Hi the dog is 4. It doesnt go off the lead. Yes RSPCA are a nightmare i think it would have been easier to adopt a baby.

Im not bothered about the money. They save a lot of animals they are welcome to it. They do a very hard job. They can keep it. If i ever came into money i would give them some. But yes i will check re ownership.

Hi no that was part of the cost. So theyve had the money.

Thank you, I signed the papers - but it said before you take the dog. So, have they not breached their own agreement?

I adopted a beagle cross a few months ago one of the conditions stipulated by the rescue centre was that the dog had to be neutered before I took the dog home. However, they didn't have time to do it due to the influx over Christmas. When they last rang me the dog was unwell but I have now looked into the benefits for and against neutering and the impact it had on my last dog and I have decided I would not like to have the operation performed on my dog. I have no intention of breeding the dog, I am a staunch believer that rescue is best (adopt dont shop!) - and I am prepared to sign a legal letter to say I won't breed the dog. do I have any rights to say no - given they gave me the dog before they had neutered it. Surely the dog is now legally mine?

Hi there not sure anyone will pick up this thread if it is old. But here goes. I live in a 1920s property which has cast iron gutters which are quite big and I have a dressed lead roof over a shared porch as the house is a semi. A few months back the new neighbours asked us was our porch leaking - it wasn't and he never said much else. It turns out he has had some dodgy workmen stick asphalt pieces over his side of the roof - this has made things worse and at one point flooded his downstairs loo. Leaves and water are collecting under the asphalt as it has 'lipped up' where his is higher than mine. he has also had the same workmen cut off his gutters and replace with small plastic ones which are about the quarter of the size of the original. Where they join in the middle you can see daylight and there is water dripping through both on the front and back of the property (my fence is being soaked at back) water is finding its way into my hallway and has blown the plaster and the skirting. We have been back to them since May and June respectively - but they keep sending their workmen around to us for us to explain! They are quite rough and ready and try to shout you down while he stands back. I went around on Friday after a downpour of rain as the water is making its way up the wall and the neighbour told me I was impatient and disrespectful and that he had agreed to pay for the damage and was waiting for the leak to be fixed. He swore at me and told me to eff off his property and that I was a f****** pig! I have reported to the police - and I am trying to go through my household legal insurance however they have left me waiting over a week and tried to refer me back to my insurer - saying I should make a claim not a legal one as this is a last resort. But I need someone to make him rectify what he has done and to not trespass onto my property/not do works that impact jointly on the property without consultation before I make a claim I am being passed from pillar to post by the insurance and feel I have nowhere to turn and can't even speak to him anymore as he is very hostile.

Dear Pinkdressagerider, I would be inclined to evidence as much as possible where you have tried to get information from the ET and the respondents solicitor and I got to the stage where I was copying in the ET on everything - to the point where they asked me to stop. As I have said befor I think this is all part of the game to shake you off and wear you out! I wouldnt sit on my laurels and I would keep working on what you need to send and wouldnt bank on the ET saying oh well the respondent was late so thats why you are - they never with me they let the respondent be 25days late with their bundle to me - just before I was about to go on holiday which both the ET and the solicitor knew! Then the ET took 2 weeks to tell me I couldnt have an extension of time and the dates had to be kept to for submission as did the tribunal dates (as I eventually asked for a postponement)# the best advice i could give you is keep working as if you havent got an extension and call their bluff as I expected to get one and never - and so lost a load of time - but I stayed up quite a few nigths and got back on track you have to keep the pressure on! They will just want to fob you off all the time the ET are overworked and just want it resolved (in my belief) and I am now of the opinion that they are more on the side of the employer as employers employ people - and in an age where employment is low they dont really want to deter employers (that is my belief) I have been told on the forum that constructive dismissal is harder to prove - and you woul dhave more gravitas with the Sex discrimination part - as they can fob you off easier with the constructive dismissal stuff and say they had policies in place B

Just to clarify I was not given anything in legal fees they refused to support my case after a lengthy period of reviewing the case despite them knowing it was coming up in the next 2 months! Basically they just dragged their feet denied receiving letter from my solicitor saying what chance he thought I had and asked me to send stuff over and over again Then they said no!

