Towards the end of last year we had to have major repairs done on our vehicleresulted in a new engine being installed. After pick up the car was running like a dream. Prior to going in the pull handle to open the bonnet was faulty but this was replaced/repaired during the engine install. Approx two weeks after pick traveling home one night during windy conditions the bonnet flew open hitting the windscreen causing the windscreen to break, the bonnet was wrecked and minor damage to the roof. This was then sent along by the insurance company for assessment. The outcome was that the clip holding the bonnet was faulty/eroded and not capable of holding the bonnet shut. My question is - shouldn't the garage installing and working on the new engine etc and doing the repairs at that time have noticed that this clip was on the way out and have had a duty to replace it? Any advice on this would be grateful? To say that I am extremely frustrated as we now have another problem and it looks like costing us a small fortune which we don't have is causing me endless worry. Unfortunately we need the vehicle for traveling to work.

My beloved trooper died in smoke on the the motorway before christmas. The rac towed it to our little local garage. However they said they did not have the right diagnostics equipment and were worried it was going to be bad news and thought we should be prepared we may have to write it off. We decided to get it shipped to an isuzu approved garage to get the complete diagnostics done before we made the decision on its fate. The isuzu garage told us that £700 would restore the car to a working state, as good as it was before it died, but they would need £2K to fix everything. I had a long discussion with them getting their PROFESSIONAL OPINION as an ISUZU APPROVED GARAGE about whether it should be written off, the value of the car now and fixed as I intended to trade in the car immediately. They told me it was worth £2K+ and in good condition overall and the £700 should get me at least 6 months and probably more. So I went with that option with the plan of getting rid. They then rang to say that during the works they had found another fault that needed to be fixed immediately but would not charge me labour as they felt bad for changing their quote. Seemed like they were being fair although it took the bill to £1K but as they had already done most of the work I swallowed the increase. We collected the car on the friday just as the bad snows hit here and were really thrilled to have the big beastie back for the bad weather. The saturday we drove it no problem on the way out, then on the way home it died within 5 secs of pulling away- we sat for a minute then it started and drove home. The sunday it died twice on the road at full operating temperature and would not start each time for a few mins but made it home. The monday it would not start at all. I rang the garage they said to bring it in and they would look at it- but how when it would not start? They also said it was possibly the glow plugs and that was why it wouldn't start in the cold weather and they thought it would be fine when the weather improved. When it was warmer we managed to start it but the engine sounds rough and the check engine light is on. The garage still say bring it in and they will look at it but HOW?! They say get the rac to tow it (I'm not even sure they will like this?) but they have no spare space and only want it on the days they have capacity which doesn't suit my working hours as I will have to hang around for rac. If I get the car to them they then have us over a barrel in that we can't get the car home if we won't pay them more to fix it. But I am loath to write it off (I doubt we would even get the £1K back) when it might just be that they did something stupid and it can be easily fixed. Their position seems to be that it is an old car and most likely something else has broken that they could not predict so that is our problem but then why did I pay for their professional diagnostics? They told us there were other issues but nothing else critical. I feel I should have had better service from an approved garage and a more accurate diagnosis of the problems- £1K should have kept my car functional for more than 2 days!!! Thank you if you made it to the end! Anyone know my rights in this situation? I would like them to look at the car but I think it should be their responsibility to move the car?

