The VOA and local councils should have integrated systems, hence the inefficiencies also tried contacting them, no one answers the calls, they dont have a contact email address either, I need to see if there is a way through the online account, but they seem to make it as difficult as possible to try and sort stuff out

So the council still sent me and the tenants a bill for the side garage even though the band has been deleted/merged ......seriously this is tax payer money just wasted on inefficiencies and people that probably would never get hired in the public sector. If anyones watches Parks & Rec...Ron was right

So I sent them an email with the claim and informed them to forward on to their legal team, they came back and said go talk to Packlink nothing to do with us. Should I go ahead an draft up my small claims court application? it has been 14 Days today.

Update/Resolution: They came back, I did have a bit of a moan at someone over the phone, they agreed to delete the tax band for the garage but...merged it with the main house and raised the overall tax band to and F .....not sure I can do much at about that as they cited other houses nearby etc, I need to look into it a bit more, essentially adds another ~£150-£200 councit tax for the year, I will probably cover that for the tenants for this year and agree with them to pay it going forward. Just glad its over at least.

Not looking to rent it out at all, which is the ironic part as soon many garages around my area are illegally, do the right thing and you get shafted and from what I understand even if you pay council tax it doesnt mean you can rent it out, I have loner term plans for the property so having a it split up with an annexe is a problem

Yep that's correct

I am actually dealing with the VOA, the council are actually easier to deal with, and thats saying something, but hopefully I am just fearing the worst. lol thanks for reading my rant! probably just needed to vent and wishing for a magic bullet

Hi hope you can help provide me advice on this long post.... I bought a rental property last year around April time, the property has a side garage in which the previous owner had installed a kitchen area complete with gas stove/oven cupboards and sink etc, there is an separate entrance into the garage from the street and another door into the main house which includes a downstairs toilet/shower. As part of the conditions of my mortgage the lender had noted this garage asked me to confirm that it would not be used as a living space / dwelling, which I duly obliged and when my tenants moved in I explicitly told them in the contract that the garage was not included as part of the tenancy, I locked both doors and kept the keys.... Around Oct time my tenants received a council tax bill separate to the main house "Annexe at XX XXX road," I queried this with the VOA they told me to submit a proposal for deletion of the band along with evidence that the garage was not used as a dwelling, so I ripped out all the kitchen pipework and sent the formal proposal including pictures to show that it could not be used as a living space as per VOA's own guidelines, my proposal was denied, they cited the fact that they had seen the changes the original owner had made on rightmove etc, and that if I wanted I could easily convert it back after the VOA delete the band, this seems preposterous as it seems I am being penalised for something I may do rather than something I have actually done, and I was told I could go through the appeals process, however speaking to people and on forums I realised they rarely side against the VOA. I paid the tax due and I made further alterations, I have blocked off access from the garage into the main house and removed all drainage, so as far as I am concerned I have followed the VOA's guidelines on what is considered a dwelling/living space, the garage has no access to food preparation area or cleaning / drainage. I have submitted a new proposal, currently a month in and have nothing yet, however I am worried it might get rejected again depending on the mood of the VOA officer rather than their own guidelines, I have offered to provide further pictures or invited them to visit the actual property and generally work with them, but nothing back. Obviously I am still awaiting a decision, however if the decision goes against me again I have no idea how to go forward other than go through appeals and then onto court, of course, I could just knock the whole house down and even then I doubt the VOA would be satisfied. The tenants have a young family and for the moment I am happy to pay the tax until it gets resolved, however I cannot imagine being able to pass the cost onto my tenants, I am considering putting a formal complaint in the way this is dealt and contacting my MP, I think generally the fact that VOA offer no advice on how to resolved the issue is the most frustrating bit. Thanks for reading if you did!

Cheers, also got an email from some dude named Tariq who has been personally asked by the CEO to look into this matter for me unfortunaley Hermes wants nothing to do with me and suggest I go beg Packlink lol Guess Im sending the claim letter and then filing with small claims court

Hi mate, going to send a letter similar to yours, can you confirm full postal address including recipient you sent it to? Cheers

Cheers, yeah I read that thread earlier as well, lol your reply is a zinger, hoping I get to send that on as well Can I post it to them here? Capitol House, 1 Capitol Close, Morley, Leeds LS27 0WH. Not sure who to address it to, complaints Dept? I will send it recorded / signed for - assume I can add it to my compensation claim

Should I go ahead and send through the letter of claim?

Hi Sorry for the late response back, really appriciated your time, I had some personal stuff come up and needed the mental energy to deal with Hermes again I wen through a bunch of threads as you suggested and decided to complain.......I tried to send the following letter of complaint to thieir email address but the email bounced: Thank you for contacting Hermes. This email address is no longer a Customer Service contact channel so if you have a question about a parcel, please visit https://new.myhermes.co.uk/help-and-support/contact-us.html where you can use our Digital Assistant, Holly, to log an enquiry with Customer Services or she will point you in the right direction. There appears to be no way to send a complaint through other than obver the phone via the chat bot, is this even legal? I have googled eveywhere and I am unable to find a way of sending a complaint through Thanks in advance

So I assume I take this up with Hermes rather than Packlink?

Hi Hope you can help, I bought a pair of trainers just before Xmas, however they were a size too small, rather than return them I decided to sell them on eBay as they are fairly hard to get. I used Packlink / Hermes as the courier and regrettably I didnt opt for enhanced comp (given the value of the item and difference between normal comp and enhanced it didnt make sense), I dropped them off to the parcel shop on the 21st Dec (receipt provided), over the next 10 days I saw that the item was still tracking as dropped off at the parcel shop, I contacted Hermes they told me to speak to Packlink who opened a case and agreed the item was lost. Their investigation has concluded and they have agreed to compensate me £25 + the cost of the postage, I have just received the email and have not responded back, the money is due to be sent to me tomorrow. I have partly accepted the loss as a lessons learned, i came across some of the discussions on this board and thought maybe is may be worth looking into further? particulars of the costs: Original Item value: £220 Item Sold for: £275 Ebay Fees: £14.05 Delivery Cost: £4.39 (Refunded) I have refunded the £275 back to the buyer, since a case was opened I have also lost the £14.05 ebay fees, my net loss atm is £220 + £14.05 (not to mention the actual sale of the item), should I accept the £25 compensation and move on? Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated, its less about the money and more about the fact that there are very few options when it comes to which courier to use and if the item gets lost/stolen the companies seem to simply wash they hands of the issue with a pretty poor compensation. Thanks in advance