Hi all, I started a small business from a unit in April 2010, I believed it to be rate exempt,but it transpires that it only had full relief from April 2011. I only found this out when a bailiff called to enforce a £990 debt. Apparently, i was liable for £450 of business rates plus the same again in bailiff fees. I have never received a bill and had no knowledge they had taken me to court in July 2011, this was the first I'd heard of it. The problem I had 3 years agois I wasn't getting my mail as a numbering error meant two units had the same number and my mail wasn't passed on. My thoughts are that I should ony pay whats owed and not the bailiff fee, Ive got a copy of the planning application which shows the correct numbering of the units and photographed the exterior of the two units which shows that the other unit displays my unit number,so I'm in the process of appealing What should I do about the court order? can it be removed easily? thanks

Hi, I sub leased a warehouse, for a year and never paid business rates as couldnt afford to plus i never got a letter or anything during occupation. After i had left my landlord has started sending me letters to pay the bill but the bills are on his name and nothing is on my name? I have contacted the business rates people through email but they are asking for bills etc... Do i have to give them bills by law isnt the lease enough?? I want to pay the amount its no problem but they wont let me unless i proof them bills etc.. which i dont have any off. Need help urgent!!

Since my "proper" business went bust five years ago I have been basically playing at getting going again, by which I mean starting slowly with very little capital and barely taking any money from it.I use my home pc to run Sage and just answer the phone if anyone calls. I have a bit of stock in a storage unit. I want to claim Council Tax reduction on low income grounds but the form asks whether I am self employed and I have said yes.I imagine this will get them wanting to assess for Business Rates but I would have thought that I'm hardly using my home for business......what do you think? I don't want them coming back at me saying I have been conning them for five years.BTW I onlt became "legit" in April when I registered as self employed.

If I have taken a loan out on APR 12:4% Variable rate,which at the time of taking out the loan in 2005 was 7:0% over HSBC's base rate,should my repayments not have reduced as the interest rates have reduced over the last 7 years?

http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1830/ScheduleofproposedbenefitratesfromApril2013.pdf

As the rest of the world curbs legal loan sharks, why not us? This map should shame the *politicians and regulators who have left hard-up British families easy prey for the world's legal loan sharks. It shows how we are fast becoming one of the last remaining countries where payday and doorstep lenders are free to charge the equivalent of 4,000% or more annual interest on their loans. More than half of the countries in the European Union have placed caps on how much lenders can charge, including France, Germany, and Spain, according to the Centre for Responsible Credit. Two-thirds of individual states in the USA have done the same, like Florida, where lenders can charge no more than 10% of the amount lent plus a $5 fee. The latest country to crack down on payday parasites is Australia, where lenders are limited to charging 20% of a loan under £1,300 upfront and 4% a month after that. Yet here in the UK, our payday lenders peddle loans costing 4,000% annual interest. They dispute these "annual percentage rate" figures, saying the actual costs are more like 300% to 400% - as if that was fine. http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/11/as-the-rest-of-the-world-curbs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mirror%2Finvestigations+%28Mirror+-+Investigations%29

My friend started a business at the start of the year which I was helping him set up. He took out a 3 month license on an industrial unit which ended at the end of February and wasnt renewed as the business never really got off of the ground. I was acting as his advisor at the time due to having a bit of business knowledge and helped him through the process of finding a unit and also dealing with attaining the license for it. Fast forward to last week and I receive 2 Bailiff Removal / Magistrates Liability Order / Warrant Of Execution orders for Non Domestic Rates addressed to both myself and my friend T/A (his company name) totalling around £1700 and informing me that a bailiff had attended to remove goods from my property, the letters both referencing the local council authority which the unit was licensed. Being bemused but with an incling to it being something to do with the business I ring the council to ask what was going on and it turns out they had contacted the estate agent who was in charge of the license and had been (falsely) informed by them that myself and my friend had taken out a 6 month lease on the property dated from December 2011 to May 2012 and we were being chased for fees for this period. I quickly informed then that 1. It wasnt my company so why was my name even on the account in the first place? and 2. That the unit had only been taken for 3 months so why was the account being billed for 6 months? Being rather snotty she said that they'd been sending correspondance to the unit and other contact addresses and had no reply from us (obviously due to the unit having to be vacated) so proceeded with court action for the 2 outstanding bills but may be able to wipe them if we could provide them with a form which would entitle us to small business rate relief. She then emailed this through which I got my friend to fill out and took this to the council along with the license agreement which clearly states the agreement was with him and not me and only for a period of 3 months. The woman in the council office took all of this into the back office and then came back and said the original debt could be wiped but we would still have to pay around £120 in court fees and £283 to their bailiff. and that because they weren't informed in the first place that the business was my friend's and not mine also (this information they were falsely given by The Estate Agent) and that it had already been through court and that they wouldn't be able to take my name from the bill. I have 2 issues here: 1. That i've somenow become become liable for £400 for a business that wasn't mine due to the estate agent giving false information. 2. That both of these liablity orders were issued for periods the unit wasn't even occupied, one from the period 1 Dec 2011 - 1 Apr 2012 (the license was only up until the end of February) and another one from 1 - 14 Apr. Meaning the second one wasnt even valid in the first place but still has racked up fees of £60 court + half of the £283.50 for the baliff. I've spoken to my friend who's agreed to write a letter to the council and the baliff expressing that the business was his and not mine. Also stating that this been proven by them being provided a copy of the license agreement which was in his name and for them to stop contacting me and to take my name off of the bill. Will they accept this or ignore it and keep harassing me? From my estimations, the second bill was never valid in the first place and ontop of this, the bailiff has overcharged on everything so the charges should only be £50 tops for the baliff's lawful fees and £60 for the court fees for the first bill? Does anyone know how I should proceed from here?

