Thanks for the good advice. I will contact my home insurance and ask them the question. I think most cleaners would not have insurance. Were I live in London most cleaners are from Eastern Europe. Do you know how much it costs to do a CRB check on someone?

Hi, I plan to hire a cleaner and was wondering if there are any legal considerations I should know or bear in mind about as I have not hired a cleaner before? 1) Do I or should I give the cleaner a contract to sign? 2) I presume I give the cleaner a set of keys to my house. I do feel a little nervous about doing that but I guess that would be most convenient for both parties. Many thanks!

In July 2015. Yes, I agree with you and am looking for an experience plumber at the moment to carry out an assessment. Okay, will post back when the assessment has been done. Thanks!

Hi, After a full house renovation (including a loft conversion, new heating and hot water system) that has taken many months, my family and I moved back in just before the Easter Bank holiday. Unfortunately there is a major a problem. When I turn on the kitchen sink tap it takes over 3minutes before the water becomes hot enough to wash the dishes. In that time I have filled large kitchen sink which I have to drain away and refill with hot water. I now use the kettle to heat the water to wash up. All of my taps are affected (I have 3 bathrooms and a WC room on the ground floor). I now bring a kettle up to wash my face and we all wash our hands in cold water after using the toilet. When we use the shower each day a lot of water as you can imagine is wasted. I e-mailed the builder to let him know about the problem and he said that nothing can be done and we had said no to his recommendation of having a circulating ring. We based our decision to not have the circulating ring on the information he presented to us and I don't believe the way he worded his response can be considered a recommendation. Before the renovation we waited around 20seconds for hot water for each tap in the house. Here is an extract of the e-mail exchange that took place last year before works begun - I have deleted sentences that relates to other building works and not relevant to the case. From: Date: Thursday, 23 July 2015 11:42 To: Cc: Subject: RE: Renovation Plans Hi As for the ring, I see. We will leave it then. Regards, From: Sent: 23 July 2015 11:11 To: Cc: Subject: Re: Renovation Plans For the ring minimum cost is £xxxx with no profit for it so can't do for xxx. As I said it's not really required. On 23 Jul 2015, at 10:39, > wrote: Hi As for the circulating ring, how low can you get this price down by? At £xxx it is too much just to have instant hot water but we would consider it if could be done for the region of £xxxx? What do you think? Thanks, From: Sent: 20 July 2015 19:59 To: Cc: Subject: Re: Renovation Plans 1. Boiler proposed is Vaillant EcoTec Plus 637 system boiler with 7 yr warranty. 2. Pressurised cylinder is everflo stainless 250L Indirect unvented hot water cylinder with 25 yr warranty. 3. All the heating system will be designed by us and BTU calculated for radiators. 4. In addition to hot water system after speaking to plumber today I should ask wether you required hot water circulating ring. This is not necessary required as is only for comfort. I have not quoted for it and should you require would be £xxx extra. Circulating ring sometimes useful if some clients wants instant hot water. It can be switched off or it also can be put on timer. To explain in short, when you open hot water tap in shower, hot water will start running in about 20-40 seconds depending on how far are they from the cylinder and how long time ago it was used. With circulating ring on hot water would appear in few seconds. Please let me know what you think. I have to mention this to avoid any doubts in future. (Note: Shower he is referring to is the shower in the loft en-suite because during a meeting he mentioned it would take longer to get hot water there due to the distance. We did not go with the ring in the end because due to unforeseen events we were significantly over budget and needed to make cuts to items that were considered luxury. From the information presented to us it appeared to us that we had a choice and we felt we could wait 20-40seconds for hot water. At no time were we told that the taps for the rest of the house would be affected). I would be grateful for your views and appreciate any advice. I have e-mailed the builder again but he is not responding now. Thanks!

Hi, Just wanted to let you know what happened. I replied back to the Solicitor to let him know that judgment had already been issued and asked him to advise the sprinkler company to pay. He wrote back requesting for additional time for him to take instructions from the sprinkler company and warned that they wanted to appeal the court's decision. I replied back agreeing to give the Solicitor an additional week and also gave him the details of what happened, from my point of view, and the evidence I had and again asked him to advise the sprinkler company to pay. A few days later the Solicitor replied back to say the sprinkler company are paying up. I have the money in my bank account! I will be happy to make a donation to this amazing site and would like to say a big thank you to Andy and the rest of the Consumer Action group for your help. Your quick reply, even though it was Saturday, give me the confidence and knowledge to know how to respond to the Solicitor's letter.

Great, thank you so much Andy for your help! Shall I come back to let you know how it pans out?

Ah, I see Andy. I've given them to the 22nd March to pay. If I don't hear from them to ask for my bank details by this date I can technically on the 23rd March apply for a warrant to enforce the judgment?

So the judgment was issued on the 9th March so they need to wait 19 calendar days from this date before they can request for the judgment to be set a side?

So shall I reply to say I don't agree. It then sounds like from your reply that they will put in an application for the judgment to be set a side, is that correct? In my Judgment form I requested to be paid by the 22nd March 2016. Am I correct in my thinking below? If that is the case they will complete the set a side form and submit their evidence to the Judge for him/her to decide whether or not to grant this request. If the Judge decides their evidence is not strong enough then the default judgment will still prevail and they need to pay immediately as it would be after the 22nd March 2016. If the Judge decides their evidence is strong enough then I will be informed and receive an allocations questionnaire to move it to the next stage.

Hi Andy, Thank you so much for your quick reply. What if I don't agree to this request? I am just thinking why should I helpful considering the lack of response I've received from them since the leak happened that they caused.

Hi, As part of a house renovation I had to have a sprinkler installed in my house to comply with Building Regs. I contracted a sprinkler company to do this in June 2015. They told me it would be installed as I neared the end of my renovation so it was done on the 30th November 2015. Unfortunately the following morning after the installation I came into the house (we are not living on site) to find water on my kitchen floor (their pipe connection to the mains water was under my kitchen sink) and in half of my living room (open plan room). I immediately contacted the sprinkler company but since that event they have not been responding to my e-mails or phone call bar one e-mail to say that they do not accepting liability for the cost of damages. I issued a claim against them via he MCOL on the 5th February 2016 for £4.5k. Their deadline to reply was the 24th February 2016. I did not hear from them. I e-mailed the court after this date to see if they had received a response and they replied to say no response had been received. On the 8th March 2016 I called the court about what to do and they told me that I could enter a judgment against them. After the call I completed the form to enter judgment and it was issued on the 9th March 2016. Yesterday, 11th March 2016, I received an e-mail from their solicitor with the below: "Please find attached a copy, by way of service, of the Acknowledgment of Service that we have today filed at the County Court Business Centre. So that we take full instructions from our insured and insurer clients please confirm whether you are agreeable to our client having an extension to file and serve their Defence to your claim. In accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules, t he parties are permitted to agree an additional 28 days for service of a Defence without the Court's permission. Please confirm whether you can agree to our client serving their Defence by 4pm on 5th April so that we may notify the Court accordingly." Can anyone explain what this letter means? If Judgment has already been issued then what is this letter for and why would I want to give them an extension to file a Defence when they should have submitted or acknowledged the claim when it was first issued to them? Any views and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!