I'm not entirely sure of my rights so thought I would ask on here. We have been in our flat since July 2011. Last winter we reported issues with the windows as they are very draughty and cold air just pours in through them. As we live in one of the highest places in our town the wind can become rather blowy. On windy days the curtains billow with every gust. My living room and my son's bedroom are the worst. In fact, it can reach 10 degrees or less in his room overnight and that is with the heating ON. The housing association did nothing. They sent someone round who said there was nothing they could do as the windows are old. The main problem with them is that the windows open inwards so when the wind hits them it can push them open just enough to let all that freezing air in to the flat. We had 70mph gusts last night, the wind was blowing through my living room, my boys room hit 8 degrees and it was extremely cold. Remember, I have the heating on. Which, I know, is pointless and a complete waste of money. Now, should the housing association do something about it? They work alongside the council to provide council accommodation so, in effect, we are council tenants. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Hi, I'm having problems getting things repaired in my rented flat. First, our boiler broke and was pumping out carbon monoxide. We had five electricians/plumbers come round to look at it (none had spoken to each other, so it was five individual assessments), which took weeks. During this time we were without heating and with very limited hot water. The last gas certificate for the property was done in 1995. I rang the estate agents every couple of days to check progress, and they said they were unable to contact the landlord and were therefore unable to do anything. We stayed in for four consecutive weekends to let the plumbers in as the estate agents said they didn't have a spare key and we had to be there. Eventually, after 4 weeks of no heating or hot water, a plumber finally replaced the entire boiler. We thought that was the end of it, until over a week ago, when I went into the bathroom to find the carpet completely soaked. I did some investigation and found a leak coming from the pipe that runs behind the toilet, boxed in and tiled over. I called the estate agents... We've since had three plumbers come and look at it and nothing's been done. Each say this and that, and send quotes, but nothing is fixed. The flat now stinks of rotting carpet (one plumber wretched when he came in) and it's unbearable to live here. We also cannot use the toilet, shower or sink because this creates more water and we're concerned that it will leak into the flat below. We've explained all this to the estate agents and they do nothing. When I call them, they say they'll call back and they never do. No one is communicating with each other and the upshot of this is we're left to visit our friends and family for showers and use the neighbour's toilet when we need to. Not an ideal situation. Yesterday we went to the estate agents and sat in their office. I said I wanted it fixed asap, that I would like to request a rent reduction for the two months we've had problems in this flat (I suggested the landlord half the rent for next month, but didn't ask for more) and that if it wasn't fixed soon we would be moving out. My question is, do we have a right to move out? Are there any specific laws that say problems with heating/burst pipes etc should be fixed within in a certain period of time? I would happily get the repairs done myself and take that off the rent/be reimbursed by the landlord, but I simply can't afford to do this. I'm in the process of packing a suitcase and going to stay with my parents until this is fixed, but it is likely to be at least two weeks, according to the estate agents. I feel completely stuck with no recourse to the law. I can't threaten anything in order to get my point across, it seems. I've also sent a letter to the estate agents requesting the name and address of my landlord, who lives abroad. I suspect they'll give me a UK address and I won't be able to contact him. Other problems we've had with the property are: it was supposed to be a furnished property, and we sat with the estate agents highlighting all the things we wanted the previous tenants to keep in the property. When we moved in, the flat was empty, as the cleaners had got the wrong idea and taken everything that was highlighted to the dump. We were told there was nothing the estate agents could do, they refused to contact the landlord, begged us not to tell him and we had to go out and buy loads of furniture at vast expense. We have also been asking where our car parking space is for six months (as we live in a communal flat area, where the car parking spaces don't seem to correspond to the flats) but the estate agents have never asked the landlord and never call us back. We've asked where it is about 20 times. Last week, the car was inevitably clamped for being in the wrong place and the estate agents say there's nothing they can do. I would really appreciate any help or advice anyone can give me. I'm extremely angry and frustrated with the whole thing and don't want to pay nearly £1,000 a month to have no hot water, heating, no use of toilet or showers at various times during our tenancy. Thank you, Lottie

Hi. (Re: local authority) I`m confused about the decent homes standard. After searching for details on the web, it seems there is a conflict between the recommendation for a new kitchen; is it 20 years or 30? The maximum limit seems to be 30 but even on the gov website it seems to say 20 in some places. My kitchen is falling apart in places, they are saying that they will replace some units, missing drawers, taps, worktops and broken floor tiles. Of course they wont be able to match them up and I told them that I wasn`t happy and this was just a bodge up. We are disputing when the kitchen was last done but even on their figures it is 25 years, I think it`s more like 30 because they took over from another authority after boundary changes and my neighbours at the time I moved in told me when modernisation was done - they said early 80`s but I have to accept what the council are saying they have on their record. The Manager seemed to be saying "is it worth doing this when it will all be replaced in another 5 years" but the surveyor wasn`t having any of it. I am going to make a complaint because I havn`t got anything to lose by it but I just wondered if anyone had issues previously or knew anything I could put in my complaint that would help. I think the work that they are going to do is daft when it will all be done under tenants choice in a few years and they don`t HAVE to wait for 30 years to replace a kitchen which is obviously not in a good state. Anyone had a kitchen replaced at less than 30 years? I really resent paying the same rent as others in urban areas who seem to get things done first, it`s a fact that more homes in rural areas don`t meet good standards than homes in urban areas. I have done the bathroom myself, paying for shower fitted and full tiling, I am a good tenant and I would have put a new kitchen in myself over the years if I could afford it. Any comments appreciated.

