I live in a self contained basement flat in a building of three flats. My flat has its own seperate front and rear doors, completely seperate and unconnected with the two upper flats and both opening onto the street. My flat is completely unconnected to the top two. The two upper flats share a common front door, hallway and stairs to their respective flats. These upper two flats are let out by the owners as holiday apartments. I have no access to the common areas of these flats and do not share any services with them, however this year the owners of these flats decided to put new carpet on their stairs and have complete new decoration and a new lighting system within their common area. Is it right that they can use the portion of my service charge to refurbish this area, common to them only, and with no related benefit to me, and in an area non accessible to me. I would be very pleased for some guidance in this matter

my friend has worked for the same firm for 27 years and was getting bullied for the last couple he went to see the owner and told him various times that he could not work with the person involved it came to a head last week and he told the boss on the Wednesday he couldnt carry on the boss told him to go home and think about it as as far as he was concerned it was all in my friends head and if he wanted to fetch someone in he would discuss it further. he worked that day and on Thursday decided to go home after turning up for work and think about things, that night his boss put a letter through his door terminating his employment stating that he was no longer doing his job properly and he was finished. He went to see the boss on the Fri morning and the boss wouldn't see him is this unfair dismissal he was also told he wasn't entitled to anything either. do you think he has a claim for unfair dismissal

Hi, I urgently need advice with regard to my Resignation Letter and what it should say. My maternity leave officially ended on 31st March. As the tribunal was set for Tuesday 7th April, I did not want to resign before the hearing. I am happy to say, after 18 months of upset, financial hardship and my poor mother's relentless efforts to get justice for me, I won my case for Pregnancy Discrimination and Victimization outright on Tuesday (7th April) After announcing the verdict, the Judge told me that, now, I must resign immediately and make a further claim for unfair dismissal. I would like to know, what I need to include in my letter bearing in mind my new claim for Unfair Dismissal Many Thanks

hi guys, First Id just like to say what a great forum this is! Hopefully somebody here can help. Had a loan with welcome finance for just under £5000 in 2008. now have a CCJ (although this doesnt show on any of my credit files) for £13k against it with a charging order on my wages for £100 a month. I just wondered if I can still claim back unfair charges and PPI even though it is now a CCJ? Many thanks and keep up the great forum Paint1

Hello. Looking for some advice on unfair B2B contracts. I know this is a consumer site, but hopefully looking for some discussion / collaboration as I know I'm not the only one in this situation. I invited a salesman from a well known HR company to come and discuss being our HR department. I did this after attending one of their seminars, which they told me as an employer, I could face all sorts and levels of costs if there was an employee giving problems. I discussed the contract with the salesman on my premises, in front of a witness and he told me that if I changed my mind after signing, I could cancel at any time, giving 6 months notice in writing. As I was new to this and not experienced in HR matters myself, I agreed on the basis that if it all went wrong, I would only be liable for 6 mths of payments. I thought this fair and reasonable. After a good meeting, jovial exchanges and of course the understanding of the 6 mth thing that he said was in the contract, I signed. The contract was tucked away in a presentation folder by him and handed to me with lots of leaflets to read. What I actually signed had small print saying that there was no provision for early termination of what was a 5 yr contract. I found this out 2 yrs after signing! Obviously I am a trusting person, but I don't expect to be sold something that I haven't been sold, if that makes sense. The service provided thereon has been frustrating, shocking and not as described / presented in the seminar. When I did have problems, my confidence in their advice has been zero and I used a local Employment lawyer at a fraction of the cost. It can be best described like this: 1. I sell you a contract and explain verbally that for the next five years I will make you a cup of tea whenever you like. I will make sure it has just the right amount of milk and sugar and strength to your liking. I tell you (in order to get you to sign and earn my commission) that if you don't like my tea making services, or if you go off tea, or for some medical reason can't drink tea anymore, you can cancel at any time by giving me six months notice in writing. 2. You sign a completely different contract with no provision for early termination. 3. I then, after you have signed, tell you where you can buy a kettle, cups, cutlery, milk, tea bags and sugar. I give you written instructions on how to make the tea. Neither myself or any of my team will actually come and make the tea for you. 4. You try to cancel - I employ corporate bullying tactics that force you to pay for 5 yrs. 5. You can cancel, by giving notice not later than 6 mths before the 5 yrs is up. If you are a day late cancelling, I automatically renew your contract for 5yrs without consultation. My questions are: 1. To what extent is a verbal discussion valid as part of the contract you signed, even if the verbal sale was lies in order to get you to sign and you weren't given the chance to read it fully before signing because you trusted the person selling? 2. Is it unfair to insist one still owes money for 5 yrs when I (the HR company) haven't delivered what was promised and gave shoddy advice and forced you to go elsewhere in order to get things sorted? I won't be naming the company involved but judging by the reviews on them on the net, it wouldn't be too difficult to guess who they were. So if you have guessed, please don't mention their name. (He who must not be named!) PS I have cancelled my contract in writing and paid 6 mths of payments and not used the companys services for the last 12 mths as its not up to scratch. Thank you x

