My ex boyfriend has today sent me a letter claiming that I "owe" him money for all of the bits and bobs that he has had to pay out for the car that he had use of for the past 18 months. Background: I purchased a vehicle in 2010 (in my own name), on HP, all payments made on time and through my own bank. Last year myself and my partner separated, I agreed (not legally, or in writing) that he could carry on using the car, providing he paid the finance installments (from his own bank, which he did), kept it taxed, insured, serviced etc. The log book (v5) was always kept in my name, so the car (although legally still owned by the finance company) belonged to me...I had merely let him have the use of it. So it remained this way until last week...when low and behold I found out that for the last 4 months of our relationship he'd been cheating on me. Not wanting him to keep driving around in MY car, I took the car back, and have confirmed with the finance company and DVLA that the liability is still mine and has nothing to do with my ex partner. The finance will be settled next week, and I shall sell the car (as it does have a small amount of equity left) Question: This letter I received from him today, stating that I must re-imburse him the cost of the new tyres (£551.00) the work for the MOT (£82) and the months of finance payments (approx £3500)...does he have a leg to stand on in asking me to pay all of this, when in fact I had let him have full use of the car for this period, and at no time did he moan about paying all these things, as he was the one using the car (I didn't even live in the same area, and had no access to the car). If he pursues this to small claims court, would I have to pay him anything, as the car belonged to me, but I'd (temporarily) let him run and use it...and therefore my understanding is that he must bear the cost of keeping the car roadworthy. Just after some advice from others who may have been in this situation, or know the legal ins and outs of a case like this! Thanks in advance Hannah x

Hi everyone My first post here, i have been searching for a forum where i can seek some advice. I bought 50 Jiffy Bags from a company called Smart Packaging store They said the goods get shipped within 24 hours if in stock, well i needed them fast so bought from them, a week later i had not received the goods so sent them an email, i got no reply, i waited another week and sent another email and this time i got a reply saying the goods were on back order and were expected in that Thursday, i had a choice to wait or i could get my money back, i said i would wait but told them i was unhappy about their lack of communication and the fact i could not get through to someone on the phone and just got an answer machine. Okay, that was a while back, its now been just over 30 days and no delivery, they are not answering emails and when i did a WhoIs and got the phone number of the business it tells me it is not receiving incoming calls. In fact i bought the Jiffy Bags from Amazon two weeks ago and received them within 48 hours of the order, real fast delivery, exactly what i needed. The problem is that i want a refund for goods not delivered from this company, their website has been showing catalog suspended for two weeks now, this makes me wonder if the business is now going bust, if it is then what are my rights. ? I paid them just over £13 including delivery charges, its not much but i feel aggrieved that they took my money and didnt supply the goods and if their business was in trouble then why take my money in the first place. I have read about chargeback on a debit card from an online site and how not many people know about this service where you can ask your bank to reverse a charge made on your debit card, not sure if that would cost me more money than what i paid for the goods or whether its a free service. Can i use that now the 30 days is up, has anyone been successful using that means to get money back. ? I'm just annoyed at the complete lack of communication from this business and the fact i cannot get anywhere with them, do i need to go to a small claims court, that worries me as i have no experience of doing that, their business is in England and i am in Scotland, do i need to make a claim through the english or scottish courts, its all confusing. What would other people here do in this situation, should i now write a hand written letter and give them two weeks to give me my money back or is there a better way to now handle this. ?