I bought a new Panasonic Plasma TV from Currys on the 17th April this year. I didn't take out any extra cover so it is within the standard 1 year warranty. 3 weeks ago, the TV started buzzing loudly so I contact Currys who came to pick up the TV promptly. I was told I would have the TV back within a week to 10 days. They then called to tell me that the PSU was broken and that they had to order the part. I called them last week and was informed the TV was due to be delivered last Friday but it didn't arrive. After calling them that day I was told that the part had only just arrived and no repairs had been done yet. They apologised for the mix up. I called them yesterday and was informed that the part had not even been delivered yet. I was then told that if they could not repair my TV within 28 days, then I could go into any Currys store and collect a new one on that day. If a new one wasn't available, they would reimburse me in full. As 28 days comes around next Tuesday, I thought I would nip into my local Currys store to ensure I could collect a new one if my TV isn't repaired and sent back in time. The manager abruptly informed me that this wasn't the case and they can have my TV for as long as they see fit as it's not an 'essential item'. Please could you help me confirm my rights as a consumer? Currys are not being very helpful and I can't find any info on their website. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi, Just need a little help, Imove into a private rental property back in May 2011, we loved the placebecause of the room and conservatory. There had been a leak in the conservatorysome time ago, way before we moved in and this had been repaired. From the next time it rainedwe had water coming in at 4 different points, called the agent the next day andabout a week later the LL sent his builders round who put what I can onlyassume was silicon sealant around the roof windows, needless to say the nexttime it rained the leaks started again. One part of the wall fromaround Sep last year is now water damaged where the water ran down streams. In the end they put an awfulblue piece of polythene on to cover part of the conservatory roof, which asblown off many times and still left part of the roof leaking. The builders cameround to keep securing the cover, till I got fed up with calling the agent. Jumping forward to Jan 2012after numerous calls to the agent the LL his architect and builder came round,they all decided that the roof would need to be taken apart and put backtogether with new seals. This looked like a big job inthe height of winter we agreed that it would be best if they did this inApr/May time hopefully with the chance of drier weather. We moved all thefurniture out of the conservatory into the adjacent room back in June ready forthem coming round to repair the roof. Summer as been and gone andstill no work has been carried out, with promises from the LL after we havespoken many times on the phone that it would be done. I emailed the agent 2 weeksago to find out what is going on, had a read receipt so I know that he’s readit, left it for a week still nothing back, I fired off another, he replied withthis, but with no time scale as to when. “Hi Tim I’m so sorry, the landlord has been desperately trying to get hold ofhis workman but has had no success. I have now suggested we get our own people round to sort the problem outand he has agreed so I will get onto it straight away.” I knowall this is not like a boiler or heating issue, but its drag on so long, it’smy hard earned money that I pay for something that’s not right. They even had the cheek to put up the rentback in May. I’m quite naïve with regardto where I stand. I’ve told them I wantthe rent reduce for the inconvenience of having two rooms out of commission andthey can carry out the roof repair next May when we leave, but I want the roofmade waterproof and the inside wall repaired soonest. Anyadvice would be much appreciated.

Hi i'm looking for some advice here i was renting a managed propery through a letting agent. at the end of the tennancy the letting agent claimed a large proportion of the (rather large) deposit for repairs to the property. The property was then re-let with a different letting agent. While the property was open for viewings with the other letting agent i viewed the property only to find out that none of the repairs to the property had been carried out. At this point i beleive i should consult with a solicitor, however my finances are somewhat limited. I beleive this is a clear case of fraud. Is there any reason i should think otherwise?

