Just wanted to give an update on this HSBC didn't play ball, so I went to the Ombudsman, which as we all know this takes time. Fast forward to the beginning of this year and HSBC were told off for not calculating it properly. So to recap, first offer was for £645.00 Second offer was for £1366 Just got an offer, which is being accepted, for £5238 Just goes to show the banks still aren't playing fair and you have to go to the Ombudsman to enforce the rules!!! Many thanks for everyone who gave me advice along the way

Apologies for any confusion, I'll try clear that up: Yes, my brother has bought the leasehold, with a mortgage, and has over 900 years on the lease. The owner of the building are acting as their own Man Co, and as far as we can tell rent out the ground floor commercial property and still own the vacant (in bad condition) basement flat. They are responsible for the things you mentioned. As I said, Mr C pointed out he owns numerous properties. First floor: Flat 1: my brothers Flat 2: currently empty, has been for sale for some time, been to auction but unknown if sold (previous occupant (who also owned lease outright) died) Second floor: Flat 3: A couple who live there (bought the leasehold outright as my brother) as a "base" and go to France for months at a time (but unfortunately just yesterday found out the husband has cancer which has spread to his brain) Flat 4: Also bought the leasehold, but believe the owners use it as a holiday flat, so have seen no one use it yet Any help gratefully appreciated. As I said, my brother simply wants to be able to get into his own flat without having to climb up the fire escape. All he wants is a lock and key that work and the whole situation is totally bizarre as to why they won't fix it

Sorry, I get confused easily! So, let me see if I'm understanding you correctly: I shouldn't make any reference to his responsibilities re: lease contract in the letter? (ie I should take out "it is your duty...") I should be asking for reimbursement of the new lock? I should ask him to put the new lock back on? (Or should my brother just change it again?(he left it on the floor outside my brother's door)) I shouldn't be asking for a repair or replacement? Sorry to be so dim sometimes I need to be spoken to like a 3 year old with yes and no answers lol

Just drafted up a letter, I'd be grateful if someone could look over it for me Dear Mr & Mrs C Re: Broken lock Further to our recent conversations I am now writing to youto give you 14 days to resolve the situation with the broken lock. As the freeholder of the property it is your duty to maintainthe lock in good working order. I would also like to point out that as theleaseholder I am entitled to replace the broken lock that you are refusing torepair and to bill you for the work carried out, and provide you with a set ofkeys. As a gesture of good will, I will not at this present timebe requesting a reimbursement for the lock I have already bought and hadinstalled, that you have since removed. I request that the lock is either repaired to be in fullworking order or is replaced within 14 days of receipt of this letter or I willissue court proceedings to sue. If after 14 days this matter is not resolved and I have toissue court proceedings to get a resolution, I will also be suing for theinjury I sustained to my knee and ankle whilst having to climb the fire escapeto gain access to my own property. It would be in everyone’s best interests to settle this likeadults and avoid any court action. Yours sincerely

Many thanks for your speedy reply I am prepared to take this as far as I have to (I have told my brother I will do it all for him), and if that means court, then so be it. I totally agree with you that this LL is out for trouble. He made a big song and dance about owning a lot of properties - including student lets. My brother (probably very naievely) just didn't imagine this kind of thing could happen when he's paying a nice big mortgage on the flat! He's very shaken up by the LL's actions but unfortuntely is having a steep learning curve after leaving home for the first time that some people are like this. I believe my brother doesn't want to be reimbursed for the lock (it didn't cost very much), so would it be ok to say as a gesture of good will he won't ask to be reimbursed for it? Should this be titled a "notice of intended litigation" or "lba" or whatever, or should I keep it less formal? Could you also, please, explain what you mean by "if he cuts up we will also seek the necessary injunctions"? Re: the cupboard. Yes, I know that was probably dumb. The issue now is that my brother has arranged for a plumber to see a pipe in said cupboard as it's got a slow cold water leak in one of the pipes. So, the way I see it is: it's either my brother's cupboard, and he can put what he likes in there, and pay the bill for the leak repair, or it's the LL's cupboard, and the LL has to sort the leak - he can't have it both ways! Should this issue be dealt with seperately, or together (once we've figured out who's cupboard it is!)?