Hi I would have done but they never even agreed to support my case with their own solicitor unfortunately! Never mind my own! So I had no legal support. I do intend to report them to the ombudsman as very unhappy with my treatment and the lack of concern and getting back to me etc and the amount of stress they caused me! they really were a poor set up and even denied receiving stuff I had sent by recorded delivery they have said I can complain to one of their directors if I do not agree that they do not support my case B

Hi an SD74 is the Sex Discrimination questionnaire form which I understand is in relation to 1974 act - my case fell into this time period because I was dismissed in 2010 before the new act was passed in October 2010 so this new act was not relevant to me. I didnt know that you only get a certain time to issue this and so missed the deadline - I asked the Employment Tribunal could I issue it and they said as it was late in day I could ask them (the respondent) to complete it voluntarily - which was bad for me as would have been much better for me if I had got the court to ask them to fill in and they had said no! As it shows they have something to hide Yes my employer had a top notch solicitor one of the legal 500 and a barrister who had been Oxbridge educated - but at the end of the day your only consolation is they are paying for it too at a min of £250 an hour plus VAT hopefully and thats just for a normal solicitor! I was of the understanding that the schedule of loss was a guide to what you had lost - and the court would decide the amount ie which band it fell into (someone please correct me if this is wrong) but I am aware that the other side will use this as a guide for themselves to how much you would be awarded etc and whether it is worth fighting it, settling it or whether you have no chance etc - Hope this is some help

Hi Skaatii, Have you been to see anyone such as the CAB, or a local law centre/clinic or have you your own solicitor via your household legal insurance? Or applied for legal aid? There were lots of things out there which I didnt do and I muddled along until someone on the forum rescued me! I didnt realise all these things were out there and there was a lot of free advice. I foolishly just paid a solicitor out my own money for a while! My ET1 was accepted (which I had filled in myself) and then the judge basically said he didnt really know what I was trying to say when he met me in the case managment meeting - it was then and after having another solicitor look over it as a favour that I realised I had used far too many terms that were only relevant to my ex employer and it was all a bit of a mess. I dont know what your case is - is it sex discrimination as well? I also didnt realise as I was self represented (and the solicitor I had had hadnt told me) that I only had a certain amount of time to submit an SD74 form to my previous employer and you only get a short amount of time to do this - but is massively important and powerful tool in getting them to answer stuff and showing what they wont answer) The other side's solicitor actually quoted a case that was irrelevant back to me! Only when I googled the case he referenced and read it a few times I realised it wasnt the same as my case. Bunty

Re googling other cases I was advised at my Case Management Meeting by the judge to google Vento V West Yorkshire Police when I was calculating my schedule of loss amount - as this is what the bands of financial loss for myself would have been based on. I had great difficulty illustrating in my ET1 form the sex discrimination element of my case. Someone on the forum advised me to look up a 'continued act of discrimination' as my treatment and what I had reported would have been dismissed as being 'out of time' as I had not reported it within the allocated time had it been a one off event but by showing it had gone on and on over a period of time (they had advised me to google the chagger case). I also googled 'a continued act of sex discrimination' on their advice and a few variations of this. There is also a BP case re this. In my case management meeting I also said to the judge that I had been discriminated against as I was a carer and I had not been allowed the same flexible working hours as others. I was advised that this was a 'novel idea' and the judge had never heard of this but would be interested to. But this was something I had seen on the CAB website - you can be discriminated if you are treated differently if you are a carer for a child or a sick, disabled or elderly person I think it was the Coleman case. I got a bit obsessed and was googling variations of stuff too to see if I could find anything but you can spend all day doing that. Im by no means legally trained in any way and when the other side were quoting stuff I was getting in a panic.

