Appreciate any help anyone can offer.

Its 3 coil springs that are snapped but the garage did advise to have 4 new ones as it may affect the balance....hope that clears that bit up.

Unfortnately yes.....I never thought it would turn out like this otherwise I would have taken precaution and at least recorded the calls :-|

I have witnesses to my phonecalls as some were made from work but thats about it.

Hi folks,

Im hoping someone can give me their honest opinion on the problem I have...it's pretty longwinded but I will try to keep the post as brief as I can and if anyone needs any further info then please ler me know.

Basically....I purchased a car from a 2nd hand dealer in April 09 and managed to wangle a 6 month warranty out of them (me thinking this was a bonus!)

After driving it for a few days, there were numerous issues and I had to take it back to the garage.

Main issues were as follows:

Car shaking over 60 mph

Brakes juddering (if thats a word)

An irregular idle on the car (basically the speedo pin would jump and the car felt like it was about to stall when stationery)

Exhaust Blowing

Eventually the garage repaired the exhaust problem (I say eventually as there is more to this story such as them wanting to charge me for it!)

They said the car shaking/vibrating was probably down to the exhaust and should be corrected and the irregular idle was nothing...just probably due to age.

They also said they could not find anything wrong with the brakes as they took it to an MOT station and brakes would pass.

A week later I went to get 2 new tyres and one wheel was actually buckled....so we had to use the spare....this was what was causing the vibration over 60mph.

The occassional judder was still there but I thought I would see how it went. After about another month the juddering was still there and the car was driving bad and jumping like Kangaroo juice.

I phoned the garage and he said to use redex and BP ultimate as it seemed like the fuel wasnt getting through.

About 2 weeks later, the exhaust was making a noise again and the car jumping was still there and so was the irregular idle (which had never gone away)

I phoned the garage and they told me I could book it in any garage under the warranty but I wanted them to deal with it so to cut a long story short....I was palmed off for over a month as every time I called, they said the mechanic was ill or they were full.

One day I heard a grating sound and had to take the car into a local garage, only to discover I needed new brake pads and then also new calipers as they were sticking. I phoned the warranty company who told me I was not covered with these even though I tried to explain that I had been complaining about the juddering on the brakes since I had the car!

I was then told by the current garage that the car needed 3 new coil springs and the wheel bearings were going on one side.

I realise Im rambling so best get to the point....

Today I took it in for an MOT and it has failed on numerous things but the main 2 are exhaust emmissions are excessive and bulge in break pipe.

I understand that a 2nd hand car will have problems but when I get everything corrected to pass the MOT this will have cost me well over 1k and like I said....I havent even had it for a year (I purchased the car for £1,900) and sometime soon the clutch will go, which I knew and accepted).

The question I have is this.... I believe the second hand car dealer sold me a car that was a pile of crap and despite my protests and requests early on to have these problems resolved they kept palming me off and this has resulted in the car failing it's MOT with issues that I believe I complained about.

Do I have any rights here against the garage?

There is a lot more to this story with the terrible conduct this garage have carried out but I have tried to keep it as brief as I can....(although its not that brief)

Anyway, if anyone has any advice that could help me I would be extremely grateful.

I am a single parent and had to borrow the money to buy the car in the 1st place and havent even paid it back yet and am now faced with repairs that are probably going to cost more than the car is worth.

Thanks in advance folks

Esio - The prob here is that most benefit departments have backlogs....sad but true and this is probably why they are saying they wont assess it till July...they usually deal with claims in date order...but because there is a NOSP involved it should be classed as priority.

Yes you can claim HB even if you don take on Income Support.

Is it a council property?

If so, you can ask the rent dept to contact HB and to speed up the application as you have a NOSP (notice of seeking possession)

If they wont speed it up, just contact your local MP and they will contact the HB dept and then trust me....your claim will be processed asap

Wow - thanks for that

Will take a look

Much appreciated

Bump

Does anyone have the specific wording regarding self employment from the Lloyds PPI loan policy?

Hi

Unfortunately I dont have time to read all of your posts at the mo but Im conscious you are looking for some help so can you tell me the following.

What is your income at present and What date did you put your new HB claim in?

If you have a notice of seeking possession, the benefits department should be putting your claim through quicker.....or has it already been processed?

I know I can CCA etc but just wondered if anyone already has a copy of these along with the T&Cs for 2002.

Cheers

I had this same paragraph in a letter for my OH:

You have stated you were a self employed customer at the start date of the policy. A self employed customer is eligible for the policy and dependant on his circumstances at point of claim would be covered for all of the benefits under the policy. This includes the unemployment benefit,accident & sickness benefit,critical illness cover & life cover together with positive job solutions. The definition of employed under Lloyds TSB policies includes a person who is self employed

Now Im trying to find the PPI policy etc for Lloyds for 2002, can anyone point me in the right direction. I know I can send CCA etc but thought Id try and see if anyone has a copy.

