You're welcome. I've received your email. It was in the spam. I've received advice and encouragement on this site and it's not the first time either so it's only fair and right to also give back.

Finally, all repaid. Thanks for all the help folks. Scara

Update: They agreed to start repaying the money monthly from September last year. So far £14,000 repaid. £6,000 to go. so far so good.

They weren't aware of the Sheriff's charges when they did the draft so that will have to be added in along with correct dates and amounts. Do those draft documents seem reasonable in your opinion?

Hi dx100uk, yes and I have told FP that if we do agree on a payment plan they are responsible for all the HCEO fees and that they are around £4000 so far.

Finally there's been some progress. Yesterday the the Financial Controller of Fat Prophets Australia contacted me about settling the claim in installments. They have proposed 1. a settlement deed, that will obtain the agreement amount and timeline. 2. the notice to the court of the deed agreement, once the deed is agreed by both parties. I have attached both files which are word documents for someone to please review and let me know if they are fair and reasonable. Fat Prophets will be calling me this evening to discuss the amount and timeline. The sheriffs called me this morning to ask if I want the enforcement to proceed. I've asked them to hold off for now as we might have an agreement done soon as the Sheriff's were going to seize their goods today. The sheriffs have said if I enter into an agreement with Fat Prophets they will require their fees which are around £4000 so far to be paid immediately in full. Thanks for the help. draft Settlement Deed - MF & AE.doc draft Tomlin Order - MF & AE.doc

Thanks again everyone for the advice. DX I will take your route and contact the sheriffs are coming enforcement team. Regards Scara

Thanks for bearing with me, I've finally received the "Order of recovery of award" from the county court. I don't know if Fat Prophets will be aware of this award or whether the onus is on me to notify them and request that they pay up or face court enforcement procedures.h Any advice on the next steps to take will be most appreciated. Regards Scara

Thanks for all the help folks. I'll let you know how things proceed. Regards Scara

I've decided to go with Bankfodders advice and not accept their offer of payment by installment. To this end I have drafted a letter to the Adjudicator dealing with my case to advise them of my decision. I have copied a draft of the letter below. Any advice , thoughts , opinions will be appreciated. Thanks Scara. I have taken independant legal advice on this matter and after considering all the options I have decided that I will not accept the offer from Fat Prophets to pay the award in monthly installments. The main reasons for my decision are that I have serious doubts as to the trustworthiness of Fat Prophets and most importantly as you have previously stated, "if you should decide to accept the proposal then we cannot facilitate the settlement or oversee progress. In the event that there was a problem with those arrangement you would not be able to ask us to intervene again on your behalf." Furthermore I have accessed information on Mint Financial/Fat Prophets from the FCA website (https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b000000MfMOtAAN#ShPo_PermissionsAnchor) and details of their latest accounts from the companies house website (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04255908/filing-history). In my opinion they have more than sufficient funds available to them to settle this matter as set out in the Ombudsmans ruling.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going to have a look through the various links and have a think about how to proceed. I'll post back once I've decided on a course of action.

Thanks again for the replies,I was trying to be brief but now I'll be more specific. In 2009 I paid Mint Financial T/A Fat Prophets £9400 for a stocks/shares advisory service. This service was never provided as agreed for various reasons especially personnel changes and after numerous exchanges of letters and broken promises I made a complaint to the FOS. I was awarded a decision for the amount I had paid plus interest at 8% and £500 for "trouble and distress". The total awarded is just under £15,000 to date. I accepted the award in July 2016 making it binding on us both. They recently offered to pay £500/month which I immediately rejected. They have now raised their offer to £1500/month. Their reason for not being able to pay the full amount in one go is: "In any event we are still not able to make pay the amount noted in full. We are not trying to be difficult and are looking to resolve this but are a small company now. A court enforcement would take time, and involve costs." The dilema for me is accepting their proposal means the FOS "cannot facilitate the settlement or oversee progress. In the event that there was a problem with those arrangements you would not be able to ask us to intervene again on your behalf." On the other hand while court would not be my preferred choice I will proceed that way if necessary. Am I being unreasonable to think they should pay the full amount in one go? Thanks in advance for your replies. Scara

Thanks for your interest guys. I made a complaint to the FOS and the ombudsman ruled in my favour. I accepted the ruling which was then binding on both me and the company which is called Fat Prophets. I hope this helps. PThanks Scara

Hello all, I have recently been awarded a judgement by the FOS against an FCA regulated company for not providing a service I had paid for. The company in question now wants to pay the award in monthly installments. They initially offered to repay over 3 years. I rejected that outright because it's far too long, and the Ombudsman will not get involved if I agree to a payment scheme and the company fail to pay. Now the company has offered a new repayment plan to repay in 12 months. This is far more attractive as they claim they cannot pay it all in one go but based on past experience with them I have doubts as to their sincerity and honesty. Could someone please advise me if there is some way I can get guarantees that the sum will be paid and what my options would be were they to stop paying before the full amount is repaid? Any advice/suggestions will be most appreciated. Regards Scara

Finally the £1500 has gone into my bank account. For anyone in this situation don't give up. Maybe chase up the lawyers more than I did. Thanks to all who posted for the advice and encouragement. Scara

Thanks guys. I will post back once I receive the money.

