My partner and I live in a 1 bed flat in a house conversion. Our bedroom is above the kitchen/living area of the problem tenants below us. For about 2 years we have been complaining to the landlords about the noise from these tenants. They run a loud extractor fan at all hours of the day and night, bang doors and cupboards, shout at each other and their kids. Now they have a crying baby!! The walls are paper thin to the point where the heating cannot keep the room warm at all. The landlords have written them multiple "warning" letters and had one meeting with them, where they agreed to keep the noise down. This didn't happen. We kept complaining so there was a meeting between us and these tenants, which they denied making the noises. Again it didn't change. I then wrote a formal complaint, in which they reply was saying we are now alleging the noises are happening, even though in the past we have provided recordings of their noise! They also said if we agree to have the landlords come around and do a sound test (which involved one person in our room and one below shouting and banging doors). It clearly to them failed. They have now organised their building contractors to come around to investigate further - but their solution was a bead of silicone around the skirting boards?? This is yet to happen but will not solve the issue. Are we within our rights now to start formally telling the landlords that we are withholding rent payments until this problem is fixed?? It's reached a point where my partner now sleeps on the couch in our living area because the noise is just too much. The other issue is parts of our flat and the building are i believe not up to fire safety standard. By the way the landlords own the entire building. When we first moved in the building inspector and the boss builder did an inspection. The large window in our bedroom needed to be replaced - it was classed as a fire escape and should remain completely open to roll out of. But it just keeps shutting. The builder was told to replace it. Also our front door should have a furry seal around the edge, but didn't and again, should have been installed. To this day, 2 and a half years later, they have still not been corrected. Are the landlords in breach of our contract and fire safety standards?? Could we ask for a rent reduction perhaps?? And should we seek some form of legal advice?? We are at a loss here - the landlords do nothing and the only time you really here from them is to do with rent payments. We are contracted until mid 2107, and couldn't afford to move now, unless the landlords gave us our full deposit back before we moved out - not going to happen! If anyone has any sort of advice, it would be greatly appreciated. Or any more elaboration about anything i have written, please leave a post. THANK YOU!!!!

Long but i would appreciate some answers, im so sick of these people and their treatment against me, so i beg you help if you can. I lived in one of their properties after coming out from a woman refuge for 4 years with no problems, however my ex boyfriend found me and kept harassing me. I was living in Brent (lets say) and on my report from the police and national DV workers it CLEARLY stated i cannot be re housed in Brent. However i was re housed in Brent, i took this property as i was TOLD if i refused it i will be kicked off the management transfer list as im only allowed ONE choose. so im in the same borough i was fleeing and told not to be housed in. Whilst at this property i had a woman upstairs who racially abused me, harrassed me and threatened me several times. she never admitted to racially abusing me but she did admit to the neighborhood manager, knocking on my door to start arguments (harrassment) and banging on the floor at me (harassment) she was also recorded as i had noise recorders in my flat banging around on purpose to harrass and upset me, however because i only recorded for 5 days and not the whole 14days they said it isnt a "pattern" even though legally a pattern constitutes of more than two occurrences. I also contacted the police who didnt do anything, nobody wanted to do anything. In fact they didnt even want to move me only because i brought up i wasnt meant to be housed in Brent they moved me again. I actually developed BAD depression from all of the above. I was pregnant and i lost my baby from the stress. I have a claim with the Housing obud but they have a "backlog" of work and a year later still NO answer from them. so again im only allowed ONE choose as it is management transfer and im now in Camberwell london again had issues with the neighbor downstairs, he constantly knocked on my door, followed me to the end of the road, stared through my windows, had some stuff on cctv and he admitted to knocking on my door. This time the police were great however Had to go to top management for my neighborhood manager to even tell him to leave me alone. They kept saying its a "police matter" even though it says in the tenancy to not harrass other tenants Instead my NHM was more interested in harrassing me about getting carpet as the man downstairs kept complainin , as when i moved i left my job and was on benefits i had no money to get carpet, so i again had to go to top management to get £300 worth of vouchers for carpet, which ONLY covered a hallway, the flat is BIG NHM never addressed the fact the guy downstairs was harrassing me, in fact none of them did they seem to justify his stalking behaviour with the fact i didnt have carpet like that some how means he is allowed to stalk me because im making normal living noises. NOWHERE in my tenancy does it state i MUST have carpet, it just says you cannot have laminate flooring. they blackmailed me because they gave me £300 which didnt even cover the flat, they constantly mentioned this £300 and said i will have to give it back if i somehow dont carpet the whole flat with this £300 the flat actually cost £800 to carpet and underlay, thats CHEAP carpet too Now final issue the guy upstairs to me has laminate flooring, this is making it very noise upstairs, i have complained about it and stated i was told i had to carpet my flat (even though i could of had vinyl or lino due to tenancy) and again they bring up the £300 vouchers they also said to me that the man upstairs is just normal living noise and they will have to prove he is intentionally making noise i asked them if thats the case why wasnt i considered normal living noise when the man downstairs was complaining about me instead i was harrassed and blackmailed and they said because i had no flooring which i stated is untrue as i had carpet in my living room within 3 weeks of being here and he was complain about noise from the living room. they said guy upstairs has old tenancy and it doesnt say anything about laminate flooring i said well mine doesnt say anything about carpet but i still laid carpet and was told to lay it. QUESTION: I find their treatment of me very unfair, anytime i have a complaint it is brushed off, anytime anyone complains about me it is legitimate. They discriminate against me, ignore me, harass me and apply the tenancy when it comes to me but when it comes to others the tenancy doesnt include. they refuse to deal with harrassment which is stated in the tenancy they refuse to deal with noise nuisence which is in the tenancy for me but for guy downstairs they dealt with it what can i do? (i know some people may think im a nightmare, im not, im an easy target, im 21yrs old, short female who is usually home alone doing my uni work, im an easy target for bullies which is why i get into so many issues) just to add, when i made a complaint about the guy upstairs and his walking in boots on laminate flooring, he got the letter and came and banged on my door bout 20times in a row. I was asleep and he woke me up, it sounded like a police raid no joke. When i complained the next day to the Housing management they said he only wanted to talk to me i said NO this is untrue he wanted an argument, why wopuld you knock on someones door so much and i KNOW if i was a male he wouldnt of been bang down my door like that. they again brushed it off saying the guy is reasonable and i should talk to him, which tbh i dont want to i find him creepy. this guy has started to run up the stairs and stamp on the floor ever since i complained about him, but HM ignore it and act like im making it up because the guy has been here for 8 yrs with no complaints. but they fail to aknowledge the fact his flat has mostly been vacant within those years and the last main tenant who lived here was a deaf old women. the man upstairs thinks he owns this flat, he used to get his visotrs to press MY bell (because its so loud due to the last deaf tenant and his is broken) the fact that he even brings up he has been here 8yrs is irrelvant