Apologies, as this will be a long post, but I'd appreciate any help or input anyone can give me! My brother bought a flat at the begining of February (think the sale went through 5th Feb 2013). It's an old house split into flats - commercial property on the main ground floor, a basement unused flat, 2 flats on 1st floor, 2 flats on 2nd floor, and is leasehold (900+ years on the lease). He pays just over £600 a year maintenance charge, which he has paid in full the year upfront. He enters the property via a back door which services all 4 upper floor flats, and is the commercial property's rear entrance, though they have said they never use it. He then has his own "front door" to his flat. I went with him on one viewing before he bought the flat and saw that the estate agent had to fiddle with the key in the lock for quite some time before the door opened, but didn't really think any more about it. Since he's had the keys, the lock on the door 9 times out of 10 won't open. He's had to enter his flat by walking up the metal fire escape and going in through his bedroom (it's a raised small double-door window type). The couple upstairs have also said that they have trouble with it, and were stood outside for 20 minutes the other day trying to get it to open, and have told the freeholders, who ignored them. He called the freeholder of the building to let them know that the lock was broken. Lets call them Mr and Mrs C. Mrs C answered and told him it must be his key, and she will get a new key cut for him, and he would have to pay her for it, and Mr C would be round to his place of work to drop one round. 2 weeks went by and they hadn't turned up when promised on numerous occasions. When eventually he spoke to Mrs C on the phone again, he told Mrs C that he'd had a local locksmith round who had told him the barrel was broken and that it needed to be replaced. Mrs C said she would look into it (no excuse was made about not producing a new key). A couple of days later he got a call from Mrs C who said that she'd had someone look at the lock and it wasn't broken, and it was my brother's key. My brother, during this time, was still living at home with mum while he was sorting the flat out - had a new kitchen put in etc. Fast forward to the end of last week, and Mr & Mrs C hadn't given my brother a new key and wouldn't answer any phone calls. In the mean time, he has actually slipped on the fire escape and twisted his ankle and knee. He moved in "properly" last week. Rightly, or wrongly, my brother bought a new lock, fitted it, gave a new key to the people he could and left a message for Mr & Mrs C to say what he had done and asked them to pick up the key so they could arrange for the 2 empty flat's owners to get keys. He got a call from an irate Mr C who told him he'd be getting a solicitor's letter and my brother didn't have any right to change the lock. (Which probably is true, I imagine, he hadn't gone the right way about it!) Mr C told my brother he'd be at his work in the morning to pick up the lock he'd taken off. My brother went to the local locksmith (who incidentally is right next door to his work) and asked them to test the lock and write a letter confirming the barrel was broken. They did this. Mr C came in and was rude and "abrupt" (which is how my brother's colleagues described him), took the barrel, and the letter (!!!!!) and went next door to the locksmith. Mr C came back and handed my brother a new key he'd had cut, told my brother the lock wasn't broken and he was going to put it back on, and that he had misheard and misread what the locksmith said. My brother arrived home from work last night and the new key wouldn't open the lock. Mr and Mrs C haven't answered their phone. (As a btw, Mr C has also told my brother he had to remove his condenser dryer from the cupboard on the landing as it was a fire hazard (?) and, while he was changing the door lock, has taken off the lock on the cupboard and told my brother he can only keep a mop and bucket in there. This was sold to my brother by the estate agent as "his cupboard" (a very large cupboard) but I've asked my brother to bring all his documents with me to check if it is actually "his" cupboard. My brother has in the mean time taken the dryer out.) My brother called the solicitor who dealt with his sale this morning, and she said she doesn't deal with litigations and that he should write a letter asking them to sort this out and give them 14 days, and if they don't do it within 14 days to go to the citizens advice who would help him further. So, here I am, asking for some help! My brother has asked me to help him as he doesn't have a clue (and I must have a bit of a reputation in the family of being clued up......) and I want to do my very best to get a good outcome for him. All he wants is to be able to open the door with his key! Be this being supplied with a key that works (every time, not just after 20 minutes of nursing the lock), or by the lock being replaced. I will be writing a letter to Mr & Mrs C that my brother can sign, so wanted to ask for any help in constructing this letter. Is there anything I should definitely be saying? Definitely should NOT say? Any pointers will be greatly received, and thanks for reading this really long essay!!!

Fabulous, thanks very much for your help ims, I'll keep you updated

I'm glad to hear that. I hope you don't mind, but I'm using some of your wording ims. This is the letter: Further to your letter dated 11th August, I am writing to you again regarding the payment protection insurance on my account. I asked in my last letter for an exact breakdown of redress and you did not supply this. My own calculations and HSBC’s calculations are widely different. Because of this, I ask again for a detailed breakdown, premium by premium to include your detailed interest calculations, as per the documented cases on the FOS website. I look forward to your full and prompt response to this letter. I give you a further 2 weeks to fulfil this request or I shall be contacting the Financial Ombudsman to investigate my complaint. Yours faithfully,

Thank you for your speedy replies I will write another letter asking again for their breakdown. I did ask in the last letter I sent them, but in true HSBC style, they chose to ignore that bit. (I said: I would appreciate it if you gave an exact breakdown of redress in your next letter, including the compound interest rate used in the calculation)

