I guess it is same old story, had a lot of credit cards due to expenses from old job, always paid them off until things went wrong with work. Long story short, had about 6 cards and several other debts, debt was between £50k and £80k, interest was frozen, it is just I lost most of the paperwork when I was homeless. I do have PDF's in cloud of bank statements. I foolishly serviced the cards for years, until finally accepted I could not afford to service them, Then even more foolishly I kept the debts alive for even more years by making token payments. Then things got even worse,I was homeless for some time and then got injured and am disabled now, that pushed me over the edge mentally with major depression. If you look at the causes of major depression I had all of them in a fairly short period of time, but the main thing is quality of life. I am quite prosaic about it now. So really these guys do not faze me, some of my creditors got CCJ's for all the good that did them, a couple went the HCEO route and they too got nothing. I did not engage and had nothing they could take from outside. I saw online that debt goes off statute, by that time I had disengaged, the debts were passed to so many debt collectors I lost track, but all the usual names you see on this forum. Now as the debts approach getting barred the cycle of letters including the threat of legal action, CCJ etc. At least two have had this threat before, but they then went back to the "get in contact" and "here is a discount" letters. I figured contacting them just resets the debt so I have never engaged. None of letters are coming to my current address, I think someone did check on me at an old address, so that kicked off the letters again a few years ago, the people there keep them for me. I was wondering what the benchmark is for them to take legal action? I am pretty invisible to them, I do not work or have any assets, no bills are in my name, I am not on voters roll, I can't even afford broadband or TV Licence so they won't find me there either. To be honest I do not really care, they would be wasting their money, but I guess for them it is a way to keep the debt alive for another 6 years. Still, it would be nice if I could get the consumer debt disposed of. Then the CCJ's will go and I might do a DRO for the HCEO debt if I last that long. As far as I remember my last payments to most of the consumer debt was 2012/2013 but I do not want anything to change on the credit reference databases as it shows activity, so I will probably wait until the existing CCJ's expire before I tell the debt collectors to stop pursuing. One of the CCJ's was obtained without my knowledge but I decided it was easier to just let it ride out the 6 years. My strategy was not to engage at all because the only way out was bankruptcy and I do not have money for that. It is also aided my mental health strategy, not engaging or being visible for 6 years, I did not have mental energy to deal with anything never mind these jokers. I have not done any credit checks or noddle because these all show activity. So really I was just wondering what are the probabilities of them wasting their time with legal action for consumer debt? I say wasting time as I am on disability and barely get enough to heat and eat, I do not know if they would be able to get some sort of attachment to income, but as this paltry amount is what the state says I NEED to live on, taking any of it would risk making me homeless. I do not drink, take drugs or smoke. I know the debt collectors and legal firm are the same crowd, so they probably figure they pay the salaries anyway, but surely each debt will have to be taken individually and a Court fee paid if they go further? So far my case is just up for "initial consideration" for legal action, I had one of these over a year ago, it came to nothing. I guess they may be tempted by big number on the debt but doesn't that make the Court fee higher? At the end of the day when you have nothing it is a kind of strength, even without court fee and legal expenses it would take over 4000 years to pay off by my calculations. Thanks in advance for your input.