Hi HoneyBee - yes I suppose so but like with an insurance policy you dont look at it until something goes wrong just like with your contract of employment or all the other things that have gone before it you dont want to kick up a fuss or look like you are a trouble maker yet they are all tactics for giving people feedback and getting stuff on record passing remarks, sit down chats, things that appear on your review that you think oh I wont make a fuss its nothing So many people do not know about their employment rights etc - I didnt know enough and only through all this am I now forewarned. Madhari is a great source of knowledge I agree - he has helped me immensely

I forgot to say that I would not personally ask to settle I would be as strong in your responses etc as you can as I think if they think you are running scared and want to settle then they either wont offer you anything and will come down harder on you or they will make you a very small offer as they know you are desperate and will do this at the 11th hr! They will prob also look at your financial circumstances to see how much you need the money - any money ie if they knew you were in debt etc you may be desperate so they know how to pull your strings - there are some pretty nasty solicitors out there (and good ones) All tactics im afraid!

Hi there Gosh you are as green as I WAS! I stupidly thought that they would admit to some things and think oh fair cop guvnor - yes we did do this - I even went through the circus of the company appeals procedure, and also sent a without prejudice letter saying that I was willing to talk. I even thought that the appeal process would be a fair one but it wasnt. I was fortunate in that someone I worked with actually offered to come into the appeal with me and they even tried to get that person to say stuff on email to say I had said things in the meeting which I hadnt but in a very clever way ie can you just confirm that Bunty said this. they even tried the tactic that the room was only booked for a certain amount of time to cut it short all things to put me off. Sadly it doesnt work as fairly as it should im afraid. The will never ever admit to anything (and I imagine they are forbiddent to). Even if you get them to a compromise agreement out of court or a COT3 form via ACAS where you reach a mutual decision they will NEVER admit to what they have done it will be their company policy not to expose the company! it will actually say they take no liability or do not admit to any of the claims in case number ......Looking back people asked me was I stupid thinking that the appeal would find in my favour as if a partner or director who was supposed to be working for the company found in my favour then his neck woudl be on the line (it now makes sense but it didnt then as I was naive). He may well have agreed with me behind closed doors - he may even have said this person has a case to the main board of the company - but it is within their interest to deny everything if they admitted stuff on the ET3 the judge would just say you have admitted it why are you wasting tax payers money by having a hearing? Dont be disheartened by this its normal and all part of the plan to shake you off! you have got to think that we are in times of recession and the number of claims they will receive will be on the increase. Employers worry too that word gets around that they have paid people off or settled so they want the message to get out there tht its very difficult! They and their solicitors employ tactics to make you feel like you havent got a case thats why they have them! They will do all sorts of things from sending information late - when you have to have stuff reviewed and commented on such as your bundle. They will be difficult and say they havent got documents. They will dispute the relevance of documents you wish to include saying not required in the bundles and ask you why they are required so as to draw out what you are going to say. This is all to stress you out! And know your plan! No I didnt have any witnesses everyone was too scared to be one - people would not even come into consultation meetings with me when being made redundant! Everyone wanted to keep their job! The first thing your solicitor should do is tell you if you have a case! Have they done that as mine didnt he just took my cash! I dont know how much Tiny Tot got - but he or she is on the forum somewhere in the employment bit so you could mail them as you can send emails that no one else can see and it goes to their private email but you dont see their address and they dont see yours Hope this is of some help - remember its not easy you have to be strong and not take it personally (its hard I know) B:madgrin:

I would just like to add that on saying all this others have activated their household legal insurance in about 2 weeks with no problems I think TinyTot on the forum did. The only worry I would have with a no win no fee or a panel solicitor from an insurance company is that they may want a quick win. And may settle for the best option for themselves rather than you. But on saying that my own solicitor who was bleeding me dry offered to make a call to the respondent's solicitor and offer to settle when there had been no talk of settlement - I consider it would have made me look weak as there had been no indication that they wished to settle whatsoever and was some 5 months back - I now think he was just after quick wins and to charge me for whatever he possibly could!