Dear All A friend of mine is a carer at a private home. Recently an 80 year old lady who she was caring for out in a complaint that two ladies (one being my friend) swore and treated her like 'she was in an abatoire'. This is a huge shock to my friend as she is so professional and a lovely woman and great carer. They deny the claims whole heartedly. Yesterday they went to the hearing and were informed be sacked and never get a job in caring again or resign. She is at her wits end. I wonder if anyone knows the best way forward. If I had any doubts about my friend I would not be posting this asking for help. Thank you

Hi all I wonder if I could ask for your advice please. I am in arrears with my mortgage and am trying to sort out making repayments towards the arrears. I have sent them a letter with a list of my expenditure and made an offer of £100.00 pcm towards them. They have replied saying they will not accept the offer until they have spoken to me on the telephone. The letter sent also said that they will continue charging me an arrears monitoring charge of £50.00 pcm. So I have a couple of questions 1) Can I reclaim these charges - they do go back a couple of years to be honest 2) Is there a template I can use regarding speaking to them only by letter or email. I really don't want to speak to them on the telephone Any advice is really appreciated Thanks Madge

Hi all Apologies for the long post but I have been lurking/reading for a quite a while now and wondered if somebody could explain in laymans terms if there's any chance of me having a default removed from my credit file as I can't really make sense of all the jargon?! I had a student account with Santander that had a maxed out £2000 overdraft. I had been reducing it slowly after graduation and managed to reduce the limit to -£1000 with a £350 cash deposit (which was a large sum of money to deposit into the account at that time). Only a few days later I went to New York and couldn't make a payment on my current account debit card (I'd forgotten to notify the Halifax that I was going abroad) thus used my Santander card - completely forgetting that I'd actually reduced the limit after making the deposit. This transaction went through fine, shortly after I received a letter to say my interest free graduate/student account had been changed to a current account, and I needed to pay back the overdraft immediately and would be accruing charges and interest until it was paid back in full. After finishing university I was only able to find work part time at a bar. So I set up a £50 a month payment plan. A handful of times I knew I would struggle to be able to make the payment but I always called the bank to let them know either prior or on the due date to make alternative arrangements and this always seemed satisfactory. Santander have sent a trasnscript letter, outlining they would have told me at the time of the calls that it could effect my credit score but I don't recall this. I struggled to clear this account in full, and felt I had done well in doing so, particularly having started to clear the account so soon after graduation - only to find out so many months later that the account that it had been registered as a default. The only reason I am even aware of the default is because a finance company declined my application. I then used a credit reference agency (Experian) to get an explanation and the result came back that I had a default that I was not aware of. I've received a FRL from Santander instructing to go to the FOS, which I will. I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea on my chances with this one? I received no default notice, and there is no 'D' on my credit score? In fact, there is no '1, 2, 3' it goes straight from solid green ticks to '5, 5, 6, 6' - which are the four months immediately after the account closed and I had to pay back the £350 to get out of my unplanned overdraft and THEN start the payment plan. As a student who'd just graduated from a fashion degree (not cheap) on a part time bar wage I find this to be unfair treatment. My account was managed well prior to the overdraft reduction and managed well after the three or four months where I struggled when the account changed over. I don't actually know why it was changed to a current account?! The account is now settled and had been for over 12 months, but remains open (but unused). Any advice at all would be incredible, I don't really have anyone to break this down to me in layman's terms… my mum's advice was 'well you just learn about these things along the way'. Sure… one default in mum! It's extremely frustrating as my credit score is actually ranked 'good'. Many thanks in advance! I really appreciate any advice, no matter how little W