Hi, I'm a First Direct Customer and have had a mortgage with them for over 15 years. I am so impressed with their customer service, that I bought their buildings insurance. I've had the policy for donkey's years. In May 2015 I had a leak which came in from the next door neighbour. The ingress of water stayed well below the joists and never damaged any flooring or contents. I repeat, water never ever at any point damaged any of the building or my personal belongings! Asprea, which is a claims management company which is owned by Aviva, assigned a surveyor to manage the claim. However, back at Asprea they were going through a restructure, and the surveyor who was assigned was made redundant. He was never replaced. As such, the builders assigned to do the work had nobody there to control them. The repair contractor brought in by Asprea, a company called Alltrades, went on the do the following to my home and personal property, without my permission and knowledge. 1. Remove all the floorboards from the Dining Room, Hallway and Front Living Room. 2. Remove my entire kitchen (cupboards, tiled flooring, contents), which sits on a concrete base, and as such is completely impervious to water. The kitchen was thrown into a skip. 3. Remove all the wallpaper from the dining room, hallway stairs and landing, and front room. You're probably wondering at this point why I've not mentioned anything about the contents of the kitchen, front room and dining room. Well, they were all wrecklessly dumped and damaged into the upstairs 3 bedrooms. The builders, aren't members of any recognised professional organisation in the building trade - such as the federation of master builders, the national federation of builders, or trustmark. I have pictures of everything which I sent to the company, and I have also created a YouTube video showing the chaos left by Asprea and their contractors. The company, Aviva or Asprea has never said sorry, nor has it responded in writing to written complaints, and has just told the Financial Ombudsman that it intends to stop paying for my alternative accommodation at the end of June. I have been out of my house for 11 months, and have moved 15 times!!! 15 times!!! I was forced to live in the following accommodation: 9 days -Stayed in Bedsit 83 days -Lived in a converted garage 6 days -Stayed in Hotel Rooms 20 days -Stayed with Friends 187 days -Not a "like-for-like" property, ongoing Electrical wiring and plumbing problems. Poorly maintained Aviva and Asprea cut all contact with me in December 2015, 6 months ago, without notice or reason. The company has lied to the Ombudsman about what is damaged in the house, and so I have a surveyor coming on Wednesday 18th May 2016, to do a detailed report of what is damaged. What is actually damaged is considerably more than what Asprea claim. Aviva have said that I shouldn't get 1 penny in compensation! one penny! The report will cost me well over £800 to have written. I have just spoken to my household insurer and they tell me that I have legal cover of up to £100,000 to take Aviva to court. I have lots of clear photographs and documents that show everything Asprea have done. The legal advice that I have just received said that it is a cut and dried case of negligence, because of the volume and quality of evidence I have. My case has just moved from Adjudication stage to the full ombudsman. If Aviva (well Asprea) try to evict me onto the street, I'll have no choice but to invoke the legal cover through my household insurance to prevent this! I cannot be turned out into the street. They have broken my home and damaged all of my contents! This is plain just wrong! My video on YouTube is called "My banking and insurance Horror Story - Battle with First Direct Bank and Aviva Insurance". I would urge you to look at it and give me your opinions. Please bear with the length of the video. As you know, long and complex stories are really difficult to edit down. The video does however cut to the chase reasonably quickly to the photographs of the damage. I had no idea that Aviva operated in such a poor and wreckless way, and it's customer service is none existing. I would welcome people to share their experiences of the company, including Asprea. Kind Regards and thanks for listening!, David

