Hi, really hope someone can help me out here, a little back-ground on my story. Late Jan 2010 and it was a very cold winter, my house was flooded severely from the flat above, the actual cause of the flooding to the best of my knowledge was this: A mains water supply pipe to a header tank in the loft space had become frozen and uncoupled, when the ice started to thaw this mains water pipe started flooding the loft space, brought down the ceilings in the flat above mine, flooded that property and then brought my ceilings down, every room in my house was water damaged except one bedroom which was at the other end of the property. This flat was owned by a local housing association and had lay vacant for approx 6 years. My claim was all settled by my insurance however I had to pay £200 buildings and £200 contents excesses. As far as i know my insurance has still not recovered the cost of my claim from this housing association, in the last two weeks I've had an independent architect sent to my property to try to establish the cause or basically who was to blame. We gained access to the loft space and the independent architect was of the opinion that my flat (prior to me moving in) had joint use of this header tank in the loft with the flat above until my flat got a combi boiler installed (again prior to me moving in). He basically said that as far as the insurance recovering their money there was no-one to blame and that my insurance would need to cover their costs as would the housing association. He however suggested I may have a case to recover my excesses for several reasons, 1 - The property had lay vacant for such a long time and no maintenance had been carried out (neglegent) 2 - I had no access to the loft space as the only access was through the flat above. 3 - This architect discovered this mains water supply pipe can only be isolated from a stop-cock across the street from our flats, there is no way to shut off the water to the flat above on its own. The stop cock across the street shuts the four flats off in our block. ave spoken to a legal I have spoken to a legal advice line I get through my union and they have advised I would need to go through the small claims courts (Scotland) and I am unsure of this process or what I am required to do. Really hope this is enough info however if not please ask and thanks in advance for any help

Hi there, I recently finished a 2 year tenancy in a student house with 5 others. I'll answer the questions named in the sticky thread then I'll get into the issues: • Whether the tenancy was granted verbally or in writing. writing • If it was granted in writing, state the date on which the tenancy began, and the length of the initial term if any. 1st August 2010, 12 months - Then extended another 12 months to end 1st august 2012 • State the amount of the original rent and how often the rent is payable (e.g. per week, per calendar month, per quarter, etc). 6 people £75pppw Or £325pp every 4 weeks. Paid seperately by each tenant every 4 weeks. • If the tenancy has ended, state how it was ended (e.g. notice by the landlord, notice by the tenant, agreement of both parties, etc), and state the date on which the tenant moved out. Ended 1st August 2012 (agreed end date). Tenants moved out around June, but were back for graduation etc, and I wanted to enter the house near the end of july. as an inventory taken, and signed by the tenant? I rmemeber an inventory being taken in the first year, another inventory was not taken after the first 12 month tenancy had run out. - How much deposit was taken, and do you have details of the tenancy deposit scheme(if any) it is held in? £325 per person so £1950. Do not have any details of depopsit scheme, we dont seem to have been given any information regarding this. - In the tenancy agreement, how is the deposit held if held by agent - stakeholder or landlords agent? Don't know, landlord presumably as we have not used a letting agent. Firstly, the landlord has not mentioned giving the deposit back at all as of yet. The house could have done with a bit of a spring clean but we did make an attempt to tidy and clean the house. The landlord spoke to one of the other tenants on the phone a few weeks ago and said he was "shocked" by the state the property had been left in. He also mentioned damages but did not go into where these damages were or what they were. He has not given us any information stating that the deposit is in any scheme, and as we did not use a letting agent and went directly through him I have a feeling he may not have registered it. What is the procedure with this? As Ive seen if it is registered that is how you can query deductions to the deposit. Unfortunately we do not have any photos of the property after we moved out (everyone moved different days, people were going up and down for graduations etc and it was forgotten). Secondly I left our Television locked in my bedroom, and the landlord was told of this. I also left the television remotes and another tenants ipod (i found it while cleaning and knew he would be returning before the end of the tenancy). I wished to go up on sunday July 22nd (house was empty at this point), but was informed by another of the tenants who had been on the phone to him that the landlord was on holiday, and he had already changed the locks. Do we have a right to claim rent back as I had no access to a house I was still officially a tenant of? Finally, the landlord got back from holiday and I went to move the television into the new house (I'm doing a course which lasts longer than 3 years unlike the other 5 tenants). This was on Saturday August 4th, I ran the landlord beforehand and due to him being at the olympics he stated someone doing work on the house would let me in. The man painting the house (Do we have to pay for repainting? over 2 years I'd presume that a mark or two on the walls would be counted as reasonable wear and tear) stated that he and the cleaners had been in 'most of the week' and when i went into the living room it was an absolute state, so the cleaners definately had at least another day of cleaning due to the mess theyd made in there. Anyway, I went up to my bedroom, which had been unlocked. If the room had been cleaned it had only been hoovered again. The TV was still there (42", so pretty hard to get rid of with noone seeing), but the ipod and the tv remotes were not. I rang the landlord and he said thered been so many people in and out of the house over the past week that he wasnt confident it would be found, I stated in no uncertain terms it was left in my locked room (in a locked house) for safety and that is the reason it was in there. In fact it was so secure when the owner of the ipod went up for graduation he couldn't get it because I couldn't get my keys to him in time. The landlord mumbled something about ringing the cleaners up, and then asked if we had contents insurance on the house. The only reason i didn't get the items from my room during the tenancy was because the landlord changed the locks and I was away/working most days so only had a set few dates I could do. Is there any chance the landlord could be seen as being liable for the missing items? (Obviously the ipod is the most vbaluable, but the tv remotes were with it). And thats everything I can think of at the moment, we have not had any contact to or from the landlord since then. I read deposits are usually paid back within 10 days of the end of the tenancy so thought I would leave it until then to see if anything was mentioned. Sorry the rambling style of this thread, I just tried to get everything down I could think of. In summary; landlord changed the locks 2 weeks before the tenancy ended, unable to access the property so can we claim rent back? Landlord unlocked and left a locked door open, meaning an ipod has gone 'missing' is he liable? We do not have any information on the deposit scheme used and the landlord has not mentioned returning any of the deposit to any of the tenants. While accept some spring cleaning will have had to be done, all the halls and rooms were hoovered, bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms surfaces were clean. I do not understand how the landlord could even try to justify spending almost £2000 to repair a property which was well looked after, fairly clean and had never even had a house party! Thanks For your help, John

