Hello, I paid for a holiday package for four people for a sum just over £20,000 - this was supposed to be a highly deluxe holiday, however turned out to be not as thought. In summary; £20,000 was agreed The tour operator added £1,500 a day before the holiday explaining that you would have to pay this or face cancellation I have evidence of the rooms we received in photograph and video form He has admitted various regulation failures on the PH/PTR 1992 He simply says he has the proof that he did book the hotels, however I know he did not pay for them or reserved them for someone else, he takes great confidence in this but never provided us reference numbers The reference numbers on the itinerary were his own, he justified this as saying he keeps the original information (again admitted in letter). I also took a picture of an email the hotel staff showed me, where he books a room a few hours before arrival, the email name is the same as the reference number on the itinerary, but none of the hotel codes meant anything on his itinerary. He put this down to their error, giving us below standard economy rooms, even though we were promised the top rooms, and then refuses to make up the difference in compensation. I gave him every opportunity to resolve our complaints but he simply said pay the 1500 or face court action, he has now issued a claim and his evidence is one paragraph of gobbledegook. I have now issued a counter claim for £10,000. Solicitors so far are asking for £3,000 on account, meaning they can't be bothered looking until they are guaranteed something, and one solicitor confirmed the case has prospects following the PTR and SoGA (Sales of Goods Act) for not taking due care. Trading Standards are assisting, though this is not conclusive at this time, and would not provide any benefit for the claim (as far as I know). So, does anyone have any tips or experience in dealing with this? This tour operator has acted very badly and really has abused us.

[16 Sept 2012] From 1 October 2012, a new code of practice will govern the activities of private parking companies that belong to the British Parking Association (BPA). For the first time, the code will require members to put a large sign at car-park entrances stating the main type of parking available, eg ‘pay and display’, in lettering 60mm (2.4in) high. This is a success for our campaign to get private car-park signs improved, but there remain doubts about whether it will lead to generally beneficial change for motorists because the rest of the code remains highly ambiguous and weighted strongly in favour of the companies, which chase drivers for more than £160million a year in phoney (ie, non-official) fines. (See our other recent new stories, and our Articles page under ‘Parking’.) Both the BPA and the government’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) avoided consulting Plain Language Commission on the draft of the new code, despite (or because of) our frequent contacts with them about mislewading signage. Martin Cutts of Plain Language Commission wrote to BPA president Anjna Patel giving our reaction to the new code. ‘I... am pleased it has adopted some of the points I and others have raised with your officials over the past two years. On signage, for example, the new draft will require a clear sign at the entrance saying, eg, ‘pay and display’ in lettering 60mm high. The new draft also references the DfT signs manual, which my article ‘Phoney fines and dodgy signs take drivers for a ride’ suggested should be the model for private parking signs. The BPA had previously insisted that signs were perfectly clear when the words ‘pay and display’ were only 13mm high, eg about five times smaller than you now require, and had resolutely supported member companies that had imposed thousands of PCNs [parking charge notices] on motorists who had omitted to pay and display because of such signs. ‘Of course it remains disappointing that while the BPA wants sign wordings to be clear, it sets no standards whatever for clarity. This means that its current bankrupt inspection regime will continue to find ungrammatical and nonsensical signs absolutely clear, to the detriment of motorists. ‘I’m pleased the expected contravention charge has been cut to a maximum of £100, tacitly accepting that charges of up to £150, fully approved by the BPA for more than five years, have been immoral and unjust. I’m also pleased that the BPA has made clear that the charges levied by many private members have been unlawful as they have been penalty charges: this is the only possible interpretation of draft code para 19.5, which says the charge must now reflect the “genuine pre-estimate of loss that [the landowner] suffer”. This crucial phrase was absent from the previous code.’ We’ve now written to the DVLA, the government agency (in partnership with the BPA) that provides its government-accredited trade association status, to ask for its interpretation of the word ‘loss’: ‘Please provide us with the DVLA’s/BPA’s agreed and accepted interpretation of the phrase ‘genuine pre estimate of “loss”. What legal precedents have the DVLA/BPA relied on in support of their interpretation of the phrase “genuine pre estimate of loss”? What elements [of parking company expenses] have the DVLA/BPA agreed will be interpreted as “loss”? Please provide examples of what the DVLA/BPA will consider acceptable and unacceptable as “loss”.’ The draft code requires charges not to be ‘punitive or unreasonable’ but does not say how this phrase is to be interpreted. We have asked the DVLA for clarification. The BPA has produced a code that allows it wriggle-room for interpretations that will favour its members, to the detriment of motorists. While we await the DVLA’s answers to our questions with interest, all the indications are that this duplicitous agency will continue to collude in the BPA’s efforts to take as much money from drivers as possible. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 allows private parking companies to chase registered keepers, not just drivers, for their unpaid phoney fines. It also requires a supposedly independent appeals service to be introduced. We have asked the Department for Transport to explain how the service will be independent when it will not operate to ombudsman rules, is under contract to the BPA, and is paid for by the BPA's private members. We have pointed out that it will be forever looking over its shoulder at its paymasters, the BPA. The BPA has said it will get its new, ambiguous code accredited for plain language by the Plain English Campaign Ltd. Now there’s a marriage made in hell if ever there was one: a trade body that pretends to be the motorist’s friend while enabling its members to extract increasing amounts from drivers, teamed up with an firm that gives prizes to its own customers in a supposedly public competition without revealing its commercial tie-ups with them (click here for ‘The Plain English Awards Scandal’). http://clearest.co.uk/news/2012/9/16/small_signs_of_success_in_parking_campaign?page=1

