I really can't believe I'm having to ask this but here goes. An elderly relative has decided to move from their house which has become too much for them into sheltered accommodation and tasked me with clearing the house and putting it on the market. I'm obviously filling the bin and the council are refusing to empty because the house is unoccupied. Said relative is now paying council tax for both properties and more for the house than when they lived in it because the single occupancy discount has been transferred to the new flat. Can they really refuse to empty the bins? I'd understand it if they chose to allow some temporary relief in such circumstances but this council doesn't.

Govan Law Centre has published a free tookit for Scottish homeowners who are unhappy with the service received from their property factors (property managers). The free toolkit, supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, explains the rights of customers in relation to the relevant law - including the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011, which was drafted by GLC for Patricia Ferguson MSP - the registration process for property factors, the statutory Code of Conduct, and the new dispute resolution procedure in Scotland. The toolkit includes illustrative letters of complaint and step-by-step help on how to complete an application to the new Homeowner Housing Panel, with common examples. GLC had spearheaded a campaign over a number of years to regulate the property management industry in Scotland, and provide a consumer-friendly form of alternative dispute resolution for homeowners that had 'legal teeth'. GLC Property Factor Toolkit is available here (opens as PDF). http://govanlc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/glc-publish-free-toolkit-for-scottish.html

My husband has recently died leaving a large amount of unsecured credit card/loans debt.......we have a joint mortgage on a joint property.I am sorting out affairs and I personally have a ccj in my name secured on property.I am taking over the mortgage payments and am in process of getting my husbands debts written off as he had no sole asset over £5000...........today I am told that because I have a ccj on the property that effectively cancells the tenancy of the motgage so thereby releasing 50 % of the property into an assett for my husbands estate..................I have read the landregistrey papers etc for ccj and there is no mention of this and also have spoken to mortgage provider who are also unaware......help needed please ......there is no money and I am on a dmp ..........

Hello Caggers, I'm trying to help a friend who has asked me for advice but I'm completely stumped. In fact I'm not even sure I'm posting this in the correct section. Friend has/had a bridging loan with Lancashire on a commercial property which was let out as an art shop. The intention was to switch to another lender but then there was the crash and she stayed with Lancashire longer than she thought. A year or so later the Tenant becomes unreliable with rent and in the end Lancashire appoint a LPA Receiver. LPA Receiver seems really friendly and states he is working for her and will take the rent and manage the property until the arrears are cleared (the rent is about 33% in excess of the monthly payment), Friend is reassured and doesn't question it. Then last week she receives a letter stating that the property has been sold! That's it. No notice of sale. No letters or calls stating their intentions. There is some money due to her but I feel she will have been gouged by 1001 people for surveys, commissions and charges. She's waiting to see how much she will get and hopefully a breakdown of charges. Any advice?

Hi I have only just found this site because of searching for solutions to our problem. Me and my girlfriend bought our first sofa together (every one say awwww) from SCS. It came and was great but when the delivery guys left we found that our front door had been damaged by being forced too far back on its hinges and now won't shut properly. When you do manage to force the door shut it is even harder to open and the mortise lock wont go on at all. This makes our house insurance invalid. When we phoned up to complain we were initially dealt with by a lovely polite sales assistant and sent her photos of the damage. But then a guy called Tony from the delivery warehouse phoned us back. He was vile! His attitude was aggressive from the start and he said there was no way a bit of fabric and wood could damage a door like that. Anyway, long story short, the 2 delivery guys came back saw the damage and said straight away, yes we have caused this. Very sorry, the company will deal with it. Then today I got a call today from the Chester branch manager, Ian Turpin, who listened to my story of events, said he would find out the facts and call me back. He then got Tony to call me back again from the warehouse. He said that the guys who came to look at the damage they had caused returned to the warehouse they told him it was nothing that they had caused and proceeded to , indirectly, call me a liar and trying it on!! I'm afraid I lost my temper with him and hung up. I then called Ian back at the Chester branch who completely backed up his warehouse manager and that SCS consider that they have not caused any damage and that is the end of the matter. When I tried to argue my case with him, he simply hung up on me!! Fuminig!!! I have contacted trading standards and they say that as it is a finance deal that we took out, there is no come back on SCS what so ever and we have to take any complaint up with the finance company, even though it is SCS who have damaged our property and refusing to take any reponsability. Surely there is something I can do? Any ideas? Thanks in advance

I currently receive ESA, DLA and housing benefit for a long-standing disability. My savings have amounted to £6,500 (which i have declared) and thus my ESA is gradually going down by £1 a week for every £250 increment, hence i thought i would invest the money in a buy-to-let. How would this affect my benefits?? I imagine after all deductions from the rent, i would receive around £200 a month NET. The obvious goal is to become self-sufficient in a gradual move away from benefits over the long term. Advice is greatly appreciated, as the benefits helpline no longer exists. Thank you.