Hi, I had been working as a personal assistant for almost two years and was recently dismissed. I was texted by the person supporteds mum to tell me that they would be coming in to discuss my job. When I started I was contracted to 17 hours and another worker had 3 hours at the weekend. When the other worker left I was offered the extra hours and accepted. I had been informed in an informal chat (all meetings were informal no notes taken and would be without warning) that there were changes happening with the persons support ie Autism in Scotland would be talking up the hours I had been given and there was some talks of me working alongside them. I was obviously unhappy about my hours being cut but recognised that I hadnt taken the steps to have the hours formalised. All I asked was that I was given as much notice of the changes as possible so that I could sort my finances. Months later there was still no notice of the changes. I then received a text whilst I was working telling me that they were coming in to speak to me at 12. This meeting occurred in the Kitchen of the flat of the person supported and I had no representation. I was then told that I no longer had a job and that Autism in Scotland were to be taking over as they required more flexibility. It's important to note here that on more than one occasion I was contacted through text late at night and expected to not come in the next day and would not be paid. Eventually I told them this wasn't acceptable and I would hope that we could come to a mutual agreement on notice for not coming in and was told it was to the same as me calling in sick ( I still have this text). I extremely upset because I had no Idea this was about to happen and was told that I was not to work my notice (two weeks) but would be paid for four. Anyway I received a letter a few days later and it was the first time It was described as dismissal. I was very upset by this letter and was surprised to read that the situation had been discussed with a care manager from the council, Autism in Scotland (who are not linked to my employment in any way) and the person supported themselves. I would also assume Care in Scotland were party to this as they are responsible for my contract and wages. I found this distressing as I take pride in work and have been described as very competent in similar roles. I was really uncomfortable that my competence had been discussed in these meetings and that my reputation was at risk. I was never invited to any of these meetings and I also never received support and supervision throughout my time within the role. The letter also mentioned that they would be seeking someone who was more in line with their sons personality. At the end of the letter it stated that I had six days to reply if i wanted to dispute it. At this time my older sister had been diagnosed with cancer and the day prior to my dismissal had been in for a radical hysterectomy (they were aware of this and stated in the meeting that they had been holding off telling me for weeks because of this). So because of the situation with my sister I stupidly didn't reply- I didn't have the time or energy and there also wasn't an address to reply to. On a side note within the dismissal letter envelope was a personal letter saying how grateful they were for all my hard work! On the way home from the hospital a few days later I was looking for a job on my phone and found almost the exact advertisement that I had applied to to get the job but for one less hour a week. I knew this was for my old job because of the mention of Autism in Scotland and the fact that the address shows up on the map in gumtree when you post an Ad. In my opinion I have been dismissed on my personality and if not I was dismissed without being given the opportunity to improve on my performance. I was unaware that they were unhappy with my work- I never had support and supervision. It also states in the dismissal letter that they need someone who could be more flexible- I was never asked to change my hours or be more flexible and can't help but speculate that this was something to do with me not accepting that I could be told not to come to work within 12 hours of starting my shift. Most importantly I feel that my reputation in my field of work has been tarnished due to being discussed at meetings and this could affect me gaining future employment. I am currently studying a post grad to become qualified in this field and already have associations within the sector. I also was not given the offer of representation at the meeting where I was told I did not have a job and this was not recorded. What I would like to know is have I been unfairly dismissed? Secondly has my stupidity in not replying to the letter (I was sent a text to ask if I received it and I said yes) resulted in me not being able to take it further and Lastly if I do have a case what are my next steps? Thanks in advance.

Hi each and all, not a happy bunny with this one I will be as brief as I can and hope for some good advice Took out Van Insurance through one of those price comparison sites, got a fair price of £350 ish pound for the year Paid it in full via my credit card, today I get a letter stating " CLAIM DISCLOSURE PROBLEM - PLEAESE CALL URGENTLY I did just that, I thought I had got the claim date wrong or something ( I did inform them of an accident in 2013 which is still pending ), and put it down as not my fault, as it wasnt, they said I should have put it was my fault ( THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A LIE ) long story short they said they can continue my Insurance but there will be an increase of £500 ish, ( YEA RIGHT ) if I wish to cancel the broker will want there £35.00 admin fee, then the underwriter will want there cancelation fee, plus insurance tax of£26 ish, plus pro rata something or other which I assume is the 8 days I had the van, my breakdown equates to about £7.00 off the 12 month policy I got another quote, from a diferent company, all the same details, and stated that the accident was my fault ( WHICH IS A LIE ) and they quoted me £359 for the year, obviously sensible to go with the new company, my problem is how can they charge me so much to cancel after only 8 days? or I can pay £500 ish more to stay with them, or probably over £100 to leave, is there any way round this? could I cancel the credit card payment? it doesnt seem fair to me :/

