Hi all, First of all I have been a bit cheeky, but if anybody could clarify the below it would be appreciated. I returned to the UK last month and the SLC want 5 grand off me upfront for loan arrears and additionally I need to pay the remainder of the debt off via the PAYE system. The amount to be paid off via the PAYE is for around another 10k and will be paid off in due course. My question, as I cannot afford to pay off the full 5k. Has anybody been in this position before and if so what was the outcome? I hoped that the arrears would be consolidated with the remainder and I would pay everything off for x number of years via the PAYE system. Thank you very much and hopefully I receive some juicy responses All the best, Cookie813

Hi there, I thought I should write this post on Consumer Action Group as some of the threads on this forum provided me with some valuable advice when I first got caught about three weeks ago using my partner's student oyster card on Transport for London. The case has now been settled out of court and I thought I should share my experience with others who may now be in a similar position. I had been using my student's oyster card for about 8 months buying weekly travelcards with the occasional use of top-up (when the travelcard was not valid for those zones or when the travelcard had expired for that week) before I was caught in early June 2015 by a revenue inspection officer. I was asked various questions about intention to use and how long I had been using it for, to which I combined both fact and fiction (I was under duress and, like so many others, I had no idea what the potential repercussions could be). I was then cautioned ("You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence") to which she proceeded to ask more questions (such as 'do you have another oyster card? 'do you have any money to get home?', 'who buys the travelcards..?' etc) before I said goodbye and walked away (remember that once you are cautioned you have the RIGHT to respond 'no comment' and to walk away until you have the opportunity to seek legal representation). Luckily, my revenue inspection officer was extremely amiable and told me I could walk away if I wanted to, so do bare this in mind if this happens to you. I was then sent a letter about three days later from the Special Investigations Team asking me to attend an interview for 'historical offences' and 'irregular usage' of the student oyster card and another letter a couple of days later form the Area 10 Investigations Team asking me to make any comments about the incident, otherwise known as a 'Verification Letter'. In both letters it was said that if I failed to respond it may result in the case being progressed by the Prosecutions Team. I had read somewhere online that if you are asked to attend an interview, it was seen that your case was more 'serious'. So, when I received the first letter, I started to panic, and decided to ring various solicitors to inquire about legal representation. Of the two I spoke to, [removed], I tried a third solicitor to get a different opinion from the two others who, although seemed incredibly efficient, also seemed quite impersonal [removed], (Do bare in mind also that these costs would have been on top of any additional monies I would have had to pay to Tfl for fare evasion discrepancies and the admin fees involved in handling my case file, mounting up to a cost of over £1000 in total, a sum I wanted to lower as much as possible). I then spoke to someone at [removed], who gave me some invaluable and incredibly helpful advice about dealing with Tfl (all for which he did for for free, about 20 mins of his time over the phone). He told me that many individuals at Tfl were incredibly reasonable [he gave me the direct phone number of the head of the prosecutions team] and if I failed to get through to ring the number on the letter and find out which member of the investigations team was handling my case and ask whether it would be possible to arrange an informal settlement. I was incredibly anxious about doing this (just because i wasn't sure what to say, whether I would be giving them more information than needed, whether it was even possible or not etc), but his confidence and reassurance gave me the vote of confidence I needed (hence, why I am now sharing this with all of you, to know that you can do the same), and also that he wouldn't be able to take on my case legally anyway as he was so busy. I then spent the following morning finding out who was in charge of my case, to which I finally got hold of someone [removed], and said that I wanted to arrange in an informal settlement with regards to my case, that I was incredibly sorry for my actions, and that I had been incredibly anxious about the incident and its potential outcome (a guilty verdict would have resulted in me losing my job). He responded really reasonably, telling me that he understood that people become incredibly nervous about the potential outcomes to their case and he didn't want anyone to ever lose any sleep over it). He said that I should respond to the verification letter by email providing details of how often I had used the oystercard and for how long for. He stressed that it was important for me to be as honest and upfront as possible, because they were able to investigation quite a lot of information about my journey history (remember they have whole teams investigating each case in detail), and to provide any serial numbers of any other oyster cards I had been using at the time. I then emailed him with all the details, being completely honest about how long I had been using it for, stressing my apology and my anxiety and my willingness to repay any costs. Just over a week later, I received an email from another member of the SIT team saying that I that they had agreed to an informal settlement and gave me a sum I had to repay within the next 14 days. This has all been paid and settled now, and I am extremely thankful that I did not incur the additional costs of solicitors' fees, or have to go through the trouble of attending an interview (which I think would be have been quite a scary experience). The point of writing this really is to not only realise that there are reasonable and helpful people out there [removed], but for others who are in a similar position to realise that Tfl can be reasonable and amiable people, who's intention is not necessarily to prosecute members of the public, but to regain costs that they have lost by you evading the full fare. The main thing is that Tfl want people to be compliant and honest, which I am thankful I have now done (there is always an element of skepticism of giving too much information anyway). So, the main tips are: 1) Do not be afraid to ring and speak to someone over the phone (thankfully we do not yet live in a age where everything is so drenched in bureaucracy that we are unable to talk to another human being) and 2) respond promptly to both the verification letter/or interview letter (or whatever you receive), and do not ignore it and think it will go away (for your sake as much as anybody's - I know I lost a fair bit of sleep just about the idea of being prosecuted, however remote it may have actually been). If you do have any questions about my case or anything else, please reply to this thread and I will try to answer them (I can only really talk about my experience, not about fare evasion on London buses, other train lines etc, though I do assume the process may be similar). Hope that has been a useful and (hopefully) inspiring thread. Thanks, Wilson