Hi all,i hope i have put this in the correct area of the forum! So, the time has come around again for me to get on to my landlord to fix the list of repairs in the property,most of if not all he was known about since i moved in on Feb 2011. I will try and not be long winded about the situation but will try and get all the details in. These are just 2 of the problems but these are the 2 most important. After a month or so of moving into the property and getting everything unpacked etc i had noticed that at our front door the slat that sits inside the property on the floor was cracked and had quick a fair sized piece out of it and that it was no longer secured to the floor as it should be,because of this being broken i am experiencing a unhygienic problem with slugs. This is where it gets stomach churning,for me anyway! Every night without fail if i come downstairs there are countless amount of slugs crawling (? sliming or whatever they do) all over the floor at the front door,making their way up the stairs on the first and second step,up the side of the front door and the window at the side of it and up the hall wall. Now when i say countless amount of slugs,last night i counted 21 and they arent little ones either.At the worst i counted 25. I am actually feeling sick thinking about this. I informed my landlord of this when i first noticed it around march/april 2011. I have the same problem in the kitchen,the kitchen units where my sink is situated are missing the kick plate at the bottom which when you when down you can see it leads to the outside wall.My landlord new about this before i moved in because it had been damaged by flooding and i was assured that it would be fixed before i moved in. Slugs are getting in through this and are all over the floor,going up the side of the back door and i found one in my sink before so i had no idea if it had crawled over the dishes in the drying rack or the drying rack itself so they were thrown in the bin just incase. Last night i counted 12 slugs in the kitchen in total,which 2 of were in the sink AGAIN!!! and one actually on one of the few dishes i had sillyly left out before going to bed.So again they were thrown out! Problem number 2 i had the decorators in last oct/nov to paint out stairway and landing.On inspecting the wall at the top of the stairs they said it was absolutely soaking so they would have to wait til it dried out.They went to find out where the wetness was coming from,the wall that is/was soaking is the wall in my bathroom the bath and shower is on. On further inspection they found that the seal around the bath so when any of us have a bath or shower water is going down the back and sides,the worst part is where the wall is soaking wet there is a plug socket,which i was using unaware that the wall was wet!!! I went downstairs the minute i was told about this to inform my landlord and was told it would be fixed and yet here i am waiting. If i was not having the walls painted i would have never have known about this and continued to use this socket and i cant bare to think would could have happened.Even though i obviously don't use this socket anywhere,there is still a fear that there could be a power surge and boom my house is up in flames. My children live with me who are 3 and 19months so it is not only me at risk of getting sick from the slugs or god forbid if the house caught fire it would be fatal. I have informed my landlord of these repairs and the rest of them which is a list the length of my arm 10+ times and nothing has been done! I dont expect anything to be fixed as they left us without a working oven for 7months! Please any advice is welcome! I was planning to contact him again today but i wasn't sure of a time scale to give him to get these repairs done or how to go about it. thank you in advance for your replies. EDIT: i have put 2010 instead of 2011

Hi all Would be grateful for some advice if any kind soul has the time to offer it. I haven't had a car insurance claim in my 9 years of driving (and potentially 9 years of no claims bonus now to lose!) so I don't have much experience to draw on. In short, I don't agree with some of the invoiced costs which I have received this week - I damaged another car's body work & bumper - but the invoice includes cost of new Toyota, and Aygo badge. Googling an image of the car confirm to me that these are NOT situated along the side of the car or on the back bumper!! The invoice also does not contain any detail on the fields to describe 'severity of impact', 'damage areas', 'vehicle status on inspection', 'pre-accident value', 'Impact.' I am not happy, particularly as the owner of the Aygo has told me the car was photographed and accessed by the repairer. I want to dispute this lack of info on the invoice and this seemingly unconnected costs. What can I do? I haven't yet contacted my insurance company, as I was hoping to settle privately, but the work has been invoiced at £660! Background Info: Earlier this month, I was running late for work, and whilst eratically zooming into a space parallel to the kerb, came too close to a little Toyoto Aygo that was parked nearby. I scraped the Aygo along its side, and there was a little damage it back bumper. The owner and I exchanged details. Hers was a lease car, and due to this said that she would get in touch for the leasing company to sort out, and was very reasonable & understanding. She said that she would contact me with some quotes for the cos of repair, the damage didn't look huge. I hadn't hear anything for a while,so I called the Aygo's owner this week. She told me her leasing company had had the repairs carried out already! They have invoiced me & I have the option of paying privately or settling through my insurance. Claire

help and advice please. My daughters blackberry recently started to play up. i looked online to find this is a common fault with them so i took it into tmobile to be sent away for repair. The lady in the shop commented on how new it looked and booked it in. ! week later i get a call saying there is a scratch on the phone case and this voids its warrenty ( which i know it doesnt as i work on customer servivce for a large retail group) they sent the phone back into store for me to collect. When i went to get the phone the whole case is broken and lifted almost hanging fromt he phone. the lady in the shop said that it there was nothing they could do as thats how it has come back.( the repair companys first notes said the screen and case were in good condition) I know that if it was our company and the damage had happened whilst in our care we would have to sort it but im not sure if its the same for all companys? im going back into store today any advice would really help.