Who pays to get rid of these vermin ? The landlord says I have to pay, and replace all damaged wiring etc. I didn't bring them into the building so surely it is risk the landlord should have managed? Does anyone have any experience of this problem?

Sorry if I have posted my concern at wrong place. I slipped in my bathtub and it got a crack. Couple of months ago landlord has to reseal the bathtub and his contractor sealed this crack as well. Now we are moving out after 2 years and 4 months, but the estate's agent saying that landlord has to replace it with new one and we have to pay for it. My questions are-: Do I have to really pay for it? If yes then... Do I have to pay full amount of a new shower bathtub and costs for fittings? Or Do I have to share? If I have to share what is the legal percentage of the cost should I pay? Thank You

I'm fairly new to the forum, and am trying to find out how to value the remainder of a life interest in property and would be grateful for any help. This is the situation: A property owner accepted an amount of money from a married couple (both retired) in exchange for a permanent licence to occupy (accommodation for life / life interest) in an agreed part of the property. After ten years of living at the property, they have announced that they are divorcing. One of them wants to emigrate and is asking for a lump sum in return for him giving up his life interest in the property. His wife wishes to remain living at the property as agreed. I've looked at The Intestate Succession (Interest and Capitalisation) (Amendment) Order 2008: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/3162/pdfs/uksi_20083162_en.pdf but have been led to understand those tables are only for calculating cases of intestacy. Does anybody have an idea how to calculate the remaining capital value of a persons life interest in property, given the details above? Thanks in advance.

Hi guys just a quick question. Had a commercial lease which i stopped paying for in dec 2012 (lease runs up until nov 2014) came to a deal with landlord to end lease if i paid x amount of money. So i emptied the shop in dec. January came round (when i had to pay again for the next 3 months and landlord said that the incoming tennants had pulled out so our deal could not continue and i would still have to pay until Nov 2014. As things stand partner made redundant and me having to shut down the business we had next to nothing as a income and struggle to pay our bills at the moment. It has come to light that the locks have now been changed on the commercial property with out us knowing. Does this now mean that our lease has been fore fitted and i now own nothing or does it mean that i only owe up until the locks have been changed? thinking around a month ago? any help would be fantastic. many thanks

I have a situation that stinks of some kind of fraud but I really need help to establish the facts as the maneuvers this company have made are beyond me. A property management company are trying to repossess a flat that we are the landlords of claiming we owe unpaid fees. Very long story but in essence the builder of the development went bust sometime between 2006 and 2009 and although the properties are all complete (I think), the roads are still not complete (no surfacing) amongst other things. The builders were also the management company (under a different name I think) and went into liquidation. When the builder went bust we were advised (by someone in their own office) to stop paying the management fees as no one else was paying and no one was doing any management. Actually they had done next to no management to this point anyway and we were very unhappy paying a bill for nothing. In any case although the property is a flat it's not the normal set up in a block with shared access, it's self contained in that you enter a door on the ground floor and stairs take you to the first floor flat. The stairs are part of the flat (not shared), they are internal to the property ie carpeted etc by us. There are only two floors to this development (ground and first) and the buildings look just like houses from the external. In 2009 our mortgage company applied a cost to our account stating the management company had mad a claim for fees. We disputed this and the mortgage company reimbursed us. We then called the phone number that our mortgage company had given us for this so called management company to hear a very heavy African accent answer "hello." No company name or any hint of professionalism. Just a very rough hello! It seemed very strange and I was suspicious as the guy was extremely cagey when I asked questions. I gave him our address and said if you are legit send me the paper work re the costs. Needless to say we heard nothing so I forgot all about it. I so wish I had pursued it then (2009) because in July we received a solicitors letter claiming over 5K in unpaid fees! I spoke with the solicitor and raised several disputes. 1. It's a self contained flat (no stairs or corridors to maintain) 2. There's no direct garden to speak of (it's first floor) 3. We've had no contact since 2009 4. There are costs for lease transfers on the statements I've been sent (sounds dogey) 5. The builder went bust but somehow transferred the management of the flats to another holding company then had the contract managed by yet another company 6. The builder concerned has changed names (ltd companies) 3 times according to Companies House A solicitors letter has been sent to my tenant informing them of an intention to repossess if we do not pay the costs and it states: "We as solicitors and agents for company a on behalf of the claimant, company b hereby give notice" etc etc. In this case company b (the claimant) is in liquidation according to companies house. Are they able to make a legal action in this state? Who do I communicate with, the company, a liquidator, the solicitor? I could really do with some help from anyone who is knowledgeable in this area. I fear some elaborate phoenix type [problem] may have occurred and have already heard of repossessions on the estate. At the moment we have a ccj for over 5k and we didn't even receive a summons. Okay I accept it's probably a well used excuse, "I didn't receive the summons your honor" But honestly we didn't get any summons but we got a ccj from the court. Is it possible for a solicitor to serve the summons at the rented property address but have a ccj registered to our home address. It's the only way I can think of that we wouldn't have received the summons other than a simple postal error which happens frequently for our post code for some reason (sometimes mixed up with a street that off our road). I last spoke to the solicitor involved back in July and she agreed to hold off on any action until she had put my questions to her client including a request to view the company accounts and receipts as is our right. How is it possible to then receive a ccj without knowing about a hearing? Oh and obviously she lied but I recorded the call. I know I can't use it in court because I didn't tell her I was recording but assume I could transcribe it and use this as notes to refer to. Does anyone know if a solicitor verbally agreeing one thing then doing the opposite is in any way viewed as misconduct or contra to any type of code? Has she done anything wrong? Help please!

