My 97 year-old mother has just been discharged from hospital (after a fall) to a care home. She now wishes to return to her own home which is unsanitary, unsafe, structurally unsound (part of the roof has collapsed) and is in a state of terrible neglect. She is in full command of her faculties. She is self-paying at the care home. I have a power of attorney but it is not activated (or whatever the legal term is). If she returns home she will surely fall again or some other disaster will befall her. She has begun to twist the arm of a family friend to take her home (against all her family's wishes). Are there any legal means (or indeed non-legal, I don't mean illegal) means I can employ to prevent her return or at the very least delay her return? Any advice on this matter will be much appreciated. I acknowledge that this is probably only a quasi-legal post.

Hello there. I just received a letter from IND regarding a debt I had with Arrow Global from a few years ago and IND was involved as well. The debt was for 4900 pounds and was subject to a ccj. It was placed under a DRO in December 2013 and the debt was discharged in December 2014 when the DRO was over. Both IND and Arrow were informed of the DRO and were sent letters telling them to go away. I have not heard a thing from either since early 2014. Now all of a sudden I get a letter dated this week asking me for payment and that they will knock 488 pounds off as an incentive to pay up. The letter is photo copied and clearly not an original. I know that they have no leg to stand on if they attempt to pursue this further but should I write a rather unpolite (ish) letter or preferably an email to so I do not have waste money on postage to them or just ignore it as failed fishing expedition on their part.

I have read several similar cases on the forum, such as speranza's in April 15; but it is sometimes down to how the question is asked and by who, so any valuable comments are much appreciated. In short, I was caught by TFL inspector at tube station attempting to travel on London Underground without having a previously paid fare of £4 in Aug 2012, which was a silly mistake really. I plead guilty and apologised sincerely for it in court and was given a conditional discharge for the offence, stating that as long as i do not commit an offence during the next 12 months from the date of the order (Feb 2013,) then I will not be punished. By definition, a conditional discharge is a sentence that diminishes the finding of guilt in which the offender receives no punishment provided that, in a period set by the court (not more than three years), no further offence is committed. If an offence is committed in that time, then the offender may also be resentenced for the offence for which a conditional discharge was given. Under criminal law, a conditional discharge does not constitute a conviction unless the individual breaches the discharge and is resentenced. And under 322(1C)(iv) you will be rejected if you had, within the 24 months prior to the date on which the application is decided, been convicted of or admitted an offence for which they have received a non-custodial sentence or other out of court disposal that is recorded on their criminal record 1. I will declare this in my ILR application as; a. Given it is a spent conditional discharge, so even though I am not convicted this offence, but still admitted. b. Given the court order was issued in Feb 2013, 322(1C)(iv) will not apply to my application in Jun 2015. 2. I am also asked "Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence, including spent convictions or cautioned by the police?" on my application as a registered traveller (by UK Border Force.) Am I right to answer "No." Thanks in advance for all the help in advance.

Hi all, not sure this is the right place. (site team - please move to appropriate place if you feel it is better suited!) Anyway. a friend of mine has a 15 year mortgage with NRAM. She has only 15 months left, owing in the region of £4385.00. She recently had a small windfall and decided to pay off the mortgage. She has no early payment penalties to pay so figured this was a smart move. So she calls NRAM, explains she is in a position to pay off the outstanding balance and wanted confirmation of the numbers, and then they told her there was £250 discharge fee to pay! So she told them she would get back to them! We checked the paper work (originally the mortgage was with Northern Rock, taken out in mid 2000) and it says the discharge fee is £250, ok thats fine, if a little excessive. However, from around 2006/7 her yearly statements show the discharge fee being £160, which is what she thought it was before she called them. The latest statement, from Dec 2012 (Yearly Statements) shows the discharge fee also being £160. So when she called again and questioned them about the charge rising to £250 when the statements for the last 7 years show £160, the replied with 'we have increased it due to costs', she asked for a breakdown explaining said costs, they have refused. She also asked why she was not informed about the changes or why they are not explained, they said, 'we dont inform people of these changes until the statement time' and 'we don't explain the charges generally'. She was originally willing to pay the £160 but now feels they are being greedy and read that many folks feel £50 is enough (I do not know if this is true of course and much of what I read was from 2007/08 ish). They also said she may be able to get the charge reduced, but she would have to make a formal complaint about the charges first, so she did this while on the phone and is now awaiting a letter. So the upshot is, after reading about these charges a little, and seeing that many people feel these numbers are excessive and unfair, and also feeling they are not playing fair, I wanted to get some idea from CAG members about their opinions on the best way to go with this and what the current lay of the land is in regards to these fees in terms of what is considered fair and reasonable and how to approach it. Any input as ever is very much appreciated... Thanks mrbrooks

Hi I am not sure if this has been put up already, so worth a mention anyway Changes in bankruptcy discharge from the I/S site http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/discharge#likelytobegivenearlydischarge Some good clear info below also from what in my opinion is a decent site on debt advice & information http://debtcamel.co.uk/early-discharge-from-bankruptcy-ended/ W

Hi I would like some advice please, on what to do next. My partner was discharged from bankruptcy 4 months ago and is going about clearing his credit file. There were several accounts still showing as OPEN and DEFAULTED including bank accounts and credit cards. He had no problem calling these companies up and getting them to CLOSE the accounts over the phone. However, Pounds2Pocket refuse to do anything to the account. The debt was sold on to a debt collection agency who have since CLOSED the debt on the credit file, yet P2P say it has nothing to do with them and Equifax should close the account. As experienced by others, P2P wont reply to emails, can't contact them by post, and being based in the USA don't seem to have a clue. What should he do? Get a solicitor to sort it out? Please advise. Thanks.

Just want to say "Hi!" to everyone in the forum. I'm new in the forum.