I hadn't actually thought such might be possible until seeing bankfodder's thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?444374-ScottishPower-%96-do-you-want-to-sue-ScottishPower-in-England-%96-Contact-details but am now interested in doing just that. Cut a lonng story short: I am sick, weary and tired of having to do Scottish Power's work for it in terms of (a) accurate billing and (b) best practice customer service, neither of which seem to me to be concepts that this company even faintly understands. Six months ago it issued me with a final bill on my departure to Sainsburys Energy. (Had I realised at the time that Sainsbury's Energy is just a trading name of British Gas, I'd never have gone to it -- but that's another story.) British Gas / Sainsbury's Energy made a complete shambles of this routine switch and not only "lost" the gas meter reading I provided to it but then went on to give Scottish Power a meter reading entirely of its own invention. Scottish Power, therefore, sent me a Final Bill which bore no relation to my usage. As this wasn't SP's fault, I immediately telephoned -- BAD mistake, but at that stage it had my sympathies -- and spoke to an SP rep who brought my account details up on screen and within mere seconds said they had a logarithm (or 'formula'? Can't remember which: both words may've been used) that they ran to check a disputed bill. It was obvious from that, or so I was assured, that the meter reading they'd received from BGSE was wrong. I now provided the meter reading given to BGSE some six weeks earlier and was told the following: 'We will take this up with your new supplier as it's clear that a mistake has been made. Until we have sorted out the facts of the matter, the bill we have issued to you is suspended. This means you do not have to pay anything and you do not have to do anything until we contact you again with a revised bill.' (Note: rightly or wrongly, I don't trust any UK utility company to look after me or my money. Shortly before the switch to my new supplier occurred, I therefore cancelled my monthly Direct Debit payment to Scottish Power on the basis that I'd rather pay it what I owed than have it taking my money and, in the event of a billing dispute, being obstructive about paying any of it back.) Meantime, my supply continued from BGSE. I also received an apology from it for the mess it had made of my switch. As I'd been told not to do anything until hearing back from SP, I left it at that. It wasn't until August that SP got in touch again. I received by surface mail and by email a letter headed FINAL DEMAND requiring that I immediately pay an amount owing from March. The amount was higher than the original, "suspended" bill. No accompanying documentation was provided by way of explanation of how this FINAL DEMAND had been calculated. No explanation was offered as to how I was in receipt of a 'demand' that was 'final' when no other 'demands' had ever preceded it. Thus began a protracted to-ing and fro-ing of email correspondence which achieved nothing other than the waste of many hours of my time. SP's emails were, to my mind, a disgrace, each one beginning with a scripted 'apology' as cosmetic as it was meaningless, and concluding with an invitation for me to go online if I still had a problem because SP was sure I could find "answers" there. I repeatedly provided SP with all the information it needed to act reasonably and responsibly and, at one stage, even seemed to be making progress: one reply I received said that in light of the information I had (repeatedly) provided, the matter was being passed to SP's billing department to investigate with a view to issuing a revised bill if such was appropriate. But I never heard any more about that. Instead, another threatening email arrived -- the usual stuff, about jeopardising my credit record, this despite the fact that I had (repeatedly) said that I was furious about being treated in such intimidatory fashion. This last email was now either a downright lie or an act of blazing incompetence but whichever, it was clearly calculated to make me pay up whether I owed SP the amount stated or not: for the first time, the word "agreed" was incorporated into the text, as in "I can confirm that I have looked into your bill based on the agreed meter readings". Obviously, if the darn things had ever at any time been agreed, then there'd have been no need for me to expend so much effort, disputing the position. It seemed to me I had exhausted whatever level of collective ability -- if any -- might exist in SP Customer Service and so I asked for the matter to be elevated to a managerial level. I also made that request in writing, wasting yet more time reprising the facts. It wasn't merely that I was furious about being patronised / dismissed / misled / and (to my mind) lied to by this company, rather that I had provided SP with inarguable proof of its mis-billing and yet it was giving every appearance of seeking to wilfully ignore that and harass, and threaten, until it had, in so many words, extorted from me monies to which it had no right to claim. If that was how Scottish Power thought it could treat me, then God only knew what it thought it could get away with where a customer, for whatever reason, was less able to challenge its steamroller tactics. SP has sent me no further emails. Instead, I have received an unsigned letter from Pastdue Credit Solutions in which it is claimed that I owe its client a sum of money that is now even higher than the earlier amount owing that was in itself higher than the original bill which an SP representative assured me was "obviously wrong". I have written back to PastDue saying I don't recognise the amount it is saying I must pay immediately and as no supporting documentation was supplied in respect of that claim, would PastDue now kindly correct that omission within the next 7 days. Where we go from here, I'm not sure. A sum in excess of £200 is in dispute. The documented grounds for my challenging SP would instantly demolish its claim in any civil court. I don't, therefore, know if SP would even dare risk going to court -- but am worried (and no consumer should ever have to be "worried" by behaviour as repellent as this) that it might try to sidestep that process and mess up my credit history instead. More than that though: as I said at the start of this post, I am sick, weary and tired of being compelled -- because it is just that: compulsion -- to do Scottish Power's work for it. I have had to repeatedly demonstrate to Customer Service staff how they should be dealing with a genuinely distressed customer; I have had to repeatedly demonstrate how to even calculate a bill. All the hours invested in such labour have been wasted. But why should I be the one who is penalised for the indifference, the incompetence, and the sheer intimidation that is so evident here? I've no idea of what, let's say, a CS manager gets at Scottish Power but if it's £25k a year then I can't see why I shouldn't be on that same hourly-equivalent rate seeing as I've been required to do that same job . So-oo . .. Back to Bankfodder's original thread. I would really, really like to sue this company for compensation in regard to my time wasted / distress caused etc etc, using as a yardstick of claim the equivalent cost of 15 hours' CS Management pay. I haven't done the math because I've only just thought of it but that's by the by. The main question here is: Has any ordinary consumer ever attempted to sue a UK utility company and if so, on what basis / for what amount / and was her / his action successful? I'm guessing that at some point along the line, SP is going to have to roll over and may even offer to make a "goodwill" payment or "goodwill" gesture, coupled with an apology about how a technical hitch occurred or a misunderstanding arose or SP has been dealing with system problems which it has now overcome and really honestly genuinely we're very very sorry, never happen again, blah-blah-blah. But that "goodwill" will be as counterfeit as any and all of its apologies. That "goodwill" will make it appear it has never done anything wrong, and that it is a utility company fit and proper to hold a UK operating licence. Well: I don't want to allow it to skip away into the convenient obfuscation of "goodwill". I want Scottish Power punished. And I want Scottish Power's money in my pocket -- not my money in its.