They are now seeking the Grandmothers boyfriend. It was obvious it was him at the very beginning. Sad, sad sad. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19214964

My Girlfriend is selling her house, and her parents are also selling with the intention to move in together so we can care for them. Ownership would be 60% my girlfriend, 40% her parents. The parents are mortgage-free, My girlfriend's mortgage would be carried over to the new property, and form approx £130k of the house's worth of £770k. Her bank has just asked for a seemingly unfair if not impossible requirement! Her parents are to sign that they don't own any portion of the house. The house will be in My girlfriends name as she has a mortgage running on it. However, the parents are also required to sign to guarentee the mortgage should my girlfriend default? This just seems wrong from both ends? It's also possible to extrapolate from this that if they were to sign that they have no ownership of the house, then they would have gifted my girlfriend their 40% which at £300k plus would entail a taxable sum? Surely it can't be impossible to have two owners of a house and one source of mortgage repayment? Especially given that the mortgage forms 35% of that owned share? It also seems wrong that the parents should sign away ownership and yet still be liable for default? Has anyone seen this situation before or advise if it's correct or wrong? My suspicions are that with the complication of selling two houses, then conjoining into one with shared portions, someone in the banking process has assumed that the parents are not contributing financially and as such must state they have no claim on the house? Thanks.

I own a home with my wife and desperately need to move due to size as we have more kids on the way. Since buying my home 7 years ago there are a string of defaults etc on my file, unsecured and in the main unsettled, but being paid by arrangements. I have been stupid and irresponsible, for the last 6 years, building up a debt of £25k to various loans, cards, payday lenders etc. This can only be put down to me being an idiot! Missed payments are on unsecured stuff, mortgage has never faultered. The current home is worth £200k, and i owe £120k to standard Life now woolwich. £80k equity that i would love to use to pay off my £25k debts and use the remainder to use as a deposit on the new home. my earnings are now good £50k pa + £10k regular bonus, with my wifes part time work bringing in 18k. wifes crredit is good but with about £6k in loans, but never missed. Is there any suggestions for how i could get a lender / broker to assist with this situation on moving home many thanks

Hi, My son has recently had to submit an Insurance claim for a burst pipe in the bathroom and damage to his kitchen ceiling. A loss adjuster has been instructed to come out to view. We have asked if his father can meet the loss adjuster as my son has recently started a new job and is in the middle of a 3 month trial. He knows the company don't look kindly on people having to take days off. The insurance company said my son would need to sign a mandate, however the loss adjuster rang him yesterday at work (even though we had specifically asked them not to) and said that he HAS to be there when he makes his inspection. He said that as his father has no financial interest in the property he cannot speak to him. My son works approx 30 miles from home so it isn't as though he can nip home at lunchtime or such, it would mean asking for a half day off which he desperately doesn't want to do. Just wondering if this is something he has to comply with. Thanks

could you good people qive views on what may in time become likely senario. now no assets at all,,making token £1. payments,,, if inherit house,,i become asset rich but still cash poor,,,but my own place to live, how would this in your opinion afect dealings with collectors if they knew i had saleable asset, a...would they try force me to sell home to pay... b..would they still offer f/f if could find funds,,, c...or simply try to bankcrup me to sell my home n pay em:evil: d..just keep on token payments as still id have no more cash even though id have home... thks you good folk in antisipation

can someone please point me in the right direction.. I have had a charge put on my property by Weightmans,due to Marlin Europe l Limited on behalf of an overdraft with yorkshire bank. i requested a payment card from Marlin but never received anything also i never received anything with account numbers nor bank details to send payment too,it was then refered to weightmans who again never supplied account details....so after stupidly ignoring them ive now have an interim charging order for £ 3,611.69. It goes to a court hearing on the 19th july 2012. Is there anything i can do before the 19th july that can stop this charge being applied,i do not want a fairly small debt to jeopardise my home. any help would be appreciated:|

