OK - in a nutshell... Customer has a leak in the wall behind the shower in their en-suite bathroom which has leaked into another bedroom and they claim on their buildings insurance. We go in and inspect and quote for the repairs - this quote is forwarded, by the customer, to the insurance company who authorise them to go ahead with that quote. When we arrive, the customer says that they want the rest of the bathroom tiled to match - we agree and quote £800.00 for the extra tiling. The design for the tiling is varied, by the customer, to include two vertical mosaic stripes (the mosaic tiles being £12.50 each, plus a considerable increase in labour) - we point out that this will blow the materials budget - screaming ensues... we absorb the cost. The customer purchases a new bathroom suite which they expect us to install as part of the £800.00 that we quoted for the tiling alone - when this pointed out, screaming ensues... we absorb the cost. We complete the insurance repairs to both the bathroom and the bedroom on the other side of the wall. The customer says that they are happy with the insurance repairs, inform the insurance company of the fact and receive the final insurance payment. Some snagging is required on the extras - one of our guys goes in to sort out the odd bits. Customer freaks out because only one person has turned up to do the snagging - tells the man on site to take his tools and go. Customer will now not release the insurance money because the snagging has not been completed and claims that we're in breach of contract. The insurance money HAS been paid to the customer - they signed off that the insurance based repairs were complete and satisfactory. It's the customer that's holding on to the money. The property is a ground floor flat - so it's leasehold. I was pointing out that she's European - not any particular "ethnic background"...

I have never had to use CAG for this before, and I'm not sure if you can help as I am the creditor not the Debtor. I have been in the building and maintenance industry for many years now, and never had a customer not pay. yes I've had the odd one who asked if they could pay at the end of the month as they were a bit short of cash and I have always given them the time and in some cases knocked some money off the bill (mostly elderly or low income families) . At the moment I have a problem with a customer and I am hoping for a bit of advice on the right way to move forward. We were contacted by a client, who had a leak in his bathroom, in a buried pipe. He was collecting quotes for his insurance company and he picked ours. We started the job and they asked us for an extra quote to retile the rest of the bathroom, as the insurance company would only pay for 2 walls. at which point we put in another quote for retiling the other 2 walls. We finished the insurance job 2 days before the customer went on holiday. and have had communication with them that the insurance job had been signed off and they had the money in the bank from the insurance company. When they got back off holiday we went in to finish the rest of the tiling. During this time they had bought a a new bathroom suite and wanted that put in, when we tried to explain that wasn't covered by the quote the wife would shout and scream and say she had a contract, she wouldn't listen to us at all. We decided to put in the bathroom suite free of charge as they were holding back the insurance money, we just wanted to get the job finished. Towards the end we only had 1 workman there instead of 2 as the other workman had to take 2 personal days due to his partners cancer. He was due to go back in on the third day. The first day back they even asked for another quote on putting some lights in. On the second day the workman agreed with the customer what would be done that day and said that if he had time he would fit something that was due to be fitted on the third day. It got to 3.30 before the workman had finished and because it meant turning the water off for a period of time (a few hours) he decided it was best left till the next day. because everything else had been done, the only jobs left required 2 men or turning water off, when he told the wife he was finishing and would be back first thing with the other workman, she started screaming and shouting at him again, demanding he stayed. Later that day (day 2 back in), we had an email telling us to collect our tools and not come back. we sent an email in response trying to sort things out and asked for the insurance job payment as that had been signed off over a month before . We said we would not charge for the other quote as there was still a little left to do (replace 3 wall tiles that had cracked, fit a switch (requiring the water to be turned off), and raise the shower tray). We have tried by email many times to try and come to an arrangement to go back in and finish, with him even agreeing to try and find a way forward. He did say he would try and find an agreement that suited both sides with himself as the sole point of contact, we agreed to try and find an agreement said we had only 2 conditions, that he was the only and sole point of contact both on site and off and that we required a £500 token payment . So far he has resisted all emails, when he sent us a mail showing what he said he owed, he had put in that he paid £900 more than he had, and missed a payment of £47 completely. we sent a mail back pointing out both of these (all payments were by bank transfer so we can see the amounts). Now he says he will not pay the insurance money and that we are in breach of contract. I am looking for advice on a) if He asked us to collect our tools and not come back, and we have tried multiple times to finding an agreement to go back and finish, how are we in breach of contract. And b) the insurance job was signed off both with the customer and the insurance agent how do we go about getting that paid . So far I have offered a goodwill payment of £800 to cover the workmen for the extra tiling and a further goodwill payment of £900 which is the money he said he paid when he hadn't. On a £4,000 bill, that's a £1,700 reduction! we offered him this purely to get our people paid. c) He has put on his email that if we hand it to a debt collection firm then it would be classed as harassment...

I looked at their site - seems that you have to put the pension company name in (as far as I can see).

Nope - it was an "opt out" pension - I didn't actually see anything myself apart from statements once in a while - but these would have gone to my mum's address and, it seems, she didn't bother to keep them.

OK - here is my tale of woe (I hope that I don't get too many sniggers - and it may seem a bit long, but I wanted to give some background!). Waaaaaaaaaay back when Maggie was introducing "trickle down" as a way of enriching her cronies, the government was encouraging us to transfer to personal pensions. Now I was but a callow youth at the time, still living with my mum, and (mostly) believed what the people in charge said - so that's what I did... In the intervening years I have had the usual ups and downs that we all seem to have - marriage, divorce, births, deaths, redundancies etc etc. Now comes my problem - a few years ago my mum became very frail - and, in fact, was just starting to show the early signs of dementia. Because of this, myself and my then partner moved her into our house. We brought all of her papers with her (all unsorted and stored in boxes). Unfortunately my relationship with my partner couldn't stand the strain with mum in the house, and we broke up. About a year later my mum died - and so I had to go through all of her stuff. I discovered some of my old paperwork amongst her effects, but not very much. A bit later, due to redundancy, I had to sell that house but, by that time (10 years ago) I had met a charming lady who lived some way away - and she invited me to move in with her - and we've been living together ever since. OK so far. I am now approaching my 55th birthday and have recently got a few "have you thought about what you are going to do with your pension" type of letters from various sources. It was only then that I realised, to my horror, that I had absolutely no idea about that pension that I had set up - the paperwork was nowhere to be found at my mother's. I don't even know what company I took the damn thing out with. Is there any way (some central register or something) that would allow me to find out?