i HOPE I am posting in the right section. My hubbie is a secure council tenant and has been for 20 years. He has always lived here, never had a problem with anyone. I have been here for ten of those years with him. 25 February 2016, our boiler went west, so we had to have the gas contractor out. On the same morning I had to go the MRI scanner at the hospital at 8am, so we arranged for him to call at about 10.30am when we knew we would be home. He duly arrived. We´d only been in a few minutes. I was sat on the edge of my settee drinking a cuppa, my hubbie was by the man´s side in the boiler cupboard discussing what the problem was. It was agreed the Baxi man had to come the next day, boiler being under guarantee. Again, no problem, I am unwell, but not incapable, so stayed in for Baxi man. All done the next day, no problem. Fast forward two weeks. A letter arrived for hubbie. When he opened it, he thought someone was having a joke. It is a first warning letter, from a housing officer he has never met, who has never been here or ever spoken to us. It is saying that on 25 February 2016, we were "smoking cannabis" during his visit, She says "looking back at your file, on the balance of probabilities I think it is very likely that this incident has taken place and that I have evidence enough to the standard of proof required by the County Court!" Well gobsmacked hardly covers it! We have made an SAR (were told 20 days ago it was 18 quid ((I know its 10)) and just received a call today to confirm that this is now being done and to pay the 10 fee. We have arranged for this HO to visit us tomorrow at 12 noon, because this simply is not true and we do not accept any written warning! The facts are that neither of us smoke, not even cigarettes, but I used to many years ago and I have just paid the price of that by undergoing a horrible vascular bypass to my right leg. All through this time I have been fizzing and worrying over this false accusation, the way the letter was worded, and the way a tradesman can make a false accusation like that and cause untold problems. I am, I admit, a bit touchy on the subject of smoking, because of what I just been through. I think its also fair to say that a slight set back in my recovery has been caused by all this unnecessary stress and worry. (Get niggled, pull stitches etc) When the original letter came, hubby wrote to the gas engineer´s company and made an official complaint. He took it in by hand, gave it to the female manager, stood there whilst she read it at her invitation, and then was forcibly escorted from the premises by a large male colleague who stated it was all a load of rubbish and the Council were dealing with it, and he had to leave to premises! Of course, we have had no response from this firm. Could anyone offer me some advice about this? I mean, do we just lay down and take it? We haven´t done anything of the sort, and we believe this to be malicious on the part of the gas engineer. We have since learnt that three other tenants in our road have had to ask that he does not visit their premises again for various reasons. We have insisted he does not come here again. Normally I would be able to throw serious punches in this sort of thing, but I am very unwell at the moment. What I want is a meaningful written apology for this, and an assurance that we will not be harrassed in this way again. They´ve chosen their time haven´t they? When I am practically our for the count so to speak! Any advice about what to say tomorrow in addition to a point blank denial would be very welcome.

Hi, I don't know if anyone is able to give me any advice. Three or four years ago I had some financial troubles. Recently I decided to get my head out of the sand and I ordered copies of my credit files. I have found that in addition to the actual accounts that have been defaulted (bank account and storecard etc) Lowell Financial have also added their own default. The main question that I have is can Lowell do this? I was intending to try and pay back as many companies as I could, but I object to paying two people for the same debt. In addition to this my credit file will never clear as Lowell's default date on some of the accounts is nearly a year after the original holders date. Thanks in advance.

Hi, A very good friend of mine is to help me out by renting a room from me and living with me to help with the garden, house etc. He also cooks meals etc due to my disability. My health is much improved, I still have to be careful to avoid a relapse. He is in full time work and I do not claim benefits. However occasionally he does get a small top up of UC when his wages are very low. Therefore I think I may need a formal template since he has just left his bedsit?? I do not know.

