OK, but I would advise that you keep clear in your mind what you want to achieve. I would think that you want to have free and clear title to the car. To get that, I would say you already have enough to have your solicitor put a letter together and approach MB, without the co-operation of the seller. They may well just issue the title and you're done, after all I doubt this is the first time this has happened to them. If not, you can still pursue the seller via your solicitor but given that he is a scammer I wouldn't hold out much hope of him suddenly coming clean! Just my opinion, I'm not a solicitor but I have been in situations not unlike this and know that it easy to make things more complicated for yourself by not 'keeping your eyes on the prize'. Best of luck.

Sounds like you've done some great detective work there, well done! So you now have a good timeline; the car was purchased by the dealer who performed an HPI check and found no finance outstanding. They then sold it to someone who took out their own finance in August 2020. That person sold it to you without informing you that there was finance outstanding in October 2020. I would think that it would be realtively straightforward for a solicitor to write a letter to MB with the pertinent facts (they will obviously know when and by whom the finance was taken out) and request that they issue a good faith title. It should only cost about £150. I echo what others have said; don't hassle the seller. I know it is really frustrating and annoying, but he has proved himself a liar and only has to tell the Police that you threatened him and you'll be in trouble!

Thanks for the reply, BankFodder. So far I've spent just the £52 on delivery. He sells a lot of stuff on eBay but I think he's classed as a private seller.

Sorry to hear about your problem, it's horrible when people take advantage like that. I don't want to add to your woes, but road tax is not transferrable to a new owner so when he said 'road tax is paid so I have not to worry', he was wrong. See here: https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle The last thing you need right now is another problem, so I'd either take the car off the road and make a SORN declaration or tax it as soon as possible. If you are planning on making life difficult for the seller then don't be surprised if he reports you for no tax! I hope it all works out for you.

I recently purchased some wheels on eBay which were located at the other end of the country. The seller was happy for me to arrange a courier to collect them and I paid him for them. I put a request for some quotes on Shiply and accepted one from a company with plenty of positive feedback, who claimed to be insured and would only take payment once the item was delivered. I paid a deposit of £8 immediately via PayPal. Shortly after this, I recieved a message from the courier saying that because of Coronavirus they were no longer accepting payment at the door on delivery and would instead require payment by bank transfer two days before delivery. I paid the remaining fee of £44 as requested. The day before delivery, I get a message from the seller say that he thinks the courier has collected the wrong items. I contact them immediately, and yes, they have collected the wrong items. They tell me that the seller was not present when they collected but had left a message at his works reception directing them to collect those items (the wrong ones). After I point out that they are wrong, they stop texting back. I then get a message from the seller asking for my phone number so that we can figure out what to do. I send it, but have heard nothing from him since. Today, while I was out, the courier has delivered the wrong items to my house an hour earlier than expected and my son has accepted them. So, I wonder how to sort this out... No doubt the courier will argue that they have done as directed and are not to blame. The seller will argue that he did not leave such a message/the courier misunderstood and he is not to blame either. So I get the sinking feeling that I will end up having to foot the bill for the wrong items to be returned AND the right ones to be delivered - only tripling the delivery cost! Any suggestions??

Thank you Ethel Street. My situation is not entirely dissimilar to yours, in that one of the parties is my daughter so obviously I would not want to pursue her for the money. But I take your point that there is no concept of a "share" of the rent, all parties are liable for 100% of the rent. In a way this helps, as the other party cannot then reasonably argue that they don't owe the full amount should I wish to pursue them for it.

The contract says that the contract is between the LL, the tenants (two parties, one I might wish to pursue and another) and myself as guarantor. The party I wish to pursue is named as "lead tenant" on the contract and was the one that I filled in the relevant forms to guarantor for. We all signed the contract together, but it was my assumption (I know, I know!) that I had only guaranteed one person. I wonder if I'm splitting hairs here and perhaps it makes no real difference?

Thanks again all. There is a slight wrinkle that has come up today. Although I thought I was acting as Guarantor for one individual, as it was they who were credit-checked and were supposedly paying the rent, there are two names on the contract in addition to mine as Guarantor. Speaking to the estate agent today, they inform me that we are all "jointly and severally liable". Does this make any difference to my position, and my intention to pursue only one of the other named individuals (i.e. the one that was credit-checked and is working). The other name on the contract was never intended to pay the rent and was/is not working.

Thanks all. My gut feeling was that it was a pretty strong case, but I couldn't be sure. I understand that there is little chance of actually getting the money back, especially since they are self-employed and will no doubt produce accounts that show that they don't earn more than minimum wage. I'm getting the impression that I'll have to accept whatever they offer, but at least they'll have to acknowledge their responsibility for the debt.

I am acting as Guarantor on a rented property for someone who is now in serious rent arrears, to the tune of almost £3k. If I pay this off, does anyone know if can I then make a claim (small claims court maybe?) against them in order to try and get the money back? If so, has anyone done it? How easy is it? What power does the court have to compel the tenant to pay me? Thanks, dK

Please forgive me, but I'm finding it hard to understand what you are trying to say. Are you asking about the charge you've received, or about the fact that you think you've mistakenly claimed an exemption in the past? My advice would be to concentrate on the matter in hand (the charge you've already received) and don't fret about anything else. In my opinion there's no chance that you'll get any correspondence about whatever happened before this; the NHS BSA only took over dealing with it in September 2014, so won't be concerned about anything prior to that. They probably could go as far back as they liked, but why do that? People are likely to just resign themselves to paying a relatively small charge without complaint, but would kick up an almighty fuss if a charge of several thousand pounds arrived out of the blue. This way I'm sure they hoped to increase revenue without stirring up the media. And even if the media do get involved, popular opinion is likely to sneer at amounts such as these as a mere pittance and not take up the cause. Nope they've played it perfectly. Silently introduce a new system whereby they can catch genuine claimants out with paperwork (they argue that it is the paperwork, not the condition that entitles you), send out fines (sorry, charges) with no means of appeal and no burden of proof on them. Perfect.

OK, so either one of two things has happened: (1) They have made a mistake and recorded the wrong box as being ticked on a prescription filled in November 2014, or (2) You or someone who collects prescriptions for you has made a mistake and ticked box M instead of box F. If you are 100% sure that (2) cannot have happened in November 2014, then I would urge you to write to the NHS BSA. Include a photocopy of the pre-payment certificate (not the original) and tell them that they've made a mistake and you want your money back. Do you always use the same chemists? Might be worth having a word with the pharmacist, I don't know if they keep any records themselves or not, but it's worth a try.

Hang on, let's try to be clear here. The charge notice should say something like "...because you or your representative declared that you did not have to pay for the following reason: ....". What reason does it give?

Don't panic, slow down and take it one step at a time. First thing, find your pre-payment certificate and confirm when it expires.

OK, so if you have a valid pre-payment certificate (I assume you purchased a 12-month one and not a 3-month one, correct?) and have correctly filled in the declaration on the back of the prescription itself, I'm struggling to see why they've sent the charge notice. And to be honest, I'm not sure why you've paid it.