Hi all, just to let you know that I contacted my local councillor and he was very helpful is sorting it out. I didn't have to pay anything in the end. As always thanks for your help. Ill be sure to make a donation to the site.

Agreed. But such is life. I've contacted both the council and Jacobs explaining that. Ill let you know how I get on. Thanks for the advice as always.

Ok just so im on the right page. As The bill was issued incorrectly and a new one issued for almost a quarter of the original amount the council should have amended the Liability Order and a new Notice of Enforcement should have been provided. The fees over the £75 I could not have avoided as the timescale Jacobs gave me to pay the original incorrect bill was not long enough for the council to amend and re-issue to me so I could make the payment. Unless it was expected that I pay an incorrect bill over 4X what was actually due. Like I've said, as soon as I received the amended correct bill it was paid in good time. Therefore the initial LO should have been rescinded. Therefore I should not need to pay the £235 but may be liable for the original £75?

Hi guys When I was discussing the bill with the council they told me to use their payment line. So I did. I suppose my own opinion is that there is nothing I could have done to stop Jacobs contacting me. As soon as I knew about the debt I action'd it. Are you suggesting that I should pay them? Im just a bit worried about them coming round my house. The length of time it takes the council to respond to anything doesn't help with Jacobs previous correspondence from Jacobs giving me a 7 day deadline and the possibilty of more fees being added or them coming round my house.

Ok thanks for that, I have issued a formal complaint with the council and sent them an email detailing my complaint. Should I let Jacobs know I have done this? Is there anything else you'd recommend at this stage?

I received a letter from Jacobs stating that £1000 was due. I contacted Liverpool City Council and they sent me a bill for £950. That bill was then contested and amended once I told them I was a student and had moved out well before the Nov bill. (this was all in Sep of this year). As soon as the amended bill was sent by LCC I paid it direct as that who I thought would be the best people to pay. What you recommend I do at this stage? Also just to add. I couldnt have paid the bill stated as due until it was corrected. A correct bill was not issued by LCC (taking into account I was a student and had moved out of the property far earlier than the bill was for) until the end of September (after I had discussed the situation with LCC) at which point the bill was paid direct to LCC. Are Jacobs suggesting that in order to avoid these additional fee's I should have paid an incorrect bill that was over 4X what the eventual bill was settled at? This doesn't seem reasonable.

Some money was due between my course finishing and moving out (about a month and half). However the first bill I received in September of this year was for over £1000. I got in touch with Liverpool CC and sorted it and paid the £225 due. Not sure what else I could have done.

Hi, Just looking for some advice on emails and letters ive received from Jacobs. Long story short: I was a student in Liverpool until May 16 and moved out of the flat I had in July 16. I obviously wasnt paying council tax at the time as I was a student. From this I have been paying council tax since that date to Cheshire West and Chester where I now live. in September of this year I received a notice out of the blue from Jacobs saying I owed over £1000. I contacted LCC and was informed they were trying to charge me from March (I was still a student) until November 16 (I moved out in July). I told them the details and they re-issued the bill at the end of september and I paid it (circa £240 was due) directly to LCC. Now I have Jacobs contacting me saying I owe them fee's and interest charges for a bill that 1) Ive paid, 2) I knew nothing about until September of this year. I have sent a couple emails to Jacobs explaining this and getting nowhere and now they are threatening further action. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Patrick Ps below is the latest email correspondence I have received: 'We acknowledge receipt of your recent correspondence and have noted the content therein. We write to advise that our accounts have now been updated to reflect the payment made to Liverpool City Council however there are fees of £310.00 outstanding. Under the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2014, the sum outstanding that needs to be paid to stop further action "means the outstanding debt together with any interest and any costs of enforcement to date". A balance therefore remains on your account, as fees had been incurred before you made your payment to the Council. Under the Regulations you must now also pay our costs of enforcement to finalise the matter. We therefore ask that you pay the remaining balance in full within 7 days of the date on this letter. Failure to adhere to the above may result in further recovery action being taken'

Ok thanks. We will send this out today.

Stupid question, will the payment need to be cheque? Who will it need to be written out too? Cheers.

