Hi Mr Shed.

I spoke to my son's landlord to day as my son was getting nowhere with him.

Landlord agreed the second tenancy would be under the TDS but not the first one as he moved into the house before April??? also said he was withholding deposits until utility bill's were paid, these bills are gas and electric which were paid by a meter so they had to pay up front in order to use them. But landlord said he is waiting for a copy of the bills to satisfy himself there are no arrears. This could take years as all these bills go direct to landlord, boys never get to see them.

I had phoned the gas company twice on my son's behalf to try and get a bill however gas company confirmed they were sent to the landlord.

It was always my belief that because of the amount of money the boy's had to feed into the gas meter that they were in fact paying arrears which were belonging to the landlord. The only gas in the house was the hot water and the cooker, no heaters and no central heating either. but that is a different issue which i am not too concerned about. All they want is their deposits back.

So currently we are at a stale mate. I have threatened the landlord with my solicitor although I don't have one.

Do you have any good template letters for return of deposits or do you know of any on this site where i could copy one and send off to the landlord as i have not a clue as to what to write to him. I can and will follow it on through court proceedings if necessary but it is my hope that a strong worded letter would work.

This landlord really has got me angry, i would be grateful for any advice on this one, even if it is just on how to word the letter effectively.

thanks mrShed

Wow really, we can do that??? well don't want to do it but if the threat will get the deposit refunded that's what we will do. right now the next bit, I will write to the landlord.

Thanks as usual MrShed,

I will keep you informed of the outcome. xx

Bump

Hi Every One. Hope you can help me advice my son and his other student friends with this issue

My son moved into a student house in September with 3 other students, when the tenancy ended in August my son and his friends needed to find another tenancy for 6 weeks until they could move into there next place which was not going to be student accommodation.

Anyway the landlord told them he would rent them another house for the 6 weeks and although he still had their deposit required another £500 each deposit on this place which they paid. On the last day of the tenancy the landlord came round to the house at 10.00 am, everyone was cleaning and packing. the landlord said if they were not out by 11am he would charge them each £50.00 an hour for every hour past 11am. None of this was in the contract.

3 weeks ago they still have not received any of the deposits back. my son phoned him and he said he was waiting for all the bills to come through before he would refund any deposit.

My son took all the recites for the water gas and electric showing they had all been paid up to date yet still he has not repaid any deposit.

when they where in the first place they paid gas by a card meter however the meter was eating the cards so to speak. I asked my son to check the gas bill to see just how much gas they were using, he told me they do not get a gas bill it goes direct to the landlord. I am suspicious that my son and his other friends were paying of someone else's arrears, is there anyway we can find it out has the landlord was reluctant to show them the gas bill, he claimed that the boiler was faulty and he would replace it which he never did.

My son is going to the landlord tomorrow to try and get every one's deposit back a total of £3,000. however I think it is the last they will ever see of it.

Is there some sort of letter he can hand to him requesting he has 7 days to return the deposits??? what can they do to get it back any ideas.

Some of you in particular gave me some fabulous advice the last time these Kids had a problem, I am hoping you can work your magic again to help them, thank goodness he is no longer a student lol!!

ADDITIONAL INFO.

- When did each start

- Was a tenancy agreement signed for each

- What was the monthly rent IN TOTAL(i.e. across all tenants)

- Did your son get notification of the deposit being held in a TDS scheme at any point.

- When did each start

- Was a tenancy agreement signed for each

- What was the monthly rent IN TOTAL(i.e. across all tenants)

- Did your son get notification of the deposit being held in a TDS scheme at any point

Anwsers::

1. first tenancy was on the 1st September to the 1st July.

Second tenancy started on the 4 th july. Both same landlord but different property.

2. Contract was signed for first tenancy, I was guarantor. but no contract for the second yet i was still guarantor but the landlord ask for it verbally over the phone as there was no time to post one out.

4. Rent: all 4 boys paid a total of £1,400 a month for 1st tenancy and £700 a month for the second. because it was just for the summer, in between student lets so to speak it was half the price.

TDS was entered into and signed for the first tenancy but not for the second.

hope this helps.

Thanks

Pen

Thanks Mr Shed.

I will write to them and see what they say also I have sent you that PM.

Pen x

Hi Mr Shed, wow I was just looking for you funny enough under my subscriptions for info on tenancy agreements, I will send you a PM on it if that's ok.