Hi, just looking for some advice please! I was in receipt of JSA and was sanctioned for 3 month after a training provider failed to send me written details about a MWA placement. I have appealed to the DWP and received a Mandatory reconsideration notice just before the sanction ended. They are basically saying that I did receive the letter as it was addressed correctly, there was no postal dispute and I cannot prove that I didn't receive it, so the sanction still stands. How can I prove I didn't receive a letter!? I completed a form and sent it to the tribunal service and the DWP have had a solicitor go over what I've said to discredit everything. I now have received several documents that the DWP have sent to the tribunal but they contain several errors which lead me to believe the MWA letter has been reproduced. If the tribunal doesn't notice these errors would I have the right to appeal? Anyone else not received letters from DWP and been sanctioned as a result? Any help or advice on what to do next or what to expect would be appreciated. Thanks [i'm still actively looking for and applying for jobs, attending interviews and registering with agencies every week.]

Hi all, I have been pointed to this forum by a friend who was certain someone on here can help. Back in November, I parked in my usual train station car park, run by NCP. I arrived later than usual, so there was no spaces in my usual spot downstairs. I had to drive to the top floor, where i found plenty of spaces. I parked up and walked away, paying for my ticket on the 'Ringo' mobile app as I do every morning. When I returned to my car I was surprised to find that I had received a ticket, as had about 12 other cars around me. It turned out that the space I parked in was a 'Premier Bay' (not usually what I'd expect to find on the top floor of a multi-story). When I looked closer, the bays were indeed marked (unclearly) 'Premier Parking', however the words were spaced about 15 foot apart, meaning in front of my car there was just the word 'Parking'. There was also no visible signage. The only sign displayed was next to the pay and display machine, which I never use due to preferring the mobile app. This was on a lamp post around 20 meters from where I parked, positioned side on so I wouldn't have noticed it even if I looked that way. There were two lamp posts either side of my car, neither of which had a Premier Parking sign displayed. I appealed to the NCP but it was declined (in hindsight after reading a few posts, this was the wrong thing to do). I then appealed to POPLA, but they said my appeal was received more than 28 days after the ticket was issued, so was declined. I have now received a letter from 'Debt Recovery Plus' demanding payment or court proceedings may commence. I have genuinely forgotten to purchase a ticket on occasions, and reluctantly paid the fine as I was in breach of the car park conditions, but on this occasion I believe NCP should have done more to make it clear that the spaces were allocated Premier Parking bays. Can anyone please advise me what would be best in this situation? The amount owed is now £120, which is outrageous considering I paid for a ticket that day. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Neil

Hi, We just heard that our first appeal against this PCN has been rejected so I thought I'd better seek some advice before submitting a second one. The story is that: 1) We wanted to stay for the maximum 2 hour limit in a Teignbridge District Council (Devon) car park. Like many kids, our 6 year old son likes to put the money in the machine so we gave him two pound coins but, unfortunately, he pressed the green button before the machine had registered the 2nd coin so we ended up with a ticket for only 30 minutes and no change (as the machine would not return the 2nd pound and, typically, we didn't have any more change on us). 2) I jotted down the RINGO automatic payment number and then went to a café where I paid by phone for a 2 hour stay. At the time, I just assumed I'd only be guilty of overpaying the council (and the ticket machine has no problems with overpayments so we didn't think twice about overpaying via the telephone system). By the way, since losing our appeal, I've realised that the service doesn't even allow for a 1 and a half hour payment. 3) We were desperate to keep to the maximum 2 hour limit and so returned to the car 1 and a half hours after our first payment (so well within the two hour limit) and, you guessed it, found a Contravention 84 notice on the car: “Parked with additional payment made to extend the stay beyond first time purchased”. 4) I immediately tried to ring the number provided but it was on December 31st and so no-one answered, however, in our appeal, I took a screen shot of this attempted call and suggested that it supports our claim that we were not trying to fiddle the system by staying beyond their time limit. 5) Our appeal was rejected as they stated we weren't specifically acknowledging the details of Contravention 84. We've since read this convention many, many times (i.e. “Parked with additional payment made to extend the stay beyond first time purchased”) and, despite feeling like we are being well and truly stitched up here, find it hard to argue with the narrow scope of the wording of the contravention. Any suggestions? I've attached photos of the PCN, the original ticket and the ticket machine. I don't have any photos of the car park signs and, as we were on holiday, it would be tricky (though not impossible - my family live there) to get one. Thank you in advance!

