It was good to see Anne putting the BPA and DVLA on the spot.

That's what I thought, whether the yob would actually pay up after judgement is another matter, but it's probably worth a try.

Hi,

My friend emailed me last night with a problem.

Basically at around 3am some local drunken lout kicked the wing mirror off his Mazda pickup truck. He grabbed the guy and waited for the police to arrive but as it transpires, because the guy has no previous record for criminal damage, he's going to be let off with a caution. Now my mate is £200 out of pocket for a new wing mirror and fitting.

My question is, given that he knows exactly who did it, could he not file a small claims court case via MCOL for the cost of a new wing mirror and the labour to fit?

Just out of curiosity why did you send them anything after everyone on here told you not to?

Yes, their letters can be intimidating but they're well documented as being totally groundless in law. They rely on intimidation and nothing more to make their money and in your case, it's worked.

What can they do if you stop the cheque? They've still got no legal claim to any money from you.

Have a look at the link below if you're unsure, absolutely hundreds of people have had those exact same letters from Excel, Roxburge and Graham White Solicitors and they have never taken anyone to court.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2214803

Check with your bank to see whether they have deposited the cheque or not. If they haven't, ask your bank to block the cheque.

"Mother and baby" and disabled spaces have no legal status on private land and cannot be enforced as such. You could park your car horizontally across three disabled spaces if you felt like it. Although it'd be rather inconsiderate, they wouldn't be able to do naff all about it.

Ignore, ignore, ignore.

People do quite often win court cases against clamping firms, although;

However, the clamping firm was dissolved before she could get the money back.

This usually seems to be the outcome.

Not to worry, I would always recommend giving 14 days so that they cannot claim to have been given insufficient opportunity to resolve the issue. Although given that they've hardly bothered to respond to you at all I can't see them convincing a judge of that.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. You've already made them aware of the problem, so they can't attempt to wriggle out of the issue by stalling you.

Did you only give them 7 days on your letter? I really would have given them 14.

Have a look here;

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2214803

Doesn't say on this thread who the initial PPC was, but it's a fairly safe bet that copies of the same letters will be on here somewhere. From past experience you usually get two "final" demands, along with a last grovelling letter ("please pay up, think of the children!").

Once they've realised that you have no intention of paying, they'll usually bugger off.

I was under the impression that a judge's decision in Small Claims Court was final and binding, you could only appeal if there was an error in proceedings.

High Court? Best of luck with that PH.

At least you know not to go back to that solicitor again..

Okay, you need to draft a final letter before action (LBA).

Final Notice before Legal Action

 

I enclose a copy of the letter I wrote to you on date.

 

I have given you a reasonable opportunity to resolve my complaint. You have failed to do so.

 

I have now been left with no alternative but to seek legal redress through the courts. Unless this matter is satisfactorily resolved within the next 14 days I will instigate legal proceedings without further notice. The cost of this action will be added to my claim.

Enclose a copy of your last letter with this one, make sure to include any complaint reference numbers that they may have given you. Wait until 14 days have elapsed from the date your last letter was received and signed for, then send this via recorded delivery also.

I can't imagine they would ignore this letter as they wouldn't stand a chance in court, but we'll wait and see. If they don't respond to this letter, report back here and we'll sort out the next step which is the Particulars of Claim (POC).

Even if you have admitted being the driver there's very little they can do. In civil cases they can only usually claim for actually monetary losses, so the £120 "fee" that they have plucked out of thin air would get laughed out of court. If it was a private car park that charged say £100 per hour and you stayed for 2 hours without paying, they could theoretically charge you for the £200 of lost revenue. However as it's a free car park, their actual losses for your overstay are zero, so this is all they could sue you for.

You have a friend who's a lawyer, and they actually paid up? Oh dear...

You could write back to them and argue the toss until you're blue in the face but what's the point? Their "appeals" team may agree to look at it but it will almost certainly be rejected. I wouldn't waste your time.

So they apparently sent letters years ago but are only now chasing it up? Sounds highly suspect.

Agreed with the insurance thing though, I don't see how you can not be sure if you were insured or not. You must have old insurance paperwork kicking about.

A photo of your car! Uh oh. They must be serious. Better pay up now!