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I have been searching and can not find my exact problem. My fiancee is on maternity and due to return to work in November (although she was considering extending this). She doesn't wish to go back full time, so contacted her boss recently to discuss her options of either changing her hours, extended her maternity leave and/or find out any other possibilities available to her. She was asked to go into the office to meet with her boss to discuss what she would like to do, which, of course she did, and when she arrived, there was actually a HR representative waiting to meet with her too. During this meeting (after she had advised of the options she was thinking of), she was told that her role was actually at risk of redundancy. They further stated that now they aware of her considerations, they would like to go away, consider her points and reconvene the following week. That meeting took place today and it was confirmed to her that some of the remit of her role, that was being completed in her absence, had already been made 'redundant' and it was re-iterated that her role in its entirty was at risk (the remainder or her duties). They offered her a redundancy package to take effect from her original (i.e. not extended) return to work date and that the meeting they were having today was, in fact, her first (and possibly only) consultation meeting. They were good enough to offer a possible role in the call centre (which will be a telephony sales based role and nothing like her current role), but couldn't / wouldn't offer any further details on it during the meeting. With all of that background knowledge, can anybody advise me please if this all seems 'above board' as she's been very taken aback by the whole situation and wasn't aware that she could be made redundant whilst on maternity leave and was merely trying to discuss her return (date, hours etc) with her boss when she first made contact? I guess what I'm trying to find out is, can they do this and are they conducting the process in a fair and just (legal?) way? Also, without going into detail, the redundancy package they put forward seems pretty poor, is there a 'threshold' that her offer should fall between? Any advice will be very much appreciated.

we bought a used car back in february which we bought for from a used car dealer for £3800 with 3 months warrenty, it was serviced and MOT at the time we only had it a week or so before we started to have problems with it so we took it back to the place we bought it and they said they would repair it, while it was under warrenty we had it back to them several time because we kept having problems with it, loss of power, electronic fault on dash etc, etc each time we took it back they said it was fixed when we went back to pick it up when we kept getting problem with it we told them we werent happy and the fact that we had paid money for a car with problems, in the end we took it to renault and paid for them to do a diagnostic to find out the problem was several faults came up so we took it back to the dealer they didnt offer us our money back just said they would sort it and continue to repair while it was under warrenty, the last time we got it back which was just before the warrenty ran out it seemed to be all fixed, then about 2/3wks after the warrenty ran out electronic fault came on dash board so we took it to the garage we use and trust who found it was the pencil coils needed replacing even though they had already been replaced under the warrenty, so we paid for them replacing and hoped that would be the end that was about 2 weeks ago well that wasnt the end of it electronic fault has been back on the dash board since, so now we are going to have to take it back to our garage again to find out whats wrong with it at our cost. we are at a loss as to what to do because we dont know if we have any rights regarding the used car dealer who has obviously sold us a pig in a poke and we feel we have been ripped off, so what can we do ? help please.

HI This is the first time ive posted but really need to help or understanding my rights. Last December 2010, I had an issue with the boiler in my house breaking, resulting in no hot water or central heating. This was reported to the Letting Agents who in turn reported it to the landlord. After a week of calling every day, and having to heat an old terrace house with electric heaters with extra cost in electricity the landlord authorised the letting agents to send out a plumber who fitted the boiler with a new circuit board. After a while we noticed that we were unable to alter the temperature of the heating as the display flashed constantly at 73 regardless what temp we set it to. We reported this to the letting agents who then sent the plumbers back to check. They advised us that they were meant to take a `Link` off the old circuit board and put it on the new one they installed. They asked us what we had done with the old board, and we told them that it was discarded on the advice of them. They then left and we heard nothing else. Two weeks later we were unable to switch the heating off at all using the control panel, so we are now resorting to switching the boiler off at the mains. Again I called the letting agents to ask when the plumber was returning and about the new problem. They advised me that no plumber was due to come out as they had been advised that the boiler was working! I explained that it wasn’t working and a plumber was sent back out. When the plumber arrived he begin to aggressively tell me that the boiler was working and that there was nothing wrong with the temperature controls and that the problem was the clock on the boiler. When I told him we couldn’t change the temp of the boiler he said that it was working, and that all it needed was a new clock. (Mainly I feel his animosity towards me reflected in the fact that me and my partner are Gay) He said that he would be back either Tuesday or Wednesday to install it. Tuesday and Wednesday passed and we heard nothing. 3 weeks later we called the letting agents complaining that nothing had been done. They advised that they would pass the matter onto their manager, 2 days later we get a call from the plumber to say that he will order the part today and call us when he can fix it. We asked him about the issue with the temperature controls and he said his manager was on holiday so he wasn’t sure. We are worried about the condition of the boiler by constantly having to switch it on and off at the mains when we need hot water for showing, washing up and using the washing machine. It’s also adding more cost to our gas bill as we are running the heating on full while we wash clothes on a weekend, which isn’t good when the weather is warm. We would really like to know where we stand with the way we are being treated as the tenancy agreement states that they are responsible for maintaining a working central heating system which includes the boiler, and that isn’t being done as we have had problems since last November. We are good tenants, never have any problems and the rent is paid in full on time every month, but I feel that the only way to get a satisfactory response would be to hold the rent payments until it is fixed, but know that this then is in breach of our agreement. This situation has caused us additional costs which we cannot afford and various degrees of stress trying to rectify it. I’m not sure on what help you can give us, but I’m at a loss as to where to turn to for advice as I feel we are being treated like fools.