Hiya,

As spice says...you must contact them and ask that they send you full breakdowns of how the overpayment etc has been calculated.

If it is down to their error, you can appeal against the overpayment and they have the power to write it off.

If it is not an error then some repayment agreement can be arranged with them. They will go through your income and outgoings and see how much you can afford to repay on a weekly/monthly basis.

Fairplay

There is a helpline to claim Pension credit and they are really helpful. They will even fill in the form for you over the phone and then send it out to you to be signed.

Depends on any backlogs on how long it takes to get processed but it will be backdated.

Council Tax arrears are dealt with by the Local Authority and this person should contact them to make an arrangement to pay the arrears. They can also tell them they are waiting to hear about Pension Credit and the council may be more understanding than you think....as long as they have been put in the picture.

I dont understand why you have to do threats of court!

Giving a tenant notice is enough providing you have adhered to the terms in the tenancy agreement.

Give her exact notice of when she has to be out by and the council will have to give her accomodation if she cant find anywhere else.

She should start looking for any other private rented accomodation though.

In that case Ida....you should appeal against the overpayment. You need to be quick about it though as you only have a certain time limit to appeal.

You did everything you should have done and the Overpayment is done to their error of not inputting it. YOu have good grounds for an appeal on this. If they refuse the appeal then you appeal to a tribunal and I bet it wont get that far and then they write the debt off.

Fuzz, it may be better for you if you had your benefit assessed on your actual payslips at the time (either weekly or monthly depending on how you get paid) that way...if you dont earn much one month, you will get more benefit so not as much to find.

If you dont have any joy with the local authority you can contact the Valuation Office yourself about it as they make the decision anyway.

Sadly jmp that would not be sufficient to be backdated.

Maybe we could have a chat about it.

PM me

With deprivation of Capital...as long as you can prove what you have spent your money on and it is reasonable then there should be no problem.

If anyone is ever in this situation, I would advise to try and keep receipts where possible too.

Robin

They arent looking at what you spend you money on. Transactions consist of debit, credits and transfers.

If you spent £5000 on a car or a holiday then that is no problem....especially when you are below the capital threshold anyway.

If you had say...15k in your account and within a week spent 9k then that would raise questions as some claimants purposely have a diminuation of capital just so they can claim full benefit.

Off the top of my head I cant remember the exact regulation (it's late lol) but it falls under the Verification Framework rules set up...it's something like section 19.....from my memory.

Oh dear...didnt intend to start a debate on this, I just wanted to try and explain why they ask for it.

I meant "us" as in everyone other than fraudsters.

Also, they arent looking at what you spend your money on, they are looking for transactions that you havent declared.....unfortunately I cant say what as it would give to much information away.

Im very surprised the benefit department allowed you to just give summary pages. They are breaking a regulation by doing that. Usually they would refuse benefit if you dont supply the relevant information.

Sorry couldnt resist to comment on this.

Whilst I agree you may see it as an invasion, you need to understand that a lot of fraudulent activity goes on when people are claiming benefits.

They ask to see your bank account statements to prove that all of the income you say you receive, you are receiving and you are not receiving anything you havent declared.

Benefit Officers wont give a hoot about what you spend your money on but there is quite a lot of information that can be checked on a bank statement to prove you are not committing fraud.

I wouldnt suggest blacking out your outgoings as there are certain fraudulent checks needed on outgoings too.

I for one, would prefer to provide information needed to help them combat the fraud that costs us taxpayers.

This post was just to try and explain why they ask for it and hopefully you now understand thats it's not due to intrusion.

Fuzz

Is thge £65 per month based on your lowest monthly wage, highest monthly wage or an average of both?

The only extra thing I will add here is the following:

Did you notify the HB office of your Tax credit entitlement?

If you did and it was THEIR error that they did not input the TAx Credits on to your claim then that is down to Local Authority error and you have good grounds to appeal against the overpayment!.

Yes you can apply to have Housing and Council Tax benefit backdated for up to 52 weeks but you do have to have a really good reason as to why you did not apply at the time.

Unfortunately, if it was because you didnt know you were entitled to it, this would not be good enough reason as the onus is on you to find out your rights regarding any entitlements of benefit.

Maybe you could post up your reason as to why you didnt apply at the time and I could help you with your backdated request.

Alternatively, feel free to PM me if you'd prefer.

Thats pretty much it Webmaster.

What you have to do is complete a self employed form based on 6 or 12 months of your estimated profit and loss etc.

After 6 months you can then give them 6 months of actual accounts but as webmaster says....if your actual accounts are more than your estimated then you will have an overpayment.

They do take into account business expenditure too so the calculation is based on your profits and not just the income from self employment.

HTH