Hi I got an OPC parking ticket back in December for blocking the road of a private estate (back of a shopping centre that has flats on the top) I was annoyed but in the end I decided it was my fault so I payed the £50. In February i was parked in the same private parking area only this time in one of the bays provided (I would also like to point out that i used to park in this place everyday for 3 years when i worked in the shopping centre and never got a ticket) and I got another ticket! i looked around and no other cars parked like me or the ones blocking the street had tickets. I looked around for the OPC sign and it was opposite the exit road so I never saw it until i went looking. I decided to ignore this ticket after reading some forums and legal pages. This morning i found a letter from them demanding payment of £100 immediately or they will take legal action! Should I bite the bullet and pay this as I do not have money to cover any additional legal costs they are threatening? Thanks

Hi, my son started residing with my ex-husband 7 years ago when he was 12. My ex-husband never claimed any money from the Child Support Agency as he was earning a good salary and I wasn't bringing in any income. However the CSA have demanded money me ever since - I've ignored all communication until last week I got a letter from them demanding child maintenance arrears of £300 (for my son who is now 19) and threatening court action! HELP! What should I do?

Hi, I recently contacted CFO Lending with regard to a total outstanding debt of £800 that i am struggling to repay. They have offered to let me pay the debt off over a period of four months which initailly i was pleased with. However these payments are still too high for me to afford and I think there may be a way for me to dispute these high payments? Does anyone have any experience of dealing with CFO Lending or any other options available to me? I am prepared to pay off the debt but only at comfortable payments that i can afford. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!

On the 30th of November 2005 my S500L was recovered to Mercedes-Benz Chelsea's workshop for warranty work. I was subsequently asked for £6,640 as the damage to the car was "caused by you or somebody known to you". This was not true as proved in the trial at the County Court. Now, in 2014, I have reached the end of a long and expensive legal action and it is time to tell my story. I am looking for a person(s) to help me turn this long and complicated story into a concise easy to follow story. I have tried several times , but, its the old story, that, as I have lived with this for so long one forgets the reader has no idea of all the "in's and outs", especially as there were so many Court appearances over four years of litigation. If you feel you could help, please reply, and if you have been in a similar situation even better! Robert

After many months of faffing about from Buchannan, Clarke & Wells & threats of legal action from me Buchannan, Clarke & Wells have finally decided to drop chasing me for this alleged debt & decided to hand it back to the Original debtor . Hopefully the original debtor will stop chasing me for this alleged debt & decide to write it off

Hi, I am an international student staying in UK for brief periods of 4-5 months every year. I unfortunately have a debt I owe O2 of 493£ from 3 years ago. I am in a bad shape now and am leading a hand to mouth existence. I recieved an e-mail recently from Lowell, offering me a settlement plan of a one time 290£. I was in my home country then and wrote back to them saying I may not come back to UK but would still settle for 150£ which is all i had in my UK account. They never responded to it. I am now in UK for a couple of months and I received a letter from RED asking for full payment or repayment option. I ignored it and have received a second letter now warning legal action. I am sorry about it but I dont have the money to pay them currently. I am going back to my home country for 4 months and am off next week. I will come back later in the year and will move in to a new address. Will they find me again and how do they do it? Also, will it show up on my Visa or when I return to the country, will I be quizzed by immigration? (sounds unlikely but am worried) Finally, can I hold on by evading them till I am ready to pay them? What wll be their future course of action? Please advice. Ed

Hi, First of all thanks for reading my woes with the DVLA. I will try and condense the information down as much as I can but it is a little long winded, so here goes. The vehicle I am writing about was correctly declared SORN since June 2011 and for the most part sat untouched on a private driveway. On December 12th 2011, I started a new job and although we struggled with one car for this month it was decided we should get the secondary car back on the road. I work shift hours and my wife works part time core hours so a secondary car was absolutely necessary. The vehicle in question was towed to what I believed to be private garages where a local mechanic was due to carry out a replacement of the handbrake cable. Unfortunately the mechanic was unable to locate the required parts so I had to organise to have the vehicle moved to a more qualified technician so that I could obtain the MOT and thus the road tax. On the 8th January after finishing a night shift I was notified by a family member that a clamp had been applied to the vehicle with an extortionate release fee of £260.00 Which I duly paid. This in itself was not an easy feat after the Christmas period and made family life very hard for the remainder of the month. I am unsure why only my car was clamped as in the very same car park on the same day there were two other vehicles with expired tax disks? I decided to take the hit and put the clamping incident behind me and the car was MOT’d and taxed in the same month as was originally planned which is why I was surprised to have received a further letter from DVLA requesting an out of court settlement of £252.00 having already been fined for the offence? I really wanted to avoid any court action, so I wrote a letter of appeal to request that they reconsider this charge. If the car was on a public highway, this was a genuine error which I have already paid a hefty fine and I for which I wholeheartedly apologised for.Up until this point in my life, I have never so much as had a parking ticket and feel that I have been very heavily penalised for what really amounts to a parking offence. It should also be noted that it was the mechanic who moved the car to the position that it was clamped. So now it seems they are taking me to court for a maximum fine of £2500 plus £95 costs. What I need to know is.. Why have the DVLA totally ignored my letter of appeal and waded in to the courts? Where do I stand should I wish to plead not guilty? Do I need to get legal assistance? Should the case go against me, realistically how much could I stand to lose for my 'crime'. I have also written to my MP about this who agrees that the fine is unjust and is at the moment pursuing the matter for me. So that's it in a rather large nutshell, any guidance or information (positive or negative) will be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Dave Gledhill.

