Dear CAG, Many thanks for reading. I am writing on behalf of my father who isn't very technologically or financially savvy. He yesterday was made redundant which has caused us to begin this quest. In 2002 he took out a 10yr £11.6k secured loan with GE Money (that was the easy bit). In October 2012 he finished off paying the loan. During the 10 year duration of the loan, he was in and out of work and managed to accrue fees of £5800. This has built up in a separate fee account which is now outstanding. In the past (when he had been out of work) he has had bailiffs calling and a court summoning etc, which is probably why the account value is so high. They have also been charging him compound interest on this money. Once he had paid the loan they sent him a letter demanding the full amount of the fees account, which he couldn't pay. we made an arrangement with GE Money that he would pay £200 a month. They would only accept this arrangement for 3 months, and then they would review it to see if we could continue like this. This is how we planned on continuing, until he was made redundant on Monday. The property that it's secured against is a flat worth about £110k which he owned outright until he had this loan secured against it. I am unsure if he ever signed up for PPI. We feel that we need to tread gently with them because if they demand all of the money then we are in trouble (which will probably cost more). in the short term I'll give him the money to pay the loan with a long term view of me getting a loan to pay it off (to keep the interest paid at a minimum). We are looking for any advice that may be able to help us out before we go down the route of getting a loan in my name. I have read things about reclaiming unfair bank charges and we could look into PPI. My fear is that by pursuing something like this could turn things sour, with them demanding immediate payment or something along those lines Many Thanks, Sheila.

I am looking to buy a 50% shared ownership of a house which has been repossessed. The amount is only small and I have the right in the lease to purchase the other 50% but here's the question- could I be responsible for any rent arrears in relation to the other 50% of the lease. It is highly likely that if they couldn't afford the mortgage then they couldn't afford the rent. There is no mention in the lease or in the sellers details.

I am in a mess because of GE Money.I remortgaged with them in 2007 when a broker just cold called,I was self employed had never had a mortgage independently he proceeded to put down estimated figures for my income as I had only recently become self employed & had no books to speak of.He then encouraged me to take some extra finance on top for home improvements etc & advised as I was self employed not to have the Payment protection as it would not cover me & I received a letter confirming it was not in place.Then my business went under & within 12 month I was taken to court for arrears of just under £3000 & given a 48 hour suspended repossession order.There is so much behind all this but I wouldn't have enough pages to cover it all basically They constantly harassed me with phone calls & reduced me to tears all the time,I got where I daren't ring them.It was only when my bank manager looked over my statements a couple of years after court that she noticed PPI was in place & I had been paying it from the beginning so when I confronted GE they said I should have asked if I could claim on the PPI but why would I when I had a letter stating I did not have it.Anyway there is so much more of how they have ruined my life & due to the daily stress I am now registered disabled due to Cauda Equina Syndrome resulting from constant pressure crushing my nerves at the base of the spine.I am struggling to pay my mortgage now because of all the admin fees etc that are added every month,I did claim the PPI for the 12 month but that ended over 7 mth ago although they said I still have to pay the £33 PPI payments every month for the remainder of my mortgage which is 2o years even though it no longer covers me I aren't sure if that is right either.I am close to losing my home & haven't a clue what extra monthly charges,admin fees etc they are allowed to put on & don't know hwich way to turn.Any advice would be appreciated.