I live in a house which was entered on the land registry in 1956 as a freehold property belonging to my grandfather. My parents (my mother moving in once she met my father) and subsequently myself grew up in the house along with my grandparents and still live there today. My grandfather died in 1987 and everything went to my grandmother - but at the time she died in 2007 she had severe dementia, no savings and we were caring for her 24 hours a day. And since her only family were living in the house/paying all the bills etc there was no probate and we could find no will. Since then we have just been living as normal, but I mean, I'd like to have the house in my or my parents name without it getting complicated. I just checked and the land registry entry remains unchanged from 1956. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any insight, and sorry if I posted this in the wrong place!

My parents took out a mortgage in 1980's and my brother went on it simply so that they could get it over a longer period. The mortgage is now paid up. He officially owns a third. My father passed away in April leaving his share to my mother. My brother is causing all sorts of issues about his "share" and would like to come off the deeds leaving my mum as the sole owner. Is he able to "gift" his share to her? He is ranting on about CGT and it is causing a major family rift at an already difficult time.

Hello, if this isn't the right place to ask this, please forgive a newbie and then (please) point me in the right direction. My husband and I purchased a mid-terraced property in 2010. We viewed the house itself, once, but at the time hubby was living in the area and scoped it out for traffic, noise etc. We knew the property was next to a barber's shop and across from a newsagent/grocer so expected there to be problems with people parking outside our house: we were right, so turned the parking space back into a fenced off front yard and put in some planters and got relative peace and now park round the corner. Inconvenient, but not unexpected, despite the vendor claiming parking wasn't an issue. Anyhow, we completed in March 2010, moved in, and everything was fine...until in the April/May of 2010, we discovered Japanese knotweed in the garden. We did what many people do: looked it up on the internet and then panicked for a bit, in the way that if you are looking up 'headache' on Google, after 10 minutes you'll be convinced you have a brain tumor . But then we checked out the Environment Agency guidance on treating the stuff; I also contacted the local council environment department, explained that it was just a few shoots, and got advice on how to treat it and just got on with living, thinking 'caveat emptor', I suppose. Forward three and a half years. Hubby gets a new job hundreds of miles away and we have to sell up and move. On the Sellers Information questionnaire is the question 'Is there knotweed on the property?'. I can't lie, so we tell the truth: yes there's knotweed, but we are following treatment advice from the council. Buyers solicitor asks: are we willing to get a professional survey and put a treatment plan into action? Begrudgingly (because the small growth is 20 odd metres from the house and seems to be responding to treatment) yes: in the time it takes us to find a reputable knotweed treatment company that are willing to do a reasonably priced survey and don't want thousands of pounds up front (about one week) buyer pulls out and, as a consequence, we lose the property we were hoping to buy in Hubby's place of work. Now, we recognise that it is our bad fortune that we bought our property 3 months before the HIP was replaced. The HIP did not ask about knotweed. In the meantime, however, new questions asking SPECIFICALLY about the evil plant are being asked and we find out that we will struggle to sell our house because of the existence of it on our land makes us a risk for mortgage providers. Which is more than a bit of a punch in the gut. Our knotweed survey finds a small growth on our property that springs from a larger crown growing in a disused part of the garden, next door, and points out that there is cut-back material from a stand that he estimates to be 5-8 years old that has been held at bay by the large fence erected by our vendors: our small growth, it appears, has come back from being cut down, membraned and turfed over and hidden behind a 6ft+ fence. What? WHAT? We would NEVER have purchased if we had known knotweed was on the property. We come from Jersey where knotweed and hottentot-fig have run rampant, so we know how awful invasive species of plant can be. I'm also pretty sure that we would never have gotten the small mortgage we had until we bought the remainder of the property, outright when my Father-in-law's inheritance came through. Even if we ignore the 'parking isn't a problem' thing, and the fact that we were made to believe that there was a rear right-of-way to the property which it turns out there probably isn't due to adverse possession of an unregistered communal pathway (having caused/reopened a dispute with our neighbour next-door-but-one), we now cannot sell our house. We are having to pay out thousands of pounds to treat something we were not made aware of and which our vendor seems to have deliberately concealed. Looking back at the questionaire she filled out before our purchase, her answer to the question about contamination says that she 'has not contaminated the land', but we cannot remove the knotweed from our property because all the ground within 7m of the stand is deemed polluted and we risk contaminating other ground with this awful, awful problem. Do we have a claim for misrepresentation? I would appreciate some guidance before we just give up and rent the house out forever. Sarah