Not really, you can safely continue to ignore, expect maybe 2 more letters from these clowns, plus a couple from their "debt collectors" as well as a few from their "solicitors". Then they'll give up and go away. The tone of the letters gets more and more threatening and angry as you go along but it's all hot air.

Having worked closely with security staff in a large superstore in the past. The "banning order" is automatically handed out to pretty much everyone caught shoplifting, anyone who happened to be with them at the time, plus anybody caught randomly messing around on store premises. They will most likely not keep photos of everyone on the banned list and unless someone who dealt with your daughter at the time recognises her (bearing in mind they will see hundreds if not thousands of faces a day), unless she is very distinctive looking, the chances of her being recognised again are minimal. As ashmk said, advise your daughter to lay off the place for a few weeks and it's unlikely she'd have any trouble again, unless she does something to attract attention.

As for RLP, I wouldn't worry about it, the paperwork would have probably arrived by now if it was going to.

I know how tempting it is to write back to them and tell them in no uncertain terms to go and "f" themselves. However you need to bite your tongue. They're despicable scare tactics, using a mock up of the courts logo to make these documents look official. What really grates on me, is for everyone on here who recognises these swindlers for what they are, loads more probably pay up without hesitation.

If there is no contractual provision, and her normal working hours are stated as 22.5hrs a week, she should be paid for these hours. Failing to do so would be breach of contract and an unlawful deduction of wages.

This is exactly what I figured. AFAIK there's no contractual provisions for them to reduce her hours. Will check the wording of the contract tonight though.

Thanks!

It's (hopefully) not a permanent reduction in hours, just a one-off for this weekend just gone due to a mix up. As far as I know she'll be back to her normal hours next week.

She has been there longer than 12 months.

Hi

Writing this one on behalf of my fiance.

She works in a care home on weekends. Basically she works 8pm-8am Saturday and Sunday nights and is contracted for 22.5 hours per week after breaks have been deducted. This weekend just passed, she was told that due to over-staffing as a result of a mix up with the rota, she was only required to come in for 2pm-8pm on Saturday, and not to come in at all on Sunday. I told her to call back to confirm whether they would be paying her for the full 22.5 hours as per her contract. They said no, since she wasn't needed to work. When she asked about the lost wages, they told her to take it as annual leave so she would not lose out, although I think they shouldn't be able to force her to do this to avoid losing money.

Are they justified in doing this or is my other half within her rights to demand payment for the hours she didn't work. She was forced out of her last job due to a falling out with a nasty manager, and she doesn't want to rock the boat too much. Anything we can do to resolve this?

Thanks

CD

I stopped selling on eBay after I received a condescending message that my "seller performance" rating had dropped below required standards. Read up online to find out why. Turns out a few buyers had rated me poorly because they thought my P&P costs were too high. This really hacked me off since I had only ever charged my exact costs for shipping, namely the exact postage amount plus a small nominal fee of 50p for the materials used (brown paper, bubble wrap, parcel tape etc). It said on the sellers information page that "buyers nowadays expect free postage". They can expect all they want as far as I'm concerned. I have never sold on eBay as a business, just selling a load of unwanted clothes and I shouldn't have to lose money on postage and packing which isn't cheap these days. For someone who got a bargain of a nearly brand new rugby shirt (worth £45) for a tenner to complain that my postage was too expensive at £2.50, that was enough to make me cancel my seller's account. I'll just buy & sell at car boot sales now, it's much easier.

Is the seller right/justified in restricting the test-drive to a small residential area? We had no chance to really use the brakes or gears.

There's absolutely no point test driving a car if you're going to just pootle around a cul-de-sac. Many faults would only become apparent when you get up to speed. Test drove a car a few weeks ago, salesman just wanted me to stay on the side roads, I insisted on taking it onto a dual carriageway. Result? Horrendous wheel vibration once we reached 50mph. Slammed the brakes on to test them from 30mph to stop, car pulled hard to the right. Very difficult to get the car into 5th gear too. Salesman tried to dismiss these as minor issues but we walked away.

Even so, she will still need to produce documentary evidence that she paid you £23,000 plus £1214 for "misc items".