Hello there and thank you. You don't sound grumpy No, this is nothing to do with any of my other threads - this guy is 62, now works with me and is not computer-literate. I don't think there will be too many complications with this thread, I just need to know: 1. Is the amount that 'we' are claiming correct or does it need changing due to Tax and NI? 2. Is a LBA the next option? 3. Any opinions on whether the evidence we currently have is enough?

Hi all. Very briefly, my friend worked for an employer last year who paid him by bank transfer and never gave him a pay slip. My friend resigned at Christmas and since then has sent letters to the employer asking for payment for 2 days worked, 2 days bank holiday pay and 2 days holiday pay. He has since asked me to help him make a claim against his ex-employer. Evidence-wise, we have this: Original advert in local paper Bank Statements showing 7 bank transfers made to my friend's bank account starting on 11.9.2015 and ending 18.12.2015 totalling £4718 Copies of letter and email sent to employer Proof of receipt of letter. He is owed money for the last 2 days he worked (21&22 December 2015), 2 days holiday pay and 2 days bank holiday pay. He works this out as £9 x 8 hours x 6 days=£432 Is this the correct amount or do we work out the Tax and NI he would have had deducted? (although his employer, apparently, never paid his NI or Tax) My question is, do you think that we have enough evidence to proceed? And, if so, is an LBA the next move, detailing the above information? Thank you in advance, B

Hi, Sadly, no, just HSBC. Why do you ask?

Hi. Well I have requested that this thread was deleted but no help so far....

I definitely will. Thank you, I just wanted to know if there was anything that I'm missing or not doing correctly. For example, what would happen if the court finds that my friend has totalled up the total owed slightly incorrectly, maybe out by £50 or so? Do they then act upon this, etc?

Excellent!! I've done a SAR with HSBC but they claim that their records didn't go back to when I needed (unfortunately 1996ish) so do I have to go the Ombudsman route to enquire about microfiche?

Hi all. I recently read in the Sunday Times that even though some banks have told customers that they cannot find records regarding potential PPI claims because the claims are regarding loans that were over 6 years ago, once the Ombudsman has got involved, some banks have 'found' the records stored on 'legacy computer systems or microfiche'. This sounds too good to be true.....is there any truth in this, please?

Hi. Last year a silly company jumped the gun and issued a small claims court claim against my friend for £5079. My friend quite rightly disputed this, provided his evidence, but the company held off withdrawing their claim until right at the last minute. Please can someone give me a vague idea how much extra this would have cost them, if anything? Thank you, B

Apologies, it wasn't from a contract but from here: https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/notice-periods I think Sidewinder has answered my question anyway. Thank you all, you're all so helpful.

Thank you all. It seems that I posted a question for my friend and misunderstood his question. I'll try again - is it 12 weeks maximum of notice? I see here that it states '12 weeks’ notice if employed for 12 years or more', but doesn't state whether this is maximum?

My employer recently (four months ago) ran a day (8am - 5.30pm) and night shift (5.30pm - 4am). They gave notice to end the night shift, offered the night shift employees options of jobs on the day shift or redundancy. My employer is now discussing whether to change our current day shift to a double day shift of 6am - 2pm/2pm - 10pm. Will they have to offer us redundancy if some of us cannot work this new shift for family/childcare reasons?

A friend of mine has worked for his employer for over 20 years and is currently in the top tier of the pay structure for his job. For the last 18 months he has worked a four day week on arrangement with his employer due to a combination of his nearing his retirement age and ill health. He recently took five months off sick and was paid 90% of his wage thanks to his employer's sick pay scheme. After a few weeks back his employer asked him to a meeting where they told him that they had reviewed his pay and want to reduce his current pay per hour and offer him a new contract for less money and did not provide a reason other than they feel that his current pay is too much. Can they do this?

Hi all. Please can I ask have the redundancy pay rules been changed lately? A friend told me today that there is now a maximum of 12 weeks redundancy pay? Apologies if this is a sily question.