Apologies in advance; I just found this forum via google and I think this may be something people here can assist with. My business has a lease on a shop in London. Lease commenced February 2012. The shop was previously larger (it is now approximately 1/3rd of the size it was) and changed class from restaurant to now just retail. There was a previous tenant here for 12 months following the work. They went bust, and my business moved in. Since moving in a bill for business rates has never appeared. The last tenant did not pay anything either. Truth be told initially the business would have struggled to pay it in the early days, but business has grown and I now could as expected. Everything else is paid up to date and for example the business paid the SDLT on the lease, its registered with land registry correctly. It previously was shown as "delisted" on the VOA website. A rates surveyor I know looked into it and its now not shown on the VOA website as delisted; it does not exist under the postcode at all. My questions are as follows; My gut feeling is that whilst there has never been a bill, it is the sort of thing a council will one day notice and we will be hit with a backdated bill. The property has never been remeasured (there is now a duplex 2 bed flat where most of the previous property was). Can this happen in respect of the backdating? Alternatively, can a rates surveyor be enlisted to agree it now and start paying it moving forward if the VOA/ council are approached and there is demonstrated willingness to pay, or will they likely say thanks for alerting us, here's a huge bill going backwards and now forwards for your honesty? Or head in the sand until its discovered as they can't get us - I don't really see how it can be our "fault", as I said there has never been a bill, its never been measured, and according to the surveyor I spoke with the onus is not on us to tell them. Apologies for the length of the above, if any of it is vague please let me know and thank you in advance for any help on this matter.

Hi We are in the process of selling our house, and when the solicitor contacted the Land Registry for details of charges against the property she discovered that as well as our mortgage there is a second charge against the property. In September 2002 we took out a loan for 5 years, he loan has been redeemed in full in September 2007 as agreed, but it seems the charge has not been removed from the property. The loan company from whom the loan was originally taken (Southern Pacific Personal Loans Ltd) has gone into liquidation and the receivers want us to pay £250 + Vat to have the charge removed from the property. I think this is unfair as we have already repaid the original loan and that the charge should be removed without cost. Where do we stand? Can we sell the property without removing the charge, if we do can the liquidators prevent us from selling the property.

Hope someone can help me with this. My wife is in the process of selling her formal marital home, from her previous marriage. She accepted an offer and everything was progressing well until today when we had a call from her conveyancer. There are 3 restrictions registered with the Land Registry. Two of the restrictions were in relation to debts belonging to her ex-husband - these creditors have agreed to the sale and will remove the restrictions. The 3rd restriction is worded as follows: "RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a written consent signed by ----- ------ of --- ------ Ltd, full address" The conveyancer has contacted this company and was told that the restriction was put in place due to her ex-husbands IVA, which has since failed because he did not keep up repayments. They have said that it will not be removed until the whole debt has been removed, which amounts to nearly £90,000 between 9 creditors. As such they have said that they will not give written consent to the sale. The conveyancer has therefore told us that she cannot proceed with the sale unless we have the money to clear her ex-husbands debts! The equity in the house is only £20k which, after costs, amount to £7.5k each, nowhere near enough to clear the debt. My wife has phoned this company herself but they refuse to speak to her, stating that as the debt was her ex's they cannot discuss it with her. Currently the house is empty and we are paying the mortgage each month, as well as rent on our home - we cannot sustain this for much longer. Is there anything we can do about this? We are desperate for the sale to proceed so that we can purchase a home of our own to give our children some security!