Hi all, I wonder if anyone can help in terms of how to challenge a Private land PCN that my mum has just got. She parked in the car park, paid for her ticket, placed it on her dashboard under her windscreen (there was no sticky bit to apply it to the screen). She was observed doing this by the carpark attendant. She then went shopping and came back inside the paid for time to find a PCN on her windscreen. The reason for the PCN was 'Not displaying a valid ticket'. The ticket had flipped over either by a draft or vibration and was not readable. Now, while I can see that there was a 'breach' shall we say of the 'contract' - would it not be fair to say that this is a technicality? The parking was paid for; it was seen to be paid for; there was no overstay. I advised my mum to write to the Parking company to appeal on this basis but they have dimissed it as not relevant and insist that the 'breach' of 'contract' validates their demand for £60 (rising to £100). I'm of a mind to go down the POPLA route but i read in a few places that POPLA don't take mitigating circumstances into account - is this correct? Any advice would be gratefully received. Many thanks Kholo

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some advice regarding what I consider to be a breach of my patient confidentiality. I will try to cut a long story short. I went to my GP for a routine cervical screening procedure. Before my appointment time, I nipped to the loo. As I was making my back through the waiting room, my name was called. Before I reached the nurse I heard her say to a gent in the room "don't worry, I didn't call you, I know your not here for a smear test". I could have died. I don't embarrass easily, but I was mortified. I followed nurse into the treatment room and asked if I'd misheard. She replied it was just a joke. No it wasn't I said, it was a breach of patient confidentiality, and if I done that, I would lose my job. Well I was only joking she said, and anyway I'm running a smear clinic this afternoon so he would have known anyway. No he wouldn't, I said, he doesn't have a cervix so he wouldn't know, besides, that's not the point, You had no right to say it. Well I've said it now, sorry if you aren't happy, now are you having the procedure or not she said. No! I go to rebook at reception and they're adamant she will have to do it another day. I'm trying to calmly tell them I will wait longer and see the other nurse. they're making it difficult though. I ended up losing it completely, crying with humiliation and anger. A stranger even hugged me(and I'm not a hugger!). In seeing a different nurse in a few weeks, but I'm meeting with the practise manager next week to formally complain. I guess I'm asking what my rights are. I was utterly humiliated, but her lack of care make it all the worse. She was given ample opportunity to apologise,and whilst I would've been angry, I would've accepted it. Instead she treated me like I had the problem, the sense of humour failure. I'm absolutely furious that she made me feel the way she did. And that she even said it in the first place. If your still reading, thank you. I would just like to know what I can reasonably expect to happen if I formally complain. Thanks.

