Hi there, My partner and I moved into a privately rented flat 2 months ago. We really get on with our landlady and are good tenants. The property is always spotless, bills are always paid on time and we really do look after our home. When we moved, we were asked by the letting agent if we had a pet. (At the time) the answer was a no. They confirmed that their 'standard' clause was 'no pets', however there is a clause that states we could have a pet with the landlord's written consent (and this can be broken at any time). I called the letting agent as my partner and I have decided that we would really like a kitten. We have both had experience in owning a pet and my other half is at home everyday (he works a couple mins away from our flat). I e-mailed our landlady to ask if it would be possible to have a kitten. Initially, she said no due to the above standard clause. I then pointed out that in black and white on the tenancy agreement, (directly underneath the 'no pets' clause, ironically), it states that if the landlord gave written consent, we could keep an animal. She then responded by saying she will speak to the Management company as this is a separate contract and will come back to me So I'm a bit annoyed, and very upset. This is HER contract and we signed the agreement which stated that we could have an animal with written consent. Landlords/Tenants, I would really appreciate your advice as to where we stand! Extra bit of info - She is coming over early next week to do an inspection, which we are not worried about in the slightest and we have agreed that we will advise her if the answer is a 'no', we will be moving as this would have affected our initial decision.

Sorry about the length of this: Having recently requested a copy of my credit report from Experian, I noticed there are 2 defaulted accounts for British Gas – one for electric, one for gas. • This was my parents’ property – they had moved out and gone their separate ways and I stayed there until the property was sold in October 2008. • British Gas started the account in my name from 03/07/2008. • I didn't call British Gas to say that I was the new account holder – I don’t know who did but they got my details and the meter readings from someone. • I didn't make any payments on the account whilst living at the property but they say I registered for online billing in August 2008 – I don’t remember doing this. • I moved from the property at the end of September 2008 and they say that meter readings were given to them once again – certainly not by me! • I had no forwarding address when I left the property as I didn't have anywhere to live. • I (very stupidly ) made two payments of £20.00 on 06/03/2009 (don’t know why). • British Gas defaulted the accounts on 06/06/2009 – Electric £50.00, Gas £53.00. Firstly, I sent a letter stating the breach of ICO guidelines on placing defaults after such a long period of time and asking for the defaults to be removed as I hadn't made any payment on the accounts, but they came back saying that I paid £20.00 on each account in March 2009. I hadn't remembered this but on checking my bank statements, I can see now that I did. I then sent a letter explaining my financial difficulties in 2008 and asking, as a gesture of goodwill and because the amounts are so small, would they remove the defaults, but again they said no. I even offered to pay the outstanding balances. I sent a SAR to them, which I've just received back. There are statements dated 07/08/2008 and 15/10/2008 for the electric and gas accounts but no other correspondence from them after the October statements. There are no letters chasing the outstanding balance or saying that they will default the accounts if I don’t make a payment, and I certainly didn't receive anything via email. I didn't actually speak with them to set up the accounts, and from what I can remember they didn't send me any information stating that they report on credit files. If I’d have known this, I would've made different decisions at the time. Would going down the DPA route achieve anything – stating that I didn't know they were acting as data controller and that I hadn't given my consent for them to report on my credit file? Also, considering I hadn't made a payment from the start, July 2008 to March 2009, why did they not default the account sooner? Is there anything else I can do to try and get these defaults removed or will I just have to put up with them until next June? Thanks in advance

Lloyds sent me a letter in July claiming an account was in arrears and demanded payment. I immediately wrote back to them disputing their claim. They have now employed 6 debt collection agencies to deal with this account and each time I have send a CCA and followed up with an Account in Dispute letter and they (DCAs) have not responded again... until now. I sent the last agency the Account in Dispute letter (12+2+30) at the beginning of November and they have replied saying: “ If you read our letter on 22/10 you will see that we returned your fee of £1 advising that the payment needed to be made directly to our client before the request can be actioned. We have not failed to comply with your request as you have not sent in the correct method of payment (cheque or postal order made out to our clients). Please forward this payment to the above address to allow us to process your request with our client.” I sent a £1 postal order made to the DCA. Are the trying it on and is this harassment by lloyds?

Mentally ill woman 'given doorstep loans by Provident Financial Investigators went undercover at Provident Financial, which has 1.8million customers, and say they found cases of lending that appeared to breach industry guidelines. They interviewed the mother of the unnamed woman, who requires constant care but was allegedly given loans totalling several thousand pounds over a number of years. The investigation, carried out by the BBC’s Panorama programme, claims one of the company’s agents acknowledged that the schizophrenic woman was ‘not all there’. The programme also claims to show a Provident seller calling on another customer and accepting that she doesn’t think the woman can look after herself. The company said: ‘Provident has strict policies to prevent loans being advanced to anyone it believes does not have the mental capacity to understand the terms of the loan. ‘However, with 1.8million customers we recognise that we will not always get it right and if we make a mistake we work hard to put matters right.’ Panorama – Undercover: Debt on the Doorstep is on BBC1 at 8.30pm tonight. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211006/Mentally-ill-woman-given-doorstep-loans-Britains-biggest-lenders-despite-knowing-schizophrenic.html