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gertysingh

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Everything posted by gertysingh

  1. Thanks all. I didn't fight them on contract as it was the wrong road. Fought them on harassment and tort. Claim has now been paid in full Hopefully company changes their policies.
  2. Ok - thanks. It's all about what will be said to set the precedence. Don't have to win
  3. Thanks SS. I am going down the road of Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and have testimonies from others who have received the same treatment. Would this be enough?
  4. Just a quick update, company told me I would lose for the normal reasons that you see in the movies!!! I said I'd take my chances with the evidence and laws I have now gathered. Have been offered some petty cash to compensate and cover small claims fee. I have thanked them and declined the offer and re-offered a potential way where both parties look like they win ;-) So haven't gone to small claims yet. Guess it's all about practicing negotiations before court happens!
  5. I do find it amazing how private companies that serve the public can get away with forcing "consumers" to tell them how to improve their processes by threatening legal action and having to go thru the ombudsman to sort out crap. So either way, it will be an education and thus I should be a better contributor to this forum .
  6. Thanks folks. Yes they do know about the invoices but did not want to acknowledge them. I have served the invoices to the company again and this time via email (as they opened up email comms to me) + all communications that they refused to acknowledge. Ok here it goes..... The company had written an illegal charge to me. I responded and warned the company that my time is billable should they engage me and waste my time and told them why their charge was invalid and to drop it. The company rejected my response and appeared to accept my billable time. They followed on with a further correspondence threatening to start legal proceedings should I refuse to pay their invalid charge, breaching their own code of practice and conduct. As I was not in town when that correspondence arrived, my partner nearly paid the illegal charge! Thankfully the payment had not been sent and I shredded it. I was forced to research for them and identify issues in their own processes in order for the charge to be dropped. This costed me 2 days in time. So I sent them some invoices as stated in my first communication should they engage me and which they had not rejected in any of their communications. They ignored my latter communications that contained invoices. I decided to go ahead and engage them in legal proceedings as I do not like bully companies that try to screw members of the public with fear. And here we are with one of the directors stating the company never received any further correspondence from me. The mailing address is to a PO Box.
  7. Sorry chaps - can't say too much at the moment. I will let you know once all has been and gone. It appears that a certificate of posting will be accepted in court And if it isn't it will potentially mean everyone can say they never received stuff through the post ;-) and you can cite my case!
  8. Ok - thanks - however would a judge accept a company denying receiving post?
  9. Hi all. There is a whole long story but to cut the story short, I sent a company 3 correspondence. The last 2 correspondences contained invoices for my time. After nearly a month of no response, I decided to take them to the small claims. Instantly a director has responded to me by email and says they will not be paying those invoices. After a number of email exchanges and me repeatedly asking if the company had received my invoices, he finally said they did not receive my correspondence and warned me to drop the case against them otherwise it would result in costs to me! I have a certificate of posting for all correspondences and invoices. In court would a judge say that it is possible that the company did not receive the correspondence and hence invalidate my claim?
  10. Had a friend who had something similar. She went for option 2. 1. Do you have photography evidence of the house before + signed inventory that indicates state of property? 2. Do you have photography evidence of the house after of the said damage + check out clerk's report? On hindsight, could have also asked someone from the insurance company to assess the damage done.
  11. Agree with Stu. Get in touch with the Council. They will send someone over to do a health & safety check on the property.
  12. What an awful situation! My neighbour had water gushing out of her house for some days. It took 6-8 weeks for the place to dry out with dehumidifiers on in the house 24x7. Sounds like the HA are doing a hash job. Worst will be if you move in, there is still dampness and then black mould growth. Defo ensure you get a damp certificate before putting in any soft furnishings and moving back in plus everything Caro and stu say.
  13. Middle Earth is North Wales? P.S. I loooove North Wales.
  14. Ahh yes I see "All tenants are responsible for the rent until the tenancy has ended and the landlord has vacant possession" So if one tenant remains, then regardless of the notice the others have given, it will become a periodic tenancy and the others will be liable for rent. At that point they can break the joint tenancy with a notice. Thanks for the correction mariner.