Hi On 8th December I moved into a flat in Brentford. The lease for the flat includes reference to two specific parking spaces, but it makes no direct reference to Parking Control Management, who patrol the car park. On 16th December, in the post, I receive a welcome back from the Management Company. In it, it mentions how to obtain a parking permit, and I emailed the MC and asked for a form. At around 0730 on 17th December, I received a PCN whilst parked in one of the specific spaces. There are signs in the car park, but I had not read them; I had not understood that there was a requirement for a parking permit until the letter received the previous evening, it is not mentioned in the deeds (only what might appear to be a reference to regulations). I did not believe I was in any way contravening any rights. Later in the day, I received the form from the MC, completed and returned it the same day. Permits have now arrived and are affixed. I (perhaps too hastily) appealed the ticket, on the grounds that I own the parking space and am entitled to park there. I forget the exact wording. In a letter dated 21st December, the appeal was rejected as per the attachment, but in summary, regardless of my ownership position, I "parked in a manner whereby agreed to pay a charge". At this point, before deciding whether to appeal further with the IAS, I'd like to understand my position. I've got the following questions: 1) Who OWNS the space, or has legal right to own it? Me or the MC or the freeholder? I understand this is not black and white, but I don't know where the line between it being in the deeds and therefore my not having granted any permission for PCM to issue tickets, or otherwise. 2) Am I too late to pursue getting the ticket cancelled now that I have already corresponded? 3) If I want to lodge an appeal with the IAS, do I have to do so entirely within the 21 days since the letter date, or can I notify them if it is not complete in that time? Any suggestions how to proceed? I'm happy to dig through the lease documents, but it's some 44 pages. Thanks, Matthew

Hi all, Firstly, apologies for starting a new thread. I have read all the sticky threads and as much as I can on other websites/forums, but I'm still not clear on the best course of action. Any advice would be massively appreciated. I rent a flat, which has an allocated parking space. Unfortunately, I was not provided with a parking permit badge by the letting agent or landlord when I moved in. There are UKCPS signs in the car park, but as I was a tenant and had an allocated parking space, did not really pay them any attention. UKCPS have since issued three charges (charges on the windscreen and NTKs all received). These were issued in August and September 2015. I wrote in response explaining that I was a tenant (and providing a copy of a utility bill and lease agreement), but there response was simply to state that any time for appeals had elapsed and the charges stood. I did not bother with an IAS appeal, based on the comments on forums such as this. I am now at the stage where I am receiving letters from Miah Solicitors stating that unless payment is made "...we will take our Client's instructions regarding how they wish to proceed which may include considering issuing legal proceedings." The main questions I have are: 1) How likely is it that this will proceed to court? 2) What action should I take now? I have asked the Property Management Company to clarify their arrangements with UKCPS and asked them to request the charges be cancelled, but they have not been especially helpful so far. I have read my tenancy agreement and unfortunately it does not specifically refer to the parking space (but it is numbered, i.e. specifically allocated to the flat. Sorry for the long post and many thanks for any help!

I have taken a new job and in an area where O2 have no service. Contacted O2 for advice to be told my phone was out of contract and I was told this on three separate occasions. Based on that I looked for a supplier who covered the area, found one signed up for a contract with them and contacted O2 for a PAC code at this point I was told I still had a year left on the contract, I mentioned my previous conversations to be told they made a mistake I have now been sent a termination invoice. I am reluctant to pay this as I went to another supplier based on the fact they told me my contract had expired and if they made the mistake why should I pay for that. Is there an O2 rep here?