We are covered for this years council tax due to receiving full benefits, but just before i moved in my partner worked for about 4 months and they took until she was on maternity leave to process how much she owed, somehow she missed a month or two but paid all others. 2 years on we get a bill for £102, no problem I phone up, get partner to authorise me to be able to sort problem (she has severe PND), ask why we have a bill as we have paid all amounts requested, told as a cross over from benefits to work, we owe money (which i dont doubt we actually do owe it) Get told they will check with benefits office get back to us within 4 weeks, I then state we cant pay all in one go, but more than willing to pay £2.50 a week (£10 a month) Told cant see this being a problem, they will be back in touch within 4 weeks with result of IF we owe it and how to set up payment. Well now we have just received court summons for 20th sept @ 9.00am - no getting back in touch with us etc, so seriously hacked off! also inc fees of £44 for summons, can I get this cancelled by phoning council and informing them my partner is in vunerable group - depressed (we actually had to got to doctors today and get new/different anti-depressents)- also unemployed and have a child under 1. If not can I go to court on her behalf and act for her and ask judge to refuse order, return it to council then accept the payment plan we have already set up (made 1 payment of £5.00 so far) regards Gary

My small ltd company has been hit with a hefty penalty charge for late filing of accounts which it is unable to pay since it has effectively stopped trading as bank closed accounts over longstanding dispute and offset available funds to reduce overdraft. CH passed matter to DCA to collect payment, I told them business wasnt trading, had no income or assets (only me) and therefore couldn't pay. DCA has now instigated proceedings against company at local CC for payment of penalty charge with costs, even though I had written to them explaining that it was a pointless exercise. Can anyone offer some advice as to how to deal with this, I'm a bit concerned that DCA threatened that once they got a CCJ, if they couldnt get the money from the company they'd expect me to pay!

Hi there - I recently made a claim through the scc, having exhausted all the polite steps and recieved only abuse from the defendant. He did not respond, so I entered a judegment by default. he still did not pay, so I sent a polite letter asking for payment or i would get a warrant of execution. I then recieved payment. All well and good. A few days later, i recieived a very unpleasant letter from him saying he didn't know anything about a small claims case, had never received any papers and was stopping the cheque. I assume he will apply to have the judgement set aside, but how will this work - I enclosed a copy of the judgement when i sent the letter to remind him and he must have read it before sending the money! What should i do now?? Thanks

Hi all, I would like to get some advice on the unfair deduction of my deposit with a previous landlord. I stayed in a flat(moved out 2 weeks ago) with a live-in private landlord where we had a casual contract signed and exchanged. When discussing of the deposit return, he claims me for the professional cleaning for my room, bathroom, living room and the kitchen which was quoted around £200 though the room was not professionally cleaned by the previous tenant, and for the small hole(2cm diameter) accidentally made by me using candles, he is going to re-install a new carpet which would cost £600. therefore it is most likely that the deposit would not be back in a big sum. it is true that the landlord has put " tenant is responsible for hiring a professional cleaner to professionally clean the room, the bathroom, the common area and shampooing the carpet at the end of the tenancy" in the contract, but I find it unjust and would like to take actions to this. Is it possible to sue the landlord based on the above information? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks all in advance.

Hi all. A member of my family is competing in the 2012 Paralympic games in the seated shot put. I would be grateful if anyone who is so inclined could go to his facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonathan-Adams/180656831980618 or his twitter page @jonathanadamsgb and show their support! It would mean a huge amount to him as he has been training for years for this. Thanks everyone and a big thanks to those that do go and click !