Hi guys, I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on whether I would have a case for getting this default removed from my credit file. To cut a long story short, I managed to go overdrawn on my HSBC account by £88 and was quite slow paying it back due to financial difficulty at the time. The money went to Metropolitan (still HSBC as far as i'm aware) where we agreed that it would be ok for me to pay the full amount into my HSBC account, to clear the debt, on a particular day. When this day came around, I went on my Natwest online banking to transfer the £88 into my HSBC account and assumed everything to be fine. The next letter i received from Metropolitan told me that the amount was outstanding and a default had been added to my account! When I went back and checked my Natwest online banking, the £88 had bounced back to me. There was more than enough money in the account, the only thing I can think of is that HSBC closed the account which made it impossible for me to pay on the day that we agreed! I have tried writing to Metropolitan to have this looked into, and enclosed copies of my bank statement as proof but have not yet had any replies. Do you think I would have a case for getting this removed? Thanks in advance.

Hi. I would like some help please. My daughter has had seen payment taken from her account by companies who she has never had dealings with. She complained to the bank and they told her that 1: All Direct debits would be cancelled. 2: She would be refunded the money for fraudulent use. 3: Any charges would be waived for matters arising from this. Unsurprisingly they lied. We believe that somebody hacked/stole details and put them on a loan companies search website. My daughter does not use loans as she has me as her loan facility if needed. The bank subsequent to this destroyed my daughters card and issued another. Then we were told that they were going to claw back approx £140 of the fraudulent transactions. They then bounced a DD TV Licence (after informing us they had cancelled them all) So this took her overdrawn and they apply a penalty charge of £10 per day. They have now authorised another £140 (of fraudulent payments) on this account. My daughter is a single parent with 2 Children living on DLA and benefits and housing allowance all of which the bank is either paying to fraudsters or gobbling up in charges. Assistance would be greatly be appreciated

Hi All, When boarding my usual bus journey back from work last week, I tapped my Oyster on the Oyster card machine, it did not respond so I tried again (I had swiped correctly, with card flat against it). Prior to this, a lady in front of me had swiped her card several times and it also did not work for her - No beeps, Green or Red signals, so she went to sit down. I took her experience into account after I had tried swiping my card and informed the bus driver that the machine did not work (either she froze the machine or the machine was coincidently unresponsive for us both), he did not respond so I went to sit down (The lady and I was not stopped). About 15 minutes into my journey, a bus inspector got on, my Oyster was swiped and she informed me that my card had not been registered, I explained the incident to her and she took down my name and was asking for my address. Half way through her note-taking, I questioned whether she was issuing me with a fine. She said "No" and that it is just for "Back office checks" to see whether there is a fault with my card or the Oyster machine. I did not argue and was cooperative as I knew I was not guilty of any intentions to skip a bus fare, though I did ask whether we could check my card there and then (with every intention to pay my usual bus fare). She told me not to worry and that she would check with the bus driver. Suddenly , one of her colleagues came up to her and said they had to leave the bus at the next stop, she quickly said "Respond to the website within 21 days or you will get a fine" and handed me a folded leaflet with the website on and left. I opened up the leaflet to find a Penalty fare inside. I felt cheated as she had issued me a fare without me knowing and left the bus without checking with the bus driver as promised. I went downstairs to the bus driver and questioned him, telling him that he did not reply when I told him that the machine did not work. To this, he got defensive (I assume as he did not want to take responsibility) and said "No, no, no! I would have told you if your card had not swiped! You people do not swipe your card properly and this is what happens!" I angrily took down the bus details and went home to make a direct complaint to TFL and tried contacting IRCAS on the telephone. The number given on the IRCAS leaflet was an automated line, being frustrated not being able to get through to a real person, I decided to complain to TFL online through their CCTV and Bus Complaints links, requesting CCTV footage of the incident. I appealed to IRCAS and received a letter to say that my appeal has been turned down. This is the reason I was given: " When traveling on the bus, you must touch your Oyster card flat on the card reader on boarding the bus. It is your responsibility to touch in correctly and to check for the green light and single beep to ensure that your Oyster card has been validated. Failure to touch in correctly may result in the issue of a Penalty Fare." 1. I did touch my card correctly and swiped it twice to be sure. 2. It didn't work for the lady in front of me so I don't believe that we were both not accurate in our swipes. 3. I informed the bus driver who did not respond. 4. The bus inspector slyly issued me the penalty fare and mislead me with information. Anyone experience this kind of lousy service? The bus driver does not take notice of his passengers and the bus inspector saw me as an easy target just to fill her quota. I'm not exactly a trouble-maker but wanted to question the bus driver. I do not believe that I should be forced to pay the fine with a invalid reason that they had given me. It seems like they did not investigate the incident throughly and just sent me a letter of rejection. I have not heard back from TFL, anyone know how long (if they do) they take to get back to you? Do I have a leg to stand on if I appeal again? Please help!