Hi sorry to bother here. I am new to here and I need urgent advice regarding a letter sent by my husband. Can someone kindly help me to start a new thread as follows: Husband send letter using solicitor for his intention to divorce: Hi I am a girl of 23 years old from Bangladesh. Five months ago I got married to a guy who is a student in London, UK but Bangladeshi national. He is on student visa in UK. The marriage was arranged by my family and my husband family. We have talked and seen several times before marriage and he was very nice to me. In one point of marriage arrangement process his family asked for huge money (£11,000 equivalent to BDT 14,000,000) from my family to get married. At that point I refused to get married to him. However then my husband called me and told me he never asked me for money and his family was mistaken and he started talking me sweet and nice. I fall in trap of him and agreed to get married. We then got married with a huge function at Dhaka. I then stayed with him few days and he then left Bangladesh to come to London. After he came to London he was okay with me for few days. However then I found he started contacting me less. At this point his brother in law demanding money from my family again for £11,000 ( BDT 14,000.00). However my family could not afford to pay the money. At that point his sister was getting married and they started asking us money for her everyday, my parents borrowed money from one our family friend for £1,500 (BDT 2,000,000) and paid to them. However they still asking money from me. At that time I was almost suicidal and however with my family support i was okay. My husband was keeping in touch with me at that time but only once a week or once in 2weeks and he always started arguing with me for everything. He started saying that I am not smart etc. etc. and started mentally torturing me. Last month I uploaded our wedding picture in my facebook and then he become very rude to me and said that he will divorce me if I do not take off the picture from facebook. I then got totally shocked and cried. As I was scared I took off the picture. After that my husband and his family started abusing me saying that I am not smart enough etc to be his wife while he married me after seeing me everything. Please note I am smart and graduate from well known university in Bangladesh. Anyway his brother in law never stopped demanding money and we could not provide them money as we do not have that much money. My husband then almost stopped calling me and he only used to call me if I ever call him. I think he only used to pick the call to find if money has been arranged. Now yesterday I received a letter written by my husband which was sent by a London solicitor. He wrote ' I write to inform you that our relationship as wife is formally terminated. The reason he has given saying that he has no love for me and also he says that I hide my past history to him. Please note I was married once 7 years ago which I got divorced 7 years ago. My husband and his family knew all these very well and we have told them everything before we got married. Now I can see that they are denying everything. As he has sent me a this letter, can you kindly advise what should I do now, please?

I work 3 hrs every other Saturday on the counter in a pharmacy. The week I work Saturday I take the time off another day so that I am still working my contracted hours in that week. If I book holidays on a week that I am due to work the Saturday, I am expected to arrange my own cover with the other person who also does the Saturday and vice versa. As I am not expected to arrange cover Mon-Fri when on holiday I want to know is this allowed?

Hello, Firstly, I live in flats with my own space. We have a Right to manage arrangement with a compnay that deals with our day to day. We had problems with the old company and used RTM to remove ourselves from their management. Thought i'd say as it may or may not be relevant. I went on holiday for the few days and took my permit out for my dad to use while i was away. I got back and forgot to put it back on display. I got a ticket for ' not displaying a valid permit '. They now want £50.00 which has now doubled because of a failed appeal. I checked in the forum and sent an appeal that stated. ' To whom it may concern, Invoice number: Pxxxxx As the registered keeper of the vehicle index EUXX XXX, I wish to invoke your appeals process due to the fact that I am not liable to pay the amount invoiced or any other amount to you. It is my own space and therefore wish for you to provide me with a pre-estimate of loss. I'm giving you this information to save you the effort of continuing this. Please cancel this charge immediately or issue me with a valid and correctly issued POPLA code. You cant and wont win, so your choice. Signed Registered Keeper. To whom it may concern, Invoice number: Pxxxxxx As the registered keeper of the vehicle index EUxx xxx, I wish to invoke your appeals process due to the fact that I am not liable to pay the amount invoiced or any other amount to you. It is my own space and therefore wish for you to provide me with a pre-estimate of loss. I'm giving you this information to save you the effort of continuing this. Please cancel this charge immediately or issue me with a valid and correctly issued POPLA code. Signed Registered Keeper. I have received a letter back denying my appeal. See attached JPG. ( hope a JPG is ok ) I knew they would deny the appeal. I expected and long drawn out mission but the principle of the matter really annoys me. We were requested to provide number plate details to the company. I asked the owners association person in our flats to see what he could do. He said they can do it and can't or wont help. I'm a stress head of a person at best and now I'm a bit concerned that I'm getting involved in something I perhaps shouldn't. How should i proceed? I know the ignore it option but they seem more organised than a UKPC which i had the same issue with some years ago. In that case, I just replied to every letter with ' I dispute I owe you any money ' and eventually a 'cease and desist ' letter. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi guys, Got a bit of an issue with a PCN on a car I sold to a work colleague. The PCN came through and I gave it to him to sort out believing (a bit naively) that he would do so. He didn't, and it eventually went to a debt collection agency (Phoenix Commercial Collections). Once that happened I confronted him and told him in no uncertain terms I would not be happy if he continued to leave it. He has since set up a payment plan with the debt collectors and is paying it off (I'll be checking up on this if I can). I've today received a letter from the council who say; "Someone has written to us, explaining that the vehicle had been sold to them prior to the date of the contravention. However, the case is out of our hands: the enforcement agents now have a warrant to recover the money from you." They then go on to chastise me for parking on a double yellow line, despite them knowing it wasn't me. By the sound of it they hold parking on double yellows at 6:30am on a Monday morning as highly as the crimes of murder and treason. Frankly I'm lucky they aren't going for beheading in this case. They then give me the details of the collection agency and tell me I can seek independent legal advice. Now this letter has got my back up a bit here as I'm somewhat of an innocent party, the only thing I'm guilty of is trusting that a work colleague wouldn't f**k me over. I'd like to know what this county court warrant means. Is this a CCJ? Is this going to affect my credit rating in any way? My rating is currently recovering from me being an idiot as a student and I've worked incredibly hard to begin to get it to a place where I might be able to buy a house. This has got me quite worried!! Thanks in advance for any advice you have for me!