Hi everyone, This is my first post here and I wish I had found you earlier. I need some help; I have tried to sue my collage/university: Name: Grimsby institute of F and HE Course: FD Applied Computing with Multimedia Tech Length of course: foundation plus 2 years Years of studies: 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 Why: unfair timescale of notifying Student Finance England (SFE) Last day of attendance: 14th January 2014 SFE notification: 15th April 2014 Court of own motion order: Failing to identify a cause of action in law And failing to identity why the principle should have personal liability (my intention was to sue the college) Can some one help me please and what other info do you need?

Dear all, Some little advice please. I've read other people's threads on the same subject but cannot find all the information I seek. In January, I was caught with my g/f's student oyster card. I did only do it a handful of times but will not try and justify my actions. When I first received a letter from TFL, I wrote back with a full apology, an offer to pay fines and assoc. costs and explaining how I have never had been in trouble with the law before and how negatively this could affect my future career prospects. I have received a mag. court summons this morning for the 20th of May. From what I've read on here, I think I'm going to write to the prosecutor from TFL requesting a settlement out of court and hope for the best. My questions to you are: if I end up pleading guilty, how serious will the charge be? Will it be a CCJ? Will future employers see it when applying for a new job? I'm due to visit the US at the end of the year, will this stop me entering? Also, I hear about people getting out of things on technicalities... They have noted in the summons that I was stopped at Acton Town station... When in fact I was nowhere near there. Would a wily solicitor get me off on something like that?? Thanks in advance

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!, I have an income contingent loan from the SLC that hasn't been paid on for a few years, when I left my job in the UK and moved to the USA where I'll soon become a citizen with no intentions on moving back. Please know that this is an embarrassing situation for me but hearing past stories of how nasty the SLC can be with adding penalties, etc. I was never in a good financial situation to be told I needed to pay in full or have the interest rates tripled. I'm aware of several other threads on this forum from others in a similar situation, but since they're either very old or left no follow up posts with success (or failure?), I'm creating a new thread here. The current situation is not dire - I have recently received a letter simply asking to update my details for repayment. I have parents in the UK which is my last known address for them, and it was them who actually received it and happened to forward this particular letter to me. The SLC does not currently have my new address. I did send them an update via mail about a year after moving over but obviously it had gotten lost!! I do not want my parents involved in any further communication, so my plan is to update the SLC with my new address. I'm unsure about giving them any more details than that. I'm hoping I can work out a repayment plan with the SLC, but as some other OP's have described, it's easy to get thrown into a loop where the only outcome is "pay the amount WE tell you or face legal action, or a DCA". If this happens, I fear I won't be able to meet their demands and thus have the following concerns: Have there been any changes in the law that would allow them to force repayment here in the US? Although I have no plans to move back, I would still visit - is there anyway that future court action would cause problems at the airport? As I said before, I'll try and work something out with the SLC first and foremost. I'll keep this thread updated with the outcome in case others also have the same concerns! Thanks for the great site!