  15. Step back for a moment and forget the renting. Janet do you think you can make peace with your neighbours? Cos they are sounding a little oppressive. Personally I like living in a place where the neighbours are not an issue and I am happy. This has happened to a friend of mine and she won over the neighbours by having a "curry" party with them.
  16. You are under no obligation to continue renting with the third tenant after your joint agreement has ended. The contract is over. Communicate with the tenant who wants to stay/does not want to cooperate and let him know that at the end of the contract period, you are both leaving and have informed the agent. If he wants to continue living in the property he will have to create a new contract with the agent. This is where it can get a little messy.....when one party continues to live in the property and the other party leaves. Make sure the agent checks out the property when you leave and goes through anything that you have to correct or pay damages towards. Also Carpet Cleaners is right, you don't have to give a month's notice, and really it is up to the agent a month before, but I like to play safe
  17. Just to let you know, tenant A has now become reasonable. Fingers crossed everything will be sorted tonight.
  18. Not sure about the "rolling contract" clause but presumably your contract is a joint tenancy agreement. The easiest path is to create the notice, get all parties in your flat to sign it and deliver it to the letting agent, notifying them that you all will be leaving at the end of your tenancy. Best to allow for at least one month's notice period. This clarifies your intentions and would allow them time to advertise the property.
  19. Hi All - have a story and a couple of questions. Tenant A had a fall out with tenant B in a shared house. Tenant A felt he could no longer live in the same household as tenant B as their heated discussion nearly ended in a petty fight. Tenant A came to me tell me he was moving out and asked me to help him as he did not want to lose his deposit. I said there is a clause in his agreement whereby if he found someone else to move into his room, he would have his deposit returned minus damages. I said I could help him find someone as people are often asking me for accommodation. By mid-week he found a place to live and moved out on the Saturday. Before he moved out, I set out to find someone to take his room and asked him to do the same. He said to me I don't blame you for anything and that I'd been a good landlord. The next day I received an email reading me my rights and telling me I had breached the contract as he was unable to enjoy the facilities of the house due to tenant B and that he charged tenant B with criminal conduct and thus would not be paying any further rent. From the others in the house, Tenant A had got irritated with Tenant B as Tenant B complained to him about not cleaning up the skid marks in the toilet. Tenant A told Tenant B he was F****** stupid, etc. Tenant B responded by calling him some unkind names. Tenant A took a lunge at him but tenant C kept him back. As tenant A was near the knives, Tenant B reacted by picking up a chair to defend himself. More aggressive words were exchanged and went no further. Tenant A decides that tenant B has threatened him and thus caused common assault and told me I needed to kick him out of the house within 24 hours due to this criminal activity and it is a breach of his contract! Tenant A is on a fixed tenancy agreement until June. I have now found someone to take his room which means he can get his deposit back minus damages. He now does not want to return the keys as he has paid up until 9th April and is disputing the damages (£166.60). The new tenant wanted the room on the 8th April. The house was newly refurbished in September with high quality soft fittings when he moved in. When I inspected his room and the house: 1. He had destroyed the "new" topper (cost £120) after just under 8 months (I gave him the brand name and type to check the costings himself). He said it had just "exploded" one day when he sat on it (this was the first I had heard about it). It appears the topper had been leaking feathers for some time and also destroyed the mattress cover (£15) that was on top of it as well as damaged the new mattress underneath it (feathers embedded in the mattress have been difficult to remove resulting in damaging the mattress fabric). 2. Additionally he did not clean his room. When he moved out, he said he would return to clean it as there would be a potential tenant viewing his room. He did not, so I got a cleaner in to vacuum and dust his room + clean his windows (£10) ready for the viewing. 3. I have charged the 4 room house for cleaning the new oven (it was never cleaned when they started using it) (£5 each) + the oil splatters on the wall to the side and behind the stove (£16.60 each - one room rarely used the kitchen). I have not yet charged him for the damaged new mattress. Mattress cost £100, but is still usable if I turn it over, so estimated a damage cost of £20. I have not charged him for leaving the fridge dirty - which required a wipe out. 1. Are the charges unfair? 2. Can he continue to hold onto his keys even though he has "officially" moved out? (he told me he was officially moving out last Saturday). (note Tenant A's deposit is held in the DPS)
  20. There are "elite" runners, "club" runners and also people just trying to get fit/keep fit. It truely is a great opportunity for beginners and they are friendly at these events. Most are small except for the very first one that is Bushy Park. This now has about 400-600 runners attending. All the others tend to have less than 100. Hey freakyleaky - are you in NZ? There has been talk of one being run in NZ in May!