Jeez.....how dumb am I?

Thank you. It's needed!

Please can I ask which forum this was moved to?

Hi all. An update: Since I last posted, there has been a lot going on in my friend's family life which has not been great for him, hence there was a delay in him getting back to AC regarding their rather chilidish letter where they stated: He replied on March 3rd with this: 3rd March 2016 Dear Mrs xxxxx, Regarding your letter dated 15th September 2015 - Unfortunately I experienced some personal family issues shortly after receiving it, which has taken up most of my thoughts and time since then. However, I am now in a better position to respond. You state that your position in not supplying me with the calculations that I require relies on the wording in your Frequently Asked Questions on your website, specifically one’s interpretation on the word ‘can’. This is in direct contradiction to your (AC Roof Trusses’) verbal contract when it was ordered on, or around, July 4th 2014 when you promised that the calculations would be provided on delivery of the goods. You state in your letter that in order to provide me with the calculations, I must pay you £300. You state that this amount is made up of ‘interest’ and ‘court fees’. I feel that I need to clarify the true timeline of events in order to clear this matter up, hopefully once and for all: July 4: I ordered the goods and paid 20% deposit (£1218.56). I was promised work would commence immediately, take two days to complete and that the calculations would be delivered with the goods. Early August: Bob Pritchard had to chase you for a delivery date, this was given as August 22nd. August 22: No goods delivered. August 22: I visited you and was told that the goods would “definitely be delivered by the end of next week”, being August 29th. August 29: No goods delivered. September 2: Incomplete order (Timber Frame) delivered. September 8: You claim that the goods were delivered. September 10: Completed goods/order actually arrived (Driver did not ask for payment nor provide balance invoice or any invoice at all). September 13: I sent you a letter to requesting invoice (Recorded delivery). October 2: I sent a second letter to you requesting an invoice (Recorded delivery). October 2: You issued a court claim. October 4: I received a letter from you with two invoices, both with the same date. One had the amount outstanding and the other had the amount outstanding plus interest and court fees. I also received the Court Claim. October 9: Cheque sent for amount outstanding (minus interest and court fees, sent by Recorded Delivery). October 10: Cheque cashed. October 15: Cheque cleared. You will see that I sent you a letter requesting an invoice just three days after the goods were eventually delivered (many weeks late). It was October 4th before I eventually received your invoice and then I sent you the cheque for the outstanding amount just five days after receiving that invoice. Upon receiving the court claim for excess fees and interest, I responded to the claim and provided all the above information, even though my family was going through an extremely stressful time during that period. Eventually, you cancelled the court claim because, I can only assume, you could see that I had done everything asked of me. The fact that you are now demanding from me the costs that you occurred by bringing the court claim and subsequently cancelling it, I believe is nothing short of extortion or, similarly, blackmail. I am a good, honest, hardworking family man and you are treating me horrendously. As a professional Roof Trusses company, you will be more than aware that I cannot get my building passed off by the local Building Control Department until I receive the calculations. The fact that you are refusing to honour your contract until I reimburse you for a court claim that clearly should not have been brought in the first place is despicable. Recently, I have had to take time off work to contact Citizens Advice, who then passed the matter on to Trading Standards. The advice that Citizens Advice gave me was that I should ask you if you have an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). I am ready and willing to go ahead with this route. I would appreciate your reply regarding this. If you do not have such a scheme then I would ask if you have a trade Ombudsman that I can take this complaint to. Ultimately, if you do not have either of these routes for me/us to explore and if you still will not provide me with the calculations that I need, then unfortunately I will have no other option than to hire an independent Structural Engineer to visit my property and assess the Timber Frames and calculate the calculations for me. I am advised that this will cost anywhere between £400 and £850. If I am forced to go this route then I will have no other option but to request that you reimburse me for the cost. Again, I sincerely hope we can resolve this and both go our separate ways and move on. They did not respond to this letter so he emailed them on 18th March asking if they could respond to his letter. They replied: 'We are in receipt of your letter and will respond once we have read the contents thoroughly'. So he replied with the contents of the letter for clarity. Yesterday he emailed them this: 'Dear Mrs xxx, Further to my email sent on 18th March, please can I ask if you can now respond to my letter that you received on 6th March? Additionally, in your letter dated 24th June 2015, you state that 'Whilst the cost of the calculations for the timber frame is included in the quotation, the cost for the roof truss calculations are not'. Therefore, please may I ask that you send me the timber frame calculations. Either by post or email would be perfectly fine. I hope to hear from you soon on this.' Whilst doing this, my friend has been in touch with Trading Standards and explained the situation to them. They replied with this: In relation to ‘unfair business practices’, again it is down to proof. Obviously from your point of view you consider their practices to be unfair as you are