Hi All I am looking for some advice please. I reserved a new build house aprox 4 months ago under an assisted purchase scheme that they were running at the time. The builder recently telephoned me to tell me that they were cancelling my reservation due to me not having a buyer, the Covid 19 had a major impact as we all know and nobody could come to view my property, I told them that I did not want them to cancel me as I still really wanted to go ahead and now restrictions had lifted somewhat could I have more time to sell, anyway they said no, so they cancelled my reservation. Today I have received an invoice for the best part of £1000 from the solicitors, I cannot believe it, they have from what I can see done nothing, surely this invoice must be the responsibility of the builder not me?? I would be very grateful if anybody could please give me any advice as I do not know where to turn and I cannot afford to pay this bill, but am I really responsible for it in the first place??.

Hi all Thank you all for your replies. I have checked my insurance and under the glass section it does not cover panoramic roofs. It does come under the damage to car section though, so I think the sensible option at the end of the day, and if Mercedes dig their heels in and wont help me, then that is the Avenue I have to go down. I know how difficult it would be to prove that it is a fault, by design or whatever else, I have already took screenshots of it happening to other people, some in the UK, but mainly in America. I agree that you have to pick your arguments in these difficult times. Thanks again for all your help.

Hi All I am looking for advice on an horrendous experience that has just happened to me whilst driving the car that I had only just bought a few weeks ago. I was driving and there were no other cars and nothing overhead when, bang, the loudest noise, like a gunshot going off, the pano roof had just exploded for no reason, luckily the screen was closed otherwise I would have been showered in glass. So the car got took to the local Mercedes retailer, who told me that it was not covered under the warranty, the car is only just 12 months old and 4,000 miles, I then had to contact the head office, who has come back with the same answer, not under warranty, no defects, so must have happened through outside influences. I have researched this and it happens quite often and to other manufacturer's too, I really do not see why I should have to claim under my car insurance when Mercedes know this is a problem, there was a lawsuit in California and the plaintiff won his argument. So the question is what are my consumer rights? should I take on Mercedes and take them to court, or the easy option, claim on my insurance. Is there a body that I should be reporting this incident to please?

In your post dated 5th June, you said that your interview is on the 14th, then in your post today, you have said the interview is on Thursday, which is the 15th. I just wanted to point that out to you as if you have got your dates/days mixed up you could well turn up on the wrong day, and that wouldn't be very good. Sorry I cannot offer any advice on the rest of your questions. I hope all goes well for you.

Hi All Many thanks for all of your replies, all very good advice and I will act upon it. I will get in touch with TS standards tomorrow. Regarding the importing side of things, I have noticed that there is a GB VAT Reg No. and something to do with London, but no telephone number, only an address. So I think that I do not stand a chance of getting a refund, but if I can save somebody else from buying these fake items and losing money and risking injury when using it, then it will be worth it.

Hi All Just looking for advice re a purchase I made via Ebay. I bought a Nutribullet in Sept 2015, it was advertised as an authentic model. It arrived, I used it about three times and put it away. I used it last Sunday and it blew up in my kitchen, plastic and smoke everywhere. On looking further I discovered that some unscrupulous traders were in fact selling counterfeit models on Ebay and alas I had fallen victim to this. I sent photo's of my Nutribullet to Highstreet TV who confirmed that it was indeed a fake. I contacted Ebay who basically said that as it is around 18 months old there is nothing they can do and I should go through the small claims court for the £100 that it cost me. The seller is still active on Ebay I paid for it through Paypal, and Ebay told me there is nothing they can do either. The seller is in China, another point I did not take on board when purchasing it, so I think the court route is a no goer. So do I have to just accept that I bought a dud and have lost my money.

Thank you Zanderland and ThedaBara, for your comments. I will check in from time to time and let you all know how it is going. For now I need to get my head out of this mess and concentrate on my work. Thank you all so much for all your help and advice. I will keep in touch.

My mind is boggling, so need to have a break from this stuff going round in my head. What should have been a simple explanation, is turning into something nightmares are made of. If only h, could orate excellently, then this maybe would not be snowballing, that is what I feel. If only they would allow me to speak to give them exactly what happened, when and why etc, it would be clear, but maybe they would still investigate further. They obviously think there is something to hide, but there isn't.

Sorry, ignore me, I was just being a bit thick, I know what DM's mean.

Sorry just thought about something else, I don't want to confuse matters, but as h has nothing to hide, but is a nervous wreck, I was wondering if we could request another interview, my h is going to love me for suggesting this, and go through some questions and answers as to the last round of work, and also explain the amounts on the bank statement, rather than let the solicitor just do whatever, as in not submitting the statements, I think that looks like h defo has something to hide, and then they can get the statements anyway, but that would take longer and then h looks like not to have co operated etc, making everything much worse. Why couldn't it just be kept to the simple facts, h informed of the change in circumstances via a letter, and commenced work, thinking he was not doing anything wrong, this caused an overpayment, to which can be paid back immediately, and with extra, should they see fit, why is this going into another dimension?

