Hi Mattlamb, the issue with this was that we'd just recently had a meter reader come out (January), and a very recent reading had been given over the phone on which they advised us to expect a refund.

Thank you, I've just contacted the ombudsman to try and deal with this matter.

Hi all, I'm having a pain with Southern Electric; they're claiming an unpaid final bill from a property we left at the beginning of March, 2013, of £160.78, which has now gone up to £184.90 as it's been taken over by their dept collectors "Past Due". We paid the final bill of ninety-something pounds at the end of February, and my mother (who's name the account is in) called them to give them the final reading a few days later and advise them we were moving out. The man my mother spoke to told her we'd be due a rebate of over seventy pounds because we'd been over paying, and to send the reading in writing with a cancellation letter. A month later after we'd long left the property we received the bill for £160.78, which I queried and after some back and forth (because we were moving out there was practically nothing electrical in the property, so this bill was ridiculous), the case was moved to someone else who, on the 2nd of August 2013, advised me they'd review the case and contact me soon when they had an update. At the end of January (this year) I received a letter from PastDue saying this had been passed to them and we needed to pay £184.90. I contacted SE. again, and they claim to have emailed me on the 8th of august, though I have no record of this, claiming they had decided I do owe this money based on the final reading with no further explanation. I'm not currently in the country so cannot go to CAB (and my local one has removed their online support). Please can anyone make any suggestions for what I can do? I don't want to take a trip back to the UK to resolve this as that would cost more than they claim I owe, but do not wish to pay a bill that is clearly a rip off. Thanks for your time reading my wall of text!

Hi HB, she has this, but it cuts off at the date the employment ended, so does not provide a coverage for the whole year. The dates on the paper seem to matter quite a lot for the Slovakian tax office.

Hi raydetinu, as mentioned the previous bill (beginning of the year) was based on an actual reading.

Thanks for the reply - I have the revised statement to hand (as well as others), that clearly states as of 2nd January 2013 we were owed £71.32, and that we'd made further payments of £91 in January and February after this date.

Hi All, I have a question regarding an unwelcome final bill from my previous electrical supplier Southern Electric. I rented a property for about 6 years and was with them throughout; I paid monthly and had an estimated bill with a meter reading I think once every six months. I was always informed after the actual reading that the account was in credit (the amount slowly built up), but the bills weren't brought down, which was OK by me as I just thought I'd get a rebate at the end. I left the property on the 2nd of March, and at the end of January my mother (who's name the account was in) called them to advise we'd be leaving, and was told over the phone we should expect a rebate of about £76 pounds and to just send them a meter reading via post when we left. We paid the normal bill for January and February, and our previous actual reading by the company was in December with our December summary saying we were seventy-something pounds in credit so this all looked good. At the beginning of April we received a bill at our forwarding address for over £170(!), so I contacted them and they said they hadn't received the final reading and our account was still open. I sent them the final reading again via email, and they said they'd send me an updated bill, which when it arrived was still over £160, having been reduced by just a few pounds. The last couple of months in the property most electrical goods were already in storage so there's no way we ran up such an excessive bill in this time that it not only used up the amount we paid each month, but also the money we had in credit and over one-hundred and sixty more pounds! I don't know what to do next for this, but definitely don't want to pay the bill as it's completely unrealistic; what should I do next? Should I contact Ofgem for this? Thanks a lot for any help you can give!

Hi All, hopefully this will be a quick question to resolve, but haven't had much luck myself: my partner is Slovakian and as such needs to prove tax paid in the UK at the end of every working year in Slovakia to stop her needing to pay tax there. Normally this has been done through a P60, but as she wasn't working on the cut off date at the end of the last tax year she hasn't received one. We wrote to HMRC requesting proof of tax paid, but received just a really basic letter that just covered the time she did work; the problem being it does not look at all like a summary for the year, just for the period she was employed, and she's concerned that if she takes this to the tax office in Slovakia they'll either not accept it (it's not well formatted as a tax/income summary) or will not be happy as it doesn't cover the whole tax year. Is there any way to get something more like a regular P60 that states tax paid/income for the whole year, even if she was not employed for the entire duration? Thanks for any help you can give!

Hi All, my OH has been working at a small shop/deli beginning 14th oct, 2011; she was called on Monday morning and told she was no longer needed and not to come in the next Friday, Saturday and Sunday (the days she works), but she'd be paid for them as it was her one-week notice from the company. There has been no warning / disciplinary, and she has a full contract with the company. We wrote an email to the company owner asking for a reason (and a formal letter of dismissal), which we received and which stated my OH was aware "there would be a probationary period" and that her work had been "unsatisfactory"; there is nothing in her contract about a probationary period, and she was often left in charge of other staff members so as to her work being unsatisfactory this is highly dubious... On a related note (we believe), she had had a few days absence the week before (for which she had a note from her doctors due to flu) and a friend of the owner had filled-in, who seems to have been given her position! This seems like a very unfair course of action - how should she proceed with this matter?