Hi, What sort of legal advice would you recommend? There is the contract which she signed to get the student loan. If they record conversations then they show what she says in the complaint that she contacted them on a number of occasions to check everything was in order. Thanks

Hi This isn't actually for myself by my girlfriend. I have used this forum before and it was great so would appreciate some advice here. Its a complicated situation so in order to fully understand what has happened, here is the complaint she sent to student finance last week. "I would like to make a complaint regarding the communication skills and moral dishonesty of student finance. Before detailing the areas of my complaint I would like to state that I have always completed all paperwork on time, queried any abnormalities and upheld all details stated in the contract. To begin, I was given a maintenance loan and tuition fee loan without query when I began my degree in Veterinary Science at the University of Liverpool (after recently completing my previous degree in Chemistry). I was aware that post-graduate students differ in their entitlement to student loans and spoke to numerous student finance advisers regarding this both before and after applying for a student loan. Not once was I told that student finance were making a mistake in allowing me my tuition fee loan and I was misled to believe that I would be able to finish my degree with complete financial support. That such a fundamental mistake could be made by so many of your staff is unthinkable and considering the impact it has now had on my studies, career, financial situation and well being. I am unable to understand how this mistake could have occurred multiple times and am seeking a full explanation regarding this. Not only did your staff make errors but I have been supplied with a full tuition fee loan for almost two years of my course and in this time your screening process has not picked up on this anomaly. I hope that this will also be addressed when investigating this complaint. Next, the manner in which Student Finance has dealt with their own incompetence can only be described as appalling. I received four letters in the space of two days and each letter had different values I was entitled to and confusingly spanned across a number of academic years. Together they were incomprehensible and incredibly unclear. My online account had always stated that I was received £0.00 for everything since you updated your online system. Upon querying this at the beginning of the year with one of you advisers I was told that it was just taking a long time to update. So I spokewith one of your advisers again to ask what all these letters meant; and although they also had trouble comprehending the situation I was told that the decision to discontinue my tuition fee loan had been made some time ago. I was never notified that my profile was being reviewed, given no written explanation as to why student finance had made such a mistake and offered no apology. This lack of communication is atrocious. How is Student Finance able to justify this knowing the impact this would have? As the investigation of this complaint I would require a full apology and would like to know the protocol Student Finance uses when dealing with ethically sensitive decisions. As of yet I not received the customer service that is advertised to students. Finally, I would like Student Finance to truly know the impact this has had. I am unable to fund my studies, am unable to apply for bursaries and have no additional financial support. I would never have invested the time and money into such a demanding and lengthy degree if I had not been misled by Student Finance on several occasions. I now face ending my course just before my exams that I will be unable to take and deal with the vast additional debt that would never have occurred. The actions of Student Finance will not only destroy my ambitions and career opportunities but will undoubtedly affect my well being. I expect an honest investigation on how this has happened,a sincere apology and how Student Finance aims to rectify such an abhorrent situation. " She has now been informed by her University (Liverpool) that she now may owe them 18k for the first 2 years of her degree. We live together and are independent (we rent) so obviously she cant afford to pay either the 18k herself or the further 3 years going forward. She obviously would want to continue with the degree if possible however we will have to see what happens. A strange situation I know. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Patrick

Hi, Id just like to say thanks for the advise on this. Never did receive anything back from either ARC or LA after the last letter. I made a small donation to the site at the time however ill be sure to make another. Thanks again Patrick

Received a letter from LA Fitness last week stating: 'im sorry we havnt been able to come to an agreement. This will be our last correspondance on the matter'. Not sure, but im guessing this means ARC will now contact me?

Ok fair enough. I will notify them

ok fair enough. I will notify them.

Ok cheers Slick. Im moving house at the moment anyway so I may not notify them of my new address.