I hope you can help me I'm confused about a council tax debt I was recently informed about. I had a phone call from a debt management company out of the blue and stupidy I was driving at the time so answered it believing it to be a work call. They informed me that I owe the council of an area I lived in for a while £200. They couldn't tell me what it was for but told me I had to pay now and asked how I would like to pay. As they couldn't tell me what it was for I politely told them to ram it believing it to be a [problem]. I have now received several letters from them and they have passed it to another debt management company who have written to me. I've finally managed to get hold of the council after spending what seems like hours on hold and yes I do owe them money for council tax. News to me as I left there in 2009 believing I'd paid everything. The thing that confuses me is the debt the management company are chasing is £200 however when speaking to the council the deby owed is £800 so I'm now wondering if I've messed up by contacting the council. My intention is to deal direct with the council and make regular online payments direct to them as I know they cannot refuse and I don't want to pay any extra to a management company. Have the council sold the debt expecting to get some back but write off the rest? in which case I'm cheaper paying the management company £200 and clearing the balance instead of the full £800 to the council. Is it common practice for councils to do this or having now found me would the management company come after me again for the full amount once I've paid the £200. I now live in Scotland so I know the rules are slightly different up here as doorstep collections and Balliffs are illegal but the courts can be tougher on people who don't pay their council tax. Any advice you can give would be helpful.

hi, I hope you can help me. I have been fighting with my bank for 2 years now. My arrears was £12k up to 1st/May 2013. 4 weeks ago the court gave me 4 weeks to sell the house or it will give it to the bank to sell. I did not sell the house. I was waiting for my pension lump sum that was due in January but I just got it on 1st/May 2013. On 2nd May I paid the arrears. Yesterday the bank said that they don't want the money (arrears payment) they want to sell the house. They said that they will sent the money back to my account. The final case is on Friday where, if I have not sold the house, the judge said he will give the house to the bank. My pension lump sum is enought to pay the mortgage for the next 5 years. So now I don't have any problems with paying the mortgage. Is there any way I can save my house? Thanks.

hello i am in coucil tax arrears now totalling £6200. the council tax (cardiff) have recalculated my council tax after removing the single person discount for my residential property. they have backdated it to june2005. 1. i disagree with the backdating removal date, and more importantly can they backdate that far? also with the recalculation that has more than doubled the c.tax arrears from £2865 to £6200, and i had a visit for bristow and suitor bailiff (they did not enter the house, no walking possession). Unsummonsed Debt £3349 Liability Order (summonsed) Debt £2865 there is currently no repayment plan and they sent the case to the above bailiff. i have paid something virtually every month to the (admittedly small)total of £700 from feb 2012 to now. to show i am not avoiding paying. i now have two tenants, and am able to pay 300 a month. I have decided to pay the 300 a month direct to the council. hoping this will encourage them to return the case handling to themselves 2. i need guidance on how to proceed. 3. should i ask for legal help with eg arranging repayment, from the cab legal team 4. who else should i ask for assistance 5. how do i get the case returned to the council thanks in advance for any help you give jon

Hi, Sheriff Officers served 2 charges for payment on me for council tax arrears for year 2011/2012.( I did not know I had arrears this perio) and also for year 2012/2013 where I knew there would be a small amount of arrears. They followed this up with a bank arrestment for 2011/12 and a simultaneous earnings arrestment for 2012/2013. The reason they did this is because they said I defaulted in an arrangement by not sending a wage slip to them. I found out the outsanding arrears for 2011/2012 were £20. However the sheriff officers want £178 for this because of their charges. I asked them (the sheriff officers) why they didn't just tell me at the end of the 2011/2012 period that I still owed £20 and I would happily have paid it instead of them holding onto it for 12 months and then arresting my bank account. Their response was that they had no obligation to tell me. I contacted my local council and they said they would be happy to withdraw both arrestments as the amounts were low and I offered to pay them directly. They said I would need to make an arrangement with the Sheriff officers to pay their fees. The Sheriff officers have refused to withdraw the arrestments unless I pay their fees first. The fees amount to £220 pounds and my outstanding council tax arrears for both years in total are about £50. I can't afford to pay this in one payment and meet my ongoing CT bill. Can they hold me to ransom like this, when I am no longer in debt to their client and their client instructed the arrestments to be withdrawn. The sheriff Officers don't have a decree for my debt to them? Is this reasonable Thank you

