Hi, thank you. No they are both ex council houses but now owned. Environmental Health and Building Control Services both say they won't get involved as its a civil matter!

Can anyone give me some advice please. My mum is 85 and lives alone in a terrace house. Her neighbours have had major work done in the house about three years ago. They have a downstairs shower room which has started (4 weeks ago) leaking into my mums house and has caused damage to the wall, skirting and carpet. My mum has asthma which has worsened since this. The neighbours are uncooperative. The insurance won't pay as the leak is still there. Can anyone give me some advice on 1. How to get the leak stopped and 2. How my mum can claim for the damage? Thank you

If this is a Renault van the gearbox is actually a manual one with some kind of robotic device strapped to the top to make it work as an automatic. I had one in a Renault trafic and it was nothing but trouble. Cost me £3000 in the end as no-one but Renault can fix the bits on the top that turn it into an automatic and it's them that usually fail. If you search google for Renault van automatic problems you will find lots of posts on the Renault forums. Good luck with the dealer, any hint of a problem and I would be rejecting ASAP!

Thank you Stigman, I read your post and followed your instructions last week. Thanks for your help. Sorry I haven't updated in a while but we have been having terrible problems at home. Thanks again to everyone who has replied. Black Horse Finance finally decided to refund all our deposit and payments and allowed us to reject. Despite wasting money on two independent inspections of which neither picked up the faults with the upholstery or the scratches to the front panel! It wasn't until I sent in my own photos they were aware of how bad it was! Anyway, long story short we have rejected and all monies have been repaid. I have to say looking back that Black Horse were very good overall, in fact we have been and bought a 2014 caravan from another retailer and have financed that through black horse, I'm not sure they wanted us back as a customer but they have got us! The caravan we have now is fantastic, not without its little faults but we had the chance to look at it and after all it is a year old so we are realistic and don't expect new condition. I so wish we had done this in the first place but I thought buying new would give us less hassle! One final tip, I am not sure if I am allowed to name them but a very large caravan dealer somewhere near Glossop - they gave us so much trouble and hassle right from the start, I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. Dreadful from day one. We bought our latest caravan from Longtons in Lancaster, totally different, very helpful, explained and listened, would recommend 100%.

The PX is long gone apparantly, we didn't sign any cris docs. Just what I thought re deposit. You live and learn!

Stigman - try crossing your fingers whilst crossing on the stairs, I've been told it works!!! Thank you so much for the info however I have just had a call from the finance company stating they are happy to reject given all the issues so at least we will get our deposit back and can start looking again! On the deposit front, we were offered £12,000 in PX for our caravan however on the forms the dealer put £10,000 and reduced the amount of the new van by £2,000. Will we only get the £10,000 back? If so we wouldn't be able to replace our PX. Is there anything we can do about this or have I dipped out because I never said anything before?

I think that's where it becomes a grey area, the caravan is perfectly usable, the faults are along the lines of scratches to cupboard doors, window catches not operating correctly, motor mover not working correctly, tear / unstitched area on a curtain, flaw in carpet, door catch not catching correctly, locker door doesn't fit right etc etc.. All smallish jobs in their own right but added together on a £30,000+ NEW caravan in my eyes not acceptable. If it was a used van we had inspected before then no problem but we bought new so we should expect new quality??

It's an Elddis brand, they are next to useless! Really not interested, we just want to reject now so we can buy elsewhere. The only people to have listened is the finance company but now I'm starting to think they aren't going to play ball!

Hi all, just a quick one. Bought a brand new caravan in November 2014, wasn't right, long list of faults. Took it back, complained to dealer who didn't want to know so took complaint to finance company. They instructed dealer to fix, they did and a report was gained by the finance house which stated jobs had been done. Caravan was returned to us and guess what, yep, only some jobs done and others to very poor standard. I was not happy at all, this caravan by the way is £34,000! Sent it back to dealer, told finance company I want to reject. They are now getting another report done. How long should all this take? We are paying nearly £400 a month and haven't used it! The repairs have really been bodged, not good enough for such an expensive van. Any advice?

They have written back stating that I do owe the full amount. This is really making me ill, I suffer badly from mental health issues and I can't cope with the added stress from this. Should I offer them a token payment every month?

Thank you all very much. I shall get onto my local councillor and also write back to the council and ask again for a copy of the liability order. Thank you

Hi. I live in a neighbouring area now I will pm you it but don't want to put it on here, don't know why but I really don't trust the authorities! All they have said is that they will have got a liability order as they get them all done in bulk a set time after non payment??? I have asked for proof but they say they don't have to give me any! I have asked for it to be taken to court but again they refuse. I am truly scared as it's for council tax and don't want to get a criminal record or anything bad happen.

Hi All, I have recently been contacted by my local council regarding outstanding council tax at a property I lived at 8 years ago. I only lived there for seven weeks but they are demanding six months payments. I had to move out due to mental health issues and went to stay back at my parents. I wrote to them about six years ago with letters from bank and phone bills etc to prove I had moved out after seven weeks. They are now saying that the letters I sent aren't good enough (too poor quality as the council photocopied them at the time and never sent me my originals back!) and I now owe the full six months. I don't mind paying the seven weeks but I don't feel I owe the full six months. Is there anything I can do? The property was rented between four of us, I moved out early and the other three stayed there but obviously never paid the bills!

I basically posted that I get all my money back plus £400 compensation! Didn't want to bore people with the details, basically it was a fight but I won!!

Update. FO found in my favour, car being returned!!

That's what I was hoping. Thank you

Thanks oddjob and conniff. I am intending keeping the car for a long time and it won't be worth anything when I get rid anyway so feel I may as well make it right for me! I just want to know how the manufacturer can refuse to cover the totally non associated items?

Hi. Please can someone point me to the relevant law or guidelines covering new car warranties and the modification of the car. I am wanting to know if I fit say some extra spot lights and a rear spoiler can the manufacturer refuse to carry out warranty work on the non modified parts of the car which have no relevance to the parts I have fitted? ie I understand let's say if the alternater broke that they would say that the extra spot lights have put strain on it and not pay out. However if the gearbox went I can't see how some spot lights and a rear spoiler can have any effect???

It was purchased 10 weeks ago. It is a BMW 530 56 reg and was £2500 deposit and the remaining £10000 on hp.

Hi, I have a vehicle which I paid a deposit and then the rest on HP. The car is faulty, it has defective brake pipes, brakes, engine, clutch etc etc.. I have an engineers report and the VOSA mot history to back up my claims so I am not worried there. The problem I have is that I do not trust the garage who supplied the vehicle now I have found out the problems with the car. I have complained to the finance company but they keep trying to pass the buck to the garage who are totally unhelpful verging upon aggressive. I am now just about to complete my financial ombudsman complaint as it is nearly 8 weeks and wondered if they could insist that the finance company pays for the repairs to the vehicle? I don't really want to reject, i want the vehicle repairing but don't trust the dealer who supplied the vehicle. Can I stipulate that I want the vehicle repairing by a main agent? What will the FO say? Any help or past experience would be appreciated please!