I received a parking charge last week from UKPC for parking on my own allocated parking spot, but the permit was not displayed as it had come off the windscreen . I live in a block of flats and I have been given an allocated parking spot. This is the second this has happened and the first time, UKPC cancelled the ticket. Now there is a different team leader in customer services and I have been told to go to UKPC's appeals website or write to them. I intend to do neither, as I don't want to pass on any details. I was intending to write a letter to the team leader and request cancellation of the ticket, as I was parked in my bay and no loss was incurred to me, the landowner or the service management company. Should I do this, or wait for the Notification to Keeper and the POPLA code? Thanks.

I am hoping someone with a similar experience can help. This morning I was about to park behind a parked vehicle and did not stop in time causing my bumper to be quite severely bashed in and the front parking sensors have gone funny but the other vehicle just suffered scratches. Anyway, contacted Hastings and gave all the details and explained the incident and the lady I spoked to (Lauren) was polite and helpful. In the end, she told me Albany Assistance will find me a local garage who handle all the repair work which I thought at the time was good. Anyway, I was put through to them and after the formalities, I was told the "local" garage was 25 miles away. I explained the journey there would be at least 40 minutes on a good day and more if there is traffic so hardly "local". Also, I need to drive the vehicle there just for an estimate which is a good hour and a half journey there and back. But i was told that is the closest approved garage to me and when the car comes in for the work, I will be provided a courtesy car so the journey back will be fine. (After reading about the courtesy car issues here, it does not sound that attractive at all.) Anyway, I then googled the garage and it is a Vauxhall garage who is going to handle my Volkswagen Golf. So I called Albany back to ask can i not use a local garage of my choice and one who has more experience with VW. They said, they can cancel this job now, and I should call Hastings back to explain that I would like to use a more local garage so I did. Unfortunately it was about 1pm and Hastings do not think people need to make a claim on a Saturday afternoon because their offices had already closed. Sorry for rambling on, but the question is, I will now need to wait until Monday before I can talk to anyone at Hastings about it so is it likely they will insist on using Albany or can I choose my local VW dealer which is 5 minutes drive away or even a local independent German car specialist which is 2 minutes WALK away rather than a Vauxhall workshop 25 miles away. Does the fact I turned down Albany now delay my car getting fixed anytime soon? And will Hastings 'persuade' me to stick with Albany by incurring fees and hoops to jump through? Any help or words of comfort is much appreciated, I just don't want to stress too much over the weekend. Thank you.

Morning all, I have had ongoing problems with Lloyds since last year since they decided to split things, I was told I would no longer be under one manager who I had direct contact with through the North Midlands Agriculture ofice as this would be closing and I would have to deal with the call centre managers, for the last year I have had no sense out of them when contacting them and not even a letter of acknowledgement when writing to them never mind a reply, anyway to the crux of the matter, things have been tight on the business last couple of months and I have gone over the overdraft a few times, however despite me trying to talk to them about it nothing has been resolved and now they have started bouncing direct debits and cheques if they would take it over, however when applying thier own charges they have allowed these to take it over which I will then be charged on again no doubt, any advice appreciated, getting sense out of a call centre manager is like getting blood out of a stone!