Hi, I have been unable to use my kitchen sink and washing machine for three weeks now as I have a leak that is causing damage to the downstairs flat. I rent and I am waiting for my landlord to fix the leak but it is taking ages. I have to use a launderette which is costing me money I can't afford. If landlord delays things further am I within my rights to knock off some of my rent from to cover the excess money I am having to pay in launderette fees. Also how long is reasonable to be without a usable kitchen sink? Any help much appreciated. Thanks

I hope I'm posting this in the right place but I wanted to warn people about Homeserve and the cover it provides for boilers, central heating etc. Briefly, we moved into our house about six years ago and bought cover with Homeserve for the boiler, central heating, electrics, drains, and plumbing. We noticed an intermitent fault with our central heating and reported it to Homeserve very shortly after we bought cover with the company. Namely, the boiler would fire at 15 minute intervals for about 90 seconds whether or not the system was calling for heating. Additionally, the pump in the airing cupboard would continue to run and run. But there was certainly nothing wrong with the heating or the hot water; something was obviously wrong with the control mechanism somewhere. From this point we've just had a saga with Homeserve including the company sending an engineer from Storm Heating in 2008 who recommended a power flush to the system, which I found out after I'd stupidly signed his chitty invalidated my insurance with Homeserve. Following a complaint the insurance was reinstated and I was paid £50 compensation. But the problem was never rectified. Eventually after may be a dozen workmen had looked at our system one man said that it was an electrical problem and that finding it in the system wasn't part of the cover. As the problem was intermittent we just lived with it but this year the problem became permanent. So I contacted an electrician who came and diagnosed the problem. I then called Homeserve who sent Storm Heating out again. The engineer said the system needed a power flush, complete rewiring, which isn't covered by the insurance and was too old anyway. After a fairly pointless conversation with somebody at Homeserve's call centre, I have cancelled our policy with the company. I asked, but did not receive a satisfactory answer, why having complained about this fault for six years none of the engineers the company had sent could find the source of the problem or mend it, how odd it was that Storm Heating's answer to a system control problem was a power flush, and how, having serviced the boiler only last summer, the system was suddenly too old to mend but the company had been taking my insurance premiums each month. I told the operator, you've had six years to mend it and funnily now somebody else has found its source it's too old to mend. I am writing a letter of complaint and will also be reporting them to Trading Standards as I think this is pretty sharp practice.

Hi there, I found a computer repair company in the phone book and so I took my laptop there at the end of March. The guy said that he should be able to fix it by the following day. I didn't hear from him for a couple of weeks, so I tried to get in touch with him to find out what was going on. When I eventually managed to contact him by phone he said that he couldn't find the problem but he would keep trying. He then called a week later to say that he needed to order a new part for it and that it would cost around £40. It has been at least 3 or 4 weeks since I last heard from the repair guy. I have tried calling the shop at different times of the day, pretty much everyday but no one answers the phone. I visited the shop last week and the shutters were up but the shop was closed. So I popped in to the shop next door to check if they had noticed whether the computer shop had been open recently. The lady said that she hadn't seen anybody in the shop recently, but the guy doesn't always bother to open up the shop, but he diverts calls to the shop to his mobile (which he clearly doesn't do anymore). I wrote a note to express my concern about my computer and left my contact details again just in case. I posted it through the letterbox of the shop, but I still haven't heard from him yet. Obviously I'm really concerned about my laptop and I plan top visit the CAB when they are next open, but I was hoping somebody may be able to offer me some advice on here?