Hi. I have a mortgage with GMAC for which the outstanding balance is £118000, a secured loan with Picture for £42000 and 3 charging orders...Lloyds TSB £4500, Moneybarn £6000 and for a water charge of £1800. I want to sell my house which is now only worth aroud £115000. I have received an offer of £105000 from a cash buyer. I have spoken to Gmac who have agreed the sale, Picture have also agreed it with a proposal to pay. My questions are: Will the presence of the charging orders prevent me from selling? And will my prospective buyer be informed of my secured debt and charging orders? The buyer is a family member and thus I do not want them knowing my position. Any advice will be welcomed. Thanks

This is great, type in your postcode and the advert will run, but on some scenes it will use Google street scenes and taxy past your house. http://taxi.ba.com/

I posted about my issues with a co owner of this house, back in June 2011. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...father-at-risk To cut a long story short I co own a house, with my father and uncle The house has a tenants in common house deed, it was purchased for £180,000 My father put down a £40,000 deposit, making the mortgage some £700 a month, for £140,000. (£20,000 was also spent by my father and I, on updating the house) The mortgage was supposed to be paid by myself and my uncle. The uncle stopped paying his share back in October 2010, we didn't find out till April 2011, as he'd been intercepting the mail and phone calls, we only got wind of the problem when he happened to be out one day and WE got the mail about the arrears (Some £4500ish) The uncle moved out in May 2011 and we've been paying off the arrears and mortgage, by renting out two rooms in our home. Here's the problem. We have no trust deeds setup on the property/equity, which I believe we should've got when we purchased it. We obviously weren't expecting things to go pear shaped, but I want to sell the house, because we barely scrape by each month and we can't remortgage to get the uncle removed from the deeds, because my dad is now to old to get a mortgage in his name AND because all our credit has been ruined by him keeping the arrears hidden from us for half a year. But, if we sell and have no trust deeds, does that mean each of us gets an equal share? Or would my father get back his £40,000? and the £20,000 spent on updating? My uncle never put anything into the house, money wise, so I'm wondering if there's a way to sell, without him getting anything, given how much of a mess he's left us in

Hi, Wondered if you could help me at all? Two years ago my husband and I split up after 25 years of marriage. All is agreeable and amicable. He agreed I can have the house, I paid him a sum of money, car , bike pension etc. My question is this, can I get his name removed from my deeds without going through a solicitor and encountering a large fee? Also can we get a divorce without people telling us what we have to split? as we are quite happy with things as they are. Your help is much appreciated. Sonja

hi, not good on pc and spent 2 days trying to post on here so please forgive if its in wrong place. im part disabled and like lots of people badly in debt. i have a main mortgage with abbey, this is paid via dwp and is in fact in front with payments due to the interest rate. i have a 2nd charge on the house with future mortgages, yes not good. the house is valued at around 80k. i owe abbey 75k and furure 55k. so i have negative equity for around 48k. every month is a struggle and health food and everything is really bad as its so difficult paying future there 450 per month.. if i was to look at bankrupcy what would happen i dont want to loose the house. there would only be about 7k left for future morgages if the house sold for 80k. im not trying to default as if i was i would have walked away from the house a long tim ago. can any one offer some advice thank you

Hi I am new to the forum so apologies if I have posted in the wrong place. I was wondering if someone could give me advice? Background: In 2010 my house (which I tried to sell off and on for 7 years) was taken of my hands by a guy who offered a lease option on our home. Basically he was meant to pay the mortgage and secured loan for a period of 6 years, rent it out in the meantime then buy the house at the end of the period. My wife and I moved into privately rented accommodation with our children. We found out christmas 2010 that the guy in question stopped paying the mortgage and subsequently went bankrupt. He had never paid the secured loan either so we ended up reinstating our DD for that earlier in the year. The guy in question also moved in non-paying tenants who refused to leave, so even if we wanted to move back into the property, we couldn't. To cut a long story short, we could not afford rent, secured loan and mortgage and the house was eventually repossessed Feb 2011. Today we received a letter from the bank stating they've had an offer for the house and there would be a shortfall. I'm estimating the shortfall to be approx £20,000 We are not wealthy people, and simply can't afford any shortfall. We have no assests for them to repossess either. My questions are: 1) What happens if we refuse to pay the shortfall? I know they can slap a CCJ on our files and threaten/force bankruptcy, but how likely is that? 2) We are still paying the secured loan on the property. I am starting to resent it now in all honesty! What happens if I stop paying it? It's not like they have a house to repossess? 3) We don't want to go down the bankruptcy route. However would we be able to take out an IVA taking into account the mortgage shortfall, and the secured (soon to be unsecured) loan? Any advice would be warmly welcomed!

Hi All I have been hit with a Companies house penalty of £375. Just hoped someone in the forum knew of succesful appeals and what grounds are best to use. I personally do my own accounts, on a start up company, and was away for 2 months hence didnt read the notice in time. Any advice would be great Thanks AR