Hi Shoelover So after the interview, does the info thus far, get put in front of the fraud manager, or does the investigator still carry on finding out anything, if there is anything to find out. Then when more info is gathered, does it then go before the fraud manager? Sorry what are DM's?

Hi Shoelover The earliest date would be June'15, for the first part of work, then it ended, then latest date is Jan'16 for the few weeks he worked then. What is irking me is that I thought this would all get answered at the IUC, h had it all down on paper, the dates etc and h handed it to the solicitor, afterwards it turned out, only one set of dates came up, solicitor did not mention the latter dates, now of course on the statement, they will see the second set of dates, this is worrying me because again looks like h is trying to hide, and then how credible does he look, of course you could say "the solicitor said to only answer to the dates being questioned about" I hate this game, it is stupid, I wanted it all out and the truth be told and lets deal with what is going to happen, do solicitors play tactics? I think so, but who has to deal with the fall out.

Hi Neword, Thank you for taking the time to reply and explain what may happen, don't worry you have not scared me anymore than I am scared already, I do know that they may offer an administrative penalty if there is no case to answer to, so know that the total amount would be more than the overpayment. The investigator was wary of the letter, asking my h if he had written it, he had, they asked him if I had written it, I did not, all this was answered with "No Comment" of course we can prove that he wrote it, just ask me for a sample of my handwriting and they would see if is very different, they also got him to read out a paragraph of something, may be to prove that he can read, of course he can, he does not have learning difficulties, he just does not function under stress and has high anxiety levels, and waffles on, so I think the solicitor was worried he may incriminate himself, how I don't know, just tell the truth as to what happened and all should be well. I am not happy that that it was decided to do a prepared statement then, answer no comment to all questions, of course it looks suspicious, and if it looks suspicious to me, it must look suspicious to them, I know they are doing their job. The investigator asked how previously the contact had been via phone and now the IUC, a letter appears, the answer to that is they never answer the phone, or you have to hold on up to an hour in a queue and still not get through, very frustrating and as he was starting work, needed to notify them and a letter was the only way, but how cynical, and that is what worries me, because you do seem to be guilty in their eye's until you can prove your innocence. So the solicitor says not to submit the statements but instead keep to the fact that the ESA was not spent during the time, and can be paid back immediately, but I don't think the investigator is going to be happy with that, and wonder why would we not want to submit them, as the saying goes "if you have nothing to hide, then you hide nothing" I am also worried that when I asked the solicitor the question about income based or contribution ESA and redundancy payments and a bank loan I had, she did not know the answer, um that is something that she should know and especially If she is representing my h, bad advice could very well see h in court, if the investigator does not believe that he is telling the truth. There are a 2 large deposits over the claim period, these were pay off's from companies, a sort of redundancy payment, payment without liability, so we were allowed to receive these, as it was contribution based, and could put comments on the statement to that effect. The investigator did say that she was going to contact HMRC amongst other things. There is no fraud, we are hard working law abiding citizens, but it has had me checking over and over again dates etc, frightened to death that a wrong date may have been submitted to start the claim etc, and if it had, it would have been done in error, it hasn't been, thankfully, dates tally. I have stated before and I will say it again, I am now frightened about benefit's and hope to never be in this situation ever again.

Thank you all, very much appreciated, I will let you know how it all pans out. Have a good week end everybody.

Hi shoelover No he didn't, the solicitor thought it best to do the prepared statement because she could tell that he would waffle on, and not get the right words out, she said, he's an intelligent guy, but finds it difficult to express himself. I am wondering though maybe it would have been better to just answer the questions, would that have beenenough or would they still want the bank statements?

Hi shoelover thank you for your comments. Would it be appropriate for me to write explanations on the statement, like when I have paid money in from my own account to the joint account, or should I just hand them in, then wait and if they need more clarification they would invite h in for another IUC, is that what would happen?

Hi All We have decided to submit the bank statements, because we have nothing to hide, and can explain and validate anything the investigator would need to know. I think the advice of the solicitor not to submit, looks bad, looks like we do have something to hide and may make the investigator annoyed, something that we absolutely do not want to do. In fact the solicitor did not even know the difference between ESA contribution based as opposed to income based, not good for the solicitor not to know that.

I am sorry to be a pest, but I cannot take my mind off these events, I know that we do not have to take the advice of the solicitor and can give the statements in, is with holding them going to make it worse, or handing them in would make it worse. I will explain the reason why I am worried, and it is because like I said I had a loan, and then 2 large payments went in, as I understand because the ESA was contribution based, they didn't need to be informed, but will they question in detail, these deposits, they weren't redundancy payments, but were payments without liability. If you were investigating somebody and they declined to give in the statements, would that make you more suspicious that they were hiding something, we are not hiding anything, all above board it is, but it still makes you worry non the less.