Hi, I've only just discovered this forum and wish I knew about it before! If anyone could help me in my situation I'd be really grateful. We have been renting a flat with an allocated numbered parking space. My partner parked the car, went in the house without realising the permit had fallen off. He said it was on the seat and still visible. CPM issued a parking charge notice. The pictures show the parking terms which are in the car park about the charge, permit must be displayed in the windscreen etc. In the pictures you can also see the permit holder on the dashboard, having come unstuck. The car's in my name so I wrote back as asked in the notice to appeal. I included a copy of the permit (also numbered), our tenancy agreement showing we have use of the space, explaining that it had fallen but also stating that my partner was in at the time and the bell for our flat is about 10 feet from the space, if they'd rung the bell he would have come down and reattached the permit. Didn't really think much of it, kind of assumed it would be fine. We're now moving out and I just received a letter saying they've rejected the appeal because the permit wasnt displayed, and that it's our responsibility to ensure its on. It also gave a POPLA number and web address to appeal to them. Maybe stupidly, I phoned both popla and cpm. I was a bit emotional but didn't really expect anything to come of it. POPLA told me i should have been sent a paper form, but i wasnt. I can try to do it online but only have my phone and 4g at the moment, it took me 10 tries just to register for this forum :/ Is it worth appealing to POPLA as well? We're not living at the old address and I didn't particularly want to give them the new one, especially if they'll just turn around and reject again. Thank you for any insight! Please let me know if I need to provide more info.

https://m.facebook.com/npowerofficial/photos/a.458948164151561.113457.453780661334978/913197612059945/?type=1&comment_id=943978288981877&offset=0&total_comments=462&src=email_notif Anyone like to tell those people to come here for help.

On behalf of a friend... He has received a parking charge and is now being chased by DRP debt collectors for £160. The property management has a contract with UKPC but my friend owns the space outside his flat. He did not display his permit on his windscreen properly, hence the charge. Date of charge: 9th May 2015. A ticket was issued. No further correspondence as they wrote to his old address (he had recently moved). DRP notice received 16th July. No appeal has taken place. Next step?

I bought a new car from a dealer at the end of November 2014 and part exchanged my old car. The dealer got me to sign the V5 and advised that they would register that they were the new owner. I also posted my section with a request for refund of road tax to end of March 2015. I didn't receive any notification from the DVLA but to be honest I didn't realise I was supposed to. I work away a lot and it slipped my mind that I hadn't received a refund either. I didn't get a tax reminder in March, which would have made me query the situation. The first I've known about it was a letter with an £80 fine, a demand for tax owed and a demand that I tax the vehicle. As far as I'm concerned I don't owe the tax and I can't buy a tax disc for a vehicle I don't own, have no registration document for, no insurance and no MOT. The DVLA are refusing to have a telephone conversation with me and, aside from the fine, I'm concerned that penalties etc may have been incurred in my name if they still have me as the registered keeper. I can't believe the vehicle doesn't have a new owner as it was only on an 08 plate and very saleable. The dealer advised they were going to put it into auction. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this or have had success in getting the fine written off in similar circumstances? TIA

Picked up on a thread on PP's blog regarding Barry Beavis... http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/barry-beavis-chooses-john-de-waal-qc.html Anyone else spot the deliberate mistake?