Hi guys! I am not sure this is the correct place for me to post I hope you can help me with the following situation: Our factors' solicitors have unlawfully registered a Notice of Potential Liability against our property in regard to "the outstanding factoring charges" - not only we are up to date with all the payments, we have multiple bank statements to prove it. As owners and occupiers of the property, we never received any notification about the upcoming order and only found out the details after requesting a copy of the deed from the registers of Scotland. In addition to unlawfully imposing the NOPL, they disclosed this false information without our permission to the third party - our former solicitors with whom we have been in a process of dispute for the last year. Moreover, they also explicitly told our former solicitors that it is due to the factoring debts since our move (which there are none). We believe it is a serious breach of data protection act but are not sure how to proceed... Thanks in advance.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched enforcement action against Ryanair. This action follows a review by the regulator that found Ryanair is not complying fully with European consumer law designed to support passengers following flight disruption. Ryanair is now required to make policy changes or face the prospect of further enforcement steps leading to court action, if the airline remains non-compliant. The CAA has concluded that: • It is not satisfied that Ryanair is dealing with compensation claims for disruption caused by routine technical faults in line with applicable consumer law – this is despite the UK Court of Appeal (in the case of Jet2.com v Huzar) clarifying how such claims are to be treated and assurances given to the CAA by Ryanair; and, • Ryanair is attempting to impose a contractual two-year time limit, from the date of the flight, for passengers to issue compensation claims at court – despite previously publicly committing to a six year time limit and in spite of the UK Court of Appeal (Dawson v Thomson Airways) ruling that passengers have up to six years to issue such claims at court. Ryanair is now required to make policy changes or face the prospect of further enforcement steps leading to court action, if the airline remains non-compliant. https://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=14&pagetype=65&appid=7&mode=detail&nid=2484

Hi Everyone, I'm going to tell you my experience to date so that others may learn from it. It's not quite over yet but I think it will be by next week. Feel free to ask me any questions. I live in SW Scotland and in Feb 2014 I approached a local family run company to quote for double glazed replacement windows. The sales director sent me the quote from his email address. I responded with a query and then accepted the quote by email. His email address was then automatically added to my Outlook email address book. The work was carried out in May 2014. The fitters did a really good job and I love the windows so there's no problem there. The problem started on 2nd June 2014. I received an invoice from the company asking me for immediate payment but that invoice didn't give me one jot of information on how to pay them. In fact it was very poor, it had no company reg number and no T & Cs either. I sent a quick email to the sales director (using the address already stored in Outlook) asking for payment details. I got a response which mentioned 'New bank account' signed by the director from the sales director's email address. I logged onto my bank account (Cahoot) and setup the payment online. This all happened early afternoon. Then around 4:30pm I received a second email from the sales director's email address but signed by the girl in the office. It gave me different bank details. I presumed that the company were in the process of changing bank accounts and that maybe the directors hadn't communicated it yet to the staff. It was too late in the day to check with them when I picked up the email. At about 7:30 that night Cahoot performed a security call. In it they asked me if the payment was going to the windows company to which I said yes. The next day I received an email from the sales director asking me where the money was because they hadn't received it. I was given the run around until the 11th June when I had become very suspicious and stopped communicating with him. In the meantime the bank were trying to trace where the money had gone. They sent me the necessary proof on the 20th June. I then got in touch with the company and sent the document to them on a different email address. I told them they could now put pressure on Barclays bank because they had definitely received the money. They instantly replied asking why Barclays when they were with Bank of Scotland. I sent them all the previous emails and the girl in the office phoned me and said they had never sent the emails to me. She asked me what I intended to do and I said I was going to phone the police, which I did. The police investigation is ongoing and there are now 8 other victims none of them to do with the windows company. Not once did this company try to talk to me or investigate the circumstances. Their first response was when I was on the phone to the office girl and the sales director was asking in the background if I was insured. The next thing they did was get a solicitor involved and sent me a demand to pay up. I went to my own solicitor and showed her the email. She told me I have paid. The company did a few things that made me very suspicious about them. They never chased me for the payment when I had told them they should received my payment by 3rd June at the latest and they deleted all their emails which were police evidence. I had my computer checked to ensure I hadn't been hacked which I hadn't. I then had the email headers looked at by a computer expert and they have shown that the so called fraudulent email was sent to me via the window company's server. It looks as if someone within the company logged onto a google email account (which is largely anonymous) and somehow intercepted my email but not quickly enough to stop another person in the company from also seeing my email. My next step was to complain to my bank. There had been no warnings on their screens to tell me that I wasn't protected by the Faster Payments System or that they don't check the account name. The bank's response was to tell me they didn't want the criminals to know this! I said if that was the case they could have told me during the security call. They dismissed my complaint. I went to the Financial Ombudsman. The adjudicator also dismissed my complaint twice but I appealed and it finally reached the Financial Ombudsman. The bank had very conveniently lost the recording of the security call but somehow the FO managed to get them to find it. It was because of that security call that she upheld my complaint. She says that the bank led me to believe that they checked the account name. She also said that the bank had authorised the payment and not me. She ruled that the bank should re-imburse me for all my legal costs, the debt owed to the window company and any other costs so that I am not out of pocket. This decision was made in May 2015 from my initial complaint in Aug 2014. My solicitor was amazed at what I had achieved. I would say that the Faster Payments System is not secure enough. The customer has no way of checking that the bank details provided by a company actually belong to that company. Criminals are now putting people into companies to spot loopholes in their security/admin procedures in order to send out fraudulent bank details to unsuspecting victims like me. You could ring a company to ask them for their bank details and the person you were speaking to could give you their personal information and you would be none the wiser. There is nowhere to verify that an account belongs to a company. Once you have paid the money it is impossible to get it back unless the bank made the error. I believe that in other countries they use a third check like the company reg number or an NI number. When the bank finally got in touch with me in August this year I asked them who makes the decisions on the court case if they are now paying. They said that I do no matter what the cost! They also said that they didn't want me to settle out of court and they wanted the hearing to go ahead. I have put in endless hourss of work on this and accumulated some very good evidence to defend my case. A legal debate is scheduled for 22nd October but my solicitor wants to use Counsel for the debate. They are saying they have struggled to find anything in law to help them and have had to go right back to Victorian law. They say the contract was formed via email and the company should have ensured that their email system was secure because I had relied on it. At the mention of Counsel the bank have started squirming. They rang me on the 22nd and said they were refusing to indemnify me after that date. I went back to the Financial Ombudsman with this information and she told me that wasn't quite what had been discussed. So everything is currently up in the air with the case. It looks very much like I will have to settle out of court because I cannot afford to fund this on my own. If the criminals are part of the company they will receive the money twice. I had hoped that the bank would help me see this case through to its conclusion so that I could have possibly had an outcome good enough to help others that follow in my footsteps. I may never know who was responsible for sending me that email because the police are just following the money. I now have a lovely set of windows with no guarantee.

The mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse has announced that they’ve suffered a huge data breach which could lead to the accessing of up to 2.4m of their customers information. Following the breach, the company has investigated and found that the details accessed could have included names, addresses, dates of birth and bank details. This includes up to 90,000 customers who have also had their encrypted credit card information accessed. Customers who've potentially been affected, have received emails about the incident and are encouraged to: Alert your bank and check your statements Watch out for phishing calls and emails Check your credit rating to make sure no one has taken out loan and credit in your name Report fraudulent activity to Action Fraud http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33835185 Apparently it knew about this last Wednesday and has only just started informing customers !!

Here goes, long painful story......... At the beginning of June, I upgraded my account with Vodafone and paid an early upgrade fee. My new phone was duly delivered within a few days. I logged into my account a few days later and was offered a further upgrade. I thought that this was odd as I'd just upgraded, however the website stated I could upgrade again - for free. I contacted Vodafone (upgrade dept) who confirmed to me that indeed I could upgrade again. I did not do anything about this at the time. A few days later, I received a call from vodafone sales department wondering why I hadn't gone with the upgrade. I told the advisor that I was still thinking about it. About a week later I logged into my account and the offer to upgrade free of charge was still there. I telephoned the upgrade department to take advantage of this and the order was put through and I was advised that the new phone would be delivered to my work address 2 days later. The phone did not arrive. I phoned your vodafone upgrades and was advised that the order was stuck in the system and that someone would sort this out and the phone would be delivered within a few days. This did not happen. After about 2 weeks of me contacting vodafone and speaking to numerous advisors and the complaints department I was told that my complaint had been logged and I should receive the new phone within a few days. I made in excess of 7 or 8 calls to vodafone offices regarding this and still did not receive the phone. On Thursday 2nd July around 4pm - my phone stopped working. It said 'NO SERVICE'. I telephoned Vodafone to be advised that I needed to do a SIM swap and that this needed to be done in a shop. My local shop had closed at 5.30pm so I then travelled to Manchester (8 miles away), to do this - I cannot be without my phone as I use it for work. I was very angry about this but travelled to Manchester to arrange the SIM swap. After speaking to an assistant at the shop, he did not wish to do the SIM swap due to 'too many outstanding orders and issues on my account'. He gave me a PAYG SIM with a small amount of credit so that I could contact vodafone customer relations office to get this sorted. I rang back at approximately 8pm that evening and after spending over an hour on the phone was told that my issue would be sorted the next day and I would receive a call back at 1130am the following day. This did not happen. So now no-one can contact me as my number is out of use. I've lost clients as they could not contact me. Numerous family and friends had been trying to contact me and were unsuccessful as my number was not working. Around 2pm on Friday 3rd July, my son's phone rang from my number, he answered the call only to be told by the caller (Mr Davies) - I don't know anyone called Mr Davies, that he had been given my phone number by the Vodafone upgrade department! I was absolutely speechless as you can imagine and enraged! Mr Davies had contacted my son as he'd had so many missed calls from my son (who is ill!) and wondered who it was. Mr Davies had also given my number out to his family and friends also! I telephoned vodafone complaints department and after spending nearly 2 hours on the phone in my works time, was told that it would be sorted that day. This did not happen. Mr Davies had also received text alerts from my bank and credit card giving sensitive information and account balances. Surely, This is a MAJOR DPA breach. It is vodafones duty to protect my data and they have failed! Mr Davies received numerous calls and text from my contacts wanting to know who the hell he was and where was I???!!!!!!! Having got nowhere with vodafone customer relations department, I went into the Vodafone store in Stockport to speak to someone who I foolishly thought could help me. I was advised by the shop assistant 'there are too many issues on your account and we can't deal with it'. He told me to call customer again. Which I did. After a further 2 and a half hours on the phone distressed, upset and very angry I was promised that this had been passed to a manager and someone would call me back before 9pm. I was also told they would block the number This did not happen! I then phoned Vodafone again and got through to an Egyptian call centre worker to told me that he would block my account. This did not happen until midnight on 3rd July! I received a call from an operator on 4 July to be advised that my complaint is being dealt with and I would receive my number back and my account would be closed and I would also receive compensation for the DPA breach, breach of privacy, inconvenience and also for the 15plus hours I've spent trying to sort this out with their call centres around the world! I have not managed to speak to the same person twice - It's ridiculous! I've been advised by vodafone customer relations today that if I send my phone back then they will cancel my account. They've offered me nothing else. I want my account cancelling, a full apology, a full investigation, copies of all of the phone recordings theyhave as well as a data subject access request and also financial recompense for the DPA breach, breach of privacy, massive inconvenience they have caused me by having to change my phone number and mobile provider I am outraged that they can just transfer my number to a random stranger and not even apologise. I am also outraged that despite on several occasions vodafone admitting that there's been a DPA breach and breach of privacy they have not offered me a mutually satisfactory resolution I've lost work clients and have had a major inconvenience as I've had to change my number. The upset, stress and inconvenience vodafone have caused is incomprehensible! I've been advised by iCO that I do have a good case but any further advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