Hi. I'm 24 and looking to go back into education in September (by which time I'll be 25) to study Animal Behaviour. I was told by a university this week that I would need either A Levels or an Access to HE course to allow me to apply. There seems to be plenty of funding available for university students, but I can't seem to find any for full time college students, as you can not apply for student living grants/loans until uni. I am living away from home and have been claiming ESA for a while now, but that will be ending soon. I know I can get a loan to cover the cost of any course and exam fees (from 24+ Advanced Learning Loan), but does anyone know of any help with living costs, or even any benefits I can claim whilst at college to pay for rent, food, bills etc? I don't know if this is the right place to post this thread, or even if anyone here can help, but I thought it was worth a shot as CAG has been very helpful in the past, and I'm struggling to work out what to do now after being turned down by the university. Thanks. Matt.

What does everyone make of this ? It's a reply to my recent Statute Barred Letter to Honours Student Loans for a Loan taken out in 1994 Basically they are stating my Statute Barred claim is void because I haven't informed them of any changes of Addresses I've had, is this true? Do they have a case? Do I ignore the letter or reply? I'm guessing quite a few people would have received identical letters.. Thanks

I wonder if anyone can offer any advice. I had a student loan in 1997 (which I totally forgot about). A few months ago I received a letter from Erudio about it. As this was the first I had heard from them for 17 years, I replied back to them stating I believed it to be statue barred. Today while at work, a sheriff's officer left a citation at my home with my wife. It's actually a copy of a Charge for Payment from a court from 2002. This is the first of me being aware of this and telling me I have 14 days to £2,200!! Now, in May 2010 I entered into a trust deed which became protected. I was successfully discharged from this in March 2014. I guess I'm wondering what I do next? Just as I thought I was getting my finances back in order, this appears! What are my options? If I have to pay it, will they accept a full & final or a slightly reduced amount? Can I pay it up?

Mrs L.C.writes: I bought my house in 1999. Previous tenants left owing money to everyone possible. Their children went to university but have not repaid student loans, and every few months I have received demands, which I have returned, saying they are no longer at my address. Erudio Student Loans Limited has now taken over this debt. I told it that the family left over 15 years ago, but Erudio said it would keep sending demands. I protested and was told they would stop, but after two weeks another has arrived. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2904618/TONY-HETHERINGTON-Student-loan-demands-pile-15-years-tenants-moved-out.html#ixzz3OYUF3D6f

Hello i was wondering if i could get some advice please. Trying to resolve my current bad credit rating with equifax (218) with two defaults lodged upon my equifax report - after years of avoiding i am finally in a financial position to repay/sort out my current credit standing. My basic back story: I had a current account with RBS since 2007 that then changed to have student overdraft facilities added in 2009 when i started studying. T he problem being i changed my address & stopped studying (I was only living in temporary accommodation) and neglected to notify my bank of the change - after years of just completely ignoring/not thinking about my maxed out overdraft its finally time for me to repay/sort out my bad credit rating. On my credit report it shows the account defaulted in 2011 - I phoned RBS to see if i could just pay the outstanding balance and they notified me that i can't get the default removed from my account even if the balance is paid. Is their any other option i could go through to try and get this default removed? The account ended in Aug 2011 - so waiting until 2017 isn't really the best option for myself. The second default is for the same address and its a BT broadband bill of £220 that is defaulted on my account. This is marked as May 2009 on my credit report - this means it will expire in this coming may for the six years mark. Is it worth just paying this or waiting? Regards Maunder p.s it may also be worth noting my credit rating for the exact same details on EXPERIAN state my credit score rating is 'GOOD' Why would this be?