I moved into a flat about 5 years ago. The one bedroom had a problem with mould about a year later, this was treated with a fungicide at the time, but it keeps coming back. It turns out there was a problem with the damp course on the exterior wall, and that's been dealt with. The mould keeps recurring so I decided to strip off the wall paper, when I took it off the base of the exterior walls had a foil liner. The walls above this liner were treated with what looks like sealant primer paint. When I purchased the flat there was no mention of damp problems, but this liner and primer does suggest that the previous owner was aware of the problem. Did they have a legal duty to inform me of the problem, and if so does the fact they didn't tell me mean can I still make a claim against them?

Hello to all, I am new to this forum and it's my first time posting on a forum. Who do you complain to about The Property Ombudsman? We lodge a complaint with The Property Ombudsman against a certain estate agents. We were first time tenants, we had never rented before and were completely ignorant of the whole rental process. We were unfairly treated by the estate agents, they lied to us, we were not given any documentation relating to the rental property. When I found out through my own research that we should have been given documentation, 2 months before we vacated the property we were then given by the estate agent documentation (this was only after repeatedly asking) which we have since found out was fraudulent. We were also told by the estate agent that they were not obligated to give us any documentation and we were never told by the estate agents that they were members of The Property Ombudsman (we didn't even know at the time of the existence of The Property Ombudsman). This is just a brief explanation of the facts, the full story is much longer and not so straight forward, I've just mentioned a few things out of consideration for the readers of this thread. I found out about The Property Ombudsman and brought my complaint to them. I was told by them that I had to first complain to the estate agent and they had up to 8 weeks to reply. I sent my complaint to the estate agent, they ignored it and never replied. I then re contacted The Property Ombudsman explaining this to them and they contacted the estate agent. The estate agent sent The Property Ombudsman a fake email claiming that they had sent it to me. The email that the estate agent sent to The Property Ombudsman was full of lies, which they clearly never sent to me as I was aware of the truth. The whole complaints procedure took a very long time, there was still so much that we didn't know and I explained that in my complaint to The Property Ombudsman. I sent in my evidence which also included recordings of conversations that I had had with the estate agents, to cut a long story short, not all of the evidence that I submitted was accepted by The Property Ombudsman. Even though I explained to them that this evidence was further proof of my complaint, The Property Ombudsman did not support the majority of my complaint and I did not accept his decision. After a period of time I came upon new evidence which was proof of the estate agents lies and fraudulent practices. I brought back my complaint to The Property Ombudsman, I waited a long period of time for a response. When I did eventually get a response from The Property Ombudsman, I was told that I did not have proof of my claims of fraudulent practices and besides that The Property Ombudsman does not investigate allegations of fraud against registered members. So I then sent The Property Ombudsman the proof of this as well as proof that all the documents that the estate agent had sent to them where fraudulent and proof that everything that they had told The Property Ombudsman was a lie. I pointed out each lie that the estate agent had told The Property Ombudsman one by one, this email was 4 pages long and included attachments. I waited again for a reply from The Property Ombudsman. When I did finally get a reply it was only 7 lines long and basically said that he declined to comment on my claim of fraud and he would not enter into further correspondence with me on this matter. I was shocked and disappointed with his reply. He didn't even acknowledge all the other points that I had raised in the email or the proof that I had sent him of the estate agents lies. I expected a fair decision after submitting my complaint, but instead I wasted all that time sending in the complaint and evidence in the first and second place. The Property Ombudsman serves as no deterrent to dodgy estate agents and seems to rather protect them and do nothing about their unfair, unethical and illegal practices. When tenants are unfairly treated by rogue estate agents and conned out of thousands of pounds shouldn't The Property Ombudsman do something about this? Otherwise what is the point of The Property Ombudsman because I really haven't got a clue. Has anybody else been disappointed with the outcome of their complaint sent to The Property Ombudsman? Who do we complain to about The Property Ombudsman?