I had decided to have my lawyer reject their offer for £1000 and request £2000. Today I have been notified that the former LL has offered £1500 plus my legal fees which as I understand it means I will receive the full £1500 and they will pay my lawyer her fees as well. I think I will accept this offer as going through the courts to try and push for the maximum penalty of 3x my deposit (£3000 in this case) seems a bit risky. I have posted this in the hope that my experience may help someone or at least give encouragement for someone in a similar position to fight for what's fair. Good luck Herilsamika I hope your case goes well for you. Thanks to all who posted. Cheers Scara

Finally some news, my solicitor has sent me a letter saying that my former Landlord's solicitors have offered to pay me "£1000 in full and final settlement of my claim". They have also offered to pay my legal costs in addition to that. This offer has been put forward as an official "Part 36 Offer". I have been advised to accept this offer or try to negotiate a higher amount by countering their offer with my own of £2000, which carries the risk that the original offer could be withdrawn. At this point I am considering whether to counter their offer or accept the £1000 but I am a bit confused as to how they would pay my legal costs when I have a conditional fee agreement with my lawyer who will take 34% of what I am awarded as per the no win no fee scenario. Does paying my legal costs mean they would pay the 34% that my lawyer would take from my award?

For anyone interested I have found a lawyer willing to take my case on a no win no fee basis so I will let him take on the case. I will post back when there is a result. Scara

Thanks Mariner51 and Steve_M for the prompt replies and useful info. It's a bit disappointing that I cannot pursue the action for non-protection in the SCC as I feel it would be too risky to have expensive legal fees on the multi-track, however before proceeding I will see if there are any solicitors who would be willing to take my case on a no win no fee basis as I would then be taking away the risk of high legal fees. What are your thoughts on this option? Thanks again. Scara

Hello All I have a dispute with my former Landlord where I had been renting on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy basis for the past 8 years and 5 months (from April 6 2005 to September 5 2013). The dispute has arisen since I moved out, due to my deposit of £1000 being refunded less a deduction of £102.50 as the Landlord has claimed I caused damage to the Bathroom basin, which I dispute as when I moved in there was already damage in the basin which was highlighted in a tenants inventory at the time we moved in. The Landlord has via an email on September 4, 2013 written the following: "If you feel it is unfair then you obviously have the right to apply to the courts for an application against the landlord/ourselves for unfairly withholding your deposit." This situation is further complicated by the fact that the Landlord never registered my deposit with any of the Government backed tenancy deposit schemes. His belief is because my last lease, (which ran from December 6 2006 until June 5, 2007 where it lapsed to a periodic tenancy until I moved out on September 5 2013) began before the tenancy deposit rules came into effect that he was not obliged to protect the deposit. I have since spoken on several occasions to to shelter.org about this situation, who have advised me that I have a case against the Landlord for not protecting my deposit based on the case of Superstrike Ltd. vs Rodrigues 2013. In this scenario do I have a case to make a claim in the small claims court for the return of my full deposit and compensation of up to 3 times the deposit for compensation due to non protection of the deposit, and if so can someone point me in the right direction? Each time I spoke to shelter.org it was with a different adviser and I got a differing perspective e.g. on the last call I was advised to send the Landlord an N208 form which had not been mentioned the previous times I had spoken to them and from what I have read on this forum where an N208 is required the small claims track cannot be used. I have read the various posts/sticky regarding TDS claims but my particular scenario seems to be unique and most of what I read seems to from several years ago. Apologies for the long winded post as I have tried to be accurate and include all the facts. Any advice would be most appreciated. Regards Scara

@ MIKE770 Thanks for your reply mike and yes please avoid dealing with this company at all costs as they will take the p_ _ _ out of you if they can. @ MAXX Thanks for your maxx reply I tried that with Lloyds TSB and the stupid/ignorant letter that I received as a reply told me that they hadn't even read my complaint letter. Fortunately I decided that as the idiot that replied to my letter either hadn't read it or must have been blind so I ignored that and persued a different avenue. I was so P_ _ _ _ _ off that I sent them a letter threatening to take them to small claims court unless they refunded my money. Guess what? The W_ _ _ _ _ s refunded my money. The moral of this story is fight for your rights and again thanks to MIKE770 & MAXX otherwise I wouldn't even have posted this result. If anyone would like copies of the letters I sent I will be happy to provide copy/pasted copies (Minus Personal details of course). Regards Scara

Hello All, In August I called up seabreeze holidays and was quoted a price of £652.50 for an airline ticket to travel in September. They took a deposit of £52.50 from my credit card and the balance was to be paid in 2 weeks. The next day I received an invoice from them showing a ticket price of £677.50, the extra £25 being a booking fee which I was not told about by the agent who I had been speaking to. I sent them several emails requesting the original price to be honoured or my deposit to be returned. They did not reply to any emails and I eventually booked my ticket for less money with another travel company. I would like to fight for my deposit but I need to know what my options are. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks scara

I'm happy to report back that air zim have agreed to settle without going to court. They accepted my offer to settle for £476.31 and today the money cleared into my bank account. This goes to show being persistent and sticking to your guns pays. I hope this gives encouragement to someone out there. scara

No problem Thailand I appreciate you were trying to help. I'm still looking at taking them to court though. I remembered my outgoing flight from Gatwick was delayed by about 5-6 hours. I have written to the Gatwick customer services to get the exact departure time of the flight so I can include a claim for compensation for the delay of the outgoing flight which will definately be covered by the regs. Additionally I will be claiming for loss of wages and the additional transport costs incurred under the Montreal Convention as "loss occassioned by delay". I'm still going to try and claim the EURO600-00 compensation under reg. 261/2004 in the hope that they don't attend the hearing and I get a judgement in default. That's my plan so far if anyone has any advice or suggestions please post it. Many thanks especially to you Thailand. Scara