referring to what was agreed in the verbal contract. I think the company changing its reason for the extra money is dubious but could probably be explained away if it went to court. In court AC Roof Trusses could argue a completely different story to yours and say that it was explained to you at the start that payment was required on delivery and that you acted unfairly by refusing to pay on delivery, instead you withheld your payment. They could argue that the recorded delivery letters you sent to them were simple requests for the calculations and not requests for the invoice as you claim. They could argue that you tried to hold them to ransom as you withheld your payment and refused to pay them until you had the calculations. As you can see, these disagreements can get very messy and very often you may find all sorts of accusations start flying around. This is the trouble with verbal contracts, there is no proof of what was said and when. I have seen disputes like these go on for a very long time and very often end up very bitter with both parties refusing to back down or give an inch to resolve the problem. Have you thought of writing to them offering to go 50/50 on the fee’s they are requesting in exchange for the calculations? Perhaps a change in stance from both sides could bring a conclusion that is agreeable to both sides? Perhaps a calm meeting with the manager in person could bring about a solution, if you explain that you want to continue trading with them in the future and you don’t want this episode to tarnish your relationship, a mutually agreeable conclusion could be worked out. I’m sure they would rather not lose a customer if it could be helped, the same as you would rather not lose a supplier or indeed pay more than needed for the calculations. Unfortunately without rock solid proof it is difficult for anyone to ‘take action’. This includes yourself, AC Roof Trusses, Trading Standards and any other trade association or ombudsman service. I do appreciate how you feel about the situation and I am sorry I cannot do more to help resolve the dispute. All I can suggest is that in the future, make sure you get everything in writing from the start. Even if this is by email, a detailed quote outlining everything really is worth it. I should explain that when the Trading Standards reply states 'I think the company changing its reason for the extra money is dubious but could probably be explained away if it went to court.', he means that AC sent my friend one invoice showing a total of £300 for the cost of the calculations: However, they have also sent the letter, below, showing that the £300 is not just for the calculations, but also incorporates the interest and court fees (that they lost when they withdrew their claim): Also, where the Trading Standards officer states 'In court AC Roof Trusses could argue a completely different story to yours and say that it was explained to you at the start that payment was required on delivery and that you acted unfairly by refusing to pay on delivery, instead you withheld your payment.', I should explain that AC delivered the goods without telling my friend, hence they delivered them whilst he was at work so could not have been there to pay for the goods, even if this was the so-called 'agreement'. Something else which may or may not be of relevance: AC, in contradiction to their claim that payment should have been made on delievery, have quoted in their letters two different methods of how they believe payments should have been made. In one letter they state 'The invoice was originally sent to site with the delivery where our driver was advised to bring the invoice back to our office and you would call in the following day to pay the balance'. In another letter they state 'The contract clearly stated that the balance was due prior to delivery' They don't seem to be sure of which was was their preferred method? Finally, I have just found this letter which probably explains exactly why the trouble all started in the first place: It seems that they received the order from my friend's cousin (they name him in the un-edited version), took the the emailed confirmation of the sizes required from his cousin.and took instructions from his cousin regarding method of payment. So what I suggest has happened from their side is that they took the order and method of payment from someone other than my friend, didn't notify my friend of the date of delivery, then despite receiving a request for invoice from my friend just three days after the delivery date, and then again just over two weeks later (both sent by recorded delivery), they finally sent the invoice along with a small claims court claim demanding interest and court fees from him. To me, this seems like they got their wires crossed over who to contact and then rushed to issue the court claim. I hope I have helped explain where my friend is now. Any advice on what to do now sure would be appreciated. It would seem to me that my friend has three routes to go: Explain to them that they have admitted in their letter that they took the order from someone other than my friend, hence delivered the job without informing my friend (hence him not being there), then rushed in to issuing a court claim against my friend (who in the meantime had twice requested the invoice) and are now witholding the calculations that he needs until he pays them the court fees that they lost by withdrawing their claim. Make one final request for the calculations in a LBA and warn them again that he will be forced to go to a structural engineer to obtain the calculations and then go back to them to reimburse him for the costs, estimated to be between £400 and £850 Explain to them that they have issued one invoice for £250 for, apparently, the costs of the calculations. They have also explained that the figure is actually made up of the cost of the calculations, the interest of £20.31 and the court fees owed of £185, so this must mean that the calculations only cost £44.69 and send a cheque for that amount. Please help if you can. Thank you in advance.