Yet another victim here! I'm stuck in a contract with this company, after paying the marketing fee, being told by the salesman that the money was fully refundable after 6 months (no mention of 2 months notice period), a nd no mention of the £3000 fee if you cancel. He also didn't mention that the £6k fee was subject to VAT. Have just emailed Trading Standards about them. Would like to know how to get out of this contract if it's possible? TIA.

Hi, I'm unsure where I may need to post this question so took a stab at this section of the forum... I hope someone can help. A bit of history, my partner sold an item on eBay using my account, buyer collected the item and left. We then got an email saying there was a problem, we offered a refund after a bit of investigation but he refused to return the item to us, saying we should collect it from him... he lives 200 miles away. This went on for some time beore he instructed eBay to resolve the case. They awarded the case in his favour and told him to return the goods for a full refund, as we had originally asked. He failed to do this within the timeframe specified so eBay closed the case. Since then we haven't heard from him until yesterday when we both recieved a 'Judgment for Claimant' from Northampton County Count for failing to respond to the Claim Form. Neither of us has ever recieved a Claim Form to repond to! So my questions is, can I get this judgment set aside and get the chance to defend this claim? I'm reluctant to pay it in full as he is trying to claim twice what he paid for the item and I have't seen a breakdown of what he's trying to claim. Also, can the judgement be registered to both my partner and I, surely he can only claim against one person? As from the begining he's welcome to a full refund providing he returns the goods, otherwise I'm out of pocket all round... can this be dealt with in court. It doesn't seem like a court dispute to me, something we could have discussed in mediation perhaps but he's going all guns blazing because he's not getting his own way. Very childish! Thanks for reading, all help gratefully received. M.

I am brand new to this, so sorry if I have posted in the wrong place. We engaged a Scottish firm to do some work for us. We entered into a contract whereby they would deliver three outcomes. Owing to some very complicated circumstances (neither ours nor their fault) these outcomes were not achieved and they sent us their bill for services. We felt that the bill was excessive in view of the fact that none of the outcomes were achieved. However, we did recognise that they had put in some hours work on our behalf, so we paid two thirds of their bill, and explained why one third was being withheld. They are now threatening us with small claims in the Scottish Sherrif's court, as their business is based in Scotland. However, we are not. We are English residents and always have been. What validity, 'teeth' ,legality, does the Scottish Sherrif's court have over English residents,? Can anyone help us please?

Compliments of Nev - a tireless worker for the rights of motorists in the UK I have an idea that the BPA at some point claimed that there about 36,000 cases per year? Maybe someone can correct me Data (2).xls

Please can someone help. My daughter is taking her horse's vet to small claims court. The vet treated her horse for a period of 3 weeks and during that time failed to conclusively diagnose the animal (it progressively got sicker). The vet also mistreated the animal whilst it was hospitalised for three days for a 'standing sedation' operation. He could not get the horse under sedation but continued to adminster 4 x sedation, used a twitch and in his words wrestled the horse down claiming it was dangerous. The horse is an inexperienced 4year old and was actually very sick. The horse became adrenalin fuelled and was extremely distressed - on her visit later that day the horse was in a bad way. Another week later and still no diagnosis,following yet another yard visit the vet left my daughter in tears with a very sick horse, claiming that he would carry out pus cultures which would take a further 5 working days to get results. In all this time, the vet ignored information regarding the horse's inability to chew and flex its neck, the fact that the horse was worsening and now appeared depressed with a purulent open wound to its face which was getting bigger etc. This same day I instructed another vet practice for a second opinion. Within one hour of admittance the horse was x-rayed and scanned, examined thoroughly and treated with patience and understanding, and a definitive diagnosis made of bone infection and fractured jaw. The horse was immediately hospitalised and placed on strong intravenous antibiotics, painkillers and sedation. The horse remained hospitalised for 7 days, and 6 weeks later has not yet been discharged. Bone infections can be fatal. My daughter has two vet bills, one of which (the second vet) is paid up, the other is in dispute. So, we have the allocation questionnaire and G. Other Information - what do we put here? Letters have gone back and forth quoting Sale of Goods Act, supply reasonable care and skill, and provide in a timely manner. Also, the first vet contacted my daughter's colleague for information regarding the horse and breached data protection. \Never having been to small claims we are finding the process difficult as can't find any examples of how to fill out this form and what is and isn't relevant. Any help and advice is much appreciated pls jacobina

