I realise this thread is not new any more but thought I'd share my experience for anyone searching for this in the future. I live in an apartment building, some are privately owned, some are 50/50 and some are rented out. I live on the basement level and for quite some time every Saturday night a flat on the floor above me would play their music incredibly loud starting at about 10am and not finishing until the small hours of the morning. My boyfriend even left my house one night saying that the racket was horrendous and he couldn't sleep! This went on every week for about a month or so and in the end I snapped and phoned the police. They did absolutely nothing. I live almost directly behind a police station and they still did nothing, claiming that I needed to contact environmental health instead. I never did this as I thought that as my noise complaint wasn't occurring every night of the week that they would do nothing. Luckily they don't have their parties quite so frequently any more, though it definitely hasn't stopped. My point was just this, where I live (Devon) the police don't seem to care about noisy neighbours unfortunately. Good luck to anyone dealing with the same kind of thing!

Hi again, seems I just keep coming up with problems at the moment! This morning I was in bed as I work until late at night and therefore my sleeping pattern often reflects this, even on the weekends. I was woken up this morning by someone banging on my door, but for the first few moments I was still sleepy and didn't realise what was happening and so didn't go to answer it. Then I hear the sound of a key being put into my lock and the handle being pumped up and down as the guy tried in vain to get into my property. This went on for about three or four minutes whilst he obviously tried several different keys - I was just sat in my room, horrified and wondering if he was going to break my door if he couldn't get in. Finally I threw on my dressing gown and threw open the door to find a guy there. He told me that he'd been trying to get in and I retorted that no one other than myself and one family member have a key to my flat. The reason this guy no longer had a key that fitted into my front door was that this kind of thing has happened before! About a year ago (roughly) I was in bed with the flu. The door went and I ignored it because I could barely open my eyes, never mind answer the door. I must have fallen back asleep almost immediately because I awoke again very soon to find a man in my flat. Now that I could almost live with, but then he opened my bedroom door and took a gander in there whilst I pretended to be asleep - I know I should have said something but I was astounded that this was even happening. All of the flats on my floor of the building are built the same way and I heard him banging around in my airing cupboard where all of the meters are - if he'd been in any of the other flats before at all (which is obvious he must have as mine would have been one of the last on his list) he would have known exactly where the meters were - so why was he in my bedroom?! For this reason exactly I changed my locks and have not given a spare key to anyone except my grandmother. I do not own the house solely, but I own 50% of it. A housing association own the other half but does that mean that they have the right to enter my property? And both times the maintenance company (who I don't think are anything to do with the housing association) had failed to provide me with any notice at all - I thought they legally had to provide 24 hours notice? I'm so stressed, I don't feel safe in my own home anymore. If anyone can help me out I'd be really grateful. Thanks in advance.

Hi there. A little while ago I posted in this forum regarding a flooring problem that I had. Since then my housing association finally agreed to send someone out to investigate the problem, and I've now been told that I need to wait whilst they fight out who is responsible for paying - Signpost or the developers. The thing is that my asthma was being aggravated to a huge extent by the floor having been ripped up - it was mouldy underneath and the spores were making me ill. Since I couldn't afford to pay out for more medication, I've been forced to spend most of my time living with my grandparents. This has meant that not only am I paying for a flat that I can't inhabit but also I'm being forced to spend out a lot of extra money on petrol each week getting to and from work. My question is basically this; Can I stop paying my rent until the problem is sorted? I don't understand why I should be paying to live somewhere that I can't actually live in. Also keeping in mind that I'm giving my grandparents a little something to cover my being able to stay in their house - I have almost nothing to live on after paying out for all of this. At the very least I'm hoping that a threat of not paying rent will shock them into working faster to resolve the issue (It's been five weeks since the inspection already). Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Hi there! Got another problem and figured I'd try you knowledgeable people before I go storming into the Signpost office! I entered into a shared ownership agreement on my brand-new flat three years ago. About six months after I moved in we discovered a leak due to the washing machine having been improperly fitted (by the builders or whoever). The water warped my laminate flooring and so I called Signpost to tell them that they needed to come out and fix it. They sent someone who replaced the laminate, but they did not touch the floor underneath the laminate, claiming that it didn't need doing. A year later I noticed my floorboards warping once more, but this time around was told that because 12 months had passed, it was no longer Signpost's problem and that I had to sort it myself. I simply did not have the money to replace the flooring, and so it was left until last weekend. My grandmother and I went out to buy the replacement flooring (costing £100) and we employed a friend of the family (a builder) to come round to pull up the old floor and replace the new floor. Now here comes the problem. He pulled up the kitchen floor yesterday, and could not believe what he found. The flooring underneath is so badly damaged it is unreal. Where it is supposed to be air-tight he can fit his screwdriver down inbetween, it is so badly damaged my washing machine is actually sinking into the floor (and he believes that if it is not fixed the whole kitchen could collapse in a few years time) and the chipboard is mouldy. It is green and fuzzy, which means that it is releasing all sorts of spores and causing me to have asthma. I never thought about it until earlier, but I have had three asthma attacks in my adult life, all of which have occurred in the last two-three years. Coincidence? Also, it seems that the damage is not only limited to the kitchen where the leak happened, but because the chipboard was never replaced when it should have been, the damage is now all the way out into my hallway in one direction and my living room in the other direction. Signpost have stated that it is still not their problem, and that they did the repair job when asked, but my question is this; can I possibly get them to pay for at least the cost of labour (I've already bought most of the materials) considering that if they'd not sent someone to do a botched job in the first place, this would never have happened?

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly! I'll write the letter when I get in tonight and send it off tomorrow. Hopefully this will spur them into action!

Hello there! I'm Gem and I found this website and just had to register and ask for advice on a problem I've had for ages and which is still unresolved. My grandmother has an account with LX Direct and is a regular customer. Last September (2007) I asked her to buy something on her account for me. The item in question was a full-sized elliptical machine (cross-trainer to you and me!) costing £175. Delivery was supposed to be within seven days and they failed to deliver within this time. When the item finally did arrive, I was at home putting it together when I found that not only was it rusty and damaged but there was bits missing. I should add that the box was damaged and even had a hole in it but I was unaware of my right to refuse delivery and so signed for it. We phoned LX Direct to compain and they told me that they would simultaneously send out another machine and also arrange for a pick-up of the damaged item. They gave me an exact date for the pick-up but not for the delivery. I took the day off work to wait for UPS to pick the item up and they never showed up! We phoned LX Direct once again and were told that they were sorry that the pick-up had not happened, but they also revealed that the 2nd machine appeared not to have been sent after all. They arranged to send another one and to arrange yet another pick-up. The second pick-up failed to happen once again after I'd taken yet another day off work... My next phone call revealed that there were two ellipticals making their way to me. Furious, I demanded that they cancel one, which they only did after keeping me on the phone for almost half an hour. A few weeks later I finally received the second elliptical, which arrived in good condition, but I still had the massive box containing the damaged one taking up most of my living room. (I live in a one-bedroom flat so I have very limited space as it is!) Six months, countless phone calls to LX Direct and UPS, several more days pay lost and around five more failed pick-ups later and I've still got the flaming machine sitting in my flat. I'm at the end of my tether now, personally I just want to take the damaged machine to the local tip! To make matters worse, my kitten has climbed into the hole in the box of the damaged machine and scratched up the handles, so now I'm worried that they will hold that against me! I just don't know what to do anymore, I simply cannot afford to take any more time off work and I can't have this thing in my home any longer! Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and thank you for reading through my ramblings!