Jump to content

machinogodzilla

Registered Users

Change your profile picture
  • Posts

    10
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

1 Neutral

1 Follower

  1. Thanks. I understand that I can freely change my email address in the account settings and the newsletter delivery will continue uninterrupted, right? Just for reference, is requesting it here on the forum a normal newsletter subscription process?
  2. Hi, How do I subscribe to CAG newsletter? I cannot find any link or page anywhere and this: http : / / www . consumeractiongroup . co . uk / newsletter . php doesn't seem to be working. I got an activation letter with a link that appears to be broken - no id: http : / / www . consumeractiongroup . co . uk / newsverify . php?id= (spaces added by me) Thanks
  3. I've just answered a similar question. The mods have removed your link but search the Internet for the following: Shelter "Tenancy deposit protection schemes" You will find the theory there.
  4. Search the Internet for the following: Shelter "Tenancy deposit protection schemes" You will find the theory there.
  5. This is basically the main conclusion. That's the one. The problem is the deposit you give them to look after at the time you sign the contract. It's like placing a sausage in front of a dog and hoping that it will still be there when you come back. So when they say, for example, if you are late for the checkout we will charge you £50 you could just as well reply the same. The problem is that they essentially already have your money and if you are indeed late they will simply take it, whereas if they are late you have no way to charge them.
  6. Hello, Thank you but self-censorship is not something I support, neither is sanitizing of the content so I'd rather have the link removed than the story honeyed to fit the policies of this place. [quote name='Conniff']Well, what does one say, although I haven't read all your story, I've read enough and looked at the gallery to know I would have walked right back out.[/QUOTE] With 15k posts on this forum you must be a seasoned warrior in the field of dealing with rogue businesses but many people are not. Forget about your experience and try to think, for example, the cash-strapped student way for a moment, a student who gets into hands of such "professionals" who have mastered their methods on many others before and are more than sure the poor being will not put up a fight. I've lived for a bit and consider myself a cautious person (keeping all the receipts, copies of documents, always reading t&c etc.) but still that have not prepared me enough for this particular experience and a long and tedious struggle (which I eventually won btw). Also as you did not read the entire story you missed the main point which wasn't the state of the flat. The problem was the agency's total lack of respect for their customers and the morally questionable practices they employed to milk as much money from the letting opportunity as possible. [quote name='king12345']I'm sure you can work out what kind of treatment to expect from the landlord by the way they present their asset: the property.[/QUOTE] This is especially true when you rent privately. However, it is the letting agencies that often look after the property (via third parties) on behalf of the landlords. In this particular case they made a promise that they would redecorate the flat, which they later admitted they had failed to do. No action followed, though. This was another morale of the story, you as a tenant have no practical way of enforcing anything the contract says the agency/landlord is obliged to do. The contract and all the applicable laws are worthless. [quote name='mariner51']Equally from some Ts point of view - 1 Unkempt, tired property sloppy LL = we can prob make some money from complaining - 2 Well presented property, caring LL = we can prob still make some money or at least cost the LL a packet by trashing it during T.[/QUOTE] Make money from complaining? Perhaps in a fantasy world! I'm sorry, but this really sounds ludicrous. I have seen so many *really* bad properties around that this should be a thriving business in the area. First of all you will never get to know your landlord. Second, the LA will never give you anything just because you've complained. Third, the point you start battling you start losing money straight away, to them it makes no difference. I won my case and I still paid all I was supposed to pay the day I signed the contract, plus I lost a considerable amount of time and energy. All the punishment they got was they didn't get anything extra this time. Surely they won't dare try again with the next tenant... You will likely part with some of your deposit at the end of the contract just to avoid wrestling with the agency. I'm not making this up, this comes from the feedback I received, people treat this as an extra fee (at least those who have been with agencies before). Should it be like this? No. Sadly it sounds like a norm.
  7. Hi, I can see that the link was removed "for checking". Does it mean what it says or has it gone for good? Without the story to refer to there is little point in replying to the comments... Thanks
  8. Hi, If you are considering renting from a letting agency for the first time then please read my story. Initially it was just going to be a simple post on a forum but the never ending chain of problems I experienced with both Austin & Wyatt and Countrywide resulted in such a mountain of material which I did not want to go to waste so I wrote an entire website. I hope it will save you some trouble or at least prep you for what's ahead. Prevention is better, cheaper and less time consuming than cure especially when you are inexperienced in dealing with such matters. [unauthorised link information removed for checking]
  9. Thank you for the prompt reply. I appreciate every comment. I'm not disputing that the car was seen on the road without a tax disk. For me (an average person with no garage, big garden, private road etc. that parks in the street) this is the natural order of things - failing in renewing the tax results, with the immediate effect, in the car being unlicenced. Because one results directly from another I can't see why I should pay twice. [on a side: in the same second when the licence run out I: failed to relicence, my car's presence on the road become illegal AND the displayed tax disk become out-of-date - here then there is an idea for the reason for the third penalty, just add an extra paragraph whenever it's necessary] If DVLA had send me a letter saying that I failed to relicense my car and I had, say, a week to pay the penalty and relicense the car, and after that week my car was spotted still being unlicensed, which would result in the penalty for using my car on the public highway with out-of-date tax disk, then I wouldn't have had nothing against it. Another thing is, why am I being considered a criminal right away and threatened with a "court action" before I had a chance to do anything in this matter? I find it very offensive and intimidating.
  10. Hello everyone! I thought I would join this thread as some elements of the above discussion apply to my case. The problem I have is related to the term Double Jeopardy. For reasons that don't really matter here I have not renewed the tax on my car. Then I received a letter from DVLA titled "Late Licensing Penalty" dated 16/01/2009. It said that because I failed to relicense my car I had to pay L80 penalty that would be reduced to L40 (plus the arrears) if I paid by 03/02/2009. At that point it was all fine to me, I was going to pay the fine and I renewed the tax right after the letter arrived. But then (today) I received another letter titled "Unlicensed vehicle", dated 19/01/2009 and saying that my car was spotted kept on the road whilst unlicensed, and referring to the same period the first letter referred to (Nov/Dec 2008). This letter threatened me with the court actions if I don't pay L60 to DVLA's pocket. I don't have any experience in this matter at all and I have not contacted the DVLA yet but from the sound of it it looks like they want me to pay twice for the same offence listed under two different names. As someone here said before if I didn't have the tax disk, then it was impossible to display it. I haven't managed to conclude from the above discussion so can anyone tell me: do they have legal rights to charge me twice for this offence? Or, I think, I could ask - can I be convicted twice for the same offence?
×
×
  • Create New...