Hi, I don't know if this is in the right section. My mum passed away in may and my brother is sorting out her affairs. She inherited her house from my Grandma and Granddad. We are trying to sell her house and the buyers solicitor has asked a very strange question. My grandma and granddad brought the house in 1940 and the house did not have a fitted bath at the time. My dad had just started a building business and installed the bathroom for them. The solicitor is now asking if they had permission to install the bathroom which of course we don't know. Is there any period of limitation regarding this or anything else we can do. Thanks JJ

Hi all ... Hope this is the right place to post this. Having lost everything in the recession I then suffered a major breakdown and now have Complex PTSD and fibromalgia amongst other illnesses which are all getting worse. After two years of being homeless myself and my partner were given a council flat. Our neighbours are the local drug dealers and generally bad things happen daily. I now won't go out of the flat at all. I have a pension which I could cash in in 18 months and I wanted to do this and buy a small cheap house. I currently get PIP and my partner gets carers allowance and we get income support which I apparently claim for us both. I don't really understand it all as the CAB sorted it out for us. If I did cash in my pension and buy a house would our income support stop. Also would this affect my state pension when I get to retirement age. Someone told me that we wouldn't be entitled to pension credits. Thanking you in advance for any advice you can give.

Hi All, Need some advice on behalf of my partners Dad. There was a gas explosion recently in Blackpool and the street that he lived on story here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-41374322 19 - X's House 21 - House that explosion originated from 23 - Partner's Dad's house Some bullet points outlining what has happened so far; Explosion occurred Damage assessed 21 is found to be un-safe and needs pulling down 19,21 and 23 have scaffolding erected Cause is found (21mm pipe from house owners side of the meter was connected to a 15mm pipe with a connector and over the years this came lose to the point where gas was escaping, electric kettle then ignited it) 21 is then pulled down The damage to 19; Dividing wall damaged The rear half of the property collapsed Front brick work has been pushed out in certain places Council have decided the structure may now be to unsafe to save Damage to 23; Dividing wall damaged Crack in wall from lower floor to the 1st floor Windows and frames have been pushed back into the property Chimney collapsed Some windows smashed Back Garden wall has collapsed The council have come in and removed the remains of 21 and are going to be double bricking the wall of 23 and it will be the new outer wall, they have also sorted all the scaffolding, security, clear up and other parts of the whole operation. 19 and 21 both had private renters, 19 was just tenants and 21 was tenants and owners living there. 19 and 23 didn't have any form of insurance but 21 did. Council has gone to 21's insurance with the bill and they have rejected it saying that they will only pay for work done on their customer (21) as he hasn't admitted liability nor been negligible, this means that the bill for repair work to 19 and 23 could go to their respective owners to either pay or have put on their property with interest of 8% per year. We just need to know if this is the case I would have thought the repair for all 3 buildings would be covered by 21, like car insurance X crashes into Y and X's insurance pays for X and Y's car etc. I would assume if 21 has been renting out rooms in his ex guest house he would need to have gas safety and boiler certificates every year to prove the lodgings where safe and these haven't been done and therefor this would be considered negligible. I guess what I am asking is how can we get this sorted and what sort of legal action we can take to get this repair work covered by either 21 or their insurance. Sorry for the long post but if there is more information needed that I have missed just ask and I will do my best to provide it. Thanks in advance

I have been acting on my elderly mother's behalf in liaising with her solicitor with regard to a flat purchase for her. Matters seem to have stalled because my mother cannot supply any of the requested ID documentation required by the solicitor. The reason for this is that she is currently undergoing respite care after a fall. When she left her own home it was an emergency and she gave all her personal documents to a neighbour for safe-keeping. This neighbour has since gone on a prolonged overseas trip and I will not be able to get access to the file in the forerseable future. Even though the solicitor has acted for my mother in the past and actually holds her will they are adamant that she has to produce the required documentation. I do not want to get into an argument with the solicitor but are there any workarounds that I could put to them that would allow matters to progress? I would be most grateful for any advice that is forthcoming.