Right back to Orange, yes I agree about coverage ect but we do live in a town not the back of beyound, and before signing the contract we did check the coverage for our area as my sons friend works for car phone warehouse and the covarge is ment to be excelant. It is for all other mobile suppliers OH and I use Vrigan and O2 without any problems seems a tad unfair then paying for a contract that he cannot use, the have checked his phone bill and all his free minutes are still there however my house phone is becoming horrendouse because of it.

Hi. My son has a mobile phone contract with orange it cost him about £30 a month,However most times when he is at home he cannot use it as he cannot get a signal. my son does not go out much so always uses the house phone. he is unable to use his free minutes or free calls on his mobile. We have put a different sim card into the phone and the phone works fine, in the past when we have complained they have replaced his phone but the phone is not the problem. They have said they will reduce his bill by £5,00 a month however he can only use the phone 10% of the time that's when he goes out so i don't think it is good enough.

I also don't think the phone is suitable for it's purpose but Orange disagree since it works when he is away from home. I would like to cancel the contract. what grounds do we have to do this, if any please.

Thanks Pen

Hi PM and Gold lady, nice to speak to you both again. I am glad to say the mistake was there's if when phone bank made the transfer they canceled the one i had difficulty with via the Internet, I would not have made 2 payments one of which was returned unpaid, they did say they had cancelled it but obviously not. hence the charge and if they had not taken the 20.00 unpaid debit charge there would have been enough for the £7 select fee which also should have not been deducted as this was canceled in writing years agao and discussed to the hilt in court hence the refunded all these fees or the past 5 yrs.

I am totaly shocked on how they can do this and their lack of compasion i can only hope the Ombudsman wipes the floor with them. anyway i will keep you all informed on my progress. I have contacted DWP and stopped my benifit from going to that account now that they have told me their intention to close it. something i should have done myself last year.

new Letter from LLOyds today dated 5th Aug.

Blar blar blar we have provided you with an unplannned overdfraft to cover to payments we have made another £110 chargers your account balance is now - £270 and we will charge you £16.00 blar blar a day.

WHAT!! another £110 in chargers to pay the chargers they have already taken from my account! that's good of them. I can see their miskate is going to be an expencive one.

Hi sea Lady.

Thanks for the link. I phoned the FO today and because i had complained previously last year about the bank chargers and the court case has now been settled they say they are willing to take on my case. All I need to do is send further evidence such as the letter of appropriation. which i have done today. all I can do now is wait.

Hi Guy's oh am i hopping mad!!!

Grumpy i went over drawn by £2.00. But this was due to an error caused by phone bank. They transfered too many payments by mistake Yes select accounts do have a free buffer O/D of £50.00 subject to status and we were not eligible. hence in court last year i was refunded all the £7.00 select fees for the last 5 years. however they are still deducting them from my account now that £2.00 overdrawn is wait for it! a whopping £165.00

My DLA goes in to my account every 4 weeks i don't use the account for anything else and normally i am not so short of funds but we have just paid for our sons wedding which has left us really short this month. Today I went to withdraw my DLS and they have taken the whole £165 from my benifit leaving practically nothing left.

I went into my branch and explained that in June I had handed in a letter of Appropriation for my DLA benefit which is paid into the account 4 weekly I also explained that I have a terminal illness and that I use this benefit to pay for my prescriptions each week. (I do not get free prescriptions ) and i am on Morphine if I don't have my medication I end up in hospital. The reply i got was someone will look into it and will get back in touch within the next 10 days, great help. I was also informed that a Right of Appropriation can only be used once and if i submit another one my account will be closed within 30 day's. I thought when i used it to cover my benefit that was what it was for so the funds could not be used for anything else but apparently not I have to submit one every four weeks. This meant i had to hand in another RA letter for my benefit which i did there and then.

I was then told that because i had ask for the right of appropriation a second time they would not be refunding any chargers taken from my benefit but were giving me notice that they intend to close my account within the next 30 days and i was to return all my cards and check books arrrrrr how immoral, can they do this??? I suppose yes because they have now done it. I am ever sooo angry with them, I might as well stick my head in the oven.

yes of course i will thanks. but before i do that could you tell me who i would recliam them from, it's my opinion that since i wrote to BC requesting that they make no more payments to VF then it's their at fault and should be responcible for returning them or are they ???? once i know the anwser to this i can start working out all the chargers. thanks Slick.

Pen x

Hi Slick,

thanks for that. I know the basis of making a claim as i have reclaimed over 14k from Lloyd's however i have heard CCs are a bit different, are they???? that's whats put me off claiming so far but now i have started the ball rolling i am going to carry through with it.