Hi all, wondering if some-one can advise on this. Last year after a catalogue of errors and muddles with my pay and holidays etc, something happened and I had a melt down on the phone to some-one in HR (sheers frustration at being fobbed off and not listened to). It took me by surprise..didn't realize stress had been building up, so I finished conversation saying something like..I'm going to see my doctor and if I am ill you (my employer- public sector) have made me ill. T hat was on the 29th July 2014. I did go and see my doctor on the 1st August, (mainly to let them know the score) and continued to work as normal (part-time, evenings and weekends). I'd made it clear my job was not stressful it was all the management nonsense with my contracts, pay holidays etc that got me down and stressed , as I had to sort it all out in my free time in office hours.. Within a few days a letter arrived from the Occupational health service telling me to attend a meeting on Wednesday the 10th. The referral had been made on the 1st August. just two days after my meltdown on the phone with HR. So, Several questions. (the referral was for stress). a)are employers allowed to ambush some-one with OH like that out of the blue without even discussing the problem properly or formally even letting me know me I would be referred. b) I wasn't even on the sick and had never been on the sick. Did they have to right to refer me, especially without asking?( I idid get sent a consent form, with the appointment letter, but that had warnings about how if I didn't go it might affect decisions my dept made about me. I was stressed, not thinking properly, signed it and agreed to go to the appointment but made it clear it was under duress. c) The appointment was for a Wednesday 1.30, at a place about 8 miles away..in my free time plus I was expected to get there at my own expanse. As it happens I was afraid of driving in case I had a melt down again in the car (basically a high anxiety attack..sobbing not being able to breath etc.) . I asked for Time in lieu as I'd have to go on the bus,.., which would take ages. HR said no way but eventually relented and offered to pay for a taxi. Should they give me TIL as well as the taxi? The OH report basically said I was fine, just having a normal reaction to intolerable management issues. I continued to work for two months, while a review of the muddle with my holidays etc. was carried out. There is more but I'd like to see what people think about this lot first. Many thanks

Since they now seem to know exactly who I am I see no point in continuing to keep my fight against this particular 'company' under wraps, though of course I may not always reveal all details in advance ... For those who haven't seen my previous posts re this particular parking company, some background is that I live in an apartment, the car park for which can only be accessed by crossing an Aldi car park for which we have a right of way. The Aldi car park is of course managed by PE who have ANPR cameras pointed at the entrance/exit, but nowhere else. This means of course that once a vehicle has entered the car park, PE have no idea whether it parks there or in our car park and what's more, they don't give a monkeys! In 5 years this household and our visitors alone have had well over 100 parking charge notices. Until October 2012 they were just ignored, but since then I've appealed every single one. Up until a couple of months ago PE just cancelled them - only one slipped through the net and got sent to POPLA and that one was cancelled too as soon as they knew about it. To save anyone doing the maths 100 'fines' per household x the number of households in the block = approximately £100,000 so no prizes for guessing why PE, despite knowing about the problem for 5 years, have done nothing to resolve it. In the last couple of months PE have upped the ante. They no longer allow me to do appeals on behalf of my guests - totally contrary to BPA and POPLA rules - and far from cancelling every charge, they're now disputing every one. With less than a week to go before the next POPLA decision is due, they suddenly submitted a pile of junk they called evidence. Not only that, we have today received yet another charge for the same vehicle. The final straw was having to apologise to the other half's ex because I told her I would deal with PE (one of their sons had used her vehicle to visit - had we not had a civilized relationship, the repercussions of this 'ticket' could have been horrendous) who then insisted on directing all correspondence about the appeal to her. prior to the POPLA evidence thing, I had submitted complaints to DVLA, BPA and Aldi with no holds barred. Despite the apparent connection, there's no way the complaints could have been received and communicated to PE in time for them to put their bundle together, it is just coincidence. I am not expecting anything from BPA, PE are far too big to have any action taken against them by the association they fund, I'm expecting DVLA to initially refer my complaint to BPA at which point I will involve my MP, but I'm hoping Aldi at least will finally see sense over this. It wouldn't be difficult to solve my issue and stop their car park being horribly abused by all and sundry - a simple count of the number of cars parked their when the store isn't even open would be a clue to how effective PE's current methods are, though of course the last thing PE want is for no one to abuse the car park ... currently there are outstanding complaints to anyone I can think of plus 3 outstanding POPLA appeals, one of which is due to be decided this week, and 5 outstanding appeals to PE which I may or may not get a response to any time soon. Progress will be posted to this thread, as will anything I think will help anyone else once it's done it's job for me. Hopefully. Here's Parking Prankster's thoughts on the subject http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/is-anpr-always-fit-for-purpose.html