Hi my landlord is saying me and the people I live with have abandoned the house and that we also owe her rent and wants us to sign over the deposit to her as she believes we have left damage in the house. This isn't true because the contract we had with the landlord ended on the 31/07/2017 and in mid-September the landlord came around and said she wants use out by the 02/12/2017 with no reason on why she wasn't going to renew the contract. So, we found a new place and moved are stuff into it for the 01/11/2017. The landlord came around on the 01/11/2017 saying the above and threatening court action if we didn't sign over the deposit from the house agents to her. She also took the keys of my mum when she was there and then told the house agents that we have left damage and she hasn't got the keys. Flat out lie right there. I'd really like some advice on what to do because she’s coursing stress for everyone and my sister isn't mentally well and all this is making her worse. Also, the house agents have e-mailed me wanting my side for the 10/11/2017. Thanks Andrew

My elderly aunt went into residential care last week and I want to give myself time to work out what's best to do with the house. She is totally self funded and there's no need to sell. Her CT was paid up front last April for the whole year. I know the property would be exempt CT for a while but all the wording I find on the subject says 'until the house is sold'. Does anyone know if there's a limit on this? If there is can I just let sleeping dogs lie until next year and pick when I get my free six months - or whatever it is. I don't want to apply for a refund of monies already paid only to find I've then exhausted a CT exempt period and them start to charge me double if I can avoid it.

Hi all, I have a long winded situation. I have council tax debt that has gone up to £5,000. This has been going on from more than 8 years from a different house I lived at before moving in to my own house. The council has passed all dealing and account to solicitors who I have had a few email communication with confirming I will be making a £100 monthly payment towards the debt as well as paying £1200 of council tax on my current property yearly. The house is worth £285k today. Three different Charging Orders have been applied to the house for council tax debt as I have tried to keep up with paying for the council tax going forward and also paying for the debt owed from years back. It has been such a challenge as the type of work I do is contracts which is not too regular. I am currently not working, I have three children with the youngest a year old and oldest 8 years old. My Partner works part time. I have just had this bulky document come through the post. They are court papers. The Council are taking me to court to push for a sale of my house I live in to recover 5k of the money owed. This is very distressful and annoying to say the least. I have offered to be paying £100 towards the debt, who refused it contending that their client - the council - are not accepting this as it will take too long to pay off the money owed. The court date is for the 18th of October next month in the meantime, there is a job I am scheduled to commence on the 2nd of October too which will enable me make some bigger payment towards the debt. The issue now is, legally, where do I stand and how do I contest this as it stands. I have evidence of all the payments I have made so far and email correspondence What advice and how do I proceed, it can not be just and equitable to push for a sale of a house worth £285k over a 5k debt with children in the house!! I am not disputing the money owed either, I just need more time to come up with some of the money. I am not in receipt of any benefit from the state either. I await your responses and thanks in advance all.

so i live at home with my mother, shes divorced and theres only 2 of us in the house. i am claiming ESA in the support group, i give her 50 out of this every time i get paid and also pay for most of the shopping weekly we got into an argument and she wants me out saying i do not "help her" with the bills. surely the 50 i give her weekly out of my is enough? so on top of this i got some backdated money, 2000 to be exact. i told her i will give you 600 and put the rest in my savings account. she kept asking for 1500 -1800 and im thinking wtf? so finally decided i will give her 1200. cool i got 800 left. 2 weeks later she asks me to help her on bills so needs some money, i gave her 500 of my 800 so now i have 300 for myself. few days later she said i want to put all the bills in your name you should start paying them now, WTF? what about all the money i gave you wtf was it for ? so i told her straight piece of my mind now she wants me out the house. i really want my own place but have no idea how to go about it. i cant work since i have a very rare illness that prevents me going outside for more then 1 hour. feels good to rant about it but need advice too am afraid of leaving to go out for my GP appointments incase i come back and my stuff is outside

Dear whom this may concern, Cut a long story short. I purchased a tumble dryer from Argos it became faulty l had a replacement under warranty believe it or not it happened again I received another replacement then the 3rd machine set my house on fire and made me and my family homeless. The manufacturers insurance company hired a fire investigator 'hawkins' so they can conduct a report after months of chasing the insurance company they have told us that the report says it could have come from outside or inside the machine they will not pay a claim. Me and my family lost everything there is a initial fire report that the London fire brigade took when the incident happened that mentions the fire was caused by the tumble dryer. If anyone can help with some advice or what rights I have it would be greatly appreciated I believe they are diminishing their rights I can't believe they are not paying a claim. Thank you Lyes K.