Not certain where exactly to post this so here seems to be not unreasonable. I have a couple of (well old) loan agreements both of which were covered by PPI. I became unemployed through ill health in 1997 for a protracted period of time and submitted claims through the lenders for the PPI (sold by them) to be invoked to discharge the loan balance within the terms of the contracts. For unspecified reasons the loans still have the outstanding balances on them and I am continually harassed by one DCA after another. So far as I am concerned the correct action was the proper discharge of the debts under the terms of the insurance agreements. Since 2007 I have been subjected to continual harassment and my "credit score" flags up adversely because of breaches of contract by the lenders/insurers. I'd like to get these monkeys off my back so would appreciate any guidance as to the proper procedure for doing this (bearing in mind that my own attempts to resolve matters (writing to the lenders and insurers) hasn't borne fruit. Ideally I'd also appreciate some recompense for six years of harassment and the the negative impact on my ability to obtain credit.

Hi, I'd appreciate some advice if possible? I work 2 days per week in a shop. Although I've been there for 12 years I only signed a contract last year when the owner put the business up for sale. My contract states that i am employed for 2 days per week. I told the owner yesterday that I am only able to do 1 day going forward. (Since she has had no luck selling the business and keeps suggesting she may just close up I have found other work which is now more important to me). I don't want to make life any harder for her and have offered for that one days work to be flexible and on a day of her choosing. By saying i can no longer do the contracted 2 days have I breached the contract? Have I effectively handed in my notice? Can anyone clarify my position please and suggest where i may stand depending on what she offers (or not) ? Thank you...hope I've not made this too muddled?

Good Afternoon All I had an EE (formally T-Mobile) contact that I ran in trouble with and got a default placed on my credit file. EE Limited then sold the debt to Lowell Portfolio, however even though EE had sold the account and were nothing to do with it anymore and Lowell Portfolio ‘legally’ owned the debt, EE Limited continued to update the default on my credit file for a further 5 consecutive months (I have proof of this from the CRA). I have been advised that what should have happened is that the default should have been taken over straight away by Lowell and it was Lowell responsibility to update it on my credit file, however EE continued to update it for 5 months, it then disappeared off my credit file and the CRA confirmed that EE had removed it and then 2 months later Lowell added there default. My question is, ‘Has DPA been breached, and is it worth making a complaint to the ICO?’ Many Thanks [/size][/size]