Hi, I'm after some advice as I'm finding this all very confusing. I've recently bought a sewing machine and was asked by some friends to make various bits, bunting, mobile covers etc. They bought the materials first and I made them. No money was exchanged. But after receiving comments from others and being asked to make for them I thought I could do extra. I already work part time (20 hours in a school) but thought in my spare time as I enjoy making stuff I could maybe do extra for people and also do craft fayres etc. I was told I'd need to register with hmrc, so I registered the other night whilst very tired, using a name of the top of my head and I put that I started working (the business) on) 06/04/12 (I think it was this date, I know I did it for the new tax year) - the new tax year?!? So I can start receiving money and not get in trouble...is this right? HMRC have sent me a UTR number so I went on the site to finishing registering but I want to change the name...can this be done as I don't like the name I started with? Also I have put 08/06/12 as the date I started working for myself on there as I cant remeber the exact date I put previously, will this matter? I have also read that I will have to start making class 2 NI payments? £2.50 a week??!?! Yet I am no where near earning anything like that yet, so this is worrying me? As I have heard nothing about it either from HMRC and don't want to be owing? I've had 2 people enquire about orders but no pennies as yet. I'm so confused by it all I'm thinking of not bothering now, but how do I cancel it all if I do?!?! Many thanks x

Apologies, if i have posted in the wrong forum as i was unsure where to post. Please feel free to move my thread if you find some better forum. I hire out wedding chair covers a recently hired out chair covers to a large chain of hotels. As we have dealt with the hotels before we do not ask for a security deposit, but do ask the booking form to be filled in and for the hotel to agrre to the terms and conditions. The hotel filled out the forms and agreed to t&c s. The covers were fitted in one room and then after the ceremony the covers wer carried into another room for the sit down meal. This was done by the Hotel. We arrived at the hotel the next day to put on some more covers for another wedding and replace any soiled ones. When we arrived on the premises i noticed that the covers were over the chairs but all the feet had been removed from the chairs. ( The covers are stretch and fit over the chair and then the feet on the chair are put into the cover) There was also rubber marks down either side of the chair. The lady who was dealing with the wedding said she would have a word with the night staff why the covers had ended up like that. When i checked the covers that we had back before washing almost 90% of the covers had the rubber marks on and there were also tiny holes The rubber marks will not come out and the covers are now un useable.. I have emailed the hotel on numerous occasions as they are now ignoring me and told them i was sending them an invoice for the damaged covers which i did, and that they had seven days to pay which they ignored. I received one email from the lady that organised the hire at the hotel, Saying that she carried out an internal investigation and could not assertain that the chairs had been stacked with the covers on and because i never showed her the holes at the time that they were not taking responsibility. I did say that if i wet on one of there mattresses i am sure they would charge me and at the end of the day the damaged was caused at the hotel and they are responsible. I have now sent them an LBA and another email, but they are ignoring me. I am just about to start small claims proceedings, Just seeing what people think as its the first time i have had a major chair cover disaster. Also does anyone know if i should send the court forms to the Hotel that we supplied the covers to or the head office. Many thanks

Hi, I lease small newsagents as a sole trader which is failing due to fall in foot trade and the economy in general, have had it on open market for almost a year and have reduced the price twice. The decline in the past year has been frightening. My partner runs it, (he wanted it) but doesn`t take a wage as he cannot afford to, I work full time elsewhere and am injecting cash into business every month. I have a bank loan of 9k, arranged after the bank called in their overdraft and 7k due to HMRC after an accountants error. I am currently paying HMRC monies each month from my own salary. We are both at our wits end trying to keep business afloat but it is proving almost impossible and we are considering closing up and asking for early release from the lease, it only has 18 months to run. Of course, this means that we have no chance of recouping any monies as nobody will buy a dead business and essentially walking away but with 16k of personal debt which I would have to pay off my salary. I have no assets, rent my house and run cheap car, no savings either. Just wondered if anybody could offer any advice or views.

I applied for a small claims against the defendant in september 2011. There were three parts to the debt - items of mine which the defendant refused to return, a holiday i had booked which the defendant logged in as me and cancelled (i was unable to get a refund from the hotel/airline company) and cash which i sent registered post and had proof of signature. First court date was November 2011. The defendant didn't show, I didn't either due to being 500 miles away and currently on sick leave. The case was struck out and they lost my paperwork. Ideally it should have been dealt with on the grounds of the paperwork alone.The defendant admitted the first part of the claim and sent a cheque to me for the amount. The cheque bounced. A second court date was set for January 2012. The defendant wrote into the courts and said full settlement had been made. The court struck out the case. No settlement had been made, what happened is the defendant paid the money into someone elses account and used my name in the header field to look like it was my account. I sent in all my bank details to the courts to prove no settlement had been made. It took me 6 months of trying to prove this when i think the court shouldn't have taken the sole word of the defendant in the first place. At the start of June, I had a for mention and the judge made a court order that the defendant was to pay. 7 days passed and no payment. However court orders are not enforceable, only decrees and ccjs are enforceable. So I then have to write in again and am wondering why a judgement wasn't just given in the first place since the defendant has been given opportunity after opportunity to pay. Another two weeks pass and i finally get a judgement but its only for the first part of the claim! (which was the lowest amount out of all three parts to the claim and the one the defendant admitted to anyway). I spoke to the clerk and she told me that means the judge disagreed with me. I asked on what grounds but she said she didn't know. Unreal really. I asked if i could appeal and i can but the amount to appeal is slightly more than what i've been awarded. Overall a very bad experience. Is it worth appealing? and on what grounds? is it worth enforcing? The amount awarded was £100 out of a £500 claim.