Hope this is the correct place to ask this. Daughter is a Uni student and was in a mixed shared house with a number of others both male and female. All paid in to a deposit. A few months ago the basement toilet got blocked and overflowed. It's one of those macerator types and when the plumber inspected it a new unit had to be fitted - tampons were found in the system and were blamed on the failure. The landlord is now wanting to deduct the £600 cost of replacement from the deposit. Of course the chaps are saying this is nothing to do with them. The ladies are (reasonably) asking how can it be proven that they would be responsible? Can the Landlord do this or does s11 of the Landlord & Tenant Act (Landlord repair responsibilities) apply here? TIA Andy

I'm the executor of a will and the estate includes a property. The relative has died just before the insurance is due to be renewed and I'm having problems finding cover. I'm being told that I can insure it as a second home once probate has been granted but until then I can't. I'm guessing that because I'm not the owner yet I have no insurable interest in their eyes. I can't be alone in this situation. Is it really impossible to insure a property throughout the process of probate?

Hi all, I'll be brief. We moved into a new property a couple of months ago (we're renting), and the agency supplied to the EOn our gas and leccy meter readings. Last week we received the first bill with the estimate consumption and, we thought, it looked reasonable. We then checked the meter reading ourselves for the first time and... SHOCK! The meter reads 27***, while the starting reading (two months ago, bear in mind), shows 21***. From where the meter is placed, it's pretty hard to read the little digits displayed, and we think that the second digit (the "7") got read as a "1"... if you look at a digital display from the top at an angle it's pretty easy to confuse a 7 for a 1. Try it Anyway, looking at the previous estimate AND knowing that the property has used 27*** kWh of electricity in 7 years (when the meter was replaced and zeroed - there's a label on it), suggesting that on average it should not consume more than 3800 kWh PER YEAR, this seems to be a meter reading mistake through and through. My question for you all is... what are we supposed to do? We certainly don't want to pay 1200£ of leccy for a reading error! Thanks a lot Paolo

I spoke to someone from scottish claim helpdesk today and was informed that due to FCO findings Bright House was infact to pay back certain monies to customers, guy thought company dealing with claims was called Raven finance, any ideas as i cant find any further details on this

Helping someone . I bought my house in a auction and knew the house was suffering from some sort of damp problem. I never had a survey done as there was no mortgage and there was a damp problem. I have managed to sort that out and will be having a damp course done in a few weeks time. However now some 16 months on cracks have started to appear on inside walls. These are vertical ones and are very thin. I have checked the wall above and because it has wall paper on cannot check if the cracks have gone up. I did however contact my insurance company who took down the claim an are in the middle of appointing a Surveyor to come out and inspect this. Do i have anything to worry about if i cannot produce a survey ?

We are currently in a new house and our hot water cylinder is not working but our house providers are saying because we did not service it after a year that our warranty is invalid and they will not repair it. Is this correct. We had a visual check done on it and all was ok. Where do we stand on this

After two years my wife and I are still dealing with the fall out of having sublet our house to another couple who then used our details to obtain credit. We're slowly dealing with matters and starting to repair our credit we've discovered that a decree was granted in my name in 2013 there has been no charge for payment. Had a brief word with the local Sheriff Court who weren't helpful and said would be best to let it run as it expires after six years. However I'd like to have it recalled; is it possible legally after several years have passed? I have evidence that the house was sublet for a year prior to the Decree being granted in absense and for the year after it was granted therefore we were entirely unaware of its existence.