Hi Conniff, thanks for the feedback, but a payment was made to my mother - just none of the forms / deposits paid to the agent. The first buyer, who had paid this money, then became unreachable and made no effort to continue in the purchase, and she also found out the forms he had claimed to have sent to the agent had never been sent.

Hello all - firstly, I'm sorry if this is not the correct sub-forum for this question! My mother has been trying to sell a property she owns in Europe, and early last year found a prospective buyer. The sale was agreed to be conducted by proxy through an estate agent near the property, and my mother completed her part immediately. She then heard nothing from the buyer for over a month, and I encouraged her to look for a new buyer. Before the sales process started again with a new buyer, however, the original buyer contacted her and said he was still interested in the property, and my mother agreed to continue with the sale. After being messed about and promises of action for a few more months, she again heard nothing from him for a while, and eventually called him to say whe would be looking for a different buyer, as she has been incurring bills every few months for the property. This was in September of last year, and the buyer said they were still interested, and said they wanted to transfer £2000 to my mother as a deposit (and so she didn't have to worry about the bills). Again, sporadic communication from the "buyer", and after he claimed he had sent the official papers to the agent, and he "thought he had sent the deposit but was unsure" (the agents deposit, not the deposit to my mother), he then became impossible to reach; my mother even called his business several times, where employees said they had passed on messages but she couldn't reach him directly as he hadn't been out of the office. The agent had heard nothing from him, and received no money, and she'd been unable to contact him for several months, so she then stopped trying to reach him and a few months later (earlier this year) she began the sale with a different buyer, with whom things seem to be progressing nicely.. Today, she received an email from the first buyer saying he would be taking legal action over the deposit he'd paid the agent and the deposit he'd paid my mother unless she immediately gave him the money back - the money has been used to pay the bills incurred for the property during the last few months, so only half remains. As I see it, if he has genuinely paid any money to the Agent, he'll easily be able to prove this and reclaim from them, so it makes me wonder why he'd brought this information up with my mother in such a way. Also, given his elusive behaviour, and having claimed to have sent necessary papers when he surely hadn't (how many times can the same documents get lost in the post?), and as bills were incurred as a result of his actions, I see no reason why he should receive any of the deposit he paid to my mother back? Furthermore, the only record of such a deposit is an email confirmation from my mother to him stating that the deposit had been paid to hold onto the house for a bit longer as he was dealing with a sick family member; once this had been resolved if he decided not to contact my mother or progress any further with the sale I think that was his choice? Can any CAG members advise where my mother stands legally regarding this issue? Thanks for help, and sorry for the essay!

Hi All, I'll be sitting in the queue for CAB on Monday and go from there! In the meantime; one the alternative sites is a long way away (over 3 hours commute!), one is outside the UK (Southern Ireland), and the other is still only a "possible future site", of which the management claims they are still unsure of whether or not it will exist, and if it does what exactly will be done there. Also, one of the people who have put their name down for the list of representatives is a member of the site management who has already stated he will be moving to another site to continue working there; can he legally be a representative given the circumstances?

Hi HoneyBee13, I've read ACAS' website regarding redundancies and their advisory booklet, and intend on calling them tomorrow.

Hello all, I work in a medium sized workshop that is one site for a large company that has other sites in the UK, and we've recently been informed that our site will be closed by the end of June as the owners of the site will no longer be renting the site to our company. We received letters from our management during a "meeting" in which we weren't invited to ask any questions and told to "simply read the letter", which stated as mentioned before the site would be closing at the end of June and that employees would be able to move to one of the other sites and that "redundancies are a possibility". We were also told a list would be placed on the company notice board for people to volunteer to be representatives for the workforce, and that the list would be taken down on Friday (one day after it had been put up) and employees could vote on Monday and Tuesday as to who they wanted as representatives. A notice was placed on the noticeboard just over a month ago stating that the site may be moved to another location, and a new contract was issued just afterwards to all employees which included clauses such as "flexible working hours" and "unpaid leave of up to four weeks" if the management decided there is not enough work. The majority of the workforce had delayed signing the contract as we had all formally requested a number of the points to be clarified and stated that they were unfair, as we felt that the contract was being issued to cheat us out of a paid notice period and possibly redundancy, as no employment address was initially stated on the contract; the address has now been stated on a contract "addendum" we received, but the points we questioned were mainly reiterated instead of being further explained. Besides the legality of issuing such a contract when the state of the company was in such question, as no-one has been given formal notice of redundancy to my understanding and there are over 100 contractual employees I believe the employer must give a minimum of 90 days formal redundancy notice? Or can the employer simply wait until there are less than 100 employees, assuming some will leave to find new work now we're aware of what's happening and then only give us 30 days formal notice? If the place is closing, will the employer (through the new contract) be able to tell contractual employees they are not needed and to not pay them during the run up to and the notice period itself? We all have a lot of concerns and questions and so are pursuing the different avenues open to us to get legal advice and try and make completely sure the company cannot find a way to not pay us redundancy or to 'force' us to leave by placing us on unpaid leave. Thank you very much for any advice you can give!