Has anyone heard of this happening to others since the transition of Abbey over to Santander? I set up an online 'Easy ISA' with Abbey back in 2006/2007 and used to manage it online via a passcode. I remember going into an AN branch one day back in 2008 and they couldn't find this account on their system, I was told because it was an online account only. I was reassured when I went home and logged in to my online banking, that I could still see the ISA. A couple of years passed and the name obviously changed to Santander, bringing about a new online banking system/interface. I forgot the log in details and didn't try and log in until recently. I requested new passcodes etc from the same branch (who still couldn't locate the ISA on their system) and now I've been able to log in again, I am horrified(!) to see no evidence of this ISA or any of my other account details prior to two years ago. I've logged this with their customer service ISA department, who wrote back to say they haven't been able to find it. I know it was there, with about 7k in it!! Even if they had provided acknowledgement that this ISA was once open, (with nothing in it even) I would be reassured...but they are saying they can't find it at all. I feel like I'm going mad, but I'm quite intelligent(!) and know I had some money in there. I've now logged this with the FOS but what else can I do?! I'm gutted! Stacey

Hi there... I am desperate for some assistance please. My timing belt recently broke on my car. I have a Megane 1.6 and was advised by both the AA and a recommended garage that my timing belt + valves had probably gone. My car was towed to the garage, recommend to me, and they advised the cost of replacement would be approximately £1,200. It would involve removing the engine completely, changing the belt and putting the engine back together. Desperate to have the issue sorted and not sure where else to turn I agreed to the work. I paid the garage £600 upfront for parts. The garage kept my car for a total of 28 days replacing the timing belt. When the garage called to advise the car was ready the bill had increased to just under £2,000. I was not informed of the increase anytime in these days. After a heated discussion (and obtaining further quotes from other garages, (something I should have done prior)), the general cost of this type of repair was between £1,000 - £1,300 (latter quoted by a Renault dealer). In the end I negotiated a price of £1,300. I picked my car up and 2 weeks later I took it to another garage to conduct the MOT. At the time of test an oil leak was observed. (I have an invoice from the timing belt garage and as part of the timing belt replacement, the oil and oil filter was changed). I had the oil leak fixed and the garage advised I should try to claim the cost of repair from the garage that replaced the timing belt. COST OF JOB (including MOT) £90 I have since written a letter and advised the garage that the MOT failed due to the oil leak and was marked 'Dangerous" and could they return the cost of this job. 10 Days later I have not heard from the garage so a further letter was sent advising action would be taken if I received no response or the return of my money for the oil leak fix. This was sent recorded delivery. In a trip 2 weeks later the car just stopped. Engine and electrics shut down. I called the AA and they advised it was some type of short in the wiring and this may have been caused when the timing belt replacement was done. The car was again towed to a garage and the garage reported they couldn't find the fault but they had managed to get the car to stop shorting. I'm glad this didn't cut out when I was driving down the M1 motorway 15 minutes before. COST OF JOB £60.00 The garage also reported that the oil leak was continuing. I‘ve had so many faults since the timing belt was changed. (Oil leak & car stopping). Previous to this the car was running perfectly. I feel that since the garage clearly wasn’t pleased on receiving less money, they have purposely conducted a poor job of the timing belt and potentially put my life at risk. I’m also female and know little about cars – maybe in a clear position for the garage to take advantage. I would like to pursue legal action against the garage and try to recover as much of the expense I have forked out to date but I'm unsure how to go about this so your advice is really welcomed! TOTAL SPEND = £1,450. And I still have an oil leak! Thanks for reading and for helping.