Hello I split up from the ex nearly 5 years ago. He still lives in the property we bought together and whilst he paid me back my share when I left, to date will not remove me from the mortgage (tennants in common). Things are acrimonious between us and we don't speak. He is a nasty bully. I have requested he remove me from the mortgage and he said in the past he didn't want to as it would cost him money. I gave him a month on the 6th December to give me an update and to date he's not responding. I think I will need to raise a claim and do this through the courts as he appears to have no intention to remove me. Probably because he will need to remortgage I think and the bank assesses his finances etc. When I knew him he had plenty of money but perhaps that's changed I don't know. I really want to be rid of him and all ties and if he defaults the bank will come after me which isn't great as I'm unemployed. Can anyone advise me on if I'm in my rights to raise a claim and what points I need to put in there? I can't afford a solicitor but I can't have him bully me over this any more. Thanks

Hi, first time I have used this site. Looking for advice for a friend who has been told by council that she will only receive HB/CTB for 26 weeks from the date she separated from her husband i.e. May 2013. She is aged 60 and receives ESA- no other income or capital. She jointly owns her former marital home which is occupied by her husband. Their relationship has broken down due to domestic violence and no reconciliation likely. She has obtained housing association flat and wishes to accept tenancy but is unable to pay rent if HB ceased in Nov 2013 (26 weeks after separation). House is worth £80,000 and no outstanding mortgage. husband still in property- he is in poor health and aged 67. Does not wish to try to sell property and unlikely due to husbands age and health. I looked at HB regs and it looks to me that what the council are telling her is correct? Any advice on whether there is anything else she could do? Thanks in anticipation.

Hi Guys, Hope you can advise. Myself and my soon to be ex wife are getting divorced and as part of the divorce, herself is keeping the house and re mortgaging in her own name. She has managed to get the mortgage agreed and is in the process of sorting. However..... HSBC, who the mortgage is with, are allegedly holding a second charge on the house which relates to a previous company that was liquidated and a security on the property against the overdraft. The company that was liquidated was owned by us both, but was liquidated in 2009. As part of the agreement with the bank, the overdraft on the business account was secured against the house, we were aware of this. However, following the collapse of the company, HSBC issued a demand for the guarantee to be paid. Following weeks of negotiating, we offered a large sum of money IN FULL AND FINAL SETTLEMENT of the debt, with any charge being released against the property. This amount was accepted and paid. Now, they are saying the charge is still there and that "any monies not paid will be taken from any surplus when the mortgage is repaid" This clearly wasnt what was agreed, so what process/paperwork etc do i need to start to get this removed and situation sorted?

We had a business and premises which has a one bedroom flat above. We had to close the shop last year basically due to lack of trade. We used to rent the flat out but since the bank have been threatening repossession of the premises the flat has been empty. We told the council that the flat was empty and unfurnished and they gave us a 3 month exception. This has now ended and they want us to pay £110/month. We are already in a debt management plan and really struggling to settle the debts we already have. Does anyone know if there is anyway we could get the exception extended or if the council would take a minimum payment per month. We barely have enough to live on now, every spare penny we have goes towards the outstanding debts we incurred when we closed the business having to pay another £110/month will just about finish us off!

I have 2 charges placed on a property that both myself and ex partner own totalling approximately 6000.00. Due to data protection i cannot get details of these from the debt collectiing agencies and my ex will not assist in this. Any advice would be appreciated

I recently had my employment terminated during a probation period due to ill health. My former employer is withholding the following documents SSP1 P45 Final payslip Until I return some company property ( samples and paperwork, minimal monetary value - no electronics/high value items) I have asked for these to be collected by their couriers as I am simply cannot afford to send them by courier or deliver them in person (5 hour round trip from home to place of work) My former employer is refusing to collect and stating that it is their policy that employees incur the cost of returning property. It is worth pointing out that I did not have a written contract or even a written statement of particulars ( in post for 6 months and requested frequently) I spoke to HMRC yesterday who advised calling ACAS. ACAS advised that the payslip must be sent or I could start ET proceedings. All I want is for them to collect the stuff, send me my documents so that I can forward them to DWP and draw a line under everything. I don't want to get into any protracted battles, I have enough on my plate now with a new claim for ESA!! Any advice would be much appreciated - I think I am being reasonable in asking them to collect the property - I understand that they could pursue a civil case if I refuse to return property - but I am not wanting to hold on to it - I simply want them to collect it.