Hi all , I need a bit of advice , After falling into arrears on our mortgage with Natwest we were threatend with repossesion , it duly went to court where I was able to come to an agreement with them. They placed us with their Debt Management group whom I had been paying regularly each month till I fell ill . Eventually I was able to get back to work and via a few phone calls to them came to an agreement in Feb2011 to pay them £3000 and have the remainder spread over the remaining mortgage , this entailed uping our payments from 520.24 to 534,36 as well. I have now received a letter from them asking for just over £2000 or enforcement proceedings will take place , I rang them up and they said I hadnt repayed enough back to them since feb2011 to bring me back to my original payments of 520.24 , I explained that there was an agreement made with them from feb 2011 which they checked and agreed but said the bank would still go ahead if I didnt repay this £2000+ to get me back to my original payment with them. Can they do this as I really dont know what to do and now we are living in fear of repossesion when we thought everything was ok. Please help Jerry

Hi every one Please advise me if you can. I took a business loan of 90 K from Habib bank and the balance is 26 k with no arrears but I am behind with my rent and Land Lord did not wait and sent his Bailiff changed the lucks and to my surprise in less than a week the shop is let to some one else !! The bank had a charge on my Lease and I am not sure what is going to happen now. are they going to make me bankrupt? I have no asset nor house.Any help is appreciated.

Hi everyone, My wife and I have had a mortgage with Natwest for over 25 years and are now in the final 4 years of repayment. The monthly payments are around £1600 and accounts for about two thirds or our monthly income. About 3 years ago we fell behind with 4 monthly payments due to job redundancy. Fortunately I was soon back in employment and Natwest agreed that we could spread the arrears over the next 5 years to pay back the deficit. All mortgage and arrears payments since then have been paid on time and in full. A few days ago we received a letter from Natwest regarding the arrears and asking us to submit a full listing of income and out goings. We duly completed this and a few days later we were contacted by Natwest. It appears that they have decided to change their policy regarding arrears and are demanding that it be paid back in full within the next 2 years. We explained that due to the high monthly payments we are already paying we were unable to increase the additional £180 per month we were already paying. On checking the disclosure we sent them they were forced to agree. We also pointed out that this arrangement was agreed by both parties and as far as we are concerned was a binding contract. At the current rate of payback the arrears would be cleared in 2 years and 8 months anyway. Natwest were completely uninterested in anything we had to say and then started coming out with ridiculous suggestions like " You could contact an agency to declare yourself unable to pay your debts and get your other outgoings suspended, then you could afford to pay us back" and the best one " You could contact the local council who may buy back your home and rent it back to you". At this point I'm afraid that I lost my temper and told them to stop being so ridiculous to which he replied "I'm sorry you feel that way, our litigation team will be in touch". So finally to my question. Before I get involved in a legal fight with Natwest, am I correct that as long as I pay the previously agreed amount every month then I am acting within my rights or can Natwest, out of the blue, suddenly decide to change the terms of our agreement and throw a delicately balanced monthly budget into chaos. Sorry for the long post and thank you for staying with it. Steve

hi all, i,m a newbie to this forum but hope some advice is to be had. the csa are saying that i have to pay back arrears within two years,i dont think this is lawbut just a guide line.has anyone put this to the csa?

Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I was made homeless with my teenage son in January. Council put us up in temporary [expensive] accommodation. As I work I dont get housing benefit. Anyway, I quickly found new accommodation through private letting. I was in the council flat less than 2 weeks. I handed the keys back in, got a receipt and gave them my forwarding address to contact me regarding rent owed. This was 17 January 2013. First letter I received was on 15 March 2013, stating I owed £660 and this was due to be paid in full within 7 days. I emailed them straight away saying I accept there is rent due however a) why has it taken 2 months to write to me and b) how has this figure been arrived at. About 10 days later I get a letter stating I owe them £144 and needs paid in full. No explanation, basically the exact same letter as the previous one only the amount differing. I emailed them back again and said I will not be in a position to pay it in their timescale however I will pay the full amount by 24 April, (my payday) In the circumstances I did not think this unreasonable. To contact me after 2 months, to give me an outlandish bill for less than 2 weeks accommodation, I could have stayed in a hotel for that amount. However I've just came home from work today to say the amount of £144 is still outstanding therefore it is now their intention of passing my account to sheriff officer. Financially its been tough to set up home on our own (me and my son), I have no family alive and my sons mum takes nothing to do with him and contributes nothing, so I dont have that sort of money to hand however I didnt think it unreasonable given how long its taken the council to contact me to state payment will be made in what is roughly 2 weeks. Their conduct seems so heavy handed and aggressive, their communication poor. They've never even explained why my bill was £660 now it's £144, surely that in itself is worthy of an explanation. Can anyone offer any advice?