I wonder if there is anyone among you, who have experienced Leasehold Fraud. The point being, in that some may have been Repossessed due to Service Charges, even when they've redeemed their Mortages for the considered sum. I'm looking to speak to anyone who fits that specific criteria. It appears that Leaseholders are being deemed as Tenants.. . This is a sufferance & not to be mixed up with actual Tenants. Even RICS have stated that Managing Agents in particular are the wild west of their industry. Also how many have the statement: "the lessor is seised of fee simple in possession free from encumbrances" - as far as I know with that statement it should mean once the Mortgage is redeemed - it's yours. Providing you've been in situ in excess of 12 Yrs with the Freeholder not actioning recovery of the Premises - you're meant to be on the home run. Apparently not so. So does anyone have any info about this?

Hi all, Hoping someone can help me here.. .unsure if I can claim against unfair or constructive dismissal due to the timeframe etc and am seeking advice on what to do and where to go so here goes.... I dismissed from an employed back in August for what they have described as gross misconduct. We worked in a sales environment and from their side they believe myself triggered a commission payment to a junior member of staff deliberately. I did not accept this claim and they dismissed myself but was however offered a lower ranking position where the salary was 5K less and due to the commission I had from my role would total 15K less per year if accepted. There was other incidents in the office where people had done the same and never been penalised and feel this was mainly due to the fact I had 3 weeks off. Senior members of staff including my line manager often let us change "files" into other members of staffs names to ensure they hit target so to me this was quite the norm. We worked in a heavily commissioned sales environment and quite often were tasked with doing junior members of staff roles, telesales etc and this impacted heavily on our commission also. In the May/June I was signed off sick by my doctor for stress and anxiety due to work and a marital split and was continually told by my friends who I worked with/colleagues that if I did not return to work after being signed off I would be demoted on my return. I decided to return after sick leave and was then confronted with the fact my targets were now increased (along with 2 other members of staff) over and above everybody else in the office and having 3 weeks off I was never going to hit these targets and miss out on significant commission payments. I was offered a lower salaried position but declined for financial reasons and the fact I had time off sick and was now even more worried about my job and home etc and felt due to this claim being brought against me I had no choice but to decline their offer of employment and to leave. I worked for the company for 3 years but had 2 breaks from the employer, once in year 1 after 6 months and after 20 months for various reasons including the company threatening to withold commission payments. Any more Q's please feel free to ask - I know I may have missed the deadline to claim but this is now impacting me on future job applications Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi there, I have an online account with Next Directory and a monthly standing order set up. I realised last week that my standng order for the past 2 months had not quite covered the minimum payment required. Once I realised I contacted Next and brought the account back up to date. Whilst I realise this was my error, and I accept the £7 charge (per month) for not making the minimum payment, I disagree with the 2 'missed' payments that are now reflected on my credit file. I have contacted Next to discuss this and explain that this isnt a case of 'missed' payment, it was an error on my part for not checking and subsequently increasing my standing order to pay my monthly bill. I was spoken to by Customer Services in a very patronising way, when I tried to reason with her and request that they re-consider the data held against me, she point blank refused to assist in any way. My credit score has taken a massive hit based on what can only be described as human oversight as apposed to shirking responsibility for paying my debts. This is creating a bigger strain as I am currently in the process of applying for a mortgage, these supposed missed payments are effecting my creditworthiness. Can anybody offer any advice here? Many thanks in advance.