Hi Can anyone give me some much needed advice... I have an unresolved car accident that happened 1 year ago- im with sheilas wheels...they have been saying over the last 6 months that after legal opinion they are supporting me being 100% non-fault and are going to pursue court action but out of the blue have written saying they are dropping it and want me to accept full liability! The accident - I was turing left at T junction onto main road. There was a heavy flow of traffic that i was wanting to join that was coming around a parked rubbish truck that was blocking my view. I edged forward bit by bit to get better view and was stationary, waiting for gap in traffic... the bin lorry has started moving -without joining traffic (or indicating) and run into my car. I was stationary at the time and it hit the back bumper of my car. Can anyone advise on what action or rights i have with regard to me disagreeing with Shelia's wheels dropping this case? I have been consistently disappointed by Sheila's wheels poor customer service, misinformation and never speak to the same person each time which is very frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks

Hi All, Came across this forum searching Google to see if I've got any chance of getting out of a hole. I bought a fishtank for my Dad for Christmas. Ordered online; turned up via Fedex in the snow last Saturday. (I was really impressed at them getting through the snow. Driver was in a hurry, parcel was bulky and wrapped tightly inside a layer of bubble wrap.And inside the bubble-wrap, it was inside taped-up box. In hindsight - this feels a bit daft - but the driver just handed me the handheld device to sign so I did. Handed to my Dad for Christmas today (on Boxing Day as was at the inlaws yesterday for Xmas Day.) And of course on opening on the box, the tank is broken. Badly. Definitely hasn't happened at 'my end'. I've looked after it well since taking delivery. I've just got home and checked the online retailer in question, and they state: We have never and will never knowingly send a damaged item to you, but if you do receive a damaged item, please sign for the item as damaged (when the deriver delivers it) and then contact us for a replacement immediately. If when you open the package, having signed for it as 'good condition', you find the item is damaged inside its outer packaging then you can still contact us but claiming that it was damaged by the courier is more difficult. If you are unable to check the items before signing, please sign for them as "unchecked". You should check the contents of your order immediately and must notify us within 1 working day of receiving the package if there is a problem or we are unable to process the claim with Fedex and will not be able to send you a replacement/refund. This timeframe is very important and it is out of our hands if you do not contact us in time. I'm kicking myself for signing - I 've just read whilst googling around to always sign as UNCHECKED if that's the case which I shall always remember going forwards. But in this instance, am I up the creek without a paddle? Can they really just write off any responsibility like this if not reported to them within 24 hours as stated? I'll certainly be dropping them a mai in any event, bu would appreciate any advice anyone might have. Cheers Gareth

We bought a second hand car (X reg 1.4 Astra LS 16v) from a dealer for the sum of £1750 + P/X of old car, The car came with a 12 month MOT, !2 month warranty and a full service. The dealer told us they had sold the car when it was 6 months old to an older gent and that it had been serviced by the dealer ever since, and as they knew the car so well they were selling it on, as the car only had 52,000 on the clock we thought the story was plausable. The dealer told us the car had a misfire which would be 'sorted' before we collected it and the timing belt would be replaced as part of the service. Since then the car has been back to the dealers garage for the rear crank seal to be replaced (which they did begrudgingly), The battery has blown all it's cells which had to be replaced by the RAC at a cost to us (£70) and now, after a trip from Yorkshire to Dorset, the E.C.U. is acting up cutting off fuel when the E.C.U. gets too hot? How do I stand with statutory rights, what can I demand of the dealer and can I claim back the cost (part or all) of the battery, (If he serviced the car for the best part of 10 years he should know if the battery is in good condition or not)? Any help/advice would be appreciated, Thanx