Hi all, I'm hoping for some advice. I've recently got letters from these bailifs who are trying to collect CSA arrears. I don't want to go into why the arrears are there but suffice to say most of it is my fault. I had two liabilty orders granted against me in January and offered the CSA £400 per month both verbally and in writing. I then heard nothing until the letters arrived this week. On contacting the CSA they informed me that they had accepted my offer of payment in Jan and had sent out standing order forms for me to make payments, I never recieved these. What can Rossendales do? They have told me that they have to collect the debt in two years (the total is £30,000 due to various mis calculations still being disputed). I'm married but live in rented accom where most of the possessions where my wife's when we moved in together (I'm down as an authorised tenant on the lease). On speaking to the CSA again this week they told me I should be dealing with the bailiff, obviously I'll make the offer on the doorstep as he won't be getting in but surely the CSA can take the case back and accept the payments that they agreed to?

Hi all, New to the forum, so please forgive me if this post is in the wrong section. I owe about 4k (debt plus charges) in arrears over a few years, i was disputing some of the charges on the debt and i was taken to a small claims court by the managing agent. the courts sent me a form to fill which i did over two years ago, nothing came of it. Now a new managing agent took over about a year ago, and i agreed to pay 100 pounds monthly to clear off arrears, which they agreed. 6months down the line they want the debt cleared within a year or they are going to pass it on to debt collector agency. Please i need advice on what to do. I offered to clear the new service charge as not to affect the arrangment on the arrears. but they want it cleared within a year at over 300 pounds a month. All correspondence to the managing agent has been over the telephone. thanks.

I’ll try and keep this simple. I was receiving ESA (£99.15 a week for the WRAG) when I was called in for an Atos assessment last July. I heard nothing more until this January when I was told I had failed the assessment and my ESA payments would be stopped. I was also told that I wasn’t entitled to ESA from October last year and therefore had been overpaid. I’m guessing the DWP decision maker looked at my case in October? Anyway, a few weeks ago I asked for the decision to stop my ESA to be reviewed, without going to appeal, and this week the reconsideration went in my favour. I have been moved from the WRAG to the support group, and my money has gone up to £119.85 a week. I have also been paid back to January when my ESA payments stopped. A quick timeline: 2 July 2012 - Atos assessment (zero points) 12 October 2012 - ESA overpayments begin 22 January 2013 - ESA payments stopped 12 March 2013 - ESA reinstated after reconsideration (moved to support group) My question is this – as my ESA has gone up due to being moved to the support group, should I be entitled to any ESA arrears payment, and if so how far back should the arrears be paid to? Thanks.

Hi guys, Ive managed to catch up on my mortgage apart from 2 late payments in the last 12 months. Having checked my credit file i have received about 1500 in charges at £40.00 a whack. Granted this is a lot of late payments. I wonder if anyone can offer any advice or is it not worth attempting to reclaim some of these charges or part of the total amount? Thanks in advance Kev

I have council tax arrears for a number of years and have had attachment of earnings in place. This was supposed to happen again but instead I got a letter from a bailiff wanting to list goods. I want to avoid the listing of goods and make an arrangement. He is due to visit tomorrow, what happens if I refuse him entry without having an arrangement with the council in place? He did imply that the council will just obtain a warrant and take the goods. And basically I have no choice. I am willing to pay the arrears of course, but I don't want a bailiff in my house. He refused to make an arrangement over the phone. What can I do? I have seen a website that offer a service to stop bailiff action, are they genuine?