I will read that link you kindly accessed for me thanks. I did not settle with VF as i said i did not except their offer and i do have it in writing the letters i sent to BC requested the stop making payments to them. I think I need to write back to both companies and ask BC for the rest of my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) details not just the statements that they have sent also i will send of a SAR request to VF. Could you tell me how i would work out the interest on this claim, with the banks you just add the 8% to each charge but with CCs not only do you have the charges you also have the interest amounts relating to them charges is the a link explaining all this you could direct me too.

Also when i claimed against LTSB i with a lot of hassle managed to get my statements for the past 10 yrs BC have only sent the ones from 2002 ok it is the 6 yrs however they have only done this as a GW gesture according to them ( I've read the sticky relating to this ) so is it likely they will supply me with a copy of all the letters they have sent me in the past and phones calls!!!

Once again thanks for your help

Pen x

PS sorry I have just noticed you have highlighted this thread thanks i will have a good read of it. Alphageek Vs Barclaycard

Hi everyone. I have finally received my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) from Barclaycard/Mastercard although they have only supplied me with statements not the letters and copy's of all telephone conversations i have asked for.

I had a lot of problems from 2002 with BC due to a Mobil vodafone I took out which was on offer to BC customers. However vodafone were debiting ridiculous amounts to my card that I decided to cancel my contract with them. I called vodafone numerous times to do this even put my request in writing but they said since the contract was with B/C I had to cancel it through them. I phoned B/C and requested that they stop paying vodafone however they continued to pay them as with vodafone i wrote numorouse letters to B/C asking them to stop all payments to vodafone they refused so I stopped making payments to my account! the only way i managed to do it was by entering into a new contract with another mobil company and requesting that my Mobil number be passed over. in may 2004 Vodafone offered me a £186, 00 good will payment, this was the finaly amount Vodafone debited from my card because B/C finally contacted vodafone and asked for our mobil account to be disconnected. I refused this offer.

when all this started my B/C balance was £800 my credit limit at the time was £1000. The balance is now £2,800 the only transactions on the statements are for vodafone, missed payments and late payments, going over my credit limit plus of course interest.

The going over the credit limit was something I could not control as BC kept making these payments which were sometimes anything upto £150 a month. I'm sure if it was me making a purchase they would not have authorised the payment.

i am going to rewrite to B/C asking for the rest of my SAR also I am going to send a SAR request to Vodafone. I have to add that B/C have not ask for me to repay this money since they received a letter from CAB on my behalf a couple of years ago. but obviously the bill is still hanging over me and I would like to sort it once and for all.

Could anyone advise me what my next step should be, and other then the late payment chargers etc etc which are considerable can i claim for all the vodafone payments which were debited since i wrote asking for them to cancel the contract which they ignored.

Thanks in advance

Pen

Thanks Mijik and Gallan.

I have sent them a letter recorded Delivery hopefully they should respond soon. I think the point i was making was their new charging system. We thought the old one was bad this is much worse!!!! I will let you know what response i get!

Sorry to jumb in Nikki, I also thought benefits were affected if you became a FT student!! I was on long term incapacity benefit before i became a student but I stoped claiming once i was enrolled. I study for pleasure as I will never be able to work due to my illness and like you was also a mature student, are people saying i could have carried on claiming!! please say no.lol.

Good Luck!!

Pen x

Hi everyone, would you believe it. I was 18p O/D and know it's £75.00 and rising.

I should have just closed this account when i won all my chargers back last year but left it open because my disability benefit is paid in to it and my son who is a student also has a Lloyd's account so it was simple to transfer money into his account when he is short and needs help. that's the only time i use it.

This current problem has arisen solely due to the bank's incompetence. I often make a transfer of £50.00 from my account into my sons using Internet banking and because they are both LTSB accounts the payment is normally transferred immediatly however, on one occasion a few months ago this did not happen, the Internet system said it would take 3 working days to clear so I had to do it again so that the payment would be made, yet still it said payment in 3 days. After making 2 attemps to transfer the money without success I phoned the phone bank and asked them what was happening and for help in sorting out the transfer! I told them i needed to transfer £50.00 into my sons account immediately yet the system was not allowing it. they agreed that the payment should have been made automatically could not understand why it hasn't! but they said they would do it there and then for me which was great. However they did not cancel the 2 payments which i had had the problem with.