Hi guys, I have a issue that's keeping me awake at the moment, i don't know what to do as I have never been in a situation like this, any help or advise given is greatly appreciated, ok this is the issue: About 2 months ago i purchased about 25-30 tops of a well known British brand name from a warehouse with the intention to re-sell them for some profit, to raise some of my student fees. I believed in good faith the items i purchased were genuine items and not counterfeit as also none of the customers i sold to had any complaints. I sold about 20 on ebay and as i was selling the last couple, eBay closed down the auction and sent me an email for breaching trademark rights, I did not think much of it and did not post the items up again. Then about 3 days ago I received a letter from solicitors acting on behalf of the brand I was selling. I was roughly a 30 page document. They basically wrote that i have been selling counterfeit goods and breaching the trademark of their brand they also included 10 pages of my sales history taken from a website called goofbay.com which i never even knew they can hold my private information, they also said i can avoid legal action if within 7 days i sign their undertaking and send it to them. The undertaking has about 9 points they want me to do, some are crazy demands but i can do most of them including that i have to agree to not sell or deal with their products again which is fine i will never sell again, especially on ebay. But it also says i have to send them documents of all my sales information and sales history and they will take all the money i made, on TOP of that they also want me to pay £550 legal costs. I just started my new year as a student and can barely survive with rent etc i cant afford to pay their demands for doing something i honestly thought was not wrong. i will be grateful for any advise you guys can give me, do these guys really have a case? is there a way i can get out of this without paying them. Thank you in advance guys

Hi Over 2 years ago I had a seizure and after that I had a few minor ones, but I had my license revoked (annoying but I see why) Anyway 12 months of being seizure free after an operation I applied for my license. Both my GP and specialist filled out forms and about 3 months later I got my license back. 2 months after that I then received a letter from the DVLA saying they had changed their mind and now want to review my case further and made me send back my license. I know everyone says this but I am now absolutely fine have been for 18 months. I have phoned, emailed, sent letters with them and just got no-where. They sent me for an eye test (i got 100%!). I have seen all the correspondance from my GP and specialist and no where does it say I am unfit to drive. My specialist has recently sent them a letter that categorically states I am completely fit to drive (I know because he sent me a copy of the same letter) yet they say they have not received it. This is the 3rd letter he has sent, I have even emailed a copy of the letter to them, but they just say they cannot accept it and they are "waiting on further medical advice from my specialist" The letters I receive from them are clearly being back dated as I am receiving letters from at least 2 weeks ago. What else can I do? Do I have anywhere I can turn to make a complaint or at least get compensation for the costs of buying, taxing and insuring the vehicle. The thing is I can't really appeal as they just wont make a decision either way. I am just lost in their internal processes. Could I go down the route of legal action based on the fact they gave me a license in error back in Feburary? Maybe this could kick them into life? Any advice people

Dear All, I am sorry to ask for help and guidance but i need assistance urgently. In March 2007, Halifax obtained a suspended possession order against me. I made the agreed payments and about a year later they capitalised the arrears. In September last year my left me without any warning leaving me with our disabled daughter. 60% of the household income gone in a flash. I spoke to my lender and it was agreed that i pay £50 per month until tax credits etc were sorted out. Tax credits etc eventually sorted out in January this year but by the time I had paid the Gas/Electricity bills and paid the money back that i had borrowed from people I had nothing left to pay off the arrears. I made my last payment of £50 to Halifax in January, Since that time, my childs condition has worsened and quite simply i have spent all my time and energy on her[i survive on 4 hours sleep]. I know that this is not a valid excuse - merely an explanation. I am exhausted and presently i am off work with a stress related illness. I have ignored the telephone/letters from my lender and even the 'home visit'. i have now received the 15 day legal action letter which runs out next Thursday. I worked out my finances and can afford to pay the monthly payment plus £50 [£350]. I was going to make this payment at my local branch tomorrow. I really am not well enough to speak to them so I was intending to write to the lender making the above offer and explaiing my present position. The arrears amount to £2300 - the mortgage is in my sole name. I have calculated that I am owed in the region of £2000 from DWP and gave them my bank details 3 weeks ago but when i will be paid this is anyones guess. Halifax can have this when i get it. Can anybody tell me what is going to happen or what i should do? I am desperate and at the end of my tether. Thank for your help

Following on from discussions in the Legal Action -How to Start Off thread, I am compiling a collection of all the most informative and helpful posts on dealing with litigation. There are numerous excellent postings throughout various threads on CAG, but due to the passage of time and queries/posts in between, the valuable core information tends to get lost. My intention is to group the vital information together in logical sequence to form a step by step guide, all in one place. It will also be a good opportunity for original authors to amend or eloborate on their original (now uneditable) posts if they wish...just let me know. I take no credit for the intended content, all original authors and anyone who helps with the compilation will be credited. I would therefore be most grateful for any suggestions for inclusion, with direct links to the relevant posts (as opposed to an entire thread). The obvious place to start is with the Legal Action thread, so I'll get stuck into that. All other suggestions welcome! Many thanks, Elsa x

