Thanks unclebulgaria; that is all very useful information. The current insurance is with First Underwriting Ltd and I gather they are exiting the market but I might just check that out with the ABI. I am told that the monitoring (arising from the existing claim) should report back in the summer & will hopefully establish that there is no subsidence. So hopefully I can approach one of the insurers you mention at that point.

I am trying to sell my house. A Buyer's Survey found minor cracks which could be indicative of subsidence. The buyer's solicitor suggested I engage with my insurer. The insurer has inspected the property and is 95% sure the cracks relate to earlier settlement (the house is 60 years old) and other than a little re-pointing no other remedial work is likely to be required. They have installed measuring equipment to 100% rule out any current problem and so investigation is ongoing. The insurance is due for renewal but coincidentally the insurer is withdrawing from the home insurance market and so will not renew. A broker tells me it is now impossible to find obtain insurance with subsidence cover. Do I just have to accept that in future I will not have subsidence cover or is the existing insurer obliged to help me?

OK thanks. It seems that the consensus is that I really need to persevere with the call centre (council tax has been outsourced to Capita & I tend to give up after listening to music for 30 minutes). I might try one of my father's local councillors - they may have contacts that the public do not.

I guess I am thinking of both as I need to keep the garden under control as well as de-clutter the house. It looks as if my father was paying an annual fee by DD for the garden bin - so do you reckon I will just need to continue with that? Should be easy enough as I can just leave the DD intact - unless the exemption causes it to be automatically cancelled.

My reading is that it's indefinite so long as he is permanently in a nursing home (different to deceased when I think the exemption is for a limited time as you describe). Anyhow, you are confident that it's OK to use the bins? Cheers

My father has moved into a care home leaving his house empty & so I am planning to apply for a Council tax exemption on his behalf. I regularly visit the house to keep it and the garden maintained. Once I have applied for an exemption will I be permitted to continue using the bin service? I cannot find anything on the Council's website and their outsourced call centre is extremely hard to contact.

My dispute with Tonik is now resolved. It occurred to me that since I was certain my gas supply had switched to the new supplier (confirmed by the national database as well as the new supplier) and since Tonik were claiming that the supply had not switched, I was in a strong position to request a deadlock letter and escalate my complaint to the ombudsman without further delay. Within 1 hour of sending a request for a deadlock letter, Tonik responded by generating a final bill using the agreed final meter reading and correctly calculating the refund due. Interestingly the only explanation they offered was that they had been waiting for the final gas reading from my new supplier. This implies that their billing system assumes they are still supplying energy until they receive the final readings. This is clearly quite wrong but would explain why customers on other forums and Trustpilot have had the same experience as me. Also of interest, the refund has now been credited to my bank account. Tonik had told me that I should keep the Direct Debit in place in order to receive any refund that might be due but I stopped the Direct Debit as soon as I realised they were continuing to invoice me for gas consumed after I had ceased to be a customer. It is clear that they are quite able to make refunds without an active Direct Debit mandate.

Yes I have the switch-over reading which I gave to the new supplier, but of course Tonik are not currently using that because they do not acknowledge that a switch-over has happened - so they are applying an estimated usage and standing charge for a period when they have not supplied me. But yes, when they wake up to the transfer I will be able to check the arithmetic on the closing bill. They have generated monthly bills using readings I supplied right up until 4 days before I transferred so those bills ought to be correct - but are you saying that despite using correct meter readings for those historic bills they might claim that their own arithmetic was wrong and that they under-charged me? If that is a risk I will check the arithmetic on all the past bills myself - I have a spreadsheet to do that so it won't take long. Yes I am thinking about raising a SAR.

Thanks for your help DX100. No I don't have a smart meter but I did check with www.findmysupplier.energy which confirms that Avro is my current gas supplier. However, Tonik claim that the gas switch never happened and so is continuing to bill me for the same gas as AVRO! Assuming I can trust www.findmysupplier.energy, then if I reclaim the last 2 DDs I will still leave Tonik with enough credit to pay for the gas they actually supplied (as opposed to what they have invoiced). My only anxiety is that, strictly speaking, those 2 DDs were taken while I was still a customer and so were not really taken in error because it was legitimate for them to hold a credit balance at that time. On the other hand, if the bank allow the reclaim then presumably Tonik cannot come after me for money I do not owe.

The previous supplier was Tonik Energy. The new supplier is Avro Energy.

I switched energy suppliers in mid July for both gas & electricity. The new supplier confirmed that the switch took place on the scheduled date and has taken direct debits as agreed. I was £100 in credit with the old supplier - more than enough to satisfy any unbilled energy usage at the time of the switch (I estimate that £10 of that should settle the final bill and so anticipate a refund of £90). The old supplier attempted to take a further direct debit after I had switched. I spotted it and stopped it. The old supplier is now claiming that the gas was not switched and so is continuing to bill me, eating into the £100 credit. I have checked with www.findmysupplier.energy which confirms that my gas supply has switched to the new company. I assume www.findmysupplier.energy is definitive? I have made a formal complaint but can see from various online discussion regarding my old supplier that I am not alone and that it may well require the ombudsman to resolve it. It seems to me that one way I could expedite the return of my credit is to make a direct debit indemnity claim for the last two debits which would return to me nearly all of the £90 I am owed leaving just a few pounds still owing to me. However, I am unclear about whether I am permitted to do this. While I was an active customer it was not unreasonable for the energy company to hold a credit balance - it is only with the benefit of hindsight that the taking of those last two debits seems unnecessary. Does anyone have experience of this sort of situation?