lock. Whoever it was also urinated on the floor. I will need to replace the lock but with what money?! I got up this morning and was getting ready for work when I started crying like a baby. I feel like such a failure. I've worked so so hard on this business over the past year, harder than I've ever worked for anything. My boyfriend keeps telling me that I need to relax and I'm going to burn out as I keep stressing about everything, but I just can't see a way out right now. Thank you for reading if you have got this far.. I hoped writing it all out would help but I don't feel that much better! I'm going to go and do some work now to try to take my mind off things. If anyone has any advice about anything it would be gratefully received. xx

Hi everyone, I could really do with a little advice on this. It's complicated, but I'll try to get across the important bits! We have just moved house and are trying to get our deposit back from the agency. I am a sole trader and I used to make products at home and sell them online and at fairs, and now in my own shop. I checked my tenancy agreement when I started my business and it said that you could not 'register a business at the property', and I was confident that I wasn't in breach of this, as I wasn't trading from the property, just making my products at home. After an inspection (this was a while ago), I had a call from the managing director of the agency asking me about my business, and I explained it all to her, exactly what I do and why I didn't think I was breaking the terms of the tenancy. She accepted this but said she would have to inform the landlady that I was doing it, and would be in touch further. I didn't hear anything else about it for ages, and we were told that the landlady hadn't responded, so all was ok. Fast forward to now, about 6 months later, and we move out of the property. We get a letter from the agency listing all sorts of defects that they have found with the property, some of which I feel to be unreasonable. I replied with a long letter addressing each point, including ones that I agreed with (for example we didn't have chance to clean the carpets or curtains as we were moving over christmas.. so I don't have a problem with this being taken from the deposit). I was also very clear about the points that I didn't agree with. Mainly being that as a result of my making products in the property, I have caused a damp problem. This is ridiculous and we are getting a surveyors report to confirm this.. although I don't know what will happen after that.. I then got a second letter from the agency, as a reply to mine, including photographs. Some were taken from the date we moved out and show that some parts of the kitchen weren't clean enough. I'm not going to argue with that, although I'm kicking myself for missing it (under the fridge door for example!!) Then the last page of the photographs showed photos of some of my work things, taken from an inspection they had done in October or November, saying that this was evidence that I was running a business from home and therefore in breach of the tenancy agreement and that they would be contacting the dispute service with the photographic evidence. So - firstly I'm very concerned about the accusation that I caused a damp problem, but I'm really hoping that the surveyors report will help with that. But my main question is about my being in breach of tenancy agreement. I'm honestly not sure right now if I was in breach or not, although at the time I was confident that it was all ok. If I was in breach, why did I not receive a warning after I explained exactly what I was doing to the MD of the agency six months ago? And if not then, why not after the inspection 3 months ago when they took photographs of my work , and if not then, why not in the initial letter ater we had left the property - if it was such a serious problem why wait until I dispute the deposit deductions until finally accusing me of being in breach of the agreement?! If you have got this far - thank you very much! Any advice would be gratefully received! Thank you x