hi all, and thanks for any advice in advance. I've lived in a housing association house for 12 years. 10 weeks ago i received a kind of threatening letter instructing me that the boundary is to be moved and to move all of my belongings. there was no consultation, and the housing association had been in negotiations with the private developer for a minimum of 7 weeks, without saying a word to me. and they ere running around in my garden without my knowledge measuring up. housing association then said it has never been part of my garden. but the boundary hasn't moved in 77 years, 1945 aerial photo shows boundary in the correct position. 1948 councils maps show boundary in the correct position. 2003 council maps given with the tenancy shows boundary in the correct position. 2003 council records confirm boundary in the correct position in. 2004 the maps used to sell the properties to housing association from council show the boundary in the correct place. 2004 land registry maps show boundary in the correct position. 2007 or 9 survey map of the plot, that has been given part of my garden shows the boundary in the correct position. 2009 the housing association entered my garden and measured up without my knowledge and confirmed the boundaries. (housing association states they have never surveyed my property, emails confirm they did.) 2014 the housing association entered my garden and measured up again, without my knowledge, and came back with differing number. satellite imagery shows the boundary in the correct position. Photos show the boundary in the correct position. The has been no proof provided in any shape or form that the boundary should be moved. in fact the housing association now refuse to answer questions. or provide any proof. or explain at what point in the last 77 years the boundary has ever been in the new possition. the only thing that they have supplied is an unsigned lazer survey showing the boundary and the proposed move. (supposedly done by a boundary specialist, but it isnt signed off) to be honest, its a little confusing how it couldn't be part of my garden. I signed a tenancy agreement for all that was offered, as accepted by both parties. has the tenancy conditions changed under duress? (the threatening letter) Breach of tenancy, because they failed to consult? I have been informed that as i have the right to buy, they cannot asset strip my property. as they are a registered charity, they cannot cut price sell property, at a guess that also includes giving it away. would i be in my rights to withhold the rent until they properly address the problem? what would be the next steps? Its really strange having an 70 years plus old garden path leading into another property....

Hi, My sister purchased an iPhone 5s through VM in January 2014, after about a month, the phone started glitching and she has had problems with it ever since, no screen periodically, missing texts, texts not sent or received, random blank screens, she's reset, upgraded to latest OS, you name it, she's tried it. No joy. she has had calls to the CS team and they are not helpful at all, with their most recent response now saying that as the phone is outside of the 1 year warranty they can't replace the phone and it would be a chargeable repair. Now given that they will have record of the 1st complaint and all the subsequent complaints that were inside the 1 year warranty period, is there any way she can get them to either repair or replace for free? Thanks in advance.

I switched to Sky from Virgin in December 2014 after having nothing but problems with my tv signal for the best part of the year (i switched tv, broadband and telephone). Almost immediately i was getting crackiling down the telephone line and so I contacted Sky who after running tests over the phone arranged for an Openrach engineer to visit my house and see what the problem was. Long story short I have now had six different engineers out all of whom have agreed that there is no problem with the reception in my house and all of whom have then gone to the exchange and/or the cab and supposedly fixed the problem. Lo and behold I am still having the same issue. Now I am of course going to contact Sky again but dont really see much point in having another engineer out to just do the same thing again. With this in mind could I argue that Sky are not fulfilling their end of the contract that I have with them as they are clearly not providing the service that I am paying for? Furthermore could I request that they cancel my contract with no penalty due to the fact that they have failed to provide the service as promised?

Hello All, I have been working for my company for 10 months now but have been offered an alternative role. My notice period is 3 months but I would essentially like to leave asap to start my new role (I have little interest in staying in the current environment im afraid to say). Handover can be done relatively quickly so I am considering just telling my employer that I will be leaving after 4-6 weeks or once handover is satisfactorily completed. Am I likely to be sued for breach of contract do we think? Thanks

Hello ill try giving you the basics My employment commenced on 18.2.13 as a field sales consultant. I have been in the same industry with my previous employer so in essence move across to the competition The Director of the new company was more than happy for me to provide him with details for some clients i had previously visited and bring them across to his company. Working for the company was ok until September 2014 when i was required to drive further and further each month. Somedays my 1st appointment was 180 miles away and my mileage increased from 700 per week to 1200 per week, which was exhausting. Over the christmas break i decided enough was enough and to hand my notice in, I did so on 5.1.15. The Director was very arsey with me and told me he was not happy to pay me 3 weeks leave. I started working for myself doing the same job 27.1.15, Today i received a letter from their solicitor with notice of intended legal action for breach of my contract as i have contacted some previous clients (these clients never agreed to do business with my ex-employer), it does not state in my contract i cant contact clients, nor in the letter received to confirm my resignation, But they are saying there are restrictive covenants in the company handbook. I was not aware of a company handbook and have never been offered it to read! As i work from home, Head office is 84 miles away and is only visited for 5 hours every 3 months for a team meeting. the convenience in a nutshell are apparantly - must not work for a competitor in a 10 mile radius/operate in the same geographic area (which is 180mile radius) - not to solicit current, past or prospective clients - not to poach employees. they are claiming i have contacted clients of which some i have and some i haven't contacted, that i have done business with a few and they want financial compensation for the same. If i was aware of the alleged restrictive covenants, then i maybe would have acted a bit differently, but as they are not part of my basic 4 page contract, i have never read them or signed to agree to them. Can they do this? They are also saying it is company trade secret information - when the information can be obtained from yellow pages and google. All of our competitors call the same database system and again information can easily be obtained from there. solicitor letter says my contract started 14.2.13 but i actually started and signed my contract on the 18.2.13. any advice greatly appreciated as they want a reply as a matter of urgency

