Great thanks. I was wondering about the legal position of being potentially fined for not having tax when in fact when you buy the tax, they force you to be covered for the period they are trying to fine you for. Would be an interesting challenge if it ever happened. I mean can they actually fine you for not having tax when they have also sold you tax covering the period in question?

As above. I never received a tax reminder for the first time and as a result missed the end of July deadline. I drove for a couple of days all over London in a technically untaxed car (at the time). However I remembered and renewed the tax on the 2nd of the month in the evening and this of course states that the car is taxed for 12 months to end of July next year ,of course includes the 2 days for the 1st and 2nd. Can I be fined for having an untaxed car on the road in August when I have now paid road tax for 12 months which includes the whole of August; just that payment was 2 days late?

By 'estoppel', do you mean I expected compensation X 2 and when I received two payments I believed that was what I was due as the airline had not explained what the payments were for or what the correct amount should have been? Then I acted on the belief that the money was mine and have put myself in a position different to had I not been paid the money (i.e. I spent it) so should not have to pay it back. Is that the gist of the estoppel argument? If a genuine error has been made, then I don't object to paying back the money BUT not just in response to a possible scam email without even my name in it, not without a proper statement showing what I should have received and what I have actually been paid, and then given a reasonable time to pay it back or some kind of payment plan.

Is it reasonable to expect at least a statement and/or calculation of what they have paid me before going any further? Otherwise there is just two credits to my bank with no explanation.

Yes that it exactly how it is addressed; very unprofessional if genuine. Only if it is a scam then how would they know I got compensation and how much ? - well I suppose emails aren't secure so that's one way or someone at the airline passing information on. They do have my address. I think I will do nothing and see what happens; I mean I have a good defense in that I submitted two claims and had two payments; neither of which I had any advise of from the airline. The recent emails could have gone to my junk box for all the airline knows; it is not from an email address I have had anything from before though does contain the airline name.

I would rather not name the airline but it is a European one. According to my bank statements, I have had two payments of £500 (none for £250 as referred to below, though there were two concurrent claims) and now being asked to make two payments of £250 back to the airline ( I have received a total of £1,000). So assuming it is genuine, the numbers look right if one assumes that I was supposed to get £250 per claim and not £500 as I have been paid; but as I have had no communication from the airline I don't actually know what they intended to pay. The redacted email is as follows: Dear Mr/Ms customer, We are writing to you regarding a payment of 250.00 GBP that XXXX made on 2022-07-31 as compensation after accepting your request referred to above, in accordance with European regulations. After analysing your case, XXXX has confirmed that this compensation was paid twice in error, the second payment being on 2022-11-20. In accordance with the aforementioned, XXXX is requesting you to amicably return the amount of 250.00 GBP that was paid in error within the next 10 days, by bank transfer to the following account: - Banking Entity: BANKINTER, S.A. - BIC/SWIFT Code: BKBKESMMXXX - IBAN: ES88 0128 9444 1901 0000 4423 - REFERENCE: xxxxxx + Passenger's Name and Surname Once the transfer has been made, please send us the proof of payment to this email address. XXXX will cover any bank charges or similar charges, provided they are reasonable and justified, that you may incur when refunding the money. You may automatically deduct them from the payment. If you do not make the requested refund within the established time frame, XXXX reserves the right to take legal action to recover the amounts received in error, as well as any legal costs that may arise. Please accept our sincere apologies once again for the inconvenience caused by this incident. Yours sincerely,, XXXX airlines

