Thanks for the responses.The mechanic who has gone off for surgery was the co-owner, the one who was already off is his son. I believe it is basically monetary considerations that are preventing them hiring someone in the interim. The garage does both bike and car work, they still have car mechanics in but no one who knows about bikes, apparently. I have made the point that an engine is still an engine and have even offered them my Haynes manual for reference!They have said they will try looking at it "this week" (wonderfully vague!). I will hound them and keep you posted.

My scooter died on me a couple of weeks ago. I took it in to my usual garage on 19th July. It took them a while to figure out what was wrong, but on 30th July they called to tell me that the engine had seized and would need a complete rebuild, quoted me £200-300 depending on what they could salvage and the time involved.I was told I'd need to decide whether to go ahead straight away as one of the two bike mechanics was already signed off work for six months with a torn ligament, and the other (the one I was speaking to) was going in for surgery on 6th August so would need to get to work straight away to complete it before he went off. I gave them the go ahead.I have just called (9th August) and spoke to the owner, apparently my bike is nowhere near ready and the mechanic's condition is worse than anticipated and he will be in a wheelchair for at least 6 weeks and so unable to work on it. They are basically saying there is no one else who can work on it, and with it being in pieces in their workshop I can't exaclty collect it and take it elsewhere.Any advice please? I am stuck taking the train to work at the moment, it is costing me a fortune and taking a very long time, and I can NOT carry on doing this for 6 weeks plus!

A few weeks ago my scooter was stolen from outside my house - they cut right through the security chain, busted the ignition, had a jolly and dumped it a few streets away. Police recovered it and my insurance company arranged for their authorised repairer to collect it. I had been told that the only real damage was to the ignition so it should be repaired; however, I have just had a call from the estimator saying the repair will be too expensive for the value of the scooter, so I am now waiting for my insurance to get in touch regarding a pay out. There's a number of issues I am wondering about and I'd really appreciate any advice you can give. 1) I had only owned the scooter for one week when it was taken.This means I was still in the initial period of temporary insurance (1 month) while they sent me a direct debit mandate to sign and return with a copy of my CBT. With the upset of the theft I have not yet sent these; the deadline for them receiving these documents is next week, at which point my insurance would be cancelled instead of continuing for the year. I have currently paid just under £70; the full year cost would be £330. Can I just let this expire rather than shelling out for the remainder of the policy when I effectively have no vehicle to insure at this time? 2) Does anyone have any experience of how long it would normally take to receive a payout? I am currently unemployed and cannot get work until I have transport again - in the last couple of weeks I have actually had to turn down jobs because I simply cannot get to them, and I am reluctant to apply for things as I don't know how long I will be without transport (public transport facilities in my area are extremely limited and not a reliable option - in fact I have been told several times that employers just will not consider me without my own transport because it is so bad!) 3) Given the extremely short time I owned the scooter can I expect to get back what I paid for it (minus the excess) or will it be subject to the insurer's valuation? Thanks for your help.

Hello all, I could use an opinion on a recent incident, we are not sure how to proceed. My fiance drove me to a doctor's appointment on a Saturday morning, we parked in the surgery car park (just a minor check up at the GP). On exiting the car park we made a left turn and collided with another vehicle which was coming down the street. This was a narrow street, the kind with terraced houses and cars parked down the entire length on both sides of the road, with effectively one lane in the middle for both directions of traffic to share. She was approaching from our left. There were no witnesses and I was the only passenger involved. We had some damage to our front bumper, scraped and torn on the driver's side, the other car had severe crumpling to the front driver's side, broken headlight - but just bodywork, no engine damage. Photos attached - ours is silver, hers is red. We reported it for information to our insurance about half an hour after the incident. We took down details of her car and I snapped some photos on my phone, however, she was unable to give us her insurance info as it was a company car and she didn't know it, so she just gave us her employer's name (a large and well-known comapny) and her address and phone number. On the surface I know we would be found at fault as we were pulling out so she had right of way. But please consider the following: 1) We honestly had not seen her approaching - I looked as well and she was not visible before we pulled out. We had moved only inches out when the collision happened and were travelling less than 5mph. The damage to her car, not to mention the jolt, show that she must have been travelling pretty fast. 2) She said that she was rushing because she was late for an appointment - this is also why she didn't stick around very long at the scene. 3) She said at the scene that she saw us and "hoped we would stop". She did not sound her horn or brake. Even though she had right of way, surely if you see another car coming towards you you have a responsibility to stop? 4) She then rounded off by saying that she swerved towards us!!! She said this in the context of "it's a good job I did or you would have pushed me into the car parked on the other side". 5) She also said that she knows the road "very well" and knows that the visibility from the car park entrance is rubbish. We told our insurer all of the above and made a written note of it immediately. We have not made a claim at this point (about 2 weeks since) as the damage to our car is fairly minor and our excess is £300, which we cannot really afford to pay if it is found to be our fault (I will be unemployed in 2 weeks time). We have not yet heard anything from her or her company's insurance. Can anyone give us any advice for how to handle this if she claims against us?

Hi all, I'd be so grateful if anyone can offer me any advice on this, I really don't know how to proceed. It's a complicated situation so please forgive the length of the post. 3 years ago I was living in a slightly(!) dodgy houseshare, it was originally a three bedroom house which the landlord converted to four bedrooms. He never visited the property, certainly I never met him, and there was no tenancy agreement in place. Basically the rent was paid on the 25th of the month and that's all he was concerned with, he did not mind who lived there. When someone moved out they found someone to replace themselves in their room and so got their deposit back that way, there was no involvement from the landlord or even from the other housemates. This meant zero accountability, it also meant that by the time I moved out there were 9 people living there! I would never have considered moving into such an arrangement but at my previous address my tenancy was up and not renewable and in 3 months of searching I had been unable to find anywhere else at all that I could come close to affording, I had no option. I lived there for 10.5 months and moved out as soon as I got a new job that paid a bit more, in July 08. When I moved out I was up to date with the rent and I made certain that I paid my housemates my share of the outstanding bills, including council tax. Unfortunately I did this in cash so can't prove it. They were not people I kept in touch with, although I did get a single phone call from one of them in September that year as the council had been tipped off to the number of people living there (10 by then, with a single bathroom I should mention!) and were evicting them as the place was deemed unfit for habitation. I was called because no one in the house could find the landlord's telephone number. Maybe an alarm bell should have gone off in my head right then! Well, I never heard from any of the housemates, or the landlord, again after that one call. But two days ago I received a council tax bill for the property for the period 1st April 08 to 31st July 08. There are just two names on it, mine and one other girl living there at the time. I think basically this is because I was once foolish enough to email the landlord when the toilet was broken and we couldn't get him by phone, so he had my name, and the other name is the girl who called me for his number when the eviction came - also she was far and away the longest resident, she had been there already a couple of years before I lived there. On the bill she is listed as a full time student, so there is a discount given, but that still leaves a bill of £420 to be paid - presumably that means by me. The other housemates were all from Eastern European countries (mostly Estonia) and I doubt they are still in the country; I certainly have no means of tracking them down as they changed so many often and this far down the line I can't remember even the first names of the people living there at that period! I know that technically we are joint and severally liable for the council tax, but given the absence of a tenancy agreement is there a case to be made against this? Also, should I tell the council how many people were living there to support my case? I worry that in doing so I will lose the student discount given and will have even more to pay if I lose. I should also mention that there is absolutely no way I can pay this amount all at once. Like many people I am struggling to make ends meet right now and at best I could pay them perhaps £10 a month. If I tell them that are they going to laugh in my face and take me to court? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.