I work as a freelance translator here in the UK. I have been doing business with a non-EU translation agency for over 2 years, and they have proven to be trustworthy. They have recently e-mailed me saying they've done business with a UK company which has not paid them. They've had all their communication attempts ignored. Now they want to use "Money Claim Online", but they lack a UK address. That's why they got in touch with me. They are asking if they can use my address. My question is: can I allow them to use my address for correspondence without getting involved in any way other than redirecting mail? What happens if they have a hearing? What if they have to pay any court fees? Is there any way I could become legally implicated just by allowing them to use my address? Thanks in advance for your help.

Afternoon folks, I'm here to ask for some advice as I know there are alot of very smart people lurking out there. I currently am in a court case in small claims court against a particular company. I wont go into detail about this as I want to keep it rather private. But I will sum it up, I took the company to court for adequately providing me with course materials, miss selling me the course under false pretence and company names. (Most people here may know the company, but I shall not name names) Anyway, I send of the forms and have been tracking my progress online and got an email today asking me to complete an "APPLICATION FOR DEFAULT DECREE" Now, I have no legal knowledge at all and was wondering if you would be able to put this into simple terms? The guy on the phone wasn't very helpful and said something about the judge going to look at the case and assess it as its a liquidated claim. Not sure what this means exactly. Also, How likely is it that I would win this claim? Considering the company have not replied to the court after being send numerous letters. Thanks, your help is greatly needed on this one!

Hi, Can anyone help with this issue re a small claim application. I have a hearing date for Fri 15th July, bundles to be submitted within the 3 days before. The defendant have refused to disclose some documents which I believe are key. 24th April I submitted the N244 form plus information and paid the fee to get this disclosed and forcing two witnesses to attend. I have chased and chased often you can't get through to their offfice (central london court). Finally about two weeks ago I did, they say they are shortstaffed and asked me to forward it again in!!! It has been before the judge, obviously I was aware of the bank holidays causing more delays, and the just has just come back today saying he cant process the application, as it's by email and should be by post!!! So for the last 6 weeks, the court staff did not tell me that, quite the opposite in fact. What are my options please? Do I, can I request a postponement? How do I do this, I'm sure there is a fee, even though it's their fault, how is this even fair to me the individual layperson. Or do I just turn up and say I can't do this process because of the lack of documents and witnesses whom I needed for my case? Please help???? Why is the court so slow, to have taken 6 weeks.

I know that you can not take a child (i.e Person under 18 years of age) to court via Small Claims Court. However, I am wondering if its possible to take the parents of children to court?? Basically the case is one where I provided a service to a person who was 17 years of age and didnt pay for it.... Am I able to take the parents of the 17 year old to court even though they were not part of the transaction?

Hi, new to the forum, some advice needed please I have just lost a small claim case, which now means i have to pay the claimant £1000, the thing is i cannot afford to pay it in full at the moment, wife not working etc. The thing is i have offered to pay by instalments (£50 per month), but the claimant has refused this instalment and asked for £100 per month. I cannot afford this, there is no point me agreeing to this if i am only going to fall short on a payment 1 month. what do i do now, can i write to the courts or is it down to us to sort now the judgement has been made. Any advice

Hello Everyone, I need your advise, my car was clamped in April 2012 (under duress I was forced to pay £475 for the release of my car) and after my appeal was rejected by the clamping company I have filed a claim in small claims court. I have received a Notice from the court that a defence and counter claim (for £150, for time spent dealing with this case and also a day at the court) has been filed. I would like to defend the counter claim, can you please advise what options I have for defending the counter claim. Thanks in advance. Regards Bill

Hi just had a doorstep visit from debt collectors moorcroft my husband answered the door and nearly let her in i asked her to leave my property which she did no problem and just said she would put me down as a refusal i was just sorting out my ccas do i now send them to moorcroft or citicards