Last July me and my wife's flights were delayed I made a claim with the airline for compensation as per the regulations. Since then I have had no communication at all from the airline but on checking my bank account I can see that two separate payments have been made by the airline, the second being two months after the first and for the same amount. I have had nothing from the airline to say what these payments are for or how they have been calculated. Today I have received two emails addressed to 'Dear Mr/Mrs Customer' claiming that the second payment was in error and that I need to make an international bank transfer of the second payment within 10 days or they reserve the right tom take legal action. The amount they are asking for is two lots of £250. First of all am I obliged to pay this when I have had no explanation for either of the payments the airline made? Secondly how do I know this is not some kind of scam (can't even use my name) and is it safe to just make a payment to some foreign bank account using an IBAN number (I have never done one of these)? Thirdly are they actually likely to take legal action and what would be the likely chance they are successful and that I would have to pay their costs and what might these costs be? I don't actually have the £500 to pay right now anyway so if I engage with these emails, would I be entitled to ask for a payment plan? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Some cheaper discs (why do people insist on calling them rotors; do we always have to end up going American?) especially those from China are not heat treated and have to be handled carefully when new so as not to overheat them while bedding in. There are procedures for doing this which can be found on the internet so I won't reproduce all that here. Better quality discs won't need this bedding-in time as they are already heat treated but are more expensive as a result. Do you know what brand of discs Halfords used?

Jet washers are well known for stripping paint. Live and learn. Next time get a bucket and sponge and wash it yourself; it's what I always do and never had a problem. Public liability insurance is not compulsory for a car wash outfit.

I can see the dilemma. In an ideal world, the 'recommended' garage 80 miles away would agree to find the cause of the problem and fix it FOC. However as it's quite expensive even to diagnose will they be co-operative? They could take the car but then tell you it was something else anyway and as they have the car, how can you prove anything? So the options would appear to be: 1) Chalk it down to experience 2) Get an expert opinion as to the cause (costing £500?) and then possibly insist the 'recommended' garage fix it at their expense. They would probably baulk at paying the diagnostic fee arguing you should have returned it to them. They might want to oppose the 'expert opinion' in which case you'd be looking at taking them to court with added expense and risk. On balance, rather than either option it might be best to return it to the 'recommended garage' to see what their response is. There is always a chance they will admit it was their fault or it could be a part failed in which case the garage might be able to claim from the part manufacturer. Tough one!

Albany are just a claims management company like many others. They don't really help you much to the extent that you may as well handle the claim yourself because that is easier than trying to get Albany to do something useful. I think it very unfair of Admiral to Palm you off to Albany for third-party liability claims; they should be there to help you recover your costs NOT to stitch you up with an expensive credit hire car for which you might have to pay if the TP won't.

They are not long and if your sump plug is horizontal (on the side of the pan) wouldn't be a problem but I agree if at a 45 degree angle and with nothing else lower on the car like a crossmember, I would be wary.

There is another solution I forgot which is to fit a Fumoto valve; cost £20 and you can still drain the oil: http://www.quickvalve.co.uk/ As these only have to be screwed in once you can use silicon sealer, JB Weld or whatever you like around the threads to be doubly sure they won't leak. Does depend whther the original sump hole has been enlarged by garage A though and any sort of insert or oversize plug fitted.

With all due respect Conniff I expect a good part of the charge is for labour as getting a sump off can mean dropping the exhaust and even sub-frame these days. The main thing is that garage A probably did a good job of fixing the sump plug (after all the OP wasn't having to continually top up with oil as far as we know), it's just not to Vauxhall's liking which is the real issue. Sump plugs can be fixed quickly and cheaply in situ with one or more of the following: 1) Longer threaded bolt 2) Oversize sump plug 3) Re-tap thread 4) Re-tap and helicoil thread 5) If all else fails, just glue the sump plug in and use an oil extractor (uses dipstick tube) to change the oil You don't need a new sump and associated costs BUT because Vauxhall mechanics are just fitters and not engineers, that's all they can offer; maybe all their company policy allows them to offer (i.e. genuine Vauxhall original parts unmodified).

He can't take it away if the latest garage have drained the oil out. I imagine the Vauxhall dealership want to return the sump and plug back to standard Vauxhall design and that is the real problem; they don't want to risk garage A's repair letting go (or else they just want some £££s by making a job out of it). probably if you took it to another local garage, they might be fine with the sump plug repair. Most places just suck the oil out anyway nowdays meaning you could use some sealer round the weepy bolt and never touch it again. There are certainly options that work out a lot cheaper than £367.