Hi folks, long time no posts. Been very ill with long term major depressive disorder amongst other things. The story. Was long term sick from civil service, put onto half pay which was paid by SSP from November 2015 to may 2016. During same period was 'single' as ex wife upped and left because of my sickness in 2015 (nice of her to support me) Applied for single person CT relief and was granted, although there was part of a joint bill still outstanding that i owed. Nobody to advise whether i could claim full relief/benefit due to being on SSP for that 6 month period. Didn't make any claim, couldn't cope with life. My head was well and truly gone. My mental health took a turn for the worse and i was off work for a further six month period where i had zero pay, no SSP but managed to keep myself housed and fed by borrowing from family and friends to pay rent and ate basic food; all whilst i was dealing with a legal issue regarding my early ill retirement issue with legal assistance from union. During the zero pay period i had claimed ESA although only received payment for about a moth before it stopped. I didn't know why it stopped; the guy at the hub said i was getting it. My mental health was bad and i just went along in my own crazy little world, out of it on my meds for chronic pain and depression. Didn't care, was suicidal and in self destruct mode in many ways. Eventually i got pensioned off in November 2016. Lump sum paid into bank and approx 1k monthly ill health pension is being paid every month. I had 20 years service with civil service dept before retirement. So, still away with the fairies, still very sick and still on the happy pills i had cash in the bank and some income coming in to eat and pay rent whilst i find a cheap house in the auction to live in without a mortgage by using my lump sum to buy a small house outright. I was financially able to pay back friends and family so paid them asap as the relationships were starting to get strained. I didnt want to lose the only friends i have, being chronically depressed you need some support and life is lonely enough as it is. Out of the blue last week get a letter from ESA that i was to be put on contribution based ESA from November last year which was to be back dated and they also paid a back dated sum for all the payments they didn't give me that were due from June last year until last week. This has been now been swallowed up in other debt payments. No explanation as to why i wasn't paid Now i have some pension money in the bank for a house, a letter that says i am and was entitled to ESA from May 2016. During this time i did not pay council tax, couldn't pay it as i had no money coming in. I had previously wrote to the council and told them of my woes although i cant recall ever making a claim for benefit using an official form. I had told a council guy on the phone once that i was getting ESA because of zero income. Then i had a note from Swift so i sent them the report from my consultant, a vulnerability notice that i had got from another bailiff over unpaid speeding fines (another long story) together with an updated report from my doctor, which cost me money. Now Swift have been chasing me for council tax from 2016-2017, after i sent them the forms and consultants report i heard nothing until they turned up yesterday. Arrogant young kid, i had taken my meds so he was lucky i didn't take his head off and shove his recording device camera up his jacksy!! I have these turns where i lose control when under any kind of pressure from perceived authority figures. At 140kg and 35 years in martial arts and a champion boxer in my youth the community psychiatric team have their concerns although i manage well with my meds. Anyway......................... I paid the outstanding bill from when my ex wife and i were together. I kept the Swift kid outside event though he asked to come in. No warrant no entry. He added on a fee to what i had owed in council tax and i took that one on the chin. I told him that i disputed the other outstanding amount because: A. I was entitled to single person discount during the chargeable period that they say i owe. B. I was claiming SSP and then ESA for the whole of that chargeable period and should have had some reduction C. I am vulnerable and have little in the way of support. He says he will come back in 2 weeks after i contact the council. I have written to them via email and they have not yet replied. This Swift goon was talking about £1800+ no way i owe that!!! I can and will pay what i truly owe in CT out of my pension lump sum, however i don't agree with paying any charges, paying any more than i was supposed to pay bearing in mind that i was on SSP and ESA at the relevant time. In any case i don't want these people at my door, it sets me off, the hairs go up on the back of my neck and i don't want to hurt anyone, don't want to get locked up so that's why i keep away from conflict as much as possible. I have sent them my vulnerability and psychologists reports previously. I never called their office because i was so wound up, in any case experience tells me that i will get nowhere with the call centre staff as they are mostly buffoons and scoundrels that try and hoodwink people into paying as they are also on 'commission'. I would have ended up getting even more angry and that doesn't help. My head went after he had gone and i had another mini breakdown. Got the knives out of the cupboards etc. Was supposed to go to my brothers wedding today but cant face the world so cancelled at last minute Will i get anywhere with this battle? I have read numerous threads here that state that once its gone from the council to the Bailiffs then it is out of the councils hands. I don't agree with this as the bailiffs are collecting on behalf of the council and are therefore 'agents' of the council under contract. Regardless of my point of view on the matter, how can they (Bailiffs) try and extort an alleged debt (CT) that i don't actually owe (based on the fact that during the relevant chargeable period i was sick, claiming SSP and ESA with zero income) Long story, bad situation for me. I don't want to evade my liability, however i also don't want to pay that which i don't actually owe! Especially to scoundrels like Swift, sending out these young athletic steoid type men trying to intimidate and hoodwink people. Any advice welcome. Thanks