I put in a claim for HSBC credit card PPI for my mum's other half (who's my employer, has always been self employed so HSBC upheld complaint straight away). The thing is, their amount is very different to mine. At first, they offered somewhere in the region of £300.00 stating they could only go back to 2006 on the information they had. I had statements dating back to August 2003, so photocopied them all and sent them in, along with my spreadsheet again. It took them 2 months for a revised offer, but it came yesterday. Our total premiums paid is more or less the same, give or take ~£5. The statutory 8% is £100 out. The compound interest is WAY off. Over £1200 less. I say: Compound interest £1576.22 They say: Compound interest £332.40 I managed to get to my APR figure, by taking the APR off each statement and averaging it - 18 months @ 18.9%, 36 months @ 19.9%, and 52 months @ 22.9% I expected it to be a little out - the APR was slightly lower in 2003/2004 when the balance of the card and PPI payments were higher. But even if I use the 18.9% APR for the whole claim, it's still ~£1000 out. I've attached my spreadsheet as a PDF, so if someone could take a look I'd be really greatful. The few months in red is missing statements, but my estimates of PPI those months are roughly correct, as our total PPI paid is close. To sum up - ME: TOTAL PPI PAID: £685.41 COMPOUND INTEREST: £1576.22 8% SIMPLE INTEREST: £458.07 HSBC: TOTAL PPI PAID: £679.49 COMPOUND INTEREST: £332.40 8% SIMPLE INTEREST: £354.12 hsbc cc.pdf

So, VERY late - today I got the SAR response. A massive parcel with reams and reams of paper. Bank statements and info going back to 1999. Some bits on the OD PPI - basically stating it was sold in 1998 - but I have paperwork showing it was on in 1991. Also, some loan information - an agreement I didn't have from 2002 showing PPI added, so that's one good thing. And short loan statements showing payments in/out from 1999, but no detail on APR or PPI etc. Gonna take a while to go through it all!

We do have a number to ring as hubby rang them first off a while ago. It's definitely useful to know their "final response" isn't always a final response though lol So thanks for that It just seems silly as we don't have any more to prove, as they added it onto his account before he was 18, and I provided a copy of their signed and dated paperwork to prove that, and even offered to take it into our local branch so they could verify it was an original copy! I'll talk with hubby tonight when he gets home from work. Personally, I feel I can better put it down in writing than hubby might get his point across by speaking to them on the phone

Just typed up a letter, I would be greatful if someone could take a look at it: Dear Sir/Madam, Account No: xxxxxxx RefNo: xxxxxxxx I am writing to you in reply to your letter dated 31 March2012 in which you state that you are unable to uphold the complaint aftercompleting your investigation. You state that your investigation included a complete reviewof the sale looking at whether I was eligible for the policy taking intoaccount my age. You also state that you used all the information I had providedyou with in your investigation. I therefore ask you, after I supplied proof (of which I amenclosing a copy, again, for your reference) that this policy was added onto myaccount before I was 18 years old, how you came to your conclusion to notuphold the complaint when you yourself say that you took into account, duringyour investigations, my eligibility for the policy taking into account my age?You also completely failed to acknowledge the fact I had a serious pre-existingmedical condition, and the obvious failures of the bank to make sure the policywas suitable to my needs. It seems clear to me that all you have done is send ageneric rejection response when you have not looked at my complaint and thefacts at all. I look forward to your response [and will in the mean timebe passing my complaint on to the FOS]. should I add this bit? Yours Sincerely

Now I'm annoyed We've got Barclays response to the overdraft ppi. To recap - it's been £0.80 a month since at least 1991 - which I have paperwork confirming the renewal of the OD with the PPI added. At the time my husband was only 17 so was never eligible for the protection. I provided a copy of this document to Barclays. I believe we've been sent a generic rejection letter. To paraphrase: I have conducted a complete review ofthe sale looking at the following factors: * Whether you were eligible for the policy taking into account *your age In order to reach a decision, the information I have used will have included the following where available, but is not limited to: *All the information you have provided me with After taking all the above information into account, I am unable to find any evidence that the PPI policy was mis-sold. Are they having a laugh? They sold the ppi to a 17 year old yet they think that's not mis-selling? I am aware the FOS will take a ridiculously long time (up to 2 years?). Is it worth writing back asking them how they can justify selling a PPI policy to a 17 year old? Should I do that first then go to FOS, or go to FOS anyway and still send a letter? Oh, and still nothing from the SAR... GRR!

Erm all the information is at work, and I'm not there until Tuesday. I used the pre-printed envelope they sent out, so I really don't know, sorry!