Than you so very, very much for this, this is helpful!!

Hi all. My friend's parents would like to start proceedings to take out some kind of restraining order on their son to stop him ever visiting their premises or sending them letters. He has not threatened them although he does have a history of violent outbursts and seven months ago was issues a restraining order by the local court to stay away from their other son. Please can I ask if there is any advice anyone can offer them before they go to a solicitor tomorrow? Thank you in advance. B

I'm already on it!! Thank you all, you've been brilliant!!

Steampowered, thank you for that, that is interesting. Two things I want to ask, if that's okay: 1. You mention that they may counterclaim for the fees they claim is owed them (only 'interest' and 'fees'), I do not know if you know this but they tried this, issued court papers, then pulled out at the last minute when, after we supplied them with our argument, it became clear that my friend was in the right and had done nothing wrong. 2. Please may I ask for a little help in how to progress with this? Thank you for your help, it is incredibly appreciated, and I mean that too.

It seems your 'interpretation' of events could do with me clarifying: I 100% trust the man's explanation of how this particular meeting went and his opinion that he offered was just that - an opinion. It also didn't contradict his manager's view or opinion. Hence me offering an explanation for her reply (at that time).

Thank you so very much for that. However, regarding them going to court regarding the debt they say is owed, they attempted this but then pulled out at the last minute due to the evidence we (Andy, mainly) supplied? Thank you Andy, much appreciated!! PS - Andy, your PM box is full...

Understand your point completely, UB67. However, I don't think it's that simple from what I can see. The man and his team reaches and exceeds the targets that enables him to 'make bonus' and does so regularly. I believe the issues with his immediate manager started during a company meeting where the man offered an opinion that his immediate manager didn't agree with. She had been going through a very stressful time out of work at this time and she snapped and humiliated the man in front of the others managers. Since then, the man has had a one to one meeting with her to explain that he shouldn't have been humiliated in such a way but the manager was reluctant to accept this and since then, their relationship has degraded from what it used to be. It would seem that the manager has gained support from others to try to make the man's position very uncomfortable. Do you take on board that this kind of thing does actually happen and it's not simply a case of 'He should find out what the real issue is and change his ways'? Thank you for the help.

Hi all. A friend's father, mid fifties, feels that he is being added out from his managerial role at work. There have been many comments from his managers in meetings that insinuate that they'd like him out but he has no proof of this (he does have a few emails though). Please can I ask if audio recording these comments in a meeting would be legal and could he use them if he is forced out? Thank you in advance.