Hi I have just spoken to the solicitor, who now advises not to submit the bank statements because they are rather messy and as my income gets paid into the joint account and things get paid, how can you split that the ESA never got spent, the bank is in credit, so the solicitor says the best thing to do would be to stress again that the money is there ready to be paid back immediately, all well and good but wouldn't that look like you have got something to hide in the eye's of the investigator. I know that the investigator can apply to have access to the bank account, how long does that take, and how much does that cost, wouldn't they just accept that the money can be paid back immediately.

Hi Shoelover Sorry to hear that you have been poorly, hoping you are feeling better now. Speaking of poorly, this is making me and h ill, and I am trying to function properly, and come and do my job of work which is stressful anyway. What I do not understand is why ask for bank statements for the year not in question, why not ask for the period of time that is being investigated. Looking forward to hearing your comments when you are feeling better, thank you.

I will print the bank statements today, but have been told to give them to the solicitor, not the investigator, is this the normal thing to do?

I have just checked and it was definitely contribution based ESA. I won't give the years, but for instance, if your job of work ended on 31st march, and you had been on sick leave following an op for quite a few weeks before, could you claim ESA from 1st April, h did not get any payment from ESA in April but it started in May, he did however get a his final salary pay on 30th April, could that be a problem, I don't know, I am wracking my brains, and looking thru the claims, which I have kept copies of, I cannot see anything wrong.

Hi Antone and TomTom256, Thank you so much for help and interest, I am shaking at the moment with all the stress of it, and as you can imagine h is convinced he's off to the slammer. He does not have a copy of the MG6A, the paperwork they gave him is CI16WRA 04/13) just a notice for persons who have been interviewed under caution, the next one is a CI12 10/14 and the last one is CI10/ 09/10, so I do not know why he would not have been given a form stating what offence they are investigating. They told him that it was working whilst claiming, and in his prepared statement he explained that he had reported his change of circumstances via the letter. The investigator told him that if he does not supply the bank statements asked for within 7 days then they will apply to get them. The work they are investigating was paid work, like I say he gave in his P45, paid tax and NI. I don't know what to do next, obviously obtain my bank statements for them, I do not want to aggravate or make it look like we are hiding something when we are not, I mean why can't it be ok that we showed them the total amount in the bank, showing that we have enough to pay it back, we have a joint account, so my wages get paid in, they have always known I work, and no other claims are made, no HB or council tax etc. And thank you for telling me that we did not need to declare the few large amounts that got paid in, I was convinced they would look at that and think "guilty". I think this nightmare is only just beginning, I will keep you all posted, thanks.

Hi All Well the IUC is over, but it is far from over, h met with the solicitor beforehand, and it was decided to go in for the prepared statement, then "no "comment" to all the questions. The investigator did not seem to believe the letter, because previously it was phone calls, this time was different because I could not get through at all, waiting on the line for over an hour each time, and as he was starting work imminently decided to inform them via a letter, this is the truth. The upshot of that may not be good, they have now requested more info, bank statements going back a few years, to the very first claim which lasted a year, then stopped because of work, which they were informed about, but they still paid another 2 payments after being notified, which I only just realised that tonight on checking the statement but then at least they did cease, not like this time. For the period of time that they want to see, I had a bank loan of £5k so that is a payment into the bank, should we have notified them of this payment? the rest of the balance is mostly overdrawn over that period, that does not look good does it, but it is the recent period of work and the letter informing them of a change in circumstances that the payments kept coming in and we have the money in the bank to pay them back, but they seem to want to be digging up more. When you are on ESA contribution based should you tell the office of every amount of money deposited into the bank, and then should the payments stop until that money has been used up. Sorry for more questions, but it would appear that if you do not know the rules, you can easily fall foul of them, but I understand that you should make sure that you know the rules. And if you got paid any redundancy pay during the time of a claim, he didn't by the way, but now I am trying to find out the rules and regulations, should the office be notified of that. So another sleepless night for me tonight, and h is very down.

Hi tomtom256 When you put it in those words, it looks different, and from a perspective from an investigators point of view, I understand more now. When you really believe that you have done nothing wrong, not set out to defraud anybody, and you know you are innocent, what can I say, I did phone the office on a number of occasions, never got through, again no defence, but my h, should have written a letter to tell them that the money was still coming in, he didn't, he hates dealing with anything, again no defence. He claimed legitimately, after many months, felt that he could return to work after having treatment, he still suffers with the same debilitating illness, but had it under control, so he secured a job, was over the moon as you can imagine, I phoned the office to report a change in circumstances, never got answered, so said that he had to write and tell them, he did, the letter is dated before he began the work. After a few months I noticed the money still coming in, like I say, I phoned and never got through, time went on and that is when we thought that it would get sorted out at the end of the tax year, stupid now I think about it in depth. So I can see that it never got spent, not really being any defence, and now we are here at this point, and I am kicking my own ass as to why I didn't do more, there are lots of reasons why, but I won't bore you with them here, but it was absolutely nothing to do with trying to obtain money by deception. How can you explain this to an investigator with out them not believing you.