Myself and my hubby were quite young when we moved out of home and got ourselves into some debt problems, one of them was owing council tax. We owe thousands of pounds in council tax arrears, we have kept up with current CT payments for about the past 4 years, and have paid bits and bobs off the arrears as and when we could as my hubby does temporary work which can last anything from days to years. He started a new job last month after being unemployed for a couple of months and so the council asked us to set up a payment arrangement for one of our old accounts, money is very tight at the moment and our 1st baby is due next month, so we sent them a financial statement which showed we were left with £5 a week and asked if we could pay £5 a fortnight. Well today we recieved a letter saying that they couldnt accept that, but we could pay £5 a week until 3rd june when it will increase to £12.50 a week. I thought ok fair enough as by then baby will be here and were entitled to tax credits and child benefit so we will have a bit more money. Then in a seperate letter/envelope was an attachment of earnings order for another account from 06/07, my hubby takes home £320 a week and they want to take 12% of that = £38.40. This is completely unrealistic, so they want £30 a week normal council tax, £38.40 in a AEO and £12.50 a week off another account (from june). Im honestly beginning to wonder what the point in my hubby going to work is! We will end up falling behind with the current council tax if we are to pay out the other amounts, maybe £20 off arrears but over £50 a week! Rent = £126 PW Council Tax = £30 PW Electricity = £40 PW (no gas) less in summer Food = £70 PW Car Ins = £8.50 PW Pet Ins = £6.70 PW House Ins = £3 PW Petrol/Car Tax £20 PW Phone/Broadband = £9 PW = £313.20 This is without dog food any clothing etc, etc.. Car tax due end of the month £148.50 and baby due next month So how will we afford £38.40 from his wages

Hi in January 2011 i took my mortgage company to court to stop an eviction the arreears we had at the time were £18259.06 in arrears the judge suspended the warrant with the understanding we paid £150 a month towards the arrears which we have been doing on wednesday i got a call from N-RAM asking for a break down of income as we had broke the arrangement i asked how we had done so as we pay every month and have never missed a payment since order was suspended i was told that in oct 2012 i was £100 short in my payment i was not aware of this and the only explanation i could give was i pay by dirrect bank transfer and my hand must have slipped and i put a 6 instead of a 7 they told me that was not good enough and the agreement was broke therefore i would need to pay £250 a month extra on top of my mortgage payment and that my arrears stood at £17994.20 how can this be if i have been paying £150 off the arrears for 23 months ???? it should be £14809.06 should it?? can anyone help on this? if the arrears are what they say why have i been paying the extra it works out at £11.51 a month not £150. they ate demanding i pay this extra £250 even though they know my budget wont allow me to although they state my break down i gave them is to high and i must make cut backs i have been in contact with a debt company who tell me i am in low middle with my spending so i just dont know where to go from here i have 6 weeks to find and start paying the extra each month or they are going to evict us PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Work & Social forum or in the Bailiffs forum. As this matter is now in the hands of the Rossendales I assume this would be the best place. My friend has received a demand from Rossendales to the tune of £4100 for CSA arrears against a liability order dated September 2012. As far as he can recall he has not had any correspondance from the CSA regarding any arrears and received no correspondance prior to Sept 2012 informing him that they would be seeking a liability order. On my advice he has contacted Rossendales this morning to advise them that he will be writing to the CSA to ask for clarification of the arrears owed (amounts & dates etc) plus copies of all correspondance from the CSA regarding the arrears. This will, hopefully, give him a bit of breathing space so we can work out what to do next. Any ideas? This may, or may not be relevent but he no longer lives at the address he was at when the liability order was made.

hi, some time ago i was in arears with my maintenance payments, i wont go into that here, anyhow they wrote to me approx 8 years ago to say they wont be pursuing me for the debt. they wrote back this week to say that they now want me to pay the arrears, its a sizeable amount and I will pay as much as i need to to clear the debt. if they had said 8 years ago that i need to pay 100 a month to clear the debt i would have done. anyhow, i am now self employed, can anyone tell me how they will calculate the amount that i have to pay, i believe its based on my last years accounts. but i dont know what percentage they will want. also do i have to disclose my partners wages or can they asses me alone. i have already agree to a payment rate for the first three months, i guess that after they they will hit me as hard as they can. but i just want to get the debt paid and sorted now.