Hello, I was looking for some advice. After being a happy Vodafone customer for over 20 years I am now at the point where I am totally fed up with their network and customer service to such and extent I am going to try and cancel my contract on the grounds they have breached their Terms & Conditions. This year, not only I, but hundreds of local customers of Vodafone suffered a loss of signal for 3 weeks due to a fault with the local mast. And today, we are now on our 10th day of loss of signal due to another fault. I have contacted their customer services on 4 occasions so far and each time they are telling me that they cannot tell me when the fault will be fixed and have said: "However, I can see that it has been discussed with the manager and would like to request you to get back to us once it start working and we will help you with the compensation of 50% monthly line rental of those days on pro rata basis." Quite honestly, I am so fed up with being treated this way I am determined to end my relationship with Vodafone and move to another provider. I have read their Terms & Conditions and they state: 3. Services and coverage a) We strive to give you the services when you want them. However, due to the nature of mobile technology, it’s impossible to provide a completely fault-free service. I am frankly amazed at the wording of this - how can they quantify "strive"??? Obviously this will end up in court if I stop paying my rental but has anyone got any experience of fighting their T&Cs based on the fact that they are not "striving" hard enough? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I have been personally dealing with my landlord for over a year now without any legal support to correct being overcharged for rent at my residence for 11 years. During my tenancy (before march 2013) I was issued with court costs as my landlord made applications to the court to recover rent arrears held on my account. I signed a tenancy agreement for a 1 Bedroom apartment in 2002. The rent was set and I never questioned it (Why would I??). In March 2013, I found out that from the start of my tenancy I was registered as a two bedroom tenant paying rent for a two bedroom accommodation. This came about as I received a letter from the council requesting payments from me to pay for an unused bedroom space. When I notified my landlord they adjusted my rent account to reflect the rent their tenant's would normally pay for a 1 bedroom property. In addition, they also debited payments from my credit balance to cover the outstanding court costs. I didn't agree to any of this nor was a new tenancy agreement issued to me. - (Do I still have a legally binding tenancy agreement contract with my landlord)? I used their complaint procedure to request returning the court costs to my rent account as I believed I should not be held liable. My initial complaint was overruled and was told by my landlord that they were justified in their actions as my rent account still would have been in arrears even after the adjustments. I used my old rent statements, with the correct rent charges to calculate any outstanding arrears before the court applications were submitted and found this not being the case. Again following their complaint procedures, I re-submitted a compliant insisting that the court costs transferred from my credit balance should be returned to my rent account. After nearly a year on, my landlord agreed and confirmed my calculations and produced a gesture of good will (GOGW) of £190 to draw a line in my complaint. I did not agree with the (GOGW) and issued my final formal complaint to return all court cost's. Eventually, (as of last month) my landlord refunded my account with the full court costs suggesting that refunding the full amount was way of compensation to me. I am in desperate need of sound advice as to what rights I have as a tenant, if I am being treated fairly, do I have any entitlement or due compensation, who should i contact for legal advice and generally just being in this position as I feel that my landlord is not being up front with their obligations.

I am renting a room in a house which has 5 separate occupants the LL doesn't have an HMO licence. Can this make the tenancy agreement void? I've only been living here for a month and the house is not in good shape and would not meet the health and safety standards required. I moved in at the last minute because I was let down by another landlord and had no other choice and would like to get out of this contract and get my deposit and fees back.

Hi and thanks for any who can help. I raised grievance for bullying, and periodic aggressive attacks on me by secretary (relation to owner). last straw was when the owners "secretary" said she was giving my admin work of home office stuff and staff files to senior care assistant. she is studying her NVQ sorry now QCF level 5. my roles are admin and Activities as per my contact. I have had attacks on me since 2011 but was unable to do grievance until now as 1. did not have employee handbook until 2012. 2. because of aggression 3. changed of matrons' who did not want to deal with my concerns or who were being bullied their selves. The care assistant has been gradually taking over most of my admin work , i have had all good feed back in the past and now, so apart from care assistant just starting her QCF, i dont know why, she relabeling, she's auditing "my" staff files' and even tried to publicly critise.even nurses are asking care staff member to do forms for them, so am unsure what they have been told too. Anyway i raised grievance, yesterday the owner asked to speak to me, she said it;s informal chat , then started asking me questions which relate to the grievance, said i would like you to focus more on activities and anyone can do admin, then said she did not know anything about the grievance/ meeting due next day today... the person who wanted to take the notes is also related but yesterday denied any knowledge of the arranged grievance hearing* when last week he called me over and said the grievance letter it.s no biggee we can sort out, perhaps we can have meeting next thursday or friday i will do a letter I said next friday would be better for me, whilst he walked passed meyesterday he told a staff member that he would not be in tomorrow. So in the end the owner said she would be coming in to the initial hearing. Today 1 hour at 1pm ish before hearing she had bad head and headed off to hospital, i was asked to put meeting back later to 3pm. at 2.46pm she rang , said she was at hospital having blood tests, i asked about our grievance hearing as the home manager who was to take the meeting was on annual leave after today. she said are you in on monday i said yes, she said it's only a grievance , i can do it on monday without the home manager.. so now im worried. firstly she tried to have informal chat in the middle of process, she is the owner and she would be the person who i would need to appeal to after the home manager has done his investigation. Now she wants to hold herself without the home manager being present..she's broke our own employee handbook policies and procedures with regard to grievances. she did ask me if i wanted to do an NVQ, i feel she's trying to sweep under the carpet. what do i do when she calls for an informal chat to deal with a formal grievance monday. grateful for advice, thanks so very much all.