Hi all, First of all many thanks for the forum and work done for others - I've already started to read through the PoFA 2012 and other forum posts in detail (phew!) Anyway, on to my situation, and apologies in advance for so many words. I live in a gated property that is managed by UKPC and I'm a tenant in a property there. I've just received 2 Keeper notices for the car being parked without displaying a valid permit, and on consecutive days (a Saturday and Sunday) in January this year. Each is for £100, total £200. The parking bay itself is allocated to my flat and I do have a valid UKPC permit for the car, but often leave it unattended for long periods, and might not notice either that I've forgotten to place the permit there, or see any drivers notice. I've had a look at the photographs taken by UKPC and can see that a drivers notice was attached to the windscreen. Needless to say neither was there when I next went to the car (indeed the second day's photos shows that the first notice has gone). The same car has been parked in the same bay with the permit displayed, and though while that means the permit has been accepted by UKPC in the past/recently, suspect it would not have any more relevance than that. I'm also still checking the details under section 7 and 8 on the paperwork, I suspect that many of the companies are tightening up their practices. I'll keep on going in this area. At the moment though I can see that no harm has been made against the land owner, the landlord of my property, or the tenant (me!), and no-one else has been deprived of a parking space. UKPC have been placed there by the property management company. So the charges look to be punitive (£200), and I'm going to be down that path as well as linking the permit to the car in a letter back to UKPC. I'm no where near the POPLA stage yet so happy to keep this softer. Funnily enough they don't mention this is in the "discounted phase", yet state that if this goes to POPLA then the parking charge will increase. The only part that appears to show the increase is "late payment", adding £60. I don't think they can do this under PoFA 2012, as a dispute would not be a late payment. The keeper address for the car is still at a different address, and so they are now at the Keeper stage rather than the driver stage of the process. Needless to say I had a shock when two letters were opened! Once again sorry for making this so long winded, and any thoughts well received. Cheers

Which? found nearly half of people (46%) who came to the end of their mobile contract did not switch immediately, collectively overpaying by a total of £355 million per year – an average of an extra £92 each towards handsets they had already paid for. Most contracts combine the cost of the tariff and the handset over the minimum term, usually 24 months. But this is not always split out, so people don’t know how much each element costs or when they have finished paying for their phone. Six in 10 (60%) people we surveyed told us that having a provider who separates its bill so you can clearly see the tariff and handset costs was important to them when switching. O2, Virgin Media, Tesco Mobile and Utility Warehouse have tariffs where the handset and airtime costs are separate while giffgaff have never bundled the handset in. Customers on Vodafone, EE and Three still continue to be charged one bundled price. For example, a contract with O2 Refresh for an iPhone 6 costs £49 a month for 5GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts. Of this, O2 is clear that the handset part of the bill is £25, so when the contract is over you only pay £24 per month. On a similar plan with Vodafone (4GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts) it costs £48.50 a month – but that price doesn’t change once you come to the end of your contract and have finished paying off the cost of the handset. Which? says "All mobile phone operators should separate out the cost of the handset so people don’t continue to pay after the contract comes to an end." http://press.which.co.uk/whichpressreleases/millions-of-pounds-wasted-paying-for-mobiles-people-already-own/

Every time I look at a newspaper, it appears that the government have sold something to Capita. The latest is a food safety agency that was actually profitable in government hands. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/capita-and-the-great-british-food-safety-selloff-10134275.html In 20 years time, will the Prime Minister of the UK be the CEO of Capita ? I seriously worry that one political party sees no limit on what they would privatise. There are already private companies that provide laboratory services in regard to food safety. What the government have privatised is the body that looks after safety on behalf of the public. Capita already have commercial partnership with the companies in the food sector and this may lead to a conflict of interest.