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone could please assist me in a rather complicated tenancy dispute/issue I am having with my landlord? Basically, the story goes like this: My housemate and I moved into the property in June 2009. In September 2009, the estate agent company managing the property went bankrupt. Anyway, we received a letter from MyDeposits informing us that because the Agent is holding the deposit and that their membership has been cancelled with the Scheme, that our deposit would become unprotected on December 15 2009. The landlord was also made aware of this as he received the same letter, and I asked him in December 09 if he could please reprotect our deposit and provide the information on the new protection. He said he'd just keep the deposit in his bank account until the tenancy was over so I informed him politely that it was his legal responsibility to protect it, and if he could please do so as soon as possible. He said he would but I never heard back from him about it again, so I am pretty much assuming that the deposit is still unprotected as of today. Things went along more or less smoothly after that until March of this year. At that time, the pipes underneath the kitchen sink started leaking heavily, and then overnight, the central heating stopped working in the property. To make matters worse, some wooden decking in the garden literally broke beneath me when I was sitting outside on a garden chair - I had previously told the landlord that the whole decking appeared to be sinking (it doesn't seem to have been laid properly with any foundation underneath) and asked if he could have someone come over to inspect/repair it and he said he would, but again, nothing came of this either. When I called up the landlord at 9AM to have the heating and pipes repaired ASAP (the decking didn't break until later), he would only arrange to have a certain plumber that he knew come in to do the repairs (he told me because he has some kind of "deal" with this plumber where he pays him whatever he wants). Anyway, I said that was fine but as of 3PM I still hadn't heard back from the landlord or the plumber about the urgent repairs. I called him again and he said that he couldn't get a hold of the plumber so I asked if he could please either get a different one in or if we could call one and then send him the invoice after it had been repaired, as it was an emergency repair job that really couldn't wait more than 24 hours to be fixed. He flat out refused to have any other plumber come in and said he wouldn't pay us back if we got one in ourselves, as he was only willing to have this one plumber come in and do the job. Another hour later and I still hadn't heard anything back from him or this plumber and it was at this time that the decking broke beneath me. I called him again to let him know about this repair issue and that I still hadn't heard from the plumber, and he started getting quite aggressive/rude and said that there was no way he would send anyone over to fix the decking until, in his words, he had seen the damage that *we* had done to it (I explained to him that we hadn't done anything to damage it and that I had asked him months ago to have someone look at it because it looked to be sinking) and that we would have to wait for whenever the plumber contacted us to carry out the repairs, and that if we didn't like it, we could find somewhere else to live. By this time it was too late for us to even get in an emergency plumber at our own expense to fix the heating and the sink, so I just left it for the day and hoped that the plumber would contact us the next day. The plumber did come over the next night and repair the sink and got the heating to start working again (we went about 36 hours with a heavily leaking pipe and without any heating) but he told us that there was a faulty part in the boiler and he'd have to order in the part to repair it properly. The heating stopped working again that night and the plumber wouldn't come back again nor would the landlord get anyone else again. Long story short, as of today (30th April), the heating and the decking still have not been repaired. I wasted countless days waiting for the unreliable plumber to turn when he said he would but didn't, and the best he has done since (only after I had to tell the landlord that I would have no choice but contact the Council with a complaint if the heating remained unrepaired) was to take off the cover and leave the boiler exposed and show me which switch I need to pull to fix it, which I find a bit dangerous as I don't particularly enjoy reaching into an open and switched on boiler. Maybe three weeks ago, he said he would call me when he had ordered and received the replacement part but I still haven't heard anything back. On Friday the 15th, the landlord called me and told me that he wanted to come over that day to see the repairs that had been carried out to know how much to pay the plumber. I told him that it wasn't a good day and that I would contact him to let him know when he could come over. I also told him that the plumbing repairs hadn't actually been finished as he knew, and that I was still waiting for someone to repair the outside decking because I didn't feel safe stepping on it anymore as the whole thing was quite unstable. He rudely said again that he wouldn't have that fixed until he had seen what we had done to it and so I told him again that I would contact him when it was convenient for him to come over. On Sunday the 17th, I sent him a text message telling him that it would have to wait until after that Easter weekend as we wouldn't be at home that week (my housemates grandmother had become very ill and we were up at the hospital for most of the day and would be doing so for all of that week). Anyway, at 9PM that Sunday night he turned up and started banging on our door and looking through our letterbox. We called my housemate's father to come over to see what he wanted and to tell him that he can't just turn up and start banging on our door (I did not want to open the door to him after his behaviour at out door and after how rude and aggressive he had been on the phone). The landlord said he wanted to come in there and then and that if we didn't arrange a time with him in the next day or two, he would just let himself in with his own key. My housemate's father told him that he can't do that and he'd have to arrange a time that was good with us because we wouldn't be at home much that week owing to my housemate's dying grandmother. Anyway, he left after that but then at Tuesday night at 6PM he came to the door unannounced and started banging on it yet again! I had enough at this point and called the police, and on their advice, I requested to him that he leave the property and if he did not, that I would have the police come over as he was now illegally harrassing us. He promptly left, but the next day, he put a Section 21 Notice Requiring Posession through our letterbox that said we had to be vacated by the end of June. Now, I definitely want to leave the property after all that has gone on, but there are a few problems: 1) For the time being, I am still living in a property that has no properly working central heating and a garden that is not really safe to go into because the decking feels like it will give at any second. 2) I am 99% sure that our deposit has not been re-protected and I definitely am not leaving until it has been safeguarded or returned because I know he will just try and keep it from us. 3) I want the repairs carried out ASAP not only because they are making our living conditions unsafe right now, but because I know that he will try to blame us and make us pay for them after we vacate the property if they haven't been fixed by then. So I was wondering if anyone could please provide advice as to what to do now to get the repairs done and my deposit either returned to me or reprotected? As far as I'm aware, his Section 21 Notice Requiring Possession is void because of our unprotected deposit status but I don't know the best steps to take now. Thank you very much in advance for your help and apologies for the very long message!