Good evening, Please could someone advise on this. I handed in my notice on my payday in July 2014 (intentionally as my Employer has a history of not paying employees final salary after they've handed in notice). As I was on holiday at the time I handed in my notice, I requested in my notice letter if there was a possibility that my employer could release me at an earlier date as I was hoping to commence employment with my new company sooner than my notice period would end. Whilst on holiday I received confirmation from my employer accepting my resignation and informing me that I would be able to discuss an earlier leaving date when I returned from my holiday. I returned to work on my planned date only to find that all my colleagues had been informed that I had left the company and was not returning, furthermore I no longer had a desk to sit at in order to conduct my daily work as they had reallocated my desk to a colleague. Having arrived at work as usual at 08:30 a.m. I was informed that my manager would be arriving at 11:30 a.m. in order to advise me on the situation. I was made to stand and wait from 08:30 a.m. until 13:15 p.m. when I eventually realised that the manager would not be coming. I was left with no choice but to arrange transportation home. Whilst waiting for the manager I was informed by my colleagues that my manager had distributed my pending sales deals between my colleagues. I received my final salary in September without pay for my notice period as well as no commission which was due to me for the month of July. I requested a complete breakdown of my final salary which my employer has not provided. I also expressed my opinion on the way in which I was treated and they told me that I chose to walk out and that whilst what I consider to be my "normal" desk was occupied by someone else there was a desk available for me to sit at. However, nobody informed me of this on the day. I have been in touch with ACAS and my Employer has refused to discuss the matter with them so am now filing with Tribunal. Please advise if my employer is in breach of anything here? I am happy to give further details should you require. Best!

Hi, This is my first post so if I've put this on the wrong place please accept my apologies, I am having trouble trying to find a way to post on other threads I am looking for some advice please, my friend received a letter through his door today (hand delivered) I picked it up as I was letting his digs out, who had already had a go at the envelope - anyway I digress. I looked at the remains of the letter and it was from Phoenix Commercial Collection advising that they were coming to collect goods, because I know my friend so well I thought I'd try and help sort this mess out, and the only reason I did was because they have been trying really hard to address their debt. I called the number on the letter and got through an awful bailiff with such a bad attitude. I explained I had read this letter that was sent to my friend but instead of saying he couldn't discuss the account because I was not the person on the letter, he started to try and arrange with me to collect the goods, he also said that he was willing to reduce the amount owed. I asked if I could speak to someone who would set the payment place back up, and he said no it was down to him, and he wasn't giving an inch. I eventually got the office number off him, and called them, there is a recorded message at the beginning of the call saying they will not discuss accounts with 3rd parties unless a written letter is on the account, which of course in my case it wasn't. I got through to a call handler who asked for the account number which I gave, he then asked for my name which I gave - my own name, which is not on this account. The call handler then started to discuss the account with me, he advised when payment were made etc, I know for a fact this is a breach of data protection because I work with HR Data. Phoenix would not offer any help or advice so I ended the call, I then spoke to my friend and explained the situation, they were shocked that they had received a letter and more shocked that they discussed in detail their account. Where do we stand with them breaching data protection? My friend is contacting the council because the bailiff’s licence expires on Thursday and they have asked for the debt to be paid in cash before then, which has raised alarms bells with us. Thanks in advance.

Hello, I rented a property directly with the landlord (no agency involved). The contract was for 1 year from may-2014 to may-2015. I have got a job somewhere else and unfortunately have to move. I discussed this with the landlord and he agreed to let me find a new tenant (and I pay the rent until the new tenant starts). This is all Ok. However he is saying he would take all my deposit in lieu of the breach of contract. The point he is referring to in the contract is: "In the event of the tenancy being terminated by the tenant before the end of the term the tenant shall pay the full cost of re-letting the premises to include any loss of rent incurred by the landlord as a result of the tenant's breach and the agent's fees normally payable by the landlord until the end of the term and the tenant shall remain fully responsible for all terms of the current tenancy until a new tenancy commences". Is this correct on the landlord's part to take all my deposit as I've agreed to finding a new tenant (as no agent was involved) and pay the rent until the new tenant comes in. Is the landlord eligible to claim the agent fees from me for re-letting considering he is not incurring any costs for re-letting and there is no agent involved. What are my options? Will the landlord be eligible to claim agent fees if he decides to go with one? Thanks Best Regards, Smith