i have just been given power of attorney over my father , his grandson is 45 and been living with my father rent free bill free all his life, my father has been in a home for over a year and the grandson has been using my fathers bank card, there is a police investigation due to over 10 thousand pound being stolen from my fathers account the outcome of this investigation is near , but my question is , i have asked the grandson for the spare set of keys for the house as i need access to the house paper work ect but he has refused to hand the keys over to me , i want to do this the correct way , what can i do ?

Hi please can someone help me. I was awarded a suspended eviction order on 9th November 2009. Whereby the judge ordered if I had to go again I had to go before him and He would basically chuck us out (due to me being there previously) That was dated until November 2010 - Will this be relevent now. Mortgage is with Santander. I have fell behind a few times since just before xmas, but ALWAYS made it up. I am up to date with my payments. And dont owe anything til end of September. My arrears currently stand at £856.71 I have been away on holiday, and come back to a Warrent for the possession of property. Eviction will take place at 28th August at 10.20am. Santander, phoned me in on 20th July - My payments where up to date. Requested I went through a income expenditure with them - right there and then on the phone. I was at work and requested they put the forms in the post. I promptly filled them in and posted them back. Santander say today that because they didnt get them & I defaulted on court agreement they either want the Full £856.71 or the House. Please help me Please help 1 small child and a pretend teenager. Reading through some of the other threads, people have been evicted for being up to date. Really starting to panic Forgot to say I do work, and can pay the mortgage. Just messed my money up a few times this year. But It was payed as soon as, And I am up to date

I recently sent a claim form to reclaim the PPI and other charges that I had with House of Fraser store card which then belonged to GE. Santander now deals with it, and after many letters they have agreed to send me the refund. However, the letter is about 4 pages, and it says I cannot claim interest charges and other charges because of the time limit. I know it was from 1999-2009 and it has been a long time. If I were to send the letter can someone have a look at it please. They said some money was refunded, but I cannot recall as it has been a long time. Also mentioned about the second account I cannot recall that either. They offered me full and final offer of £161.75. I know the PPI amount was only £2.00 or less at the time, and I remember cancelling it sometime ago. Does this amount sound right. Thanks

Please bare with me as this is a long transcript. I owe my council £378.29, but I couldn't make any payment as I recently lost my job. My local council referred the case to the Equita who sent me a "Notice of enforcement" stating that I need to pay 453.29 (Incl. compliance stage fee £75) before 20/02/2017 or contact them to arrange a payment plan else the case will be passed onto bailiffs. I called them on 16/02/2017 and told them that I could pay the money by the end of this month as I recently got a job and so will be paid at the end of this month. I thought we had an agreement as the agent gave me her direct phone number. When I called the agent on 27/02/2017 to make the payment as agreed, she said the case had been passed to a bailiff agent as I'm too late. She put me through to the bailiff agent without letting me explain to her. The bailiff agent stated that he had not received the case yet so asked me to call him in the evening and gave me his number. I called him in the evening, and he stated that he still has not received the case but told me that he would call me tomorrow. I did not get any call from him on 28/02/2017. I called him on 01/03/2017, and he said the case has been assigned to him but busy to talk so he would call me back later, but I did not get any call. I sent him a text on 02/03/2017 asking him to call me when he is ready to talk but no response. On Monday 06/03/2017 he appeared at my house and demanded me to pay. I told him that I called him many times to resolve this issue over the phone to prevent paying the additional "Enforcement stage" fee of £235, but he did not let me speak and demanded the payment else he will take away the goods. I had no other choice but to pay £688.29. I called him today 08/03/2017 to understand why he did not call me back when I was offering to pay the money. He was implying that he did not receive any call from me, but the case is resolved. I also asked why he did not notify me by a call or a letter that he will be visiting my house but did not give me a straight answer. I had recorded all the calls I made to him including when he said that he had not received the case yet and will call me back to implying that he did not receive my calls. Can I make a formal complaint and request a refund of the fees added by the Equita? Please advice.

