Can anyone answer does the landlord have to test fire alarms prior to tenant moving in ? I have on my inventory that they where not tested.

I am hoping i can get some advice as I am currently in a frustrating situation and facing costs which I think are unfair. A little background I started renting in December 2010 with my partner this was the first time we have ever rented. When we moved into the house in 2010 the house was cheaply decorated walls painted and new carpet, we moved out on 28/03/14 so roughly three years. Prior to leaving I spent best part of 2 days cleaning the house I have had a letter today listing dilapidations which were picked up on the exit of the property. One of them is a full clean of the house with the cost of £144 I have already paid them £70 for cleaning of the carpets, the company I paid to clean the carpets do the work on behalf of letting agent and actually advertise them on their van, they have also been invoiced for the £144 work to be carried out. They attached photos of the areas they see a problem with, the photos they sent me are like crime scene photos they have gone in and taken pictures of tiny specs of dust which I feel is unfair, almost looking for evidence of dirt. I spoke to the general manager and he said the house has to be left in the same condition as it was when we moved in, which we feel we have for one the oven has been dirty since day one and some of the items just generally look dirty due to age. I am sure even with a professional clean they could not been cleaned to a good standard. I checked my inventory and highlighted some concerns such as it does not go into enough detail as to the condition of the house, I raised this with the general manager who said back then the inventory where not good and now we take photographic evidence. One example is that majority of the doors look to have tiny punch marks, these are not listed on the original inventory in detail but when having a conversation they apparently have notes. Repainting of front room and landing, over the three years we hung some photos as expected they now want us to pay a proportion of the costs to paint the areas I would have thought this comes under fair wear and tear it seems not, not do they have an outline policy stating what they deem as fair wear and tear. Overall they are arguing that the property has to be returned in the same state as how we got it one quote from the Manger is that “In your case this is easy, because the house was freshly decorated” with this in mind how can anyone return a house in a freshly decorated state after it being lived in for three years. It is also worth a mention on my house inspections everything was marked excellent. I have now asked for an itemized bill of what they plan on charging me and a breakdown of costs. Unfortunately I have misplaced my contract during my move I plan on asking for this and a summary of what they deem as fair wear and tear as at the moment it seems down to the individual.

I paid her cash, it was advertised on ebay still have the advert. I am about to call the police now.

Morning CAG I am in bit of a situation and wanted to ask for general advice as I have been left in a frustrating situation. I purchased an iphone 5 with IMEI on 14-Mar-13 and started using this phone on the GIFFGAFF Network The lady I purchased the phone off lived local and explained she bought the phone outright and was on o2 and there were no issues, no alarm bells rang she let me into her house and at the time seemed a really courteous. She said any problems come back and see me. I still have the box for the phone. Around 2 days ago the IMEI was blocked; I have confirmed this with a call to o2 customer services. They cannot disclose the reason why the block was put in place, but explained a block would be put in place for lost / stolen insurance claims. I have not reported the incident to the police yet but i plan on doing this i have made GG aware I visited the lady who I purchased the phone off yesterday and he is refusing the talk about the phone, moment she answered the door could see the look on her face of guilt. So my suspicions are that she has reported the phone stolen when I paid 300£ for the phone a couple of months back, if a phone was stolen / lost I would have thought the handset would be reported missing the day after used on another network for 4-5 months after the sale of the phone. If this is the case a fraudulent claim has been made against the phone and someone needs to be made accountable for these actions. I put the phone on my insurance plan as soon as I purchased the phone, and queried with an agent about proof of usage as I was asked about this in the event of a claim when registering the phone with my insurance company. As this is a malicious case and I have been left with no phone what are my options. As you can understand this is a very frustrating situation for me but in this case I feel I have been a victim of fraud / malicious behaviour. I have the phone here as useless as it is now i am happy to return the handset to the service provider, providing an investigation is made, I understand they cannot divulge information to me under data protection acts. But what has happen here is not fair on honest, hardworking, people like myself. Any advise? Or am i stuck with a 300£ phone that dont work.

Evening Everyone i hope you can assist this is my first post on this forum. This morning I have received a letter from Inter-Credit International advising me the DVLA is preparing a claim against me as i have ignored all previous communications, I can pay a 80£ out of court settement. This is the first communication that I have received and was shocked to find out my details have been passed onto debt collection and i couldnt understand the reason, because i have not received any communication relating to the matter prior to this. I am a law abiding person and am 100% ontop of all paper work and finances. I would like to know where i stand as i feel i have been treated unfairly, I have called the DVLA and they only offer payment of the fine ( Typical) or to appeal via post this is no good. My car tax ended on 31/12/12 I sent my sorn away on 17/12/12 as the car is a classic and I was working on the car at the time and know i wasnt going to use it ( does less than 1000 miles a year) I have a photocopy of my SORN certificate that i posted ( I dont know how credible this will be as evidence) as far as i understand i am not legally obliged to phone up the DVLA and check they have received my SORN, they advise to call 30 days if not received confirmation, but this is not a legal requirement. I have received the letter from inter-credit and the house number is listed as 15 not 16 and the post code is two digits out ( does not even related to the area i live in) this explains why i have not have any previous communications relating to the fine. I believe this to be error of the DVLA when I purchased a private license plate as i have never had any issues before this date. I have ammened this fault on my V5 and the car was taxed in March. Why rights do I have with this as I 100% sorned my car it must have been lost in the post, the DVLA can argue i should have phoned up, but they cannot enfore this legally and seems like a gap in there processes. The error on the log book i am thinking about submitting a V888 request for information ( another service you have to pay for ) to see if my log book was correct when on the original registration if so this wil be down to an admin fault on the DVLAs side. To me it seems the DVLA need to look into cases like mine more closley my point to them was i have another car registered at my address under my name, why coudnt they cross reference this and check this against my license it wouldnt have happened, it just seems they are uncapable of admitting fault and are putting all the blaim onto me.