Hi JTor 65 No sorry - sometimes Im not very good at explaining myself and assume people know what Im talking about. No I never got as far as you in that I wasnt even allocated some money to go a certain distance with either my own or an insurance company's panel solicitor! They kept hold of my documents for numerous weeks despite me chasing for a decision and telling them that my hearing was scheduled less than a month away. Despite promises that they would chase up their solicitors and that they had been made aware how imminent the hearing was (as it was less than a month away by the time the insurance company started moving with it - I would not receive the phone call back from the insurance company to even give me so much as an update! My case was bad in that I had tried to activate my house insurance back in early April and it has taken a complaint to the main insurance company to even get the household legal protection policy moving (as this sat as a side policy to the main one) If it hadnt been for the help I had been given and advice by someone on the forum I would be 'dead in the water' now and probably have given up! B

Hi Yes it is/was my understanding that you can use your own solicitor. But they do not make it easy for you to do so in my experience. They asked me to have my solicitor write to them stating the outline of the case and my chances of winning ( Im advised you need to have a 50% chance of winning for them to support your case) - however (in my experience) even after I had advised the insurance company that I a) had my own solicitor and b) wished to continue with my solicitor as well as having my own solicitor write to them with his take on my chances of winning in regard to all the aspects of the case they still continually referred to me using the panel solicitor,denied receiving this letter so as well as dealing with legal issues of the case myself I was constantly resending items to the insurance company. My ET1, further and better particulars etc went to the insurance company and their solicitor to be reviewed and after them holding onto the information for some weeks and then requesting further info in dribs and drabs they refused to support the case (either via my own solicitor or with their panel solicitor) at the 11th hour (this followed weeks of being told a decision would be made that week, that someone would ring me back, that they had not received items I had sent - it was a nightmare). If they had actually agreed to pay my legal fees it would probably have been little or no use to me as it was so close to the tribunal date and they had already written to me saying do not continue paying your solicitor whilst we are deciding whether to support the case unless you are prepared to fund this yourself as we have not made a decision on what your chances are of winning. Given I had no assurance I would be reimbursed for legal fees expended if they did agree to support my case - I did not continue with my solicitor in the interim and responded to documents from the other side myself. In the meantime my solicitor continued to chase me asking should he close the file and trying to charge me for putting his invoices together!

Hi it doesnt appear that what I sent has loaded n- so hear goes. No I was refused by the insurance company at the 11th hr (they took just under 2 months by a few days to say no despite leaving me hanging - apparently they have circa 8 weeks to tell you or you can take them to the insurance ombudsman) so at least they have accepted your case. Other people have told me that they sometimes give you the money in dribs and drabs so you may initially get the £1k to spend and then more as it goes on ie to get to different stages. But they dont tell you that when your taking the policy on! I was advised I had up to £45k of legal insurance when I purchased the policy. I was sorely disappointed with the panel solicitor as they did not on one occasion return my call for just plain legal advice - yet their telephone operators took my details over and over again. I was told they were 'extremely busy'. As for the private solicitor ie my own I felt a little cheated to be honest as the clock was on every time I spoke to him (even for him to put his bill together which I found novel as I wasnt getting any benefit from this). He also advised what boxes to tick on the ET1 form etc but then back tracked when the ET1 had been submitted which I found very worrying. Especially when he sent me a lengthy backside covering email saying what he believed he had told me. One would like to think that a solicitor that you are paying is better than the panel solicitor - however I filled in the ET1 form myself (badly) as costs were running away with themselves. So bad that when I got to the case management meeting (alone) the judge asked me to send further details as he could not see what I was saying. I have actually had the most help from either people looking over stuff for me on a voluntary basis and a particular person on this website who has given me pointers and cases to read and how to phrase things as well as moral support. It sounds like a cliche but there is so much on here the web too. Without wishing to offend any solicitors they are all in it to make money! I think a lot of people do not realise that the no win no fee solicitors will not take the case if the win isnt going to pay them for their work with a profit - not because you dont have a case just because the payout when divided up is not enough for them - or they would settle very early on so they are paid a couple of grand for writing a few letters rather than take it further. I would be inclined to try and draft your ET1 form as much as you can before you go and see your solicitor (please anyone if you think this is wrong shout up) as if you get them to complete it the allowance granted will be gone in the blink of an eye. I also thought I had to give absolutely loads of detail on the ET1 and it was not structured properly. I was advised by someone on the forum to google other cases similar to mine and thats how I should have structured my form they were the points that it should contain. Also not to put everything on the ET1 form - as I was leaving myself nothing for my witness statement. I have since settled the case out of court.