Hi Slick, Recieved the below from Citezens advice after making a complaint: Thank you for your enquiry to the Citizens Advice consumer service dated 18/06/2014. Your reference number for this case is AW 12124738 and it would be helpful if you could quote this in any future contact with our service regarding this issue. We understand from your email that you have a dispute with regards to being miss sold a gym membership. Your rights and obligations UK civil law defines a representation as 'a statement of fact, made during pre-contractual negotiations; as an inducement to enter into a contract'. As such, if a purchaser discovers that such a statement of fact is false, they could claim the seller has misrepresented the product and hold the seller in breach of contract. This could allow the purchaser to seek damages or rescission (be placed back into their pre-contractual status) or an indemnity for any expenses. Therefore if you can provide reasonable argument that the trader disclosed false information that persuaded you into signing up to the gym membership with that specific trader, you could look to hold the trader in breach of contract and pursue them for a suitable form of redress. What you may seek is dependent on the severity of the breach. To clarify, if the breach is serious, you may seek to end the contract and claim a full refund of any monies already paid; whereas if the breach is minor, it may be more appropriate to claim a partial refund that reflects the nature of the problem. You can read more about misrepresentation here. Criminal Offence: As the trader's actions of potentially miss selling the membership could be considered a criminal offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, the information you have provided will be passed to the relevant Trading Standards Authority for further consideration. The case details will also be placed on a central data base that can be accessed by all the other Trading Standards throughout the UK. Your next steps If the trader is pursuing you for a debt which you feel you do not owe, due to being miss sold the membership as outlined above, ultimately only a civil court could order anyone to pay a civil debt. To get such an order the claimant (for example, the trader or their collection agency) must provide proof that you owe a debt, and that they are entitled to recover that debt. You would not be responsible for someone else's debt, unless you acted as a guarantor on that debt. In addition, debt collection agencies are simply companies that can request payment on another company's behalf. Only a bailiff would have powers to take further action and a bailiff would have to be appointed by a court. A court will only appoint a bailiff if the trader is successful in taking court action and then the defendant refuses to comply with the court’s decision. Therefore, if you feel you have grounds to decline the trader’s request for payment; you could either ignore any further correspondence sent by the trader in connection with this demand and see what, if any further civil action they take; or you could send the trader a letter (obtaining proof of postage), making it clear why you believe you are not obliged to pay the amount requested and that you have reported this matter to Trading Standards. It is also worth retaining copies of everything sent, for your records. The reason we suggest outlining your position in writing, is just in case the trader decides to escalate their claim. Having a record of correspondence would help you demonstrate how and when you made the trader aware of your legal position and why you have refused to pay the amount requested. Another alternative would be to pay the trader under protest in order to stop the trader taking further civil action. You could then seek a refund retrospectively. Please note that taking this option may not be practical because it would mean that the onus would be upon you to then demonstrate that you did not owe the amount paid; therefore if you do decide to take this course of action it would be advisable to send a letter to the trader explaining what you are doing and why. Again, it would be advisable to obtain proof of postage and retain copies of your correspondence, for your records. Sending letters by recorded delivery will allow you to track the letter using the ‘Recorded Signed For’ label the post office supply you with; to make sure the trader receives the letter. Subsequently, the trader would be unable to claim that you have never made them aware of your intentions should they fail to comply with your request, even if they fail to offer a response. What we’ll do Although we work closely with Trading Standards, we are a separate organisation. As such, we pass complaints of this nature to Trading Standards for them to evaluate whether or not action can or should be taken. Individual complaints do not necessarily lead to immediate enforcement action as sometimes a number of complaints are needed to take effective action. The information is, however, valuable intelligence allowing Trading Standards to properly prioritize their activities. In general, Trading Standards will only contact you or this service if they need further information. If you want to discuss this further please call us on 03454 04 05 06 or reply to this email. Kind Regards

I have decieded to go with Stepchange, is this someone that you would reccomend?

They were all taken out around 2/3 years ago. And yes they are all in my name.

Hi, yes I have never missed a payment on the debts however I am struggling to keep it going. Debts are currently 3k with Vanquis, 500 with Capital One, 2k with Halifax credit card and 2.5k Halifax overdraft.

Hi, thanks for your reply. When you say enforcable what do you mean? And yes I have been in touch with Payplan and stated my debts to them..

Hi, Just looking for a bit of advice regarding a DMP I have taken out with DFH. I have signed up to clear around 8K of debt. I have not made a payment to them yet. Am I ok to change to stepchange or payplan (a free service) even though I have signed up with DFH?

Hi Slick. I sent it via post anyway. Would I contact TS in the area where I live or the area where the gym is?

Thanks Slick. We have threatened to make a complaint now, is it now worth making one? How would we go about that? Letter was sent first class. Its cost me nearly £20 in postage already! Is it worth mentioning this case on this website? http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?403540-LA-Fitness-**Successful-Cancellation** Seems very similar to myself.