I've just read your original post again and seen that it was marked as a gift. The limit for a gift is £36 and the value of the contents was less than this. It is listed on the DHL paperwork as an 'invoice' value yet the seller would have filled out the customs form and stated it was a gift. DHL would have no knowledge of the seller invoicing you. IF it was paid on your behalf I suspect it was paid in error. If Customs had checked it and believed it was not a gift as stated it would have been covered in official stickers by the time it reached you and there's no way you would have got it without paying up front. If it stated 'gift' and was under the limit it's surely not up to DHL to decide otherwise.

The limit for importing without duty payable is £18 per parcel. Anything over that and duty is payable on the lot including (I think) the delivery costs. I buy a few things from the Channel Islands and always ask for them to be packaged individually so they don't attract duty. HMRC don't always charge so if this is a legitimate invoice there will have been a sticker on the parcel confirming they did so.

It can take a few months for sites such as primelocation and rightmove to update. I expected the land registry to be the most up to date which is why I decided to pay for details once I had checked that houses sold (supposedly) after this one were already listed. I doubt very much if the landlord(s) in this case are particularly clued up or anxious for a legal battle. The info from Steve_M on what constitutes a deposit is very useful. If they get nasty about my daughter leaving I have a lever to counter any threats and I'm hoping we'll all consider it quits.

Well that makes me feel better. My main concern at the moment is for her to find suitable alternative accommodation and to get her out of there. My first thought was that they had put the property in the name of the resident student and then hopefully used an AST off the shelf hence my search for the owner. Anything to point out that they had done something wrong. I'm extremely grateful for that little snippet as I think they'll back down at the first hint of proper investigation.

Thanks for those answers. The property in question was (supposedly) sold in the summer and I know that properties sold since then are listed. I've even paid the land registry to try and find out who owns it and can't get the answer. It has not been sold otherwise in the past 8 years so may have been unregistered prior to this sale. My student daughter is in the house and is extremely unhappy. She agreed last year to share with one boy and one girl because the boy's grandfather was buying the house. She has not been given a copy of the agreement and the grandfather and an uncle seem to be organising it privately. No agent involved and it has not been registered with student housing as she was told it would be. The uncle turns up whenever he chooses, usually when his nephew isn't there and is quite capable of opening her bedroom door to see if she's in. There are no locks on the bedroom doors although these were promised and she's been told not to put her own on as they are going to do it. She had to pay rent for the full term in advance and (I now find out) a substantial sum in advance for utilities for the whole year. Clever way of not having to put a deposit into a scheme I'm thinking. No matter what - she's not going back there after Christmas. She's 19 years old, a long way from home and her safety and wellbeing override all other considerations. I don't think these are people who would want to get involved in a legal battle but I've been tryng to fnd out exactly who we'll be dealing with if there are problems. If they didn't actually own the house when she signed up were they legally able to rent it out?

Not sure that this is the right place for this question but as it is being asked in relation to a rented property I'll try here first. Can someone please tell me if all property sales show up on the land registry lists? Is there any reason why one wouldn't?

Doing it yourself is fine if you know the 'going rate' for the injuries and are not expecting too much or will cave in for too little. How will you know if their offer is fair? People's expectations can be wildly out but solicitors know the score. I do have personal experience of a conditional fee arrangement though it was not for personal injury. If the other side had been reasonable at the start I would have happily settled for around £30k. In February of this year I got £210k and costs have recently been assessed in excess of £173k. It didn't cost me a penny.

If you win your costs should be paid on top of your compensation. They will not take a chunk of your award. There is no reason to deal with this yourself, let a professional handle it.

Surely you can agree a conditional fee arrangement with any solicitor and if you win your costs will be met by the other side.

It's ALWAYS better if you can find a solution outside court but there does come a point where you have to go through with it. The reason landlords do this is because they can. They get away with it year after year with students and they know from experience the vast majority don't fight back. Every landlord (barring 2 years in halls) tried to keep at least a large part of any deposit. After twice having to resort to court we got wise, demanded receipts and confirmation that no part of these charges would be submitted as expenses against tax. I'm fairly sure that the threat of the taxman looking into their affairs was highly effective as they all paid up.

There are an awful lot of very knowledgeable people on this forum who know the law - I don't. I can tell you what we did - and we did win which at least shows that anyone can if they're right. Both times we were in a small room with ordinary furniture - there's no standing in a witness box or anything like that. Firstly gather together every bit of paperwork you have. We based our case(s) around what we could prove with paper. I took no notice of anything my sons said which might turn into their word against the landlords. I even included phone bills that showed we had tried to phone the landlord to discuss the matter. Mobile bills showed a series of 3-4 second calls which proved he'd refused to even speak to us. The legal eagles on here will probably save you a lot of the work we did. Much of it probably wasn't necessary but both judges did comment on how thorough the bundles were. Write down the facts in chronological order. Number each piece of evidence (tenancy agreement, correspondence etc) and put the reference number each time you mention a document in your statement. From memory you need put very little on the initial form. If you haven't done so send a letter before action immediately. Get the small claims form from the court if he doesn't respond and follow the instructions. You'll get loads of help on here if you need it.