I had a neighbour who was having this problem with her neighbours. I think you have to first to have to be seen to try and rectify the problem amicably with your neighbours (she did try that) then you write to them and copy in the council as there will be rights of light issues (your parents have the right to light and they did have it at some point - these trees have taken it away. Hope this is of some help but your local council web shouls have some guidance in this and rights of light.

I dont know whether Im allowed to do this but Im sure one of the CAG bods will remove if not! I just wanted to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU !!! to Madhari (you know who you are - I still dont) and I really really dont know where to begin! For all the support, encouragement, pointers, advice and every thing else! Thanks for being a star Madhari! B:lol:

I would say to anyone that is thinking of using their household legal to get the claim in ASAP as I believe they dither purposely as they dont want to pay out on your claim or support it. I dont consider that the panel solicitors provided by the insurance company are necessarily the best and I found with mine that the were 'very busy' hence they never rang me back once! Which was very distressing. However I have just renewed my household insurance and taken legal protection again as I think I would know what to do in future situations! But basically they are all claims averse! I have known people who have gone with no win no fee solicitors - who basically cannot be bothered if its not going to be a massive win - so they have settled and then taken their stake of the compensation which is often a huge chunk I dont think a lot of people realise this!

Hi no I didnt. Basically the househould legal insurance was part of another policy (the main policy for hte house) - which woul dhave been fine except for the fact that they chose to ignore me at every turn! From me asking for legal advice over the phone and them taking all my details every time I rang but no one ringing me back- then saying they had never spoken to me to my main insurer. My main insurance company contacting them (this is the only time they acknowledged me). To me having to send everything by recorded delivery otherwise they would say they had not received it (despite it being emailed as well) The company were called family plus and I would not recommend them to ANYONE. they were rude when I rang them up in a state of distress telling them that my case was imminent yet it was taking them so long to decide if I was eligible (despite my solicitor having written to them in April advising of my case and what chances he thought I had) - and then some 2 months after all the correspondence om them making a decision to support the case they declined! I believe that household legal insurance will lbe the new thing that people will be claiming they were mis sold as I just got is as part of my policy and it was never explained and the amount of distress it has caused me in addition to the case has been awful! B:mad2:

Hi Jimmy but its hard you know All the judges know the lawyers and the barristers and you dont realise this until your in the thick of it. Also when your representing yourself (as I am) the barristers will try and get stuff through or dropped and I was too green to even notice it! Luckily the judge said he would decide if it was out of time - I didnt even know what this meant! Also I think perhaps that judges dont want to upset employers too much - as they the employers:sad: are the ones paying people and effectively keeping the economy going! Please tell me if Im wrong and give me hope! B

Cant anyone make a call to the Health and Safety executive or is this not relevant please someone correct me if Im wrong? There should be a big notice on your wall somewhere (usually in the canteen or staff area) saying all the things your employer should do for you etc re health and safety and well being and contact details - could you not get a friend to ring and say they were a customer??? Sounds awful place! Is there no way you can highlight this to management or raise in a staff meeting but be really jolly and smiley about it (the way they are when they are telling you something bad) that way youcould make it look like you are being proactive (which you are) - as there is always the oh he or she is being negative if you are saying in regard to yourself ie im too hot. Whereas like employers do if you put a spin on it and say oh its a worry that lady has just commented re the heat and could impact on business etc its the 3rd one today to make comment (then make a note of when you said it in your diary and to whom and who was there when you said it) Dont any of the customers write in and complain? B