Hi Everyone, A few weeks ago (23rd December actually) we received 2 letters from PastDue Credit Solutions. The letters had my name and address on them and some account numbers and references I know nothing about. Their client was also printed on there as ScottishPower Energy Retail Ltd who we have never used.. Here is the detail of the letters for reference, I have typed it all as I think its important to see how these agencies behave. IMPORTANT MATTER THAT MAY AFFECT YOUR CREDIT RATING Dear Mr/Ms BubbleGuppie.... Supply Address (Our previous rented address was printed here..) We have been appointed by ScottishPower Energy Retail Ltd to recover the above outstanding amount. To avoid any possibility of further action, we strongly urge you to repay the amount outstanding by 2nd January 2015. You can repay using any of the methods listed on the reverse of this letter. (You can guess whats printed there ) If you are having difficulty making payment or you wish to discuss this matter, please call a Customer Service Consultant today on. .... We will be able to offer you an affordable repayment plan that reflects your current financial circumstance. This may impact your credit rating Non-payment of the full outstanding balance may result in Scottish Power registering a default with Credit Reference Agencies. If Scottish Power decides to register or have already registered a default it will have an impact on your credit rating. In order to ensure Scottish Power do not adversely affect your credit rating (if they have not already) you have the following options; 1) Pay the balance of £411 in full immediately 2) Pay £100 and setup an instalment plan to pay the remaining £300 For and behalf of, PastDue Credit Solutions the letters stated that I owed 2 amounts of rather large sums of money.. Letter1 Amount - £400 Letter2 Amount - £250 Wow, that's £650 we apparently owe to some agency chasing a debt from an energy supplier we were never with. (We have been with NPower for years, EDF before that!) I called Scottish Power who asked me some questions, realised that the debt was actually for whoever lived there back in 2011 (not us) and appologised. They assured me that they would correct this in their 'back office' d that I would receive a letter from them (not PastDue). they advised I tell PastDue this also to stave off their rapid advances of assumption to which I called them up. I explained the situation to some dude on the phone, he asked for some details, I explained that the debt was not mine and that Scottish Power will 'sort it out' he just said he will put the account on hold for 1 week to see Scottish Power cancel with them. This never happened and we then received another 2 letters on 08th January 2015.. Here is the content of the letters.. (sigh...) :mad2: PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS LETTER Dear Mr/Ms BubbleGuppie.. You have still not paid off the above debt. Unfortunately this means that we may recommend to our client that they should issue a claim against you in court. What this means should the claim be successful? You may owe more as the amount may then include legal costs and/or interest You may have difficulty obtaining credit, a loan or a mortgage in the future. To avoid any possibility of further action, we strongly urge you to repay the amount outstanding by 18 January 2015. You can pay using any of the methods listed on the reverse of this letter. (usual credit card, address details etc..) If you are having difficulty making payment or you wish to discuss this matter, please call a Customer Service Consultant today on 0141 951 2345. We will be able to offer you an affordable repayment plan that reflects your your current financial circumstance. If you are experiencing serious financial difficulty it may be in your best interests to contact an organisation that offers free debt advice. Companies such as National Debtline (.......), Step Change (......) or your local Citizen Advice Bureau will not charge you for their services. Please let us know as soon as possible should this be the best course of action for you. For and on behalf of Pastdue Credit Solutions So as you can see and imagine, we had enough of this now. We were being what seemed bullied by this agency for a debt we never owed. I had a look on a few forums and I sent them a reply using recorded delivery. Here it is.. Dear Sir/Madam Account No’s: ............. ............. You have contacted me regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself. I would point out that I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to Scottish Power I am familiar with the Consumer Credit sourcebook of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which states the following rules. "A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid." 7.5.3 "A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds." 7.14.1 "Where a customer disputes a debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds, the firm must investigate the dispute and provide details of the debt to the customer in a timely manner." 7.14.3 In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive/and or unfair methods. Furthermore, ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment. I would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above accounts unless you can provide evidence as to my liability for the debt in question. I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the FCA of your actions. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully Mr/Ms BubbleGuppie A week or so passes by and we then get this letter from them on 19/01/2015 Dear Sir I write in response to your recent correspondence. I understand that you are in dispute over the aforementioned account. Before we can make contact with our client, we require more details on your dispute. Our operating ours are .... Yours Sincerely ............. Admin Assistant for and on behalf of PastDue Credit Solutions So now we are not sure what we should do now? Should we call them? Ignore them? What? Can someone please advise on this? Sorry for the large post, but I needed you to see whats been going on. Its been quite a ride as you can see and to be honest it makes me sad that Britain has become like this with sharks trying whatever they can to get money out of people who don't owe it. Advice please!

I am unable to find any other articles on this and sadly this site doesn't allow you to read the full article http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Finance/article1516387.ece