I have taken two landlords to court to recover deposits, both times were for my student sons so it was in their names but I did the work and went to court with them. It IS easy, it ISN'T as frightening as you would think and it IS worth it. You will get your costs back if (when) you win. The first time we did it the judge wanted to add the standard rail fare to our costs for getting to court. If we'd kept quiet we'd have made about 4 times the actual costs but we're naturally honest. I nearly had to do it a third time in my son's final year, this landlord was a solicitor! He paid up before we got to court.

I had major success today getting a problem dealt with by a big company with a lousy attitude. Started by calling the number for customer services and got the usual 'computer says no' response from call centre robots. Next step was to go through saynoto0870 and get a real phone number for real people - got reception who refused point blank to put me through to anyone. Now the number for reception was xxx xxxx 2000 so guessing extension numbers would run consecutively, I picked numbers from 2000 upwards at random and on my third call - (2015) got a very nice girl in the advertising department who transfered me to the person I needed. Problem sorted in 30 minutes

I have a horrible feeling that Councils are getting really tough over this and once their automated systems have you down as a defaulter there is no going back. What makes me so cross is that many people getting caught up in it are not even in arrears at all. Our council takes 10 payments a year from 1st April through to the following January and then there are two months payment free, so if you've paid 5 months on time then you've paid 6 months council tax. In real terms you're one month in credit by that stage but pay a couple of days late for the next two months in a row and you're in court. Fair it ain't.

Our local council is doing this to people too. If you pay by direct debit then you can choose the date of payment but if you pay over the counter you must pay on the 1st of the month. One local couple are in court soon because they' paid a couple of days late for two months running and lost their right to pay by instalments Quotes from the council are 1. "we have a duty to collect the council tax by the due date" 2. "if people pay by direct debit then we can give a choice of dates because it costs us less" These quotes were both in the same article in the local rag. So which one is true? Either they have a duty to collect it on time or they don't.

That's very kind of you but I had to send the form back to keep things moving. I didn't give them a phone number and I didn't sign the form - just printed my name. I am still getting one phone call a day from Credit Solutions - was just putting the phone down but now ask for a name and get them to agree the date and time of the call. I just keep repeating the question until they agree or end the call themselves. At least it stops some other poor b*gger being bothered for the few minutes I keep them going.

The only way they would have different barcodes is if it's some sort of promotional packaging Absoloutely, thats what I meant. The item in it's normal place on the shelf had the correct non-offer price on the shelf ticket without any promotional offer barker. Everything was correctly labelled, I'm not suggesting it wasn't. There was nothing obviously different in the packaging but there may have been differences. All I know is that exactly the same amount of the same beer in the same number of the same sized cans cost £4 more off the shelf than off the big display.

Gyzmo My first thought was that the barcode would cause it to go through the till at the offer price too but apparently not. The item happened to be beer but I'm checking everything now. I buy a lot of wine for local charity events so the guy on the drinks aisle has got to know me and gave me the heads up. Maybe they have the buying power to work some sort of special purchase with different barcodes - or something. I really don't know.

If a supermarket has a display of something with a good offer, make sure you pick it up off that display. Exactly the same product can be elsewhere in the store but won't necessarily be at the offer price. I was pointed in the right direction by a Tesco employee a couple of weeks ago and was quite shocked. Once you've seen a big notice saying the product is on offer many people would assume the price would hold good throughout the store. Check the price at the point you pick it off the shelf.

I'm back and asking for a bit more advice I'm afraid. I sent off the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter with the £10 postal order and today I've got a form back to fill in. It's entitled a 'Subject Access Request Form' and I've they want me to specify what information I want. Surely I want everything they have - that's what I asked for in the original letter. There are also a couple of points on the form I'm not overly happy about. Firstly they want a contact phone number and secondly it says the form MUST be signed. They also want it dated - does this supercede the date they received my original request? It's made very clear in bold lettering that Fail to complete all sections and your application will be returned I did sent the original SAR letter by special delivery and it was signed for the next day. Are they correct in requiring a signature, another date and a contact phone number?

Thank you for the answer. One thing that has become very clear to me is that these companies are very good at intimidation. I'm not easily intimidated but was tempted to pay up just to get rid of them because it is a relatively small amount. I'm not going to of course - unless they can come up with some convincing evidence that I truly do owe this money. I can still access this account's history online and it shows a complete record of payments (as do my bank statements) and proper cancellation of the contract.

In my road a number of houses are having velux windows appearing in roofs, but I've never seen any signs of planning applications! I think there have been changes in planning rules very recently. In the main the rules have been relaxed and many things which used to require planning permission no longer need it.

I can't resist asking, the question has been eating away at me - why shouldn't I send them anything with my signature? I didn't BTW and I got a postal order as advised. It did start me thinking as I took this contract out in a shop and the first payment for 1 month's line rental was up front by cheque. Checking the records they then took a double payment in the first month by DD 'so that the line rental was always paid in advance'. So what had I paid by cheque? At the end of the contract they charged me for another month's rental but I noticed this one and it was amended. The amount they are claiming is suspiciously similar to an amount I now think I've been overcharged. I'd never have realised but for all this hassle.

Many, many thanks. I'm glad I asked now.

OK I've got the letters done. One last question please. Is a cheque for the £10 fee acceptable included with the letter or is there some specific way I have to pay it? Apologies if I seem ignorant - I am where this sort of thing is concerned. I've never had to deal with anything like this before. I do feel much better now I'm fighting back properly. Thank you so much for all your advice.