Hi, Back in January 2009 I took a loan out with Provident Personal Credit for £300. Everything was going fine (bar their extortionate rates of interest) until 6 months ago, when the agent stopped calling. I made calls and sent letters asking for someone to call, but to no avail. I received one letter about 4 months ago asking for payment, and I spoke to head office, who assured me that they would deal with the matter. Yesterday (9th December) I received a 'Service of Default Notice' from their solicitors demanding the debt arreasr plus a payment plan to repay the outstanding amount. Surely they are in breach of the contract by not fulfilling their side of the deal, and given that I have on more than one occasion requested visits to facilitate payment, do they really have a leg to stand on? Interestingly, my wife also has a loan for the same amount, and is in exactly the same place payment-wise, but has not received any such correspondence. I am grateful that I no longer need to deal with financial emergencies by using such means, but I refuse to let this one go and capitulate to what amounts to a poor attempt to intimidate by a tin-pot law firm. Has anyone experienced a similar set of circumstances as is able to provide a little guidance - your help would be most appreciated.

Can anyone shed any light on the above question. I have been contacted by a debt company regarding a CCJ that was taken out against me some 12 years ago for rent arrears totally 500 pounds. This figure has now grown out of proportion to the original debt. I have been on the electoral roll for some 10 years without moving so it is strange why they have only now contacted me about this. What are my options? I have been made redundant recently and I am a houseowner and naturally I am stressed out about this.

I am taking a company to court in two weeks time to an emploment tribunal. It turns out that all the paper work has been submitted under the companies trading name. The boss has been responding to all the paperwork and filled in court documents also using the trade name. Now his solicitor has pulled the name as being incorrect can they get the case thrown out???