Where a loan has been written off by Thesis, is there any evidence that Erudio are trying to revive and collect on them.? Had a letter from SLC saying my loans which were with Thesis, and have been written off six months ago are now with Erudio, Or is it likely as I think SLC have fecked up? Thoughts.

I hope this is the correct place for this post. I have a UK student loan that I originally started paying back in the UK. We then moved to NZ and as I wasn't working the loan was deferred for the first 12 months. We moved house again (still in NZ) and I wrote and advised the SLC of our new address a couple of times and even had the mail forwarded from our old address. I never heard from them. I've now received a letter from CCI Legal in NZ chasing the debt. My question is this: are they chasing the repayments on behalf of SLC or have they purchased the debt? Has anyone got any suggestions for dealing with them? Any advise greatly appreciated.

Hi all, Amongst my outstanding debts, 'Erudio' Student Loans from 1992-1995 is one of them. I am in the process of clearing up creditors on my DMP with PAYPLAN. Done the CCA's with each. Successful on two counts (had debts cancelled ��) I want to pay off, with a little capital expected in January, and get some Full and Final offers going. On here, I've been advised to check the PPI additions. I've heard just by phoning each creditor this is possible? I defaulted on my PAYPLAN for the last 2 payments. Erudio have sent me a letter stating the balance is £2000+, with arrears of £1930. Not sure if that means I add those to figures together for a final figure or not. Either way, they are now asking me to pay £1930, because I missed the last £55 installment....

Hi everyone, I'm after some advice on my student account. I've been in higher education for a while and have a student account with an overdraft facility. I just graduated this September just gone, from Open University. I had transferred from another university and my graduation date is later than first anticipated. When I first started at the new uni, I had gone into a branch to let them know I had changed unis and asked them what needed to be done. The staff at the branch asked me if I were still and student and I said yes. They said it's fine, so that's how I took it. 2 years later, they've contacted me saying that because I've graduated for a while, my overdraft facility was no longer interest fee. I owe approximately £450 for interest overdraft charges but they're willing to shave a couple of hundred off that if I paid straight away. I spoke to someone from the complaint's department and she insists she believes what I've said as she has no reason not to but she still believes that the charges and interest was applied correctly, which baffled me. They also said they sent me letters, none of which I have received, quite honestly. I am able to pay at the moment, but would rather not for obvious reasons. I just wanted to get a second opinion from people on here to see if I should just pay up and whether it's worth arguing it with the bank. Thanks in advance for your help

Hi, I trade through my own limited company. My accountant has received a letter from HMRC, addressed to my company, stating that student loan deductions must start next month. My position is that any alleged debt is statute barred. Reading through other threads on this forum has confirmed this. What is my next step? The letter says that a penalty can be charged to my company if the deductions do not start next month. I would send the standard statute barred letter. However since this has gone through my company is there any other action that I need to take to avoid incurring penalties?