I put my house on the market at the beginning of December 2016. Last week I received an offer from a prospective buyer that I accepted. Lovely I thought so I rapidly contacted a company of solicitors in Stockport to appoint them for conveyancing. The paperwork from the solicitors arrived here this morning and lists all the things I must provide for the conveyancing to progress. However, the paperwork insists that I must provide photo ID either by photo driving licence or passport. I don't have a driving licence or a passport so I am unable to provide photo ID. Does this mean that I can't sell my house or is there some other way around this issue? I don't want to apply for a passport as I never travel and I don't want to start taking driving lessons to obtain a driving licence that I don't want or need.

Hi, Long story short, I moved out of my Dad's house around 8 years ago. It was the only place I'd lived until then, so I accumulated a bunch of stuff in the attic, as kids and teens do. Since then I went no contact due to verbal/mental abuse from him. That was about 5 years ago. I've since moved away to another part of the country and have not been back. In the summer last year I had an (unpleasant) message saying I had to remove my junk from the attic or they'd be thrown out. I replied and said they could be thrown out. I heard nothing until the other day when another nasty message was sent demanding I remove stuff from the attic myself, because he's in no shape to do it, so I have to. At the end he basically threatened me with taking it further if I didn't come and get my stuff. No mention of throwing it out, I have to come and get it. I don't want to go there personally and get my stuff because it won't go well and this will be used as an excuse to "get" at me. Without going into it, I can't help but think this isn't actually about the stuff, but more about getting me there so a fight can be caused. I'd get someone else to remove the stuff, but I wouldn't put it past him not to let them in and I'd be stuck with the bill. I dont care if it's all thrown out, but obviously I don't want him coming after me legally. What can I do? Can he do anything given I've already granted permission for it to be disposed of and he's refusing to accept any other than me removing it myself.

My home was repossessed by Acenden for SPML last April, and the sale completed on 28 November 2016. I have still not received the residual proceeds, amounting to >£133,000. Am I entitled to interest on this since the date of completion? I'm severely disabled, in temporary accommodation and my health, already known by Acenden to be very poor, is suffering. I need to buy a new home, I'm of an age where I'm eligible for an equity release mortgage, and there are much cheaper places to live than here. I desperately need to get out of here. Having read CAG Guide, can I sue Acenden for breach of the FCA Code of Conduct? It's a heavyweight document and would take me a long time to search for any pointers. Please, could someone at least point me to the section of it I need to read to find out? TIA.

Hi there, hope this is in the right place. Background - we reserved a home with Taylor Wimpey in January 2015. On 14th Feb 2015, we completed a reservation checklist (of which we have a copy) where we went through the plans for the estate, this detailed drains, trees, sub stations, etc etc... We completed and moved in on 3rd July 2015. Very happy in our home, until 7th Jan this year, when the local bus company erected a temporary stop outside our kitchen window. This stop is less than 3 metres from the front of my house and right in front of my gate. We knew the road was to be a bus route, but at no point were we informed that there would be a stop directly outside our house. We have contacted Taylor Wimpey to express our concerns on the 10th January (along with letters to the bus company, the local council and our MP). The bus company say the locations were decided by Taylor Wimpey (TW), the council have not adopted the roads yet so have given us the brush off and our MP is sympathetic but cannot really help either. I have been through our purchase paperwork and at no point was the location of the stop disclosed to us prior to sale, even though I have since discovered plans dated 15th August 2014 which show not only the stop located outside our home, but also that a shelter will be built with real time bus information. The path outside our house will therefore be blocked by this shelter, the view outside our window also obstructed. At the moment the path and our very small front garden are littered in gum and cigarette butts. Our reservation checklist dated after the plans for the bus stop (14/2/15) specifically says regarding Bus Stops "N/A not currently on development", and on our neighbour's, it states "N/A No plans to view". Other people on the estate claim that they were informed about the site of the stops. Do we have a case that TW purposely withheld information and mis-sold us our home? We would not have purchased this home if we were aware that a bus stop would be located directly outside.