Hi All, I recently moved house and my previous landlord is attempting to take most of my deposit. There were a two issues brought up during my tenancy that I admit are my fault and will owe compensation towards: 1) The bath room tiles did develop some stubborn mould in places. 2) The kitchen table at the premises (the only piece of furniture not owned by myself) has been damaged on its legs by my cat’s claws. But after an independent inventory inspection on the day I left the inspector told me there was nothing much to worry about, the table had existing chips and damage to it before I moved in and even though my cats have damaged it further, there was no photographic proof of the state of the legs before I moved in - only the slight chipped tabletop and that I should only pay £70-£80 towards repair. Prior to this, at his request I bought the landlord a new table after being asked to with only the specification of a suitable replacement wood table between £100 and £200 and after searching for and purchasing a more than suitable table, I get a demand to view said table on the day of its delivery and it was rejected as it was not an exact match (which I was never told to find) and blew £100+ on a table I don't need. This shows my willingness to make amends for the extra damage I admit has been caused to the table since I moved in, but I realise now I was stupid even considering to buy a NEW table when my cats only caused extra damage, the existing table was damaged BEFORE we even moved in and the inventory even specifies this. But now he wants £453 from my £500: £10 Clean cat hairs off lounge blind £10 Clean faint grubby markings off kitchen blind £5 Clean two sticky tab marks £25 to replace 5 light bulbs. £60 Tile grout discoloured (action taken: Refinish grout) £110 Bathroom Tile grout discoloured (action taken: Rake out joints, refinish grout + reseal) £38 - 3” of heating oil on a 250 gallon tank = 16 Gallons = 76 litres at 0.5p litre (not mentioned on inventory report or told to leave any in there) £195 Table damage I emailed the Agent and Landlord explaining what I agreed with, and mostly, what I did not as follows: I will not be paying the £38 for 3" of oil as the day I moved in I tried to use the heating and was told by the Landlords mother that I was not allowed to use it until I had ordered some more oil and so I turned the heating off. At no time was I told there was any amount in the tank on my arrival, nor was I told at any time I had to leave a certain amount, and there is no mentioned in my copy of the report from the inspector that there is any discrepancy, if I'd have known I would have left some. I was not allowed to use any oil when I moved in, and I left none as I moved out. 5 Light bulbs do not cost £25 - even taking in to account screwing them in. I will pay £10 for these and that's still including a small fee for "labour". I completely refuse to pay that much for the table to be repaired for the reasons given above. I asked to receive proof of the final cost of the work carried out on the tiles as I believe £170 is pushing it for the damage the inspector described to me as minimal. I said I believed £270 is a fair and honest price and is the maximum I am prepared to pay given the information I have been presented with. Bearing in mind that if the kitchen and bathroom tile work isn't as expensive as listed above when I am presented with the proof I expect this to be even less or I shall be taking action. My landlord responded with the following: The cost represents a tiler for one day plus materials. I have carried out the work myself and my rates are much higher. However, to keep in line with industry rates I have used the lower rate of a tiler, and have not included a management fee. The work could have been carried out by the tenant to minimise his costs, but he chose to leave it to me. I have also lost revenue whilst the work has been carried out, and this is not reflected in my costs, so I believe that I have been very generous. The boiler was in fact used for 3-4 weeks before any further supplies were delivered. However, AA inventories reported the level of oil as part of their initial property review, and the reported level should be reflected on departure from the property. AA inventories did not report against the level in their last report but was confirmed as approx 3". As above I have used the actual cost of the oil to replenish that used. I have not charged a management fee to replenish the oil on behalf of the tenant. Note: (The heating was not in use – I half froze to death wearing gloves and hats indoors for the first month until I got paid) The tenant had the opportunity to replace bulbs and chose not to. In addition to the purchase price of the bulbs the cost includes travel and time to purchase. The tenant will find that he too will incur similar costs for the same. On arrival the table was almost perfect with only a small amount of marks showing to the top face. The table top has further marking to its top face and extensive damaged to its legs caused by cats sharpening their claws. This is reported in the AA inventories report. My last inspection of some months prior to the tenant leaving identified the table damage and it was agreed that he should find a suitable replacement of the same size, style, quality, and finish. The table is a very good quality Victorian pine unit and an estimate of replacement cost was agreed at approx £200. At no time was he under pressure to purchase anything quickly. A very similar unit is for sale in Claire antiques centre for £235. The table Mr Sawyers chose as a replacement was not the same size, style, quality, or finish. He chose not to take my advice regarding its suitability prior to purchase, and my mother inspected the table in addition to my inspection via a mobile phone photograph. The proposed replacement, once discussed, was agreed to be unsuitable, and its rejection was completely avoidable by the tenant. The cost listed is for repair of the existing table to minimise costs to the tenant. The cost represents 1 days labour and materials for a tradesman. I have not included a management fee to organise its repair. Please refer to the AA inventories report. The table was in near perfect condition, and my repair costs are very reasonable and reflect today's tradesman rates. The house including the kitchen was left spotless by the outgoing previous tenant. The same cannot be said of any part of now. The tenant chose to leave the property in a condition requiring considerable effort and cost to recover its condition. The option to avoid cost was entirely his, and he chose to leave the premises in a sub standard condition, requiring costs to be incurred on his part. The costs identified are extremely reasonable, fair, and justified. They could have been far higher and I am extremely disappointed by his threatening attitude, when he alone is to blame for the costs. I do not agree that £270 is a fair price, and will not accept the tenants offer. As above my costs are extremely fair and reasonable, I hope that the tenant recognises the fact and settles without delay. If we cannot reach agreement by Friday 29th October I will withdraw my current offer, and seek to recover my full costs through legal channels. I sincerely hope that we do not have to resort to a legal resolution to this dispute, and that common sense will prevail on the tenant’s part. Any advice guys, the inventory inspector said nothing to worry about, the place was clean and the guy even said the kitchen was left “cleaner than when we moved in”. Yes I am to blame for the extra table leg damage but I can’t help but feel he is taking me for a ride asking for £195 on appox £235 table? If that was the case why offer to leave the table in for me when he knew I had cats and took the place unfurnished. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Chris.

Hey guys, Just curious if anyone else has posted their dealings with Parking Eye online and recently had a "take down" request issued to them (possibly via web hosts)? I have, as have the moderators of the PePiPoo consumer rights bulletin board. Apparently reporting the methods Parking Eye use to get money out of people is "defamation". Unfortunately it means I have to pull one of my blog posts down by Monday or my entire site will be removed by my hosts. The legal seagulls involved are a company called M Law. I have a feeling Parking Eye are running frightened from the bad publicity and the fact that people might be *shock horror* finding out that their charges have no legal basis and may not be coughing up. My post will remain till Monday if anyone wants to check it out before then, Honestly, if anyone can find anything "defamatory" in it, please let me know. I can't post links as yet - need 20 posts - so if you Google for "moshblog", then search for "PakringEye" on the blog itself (top right) you'll get the post. Cheers.