I have a default of £2,976 with Natwest. £1,176 of which is made from fee's from when I went over my overdraft limit and then couldn't afford to pay enough money back to the bank to be able to get myself back under the limit. I accrued the overdraft while at Uni. This was a student account to start of with. The first time I went over the limit was in May 2011. My owed balance went up from £1767 to over £3000 in the space of 8 months. Even though I complained to the bank that this was spiralling out of control and I didn't know what to do. They just said you need to pay it back now to get under your overdraft limit. I couldn't afford this, I was only just breaking even at the end of every month anyway. I am now finally in a place financially where I can actually start paying something back. However, I am unsure as to how to go about this. I have already had debt collectors (Robinson Way) trying to contact me. This was about 2 years ago. Can anyone advise me on what to do? What about the fee's of approx. 140 a month will I need to pay all this back? This has been troubling me for a long time and I want it sorted as I really want to try getting my credit record in order to enable me to get a mortgage. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all, I've read a lot of people in a similar circumstance to my own on here, but thought I'd post my case as it progresses. I received a letter from some company called Honours Student Loans (HSL) a few days ago saying that they have 'now located me' and that I owe them £1600 in 'arrears' for a debt of £2500 and they have also applied a 'trace fee' to my 'debt'. From what I've read on here I'm not the only one, although a lot of the cases I've read are quite old now, so not sure if they've changed their tactics at all. Incidentally my original loan was for £1800 and I paid some of that off in bits so god knows where those figures came from. my student loan was from 1997, after which I started to pay it off for about a year, I deferred for a year, I moved and continued to defer, I moved again, informing the student loans company all the time of my address. I stopped hearing from them, no deferrment forms. Long story short I read in the paper that they were about to go bust and thought that the debt had just been anulled. That's probably when HSL bought all their loans. I was 17 odd years ago, last contact was maybe 14 or 15 years ago. Bottom line is that my debt is statute barred (from what I gather on here). I ran a credit report on equifax, I have no CCJ's current or passed, credit rating is good. today I'm sending the statute barred template letter, royal mail signed for. After that I guess I'll hear nothing for a while and then I'll get a reply saying I deliberately withheld my address or something, which is nonsense, (also from what I read on here), then god knows. Is there anything else anyone can think of that I should be doing at this stage? Any tips? Thanks

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice on an account with Honour Student Loans please. It's a little complicated and, yes, largely my fault, but any advice would be appreciated. I look at small ( This year I decided to enroll on a degree with Open Uni, starting with an Access course this year and moving onto the actual degree next September. It was during setting this up that I realised that I still had this loan, and that it had been passed to Honour Student Loans. I'm afraid my dealings with them have been far from satisfactory... They're telling me I owe over £1200, give very few details on how this is broken down - other than to state that SLC went to court in 2001, which I was never informed about. I've stated I want full details before I agree to any repayments, which they are refusing to do so. I have requested all paperwork, and will put in an SAR shortly if needed, before I make any agreements. Am I within my rights to do so? Whilst I may need to pay this off, I've already seen their attempts at bullying me into paying and I will not stand for that. I'll keep you informed of any progress.

Hi all. I had a student loan / grant for a course started September 2004. I left the course early 2005 and claimed jobseekers. Jobseekers would not pay me anything until the summer as they said I had to live off the grant I had received. I still had to sign on but received no payments. About a year or two later the student loan company wanted me to repay the grant. I phoned them and explained how I was ineligible to jsa because of their grant, so if they wanted a repayment they could get it from the job center. She said she would look into it and that's the last I heard. Today, nearly 10 years later, I have got a letter as follows from the slc This is the first time I have heard from them so I don't know what the recent contact is they are referring to. I have moved house several times, but been in my current house 2 years. When I complete my tax return, if I bump up my income then the loan repayments are automatically added, so they surely know where I have lived all this time! I still have the loan to repay but have not yet met the income requirements. Is this statue barred, or is this type of debt not eligible? I didn't want to ring them until I have some advice as I don't want to open any cans of worms! Thanks

I have an old student loan from 1993. In 2001 I fell into arrears and received a ccj. I have ben paying this off at a pound a month with their agreement. I have now had a letter saying that the debt has been sold and that interest and account charges are being applied. Can they do this? How do I fight it as they want @300 a year in interest and charges so the debt is spiralling out of control. There is no way I can pay it as i am on benefits. The original debt was less than a thousand.

hello friends, I would require some help to get correct info. I have contacted my local council and each time i spoke to someone in there has given me different answers to others, and this has confused us a lot. So thats why I would like info regarding the matter I am about to mention. I am in part time employment 24 hrs a week, earn around £1100 PM after deduction in tax, NI and pension. We live in a rented property and we get housing and some towards council tax benefits. My wife dont work and look after children age 6 yr and 13 yr. Recently my wife has decided and went thru some interviews to get admission in local college for a beauty therapy course 2 evenings a week (6 hrs per week) for a full one year and she has also got admission with other course Hair Dressing in another college which runs 3 full days a week (18 hrs per week) for a full one year. My question is 1) Would we both be exempted from council tax or the council will consider to exempt my wife ONLY and will I still end up paying council tax ? Would appreciate your replies.