Hi everyone. Not sure I am in the right place, forgive me if not ....Anyway, I have had a visit from a bailiff to my home address for unpaid business rates...I havn't been self employed since Feb 2010, after closing my business due to slow trade. I have no buisness stock (as everything went within a few weeks on ebay etc, for a very, very, low price. This was sold in desperation, as I had to be out of the property, and had no where to store this), but the bailiff has come to levy on my home goods. I am quite happy to pay what I owe, but can the bailiff levy on goods in my home address? Jayne

Good morning, just a quick question (hopefully), my husband is currently on IB at £121 per week. I am receiving ESA assessment money. Not had the form to fill in yet even though have been on Cont Esa for 10 months. By all accounts I should be put into the support group but have not got my hopes up lol. My question is when hubby goes over to Esa what monies should we receive as a couple.? Thanks in advance for any info.

Hello all I am currently on jsa and thinking about going self employed, My idea is to sell things on ebay. For instance phone covers and this and that see gangs of other's doing it so thought i would give it a shot. I live in a 1 bed house alone, I plan to use my desktop in my bedroom as my base of command! So to speak, Stock will be limited to a few box's as i plan to get involved with drop ship rather than carry a lot of stock, My question for you guys is will i be liable to pay Buisness rates for my bedroom? This will be my full time ocupation sharing my bedroom with a desk and pc to opperate from the rest of the home will not be associated with the online buissness. HELP As if i am liable for buissness rates its going to be a non start as it will wipe out any profits i hope to make, As i will be building this up from the ground, slowly slowly catchy monkey!

This briefing summarises the consultation paper by section, and provides some initial analysis and comment. The LGA will make its further analysis available to member authorities to assist with the preparation of consultation responses. These are due with DCLG by 24 September 2012. http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/briefings-and-responses/-/journal_content/56/10171/3651530/ARTICLE-TEMPLATE

Hi all, As the country, europe, world blunders further into the abyss (optimist obviously); I wonder what the BoE can do to help. An interest rate cuts seems likely at some point ; but lots of lenders 'dis-connect' themselves from this to maximise their profits. My question though is: Is it technically possible for the BoE to set a base rate below 0%? i.e. could they have a base rate of -1% for example; in order to help mortgage holders meet their obligation. I assume this is a real dumb question; as I don't believe less than 0 has ever existed before!!! Cheers

In July 2008 when the bank rate was 5% my mortgage provider made a strong effort to persuade me to change my mortgage from a tracker to a fixed rate. this I did and fixed it at 6.29% for 5 years. 212 days later the bank rate was 0.5% With the latest practices which have come to light I wonder if the banks, with all their expertise, suspected that rates were going to fall dramatically. Should they then have informed me of their rate expectations. Obviously those employees doing the selling were acting under instruction. I wonder if there are some 'buried' emails somewhere setting out those instructions and the reasons why.

I overpaid my business rates by about £400 in January & needed to travel abroad for a few months. In January I was told that I should apply for a rebate upon my return and a cheque would be issued to me. I returned in May & applied for a rebate. 2 weeks later I get an email from the council saying they can't give me a rebate, because a cheque had been issued and cashed already. I was out of the country & at no point received a cheque. I'm not sure what to do. The council say they can't be of any more help and are considering the matter closed. Surely if a cheque has been fraudulently cashed, that's between them and their bank. I'm not sure where I stand with this. Can anyone offer some advice?

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