Hey guys, I have an urgent problem. I moved into my Private rented property in 2007, when we moved in we noticed that there was some dry rot starting on the wooden window frames. I immediately reported this to the Estate Agents who in turn reported this to the Landlord. I then reported this every month for nearly 2 years but as the frames were still intact the LL wasn't interested in repairing or replacing them. 3 months ago the inside of the window frame at the top completely rotted away and the frame was crumbling away, we immediately reported this to the Estate agents who said it took 2 days to contact the LL as she was unreachable. They eventually sent someone round to repair the problem, when the builder arrived he said that the LL had given him £40.00 (fourty pounds) to do the repair? When he arrived all he did was cut out the worst part of the rot and put a new peice of wood into replace it and told me it was just a temporary fix until the LL decided wether she could afford to replace the windows. Needless to say we got no return. This morning there was a loud crash. I went out into the garden to see that the top of the window frame has completely rotted away. There is a strip of wood that was secured to the window frame which held the drainage guttering in place, now that the window has fully rotten away the strip has nothing to secure too and all the guttering has fallen away and is hanging by a thread. What also concerns me is that the glass in the window is now hanging on by nothing more than hopes and dreams. You can feel the wind blowing through as the glass is now completely exposed at the top. I have put some plastic over the window to try and keep heat inside the house only a major concern is it's snowing outside and bitterly cold with temps expecting to get colder and I have a 9 month old baby. I spoke to the estate agents 3 hrs ago who said they would contact me back as soon as they got hold of the LL but so far no reply. My questions are: 1. Where do I stand legally in ensuring that the work is carried out this time to an acceptable status and not just another temporary repair? 2. If no satisfactory result can I demand to be rehoused? 3. Where do I stand if the LL refuses to carry out the works? 4. Can I legally request that they refund my Security deposit so that I can find a warm and suitable property for my family to reside in? Thanks in advance guys, I'm at wits end and just want to keep the warmth inside and the elements outside especially as far as the baby is concerned.

My wife was hit by 3rd party. Car is an old civic, to replace it would be about £900. Her (the 3rd party) insurance co. have sent a cheque out without agreeing with us or bothering to contact us to the hire car co. this has the effect of cancelling the hire car in 7 days. We don't agree with this or accept it no one has had courtesy to tell us they were making a payment - the accident was not our fault as they are only sending out £400. We then have to find the extra money to get another car also. My question is can we insist on car being repaired (it would cost £2500 approx) which would be a lever to increase the payout. We were told by the hire co. not to accept the first offer but we have not even had a first offer any ideas or facts gratefully received. It wasn't our fault we would have still been driving the car but the insurance say they only have to payout the value before accident. I was informed by a couple of people that we could insist on it being repaired. many thanks