Hi Guys Bit of advice needed guys. A girl I have recently started seeing told me that she has a CCJ against her name relating to her house share and an unpaid utility bill she was unaware of. the utility company were owed approx £1k from an 8 bed house and my Girlfriend was the named person on the utility contract. They then left the house, utility company pursued the debt, my Girlfriend probably buried her head in the sand as girls sometimes do and then next thing is a letter from court stating she has a CCJ. Queue the month to pay and satisfy the debt. ..she leaves it until the last minute, has been in constant contact with the utility companies solicitor who have stated on at least five occasions verbally that the deadline was 5pm today to make payment - she calls up, and then they say.. oh actually I have just re-read and the deadline was 5pm on Monday this week. When my Girlfriend told me this I was in shock - surely this is complete professional negligence? Said girl now faces 5 years on the CCJ register, wont be able to get mortgage, loan etc...severely affecting her financial future. What would you guys advise to do next? My advice was; Complain to them asking for their complaints handling procedure Complain to the Law Society Complain to the Legal Services Ombudsman Request that said Solicitor applies to court to set aside the Judgement or state it has been satisfied so she can get removed. Failing that I would be inclined to sue them for ruining my financial future... I fully expect at least 10 posts on how daft this is and should never have got to this stage but am hopeful at least one person responds with something useful! Many thanks in advance.

Hello newby so please be kind. I am and have always been in Scotland. I had a student loan back in the early 90s. I missed a deferment in the mid 90s and they enforced me to pay the whole lot. At this point I stuck my head in the sand and moved house a couple of times. I never heard anything and got a mortgage no problem in 1998. I sold that house in 2006 and rented for a few months. Got a mortgage at my current house in 2007. Clearly never had any issues on my credit checks back then. the SLC must have tracked me down (over 10 years on) as I started getting "statements for information only" from them on an annual occurrence. They were clearly marked as "not a demand for payment". I therefore assumed they were statute barred. Checked my credit reports recently and still nothing of any relevance. Recently appears Erudio were sold my loan so I ignored their letter. Today however I had a more threatening letter from Shoosmiths LLP. They claim my account (The slc) is subject to a decree granted by the court. (No specifics). Now I know of no CCJ/Decree. Certainly none on my current file within the last 6 years as I have just spent a tenner checking. Also getting all of my mortgages/credit etc over the last 15 years hardly suggests there ever was a court enforcement. Can/do Erudio/shoosmiths try fishing with bare faced lies ? I would prefer to ignore all correspondence but this one has got me slightly twitchy. I realise their difficulties in enforcing even if there was a very old ccj/decree. However how do I find out if such an expired document ever existed ? Are they raised in the local court as to where SLC would have been chasing ? If so can I contact someone ? Many thanks

I am a student from the University of Kent. Recently I signed a contract with a student lettings company (however the landlord has not signed the client copy of the contract must I mention. But this probably doesn't make a difference anyway since there are two signed agreements from all parties with the landlord himself and with the agency.) The rent is from September 2014 to July 2015. There is no break clause from the contract either. Unfortunately I did not pass one of my exams and I also have a startup company that was just accepted into an accelerator program in the San Francisco in August, so I will be travelling there for a month in August. This is when my resits take place and therefore I won't be able to resit that particular exam, therefore unable to continue with my second year and thus won't be able to pay for my rent in the second year that I am liable for. I haven't managed to find a replacement tenant either. I am now in a position where I cannot pay the fees for the house as I am not going to University for a year and I do need some urgent advice on this. There is no way I can afford that rent without going to University, my University won't let me continue unless I resit and the next resit dates are August 2015 - forcing me to take a gap year. If you guys can help me out here that'll be great! Cheers!