Three days later one of the payments went out of my account and one was return as there was not enough funds to cover it. ( I was only wanting to put £50.00 in to his account not £150.00) I was hit with a £20.00 unpaid DD charge. however i never bothered complaining because i thought what the heck!! after the last long drawn dealings with them i didn't bother i put the money back into may account to bring it in the red what i didn't know was that the next day the £7.00 fee for the select account was taken out of my account this made me 18 pence overdrawn. Last week I received a letter saying that £75.00 chargers were going to be taken out of my account. Funny enough It was to be debited on the date my benefit was due to go in. Soooo because I did not think the chargers were fair and i was not happy my disability benefit was being used to pay them I sent off a letter of appropriation as the chargers are just accumulating I should have just left my benefit to clear them then argued for the return of the chargers. How can the justify charging so much for 18 pence it's unbelievable!!! Had they not charge the £20.00 for a return D/D which they did not cancel when processing the payment over the phone in the first place i would not have been O/D by 18 pence. arrrr

Thanks scott.

I'm sure I am going to need some help finding my way around the NW site when i have the SAR details.

Pen

My daughter has a account with Nat West.

5 Years ago she applied for a loan to buy her car she signed all the loan agreements etc it was only after she bought the car and went to make her first payment that she realised somehow they made a mistake and put the money into her account as a overdraft!!! she has been paying chargers every since. the over draft has now been cleared but she would like to claim all these chargers back. she had regularly gone into her branch to complain about 20 times over the years, the staff agree a mistake had been made but they never helped her sort it out. So now I have sent of her SAR request being the first step in getting all her chargers back. hopefully they will see sense and that a mistake was made and we won't have to go down the court route to get them refunded.

What are NW like to deal with compered to other banks. TSB were a nightmare.

Wish me luck every one.

Pen

Phoned the store today as they have had it for a week , apparently it missed the last repair delivery load so it's still in the store no wonder it takes 28 days 2 weeks to send it way, a quick no chance! and 2 weeks to send it back to the store.....

ha ha ha

Hi Everyone.

I bought a HP Pavilion laptop from Comet 6 months ago, last week it started to overheat really badly and just shutting down. The last time I used it, it had started to heat really badly it was burning my knee and again it shut down on me and I could not get it back on so I left it for a few hours hoping to try again once it had cooled but when I tried to turn it on there was a large crack in the inside screen.

The next day I called the service centre maintenance section for the store and told them what had happened they told me it had probably cracked whilst cooling down and could not be repaired and to just return it to the shop for a refund.

I returned it to the store that evening only to be informed by a customer service assistant that it was impacted damaged so was not covered under the warranty. I asked her if she was a engineer and she said no but she has seen loads of this type of damage so she know it would not be covered.

I informed her that I would take it home and have an independent assessment done on it but if they confirmed it was caused by over heating then I would be suing the company for the laptop the cost of the assessment and court costs. She then asked me to wait to speak with her manager, I explained to the manager what had happen and what I proposed to do about it, he said there was no need for an independent assessor as they would send it to their repair centre I explained what would be the point of this if according to the assistant it would just be returned as contact damage.

Anyway to cut a long story short they have sent it away to see what has caused the damage and it will take 28 days. I am a mature student and I need the laptop for my course work.

I know it was not caused by contact damaged but I have a feeling that they will try and pass it off as this also I think 28 days is too long to wait. I could go and buy a new one whilst I wait for them to inspect it and give me a full refund but they may not do this so I will have to claim it off my insurence but I cannot do that untill I get the laptop back

what can I do.

Thanks

Pen

it would also have taken Desmond hours to speak with penny on the phone because when he conked out in faradays office faraday said he had been out for hours yet desmond said he was only back on the ship for 5 mins at most so yes that dosen't make sence. Is Desmond the 6th person then ?? I'm getting fed up with all the questions I still want answers one being whether anyone can go back to the island, the government would have tried to recover the bodies of the people who died on it wouldn't they ???? I think I am going to stop watching it then catch up at the end of the season it's getting too frustrating having even more questions then anwsers each week and I will be ****ed off when the whole thing finishes if I find out it was just some ones dream or something stupid like that. they wouldn't would they???

Josh, I think MrBloom is trying to say they are taking him to court for all of it, he hasn't paid anything as they decided to prosecute him instead of excepting half the fine.

However none of this is answering your question on time scales. all I can say is that my son was prosecuted for having his foot on a seat on a train, the transport police took his details and a statement. Gladly my son gave the correct details and his court hearing was in about 3 months from the date of the offence, however because of mitigating circumstances he was able to settle out of court and pay a fee of £30.00. Do a search under transport police, there are plenty of members on that thread who may be able to help you. hope this helps

Pen

what a hard lesson to learn. I don't think they will be in a rush to prosecute you as it is only a petty offence however I don't think they will forget it either looks like you will just have to wait it out I'm afraid. When my son was prosecuted for having his foot on a seat it took about 3 months I think.