I currently have rent arrears with a Housing Association and received a Notice To Quit. As I already had plans to move to another property, I advised them that is was leaving and they agreed to the leaving date I proposed ( which was after the date of the next action on the notice to quit ) My problem though is the arrears. I have met with them and gave my proposals to repay the arrears but they declined this and advised that they were looking to take court action to recover the debt. I could offer to make a higher monthly payment if this would stop the action but I am wondering what action they can take in the courts, bearing in mind that I will no longer be their tennant and will be living in a different property ?

Good Day, I require some urgent information in regards to my home which is i am renting from a private lanlord. I am currently in rent arrears and the lanlord has corresponded with the county court to have me evicted I have filled in N244 and stated my situation and that i can agree to pay back as much as i can - also the situation has slighlty changed as my wife is currently expecting too. The fee of £80.00 will be paid tomorrow to the county court - however i very worried as i may have been too late? Please advise Mr Y

Hi everyone I moved into a private rented property on 24th Sept 2012. I am on JSA and so I get housing benefit although I have to pay a top up of £10 a week . The landlord that I rent from offers a "No deposit" and "No rent in advance" gimmick which was ideal for me as i was homeless at the time and didn't have a pot to piste in. Many of the tenants who rent from this landlord are on benefits and so I assume were in my position at some point. My weekly rent is £96.54; of which £86.54 is housing benefit. On signing the agreement, I queried the "Rent is £96.54 per week payable in advance" and the landlord understood that Housing Benefit was paid in arrears. I received my first payment of HB on 19th October 2012 which was for 4 weeks rent. LL sent me a letter on 23rd January 2013 saying I was £579.24 in arrears. I immediately phoned them and queried this but they were adamant it was correct. I had made a payment of £386.16 on the 20th January 2013 which was for the period of 4 weeks up to and including 14th January 2013 (I didn't receive my HB until late Sunday 20th Jan although my bank statement then backtracked and it now shows HB was paid into my bank on 16th Jan.......pointless statement maybe?!) I have since phoned HB and they say they pay 4 weekly in arrears (which LL well knows) I was then advised to re-read my agreement; in particular; the rent paragraph. It states as follows: 'Rent shall be £96.54 per week payable in advance' 'The first payment of £96.54 being due on 24/09/2012 or prior to the date of taking possession' 'Thereafter, the "Rent due date" will be every 28 days during the term of this agreement. This is where they have seemingly 'moved the goalposts'! LL understood I was on benefits and HB is paid in arrears. I can only pay 4 weeks in arrears which is what HB pay me + my top up. Because HB were late in paying my latest payment, I can understand if they were saying I was a week behind. My next payment, due in February will cover from 14th Jan - 11th March 2013. This LL has a bad reputation for similar antics, along with not carrying out repairs and also for evicting tenants if they don't dance to their tune. I have tried (till I was blue in the face) to explain to LL that up until 14th Jan, I had been in the property for 16 weeks and I have paid 16 weeks but they are still adamant I owe 2 weeks?? Personally, I think they may try to evict me and go for someone who came down with the last shower as i clearly didn't!! SAVE ME!!....Please! Thanks in advance folks

Hi, Does anyone know if it is legal to defer arrears on a loan account without notifying the customer this has / is about to happen? I thought any business operating this type of method would have to let the customer know there was going to be a change to the account? by that I mean putting the amount of arrears to the end of the agreement which by definition changes the end date? Its a bit like implementing a payment holiday without the customer being aware of it? A good friend has just had this happen with a company she deals with and im almost certain its illegal?