  21. Losing weight long term is a combination of diet changes and exercise. How about aiming to complete a 5K run? I have seen so many unfit, over weight people lose soooo much weight. I am a regular and volunteer at http://www.parkrun.com These are free 5K runs held around the country every Saturday. For those starting off, walk the entire route first. Once you're able to do that, then attempt a run for one minute, walk for one minute, run for two minutes, walk for one minute, etc until you can run 5 minutes without stopping. Anyway, if you want to come along to a nice free social with like minded people, register at http://www.parkrun.com and bring your bar code. Maybe see you at a parkrun
  22. Hi All Wonder if someone might be able to advise me if I can claim back the fee I paid to an accountancy firm plus time spent finding out they had "lied" to me. I am a one-man company. 8 Nov 2010: I handed my company accounts to an accountancy firm 2 months before my accounts were due to Companies House. This has not been a problem in the past. I called up at the end of November to talk to the accountant who normally handles my accounts to find out how things were going and to let him know that I was leaving the country. I was unable to speak with him personally and was told the message would be passed onto him. 13 Dec: A new accountant from the firm introduces himself to me via email. I ask him what has happened to my old accountant. He tells me that the old accountant had poor health and thus left at the end of November. 17 Dec: Accountant completes my accounts and asks me to send back the originals ASAP back to the UK. I email back to ask him to send it via webfiling as this had already been set up for me in the previous year. 22 Dec: He says there are problems at Companies House (CH) as the company has been unable to send anything to CH over the last 3 weeks. I ask him to call CH and ask to send a scanned copy of my accounts to CH. He tells me that they had received an email from CH that they had a skeleton staff due to the weather and that only the originals could be sent to CH. I posted my accounts by express post from the country I was in. This normally has a 2-4 working day delivery time BUT due to the weather conditions were not guarantee-ing the delivery. CH received my accounts on 4 Jan 2011. 4 days late and thus received a penalty. I appealed the penalty and got a waiver but the accounts would still be filed late. I also received a letter in January 2011, co-incidentally backdated to Dec 13 that the accountant I used to deal with had left the company due to ill health. 2011: Unfortunately I delivered my accounts late to CH a second time (my fault - got confused between HMRC and Companies House as this was the first time I had done my company accounts myself) I was thus given a double penalty for having delivered my accounts late twice in a row. I appealed the 2010 late filing and found out from CH that: 1. There was no issues with their web filing in 2010. I thus asked the ex-accountant to send me the failed delivery slip. They sent me a failed delivery slip that indicated there was a failure on their side due to their template not aligning with CH and I found out the email was an internal email and not from CH. 2. They would have accepted a signed copy of the accounts. One of the directors from my ex-accountant's company has indicated that: 1. I handed my accounts to them late and so they were unable to turn it around in time. 2. It was my responsibility to get my accounts in on time (as specified in CH's regulations).....I wonder why I employed a firm of accountants!!! 3. The double penalty is independent of 2010. (one gets a double penalty for late filing in 2 consecutive years) 4. Since I settled their fee with them, I have accepted that everything was fine. This was my mistake as I was not happy with the service provided at the time but was being given the run around and decided to pay them their fee and to never use them again. I also recently found out that the original accountant's contract had been terminated with the company in the 2nd week of Nov and so they could have alerted me much sooner about him leaving. (for the last 4 years my relationship has been wholly with the original accountant who was pushed out of the company) Would appreciate any guidance here.
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