I would like to bring to everyone's attention what I believe is an unfair trading by Railways ( no specific company ). To commute from Croydon (zone-5) to Canary Wharf (zone-2), daily office going passengers have to travel via London Bridge (Zone-1), because the direct connectivity between Croydon and Canary Wharf is poor. The direct connectivity from Croydon to London Bridge is the only re-course for passengers but they have to shell out extra £1020.00 per annum as London Bridge is in Zone-1. £1020.00 /annum is a huge amount by any standard, Someone buying a zone5-zone-2 ticket also deserves a good service as well. After all the cost is based on zone and not on level of service. I believe the current method is directing funds from thousands of daily travellers in an unfair way to rail companies. Besides this, it is depriving the people of time I have raised this with ORR (Office of Rail regulation). I want to know if I Can take this to court? I am willing to chase this public interest, in court, if I get advise.

looking for advice for my son. He was employed as a fitter for a large company and had good feedback for his work, doing all hours and on call. A new manager came and things started to go wrong. Another employee was suspected of stealing and several (my son included) was forced into giving statements against him, forced by way of saying if they didn't they would be surplus to requirements. My son expressed he wasn't happy with this but as he has a young family and another on they way he had to go along with it. Following this word was getting back to him that the accused man was after him and he had to watch his back. The manager was seen walking around with a baseball bat. When leaving work one night my son was stopped by this manager and baseball bat and demanded to search his vehicle, nothing was found on him. Shortly after it got too much for my son and he had to go off with stress, this was for a week followed by a weeks previously booked holiday. On his return he was summoned to a meeting with this manager and one other and told he could have a union rep with him. In the meeting he was told there was no issues with his work but they thought he had a negative attitude on the other staff as he looked miserable. The following day he was sacked, that day they said it was for gross misconduct. No verbal or written warnings had been issued previously.

I’ve been researching into ‘typical’ courier terms and conditions, with a particular interest in liability clauses. I’ve long been of the opinion the majority constitute unfair contracts and a shirking of responsibilities at the expense of consumer rights. What annoys me more than anything is the tendency for couriers to imply consumers require (and should pay for) additional insurance against loss, theft and damage. In my opinion if any of these eventualities occur it is as a result of negligence and (or) failure of the supplier to exercise reasonable care and skill. It is for the supplier to arrange their own liability insurance for such eventualities and neither fair nor reasonable to expect the consumer to be made responsible for supplier negligence. To this end I am particularly fond of point 18.2.3 in the OFT, which among other things states that “The supplier should not make the consumer his insurer”. For the purposes of this post I have analysed CityLinks terms and conditions which I assume to be typical of most. I have highlighted each clause which I believe to be at odds or at least questionable according to the OFT Unfair Contract Guidance. Please note the following are not the FULL terms and conditions provided by Citylink, they are merely the ones I deem relevant or dubious: The corresponding sections from the guidance are: I also felt the following section was useful for when the supplier tries to push toward the subcontractor (perhaps if you used a parcel broker service) I hope people find this useful when taking these organisations to task.

Mortgage Arrears and Simple Interest - Is it fair? Took out a secured loan for £10,000 6 years ago. After initial application was accepted we were offered an extra £6000 which we agreed to. At the time I was concerned that we had been issued with two loan separate loan agreements - I wasnt happy with this and voiced this to the loan advisor and was basically reassured that this was just an administration technicality and would not make any difference. He even sent me argos vouchers as a sweetner. 12 months later my husband left me and our business collapsed leaving myself and 30 of our staff redudant. I was absolutely financially destitute. He financially abandoned me and ever since I have been fighting one legal battle after another, keeping the wolves from the doors. I have single handedly paid off all our joint debts. 5 years later and I have made the necessary 72 repayments but I am left with a balance of just over £4k. This includes interest, charges and simple interest. What I need to establish is it it all fair. Loan payments where late from December 2007 to May 2008 by around 2/3 weeks. I was charged £50.00 collection charges on each loan. From May 2008 - June 2009 I could not make any payments whatsover.House was put on the market as I saw this as my only option. £50 charge on each loan per month was applied. June 2009 agreement was reached, I reinstated payments and started to pay off the arrears. Continued to apply charges, but agreed to reverse them if I maintained the agreement. April 2010, cleared the arrears. Asked about the charges and they advised I could pay them off at the end of the loan. Im now at the end of the loan and still owe just over £4k. They have reinstated the charges made from June 2009 - 2010 but no more. I have several questions: Was it fair to charge me on each loan account - I was paying £100 per month in charges? Surely there is no more work involved in chasing payment for two accounts as oppose to one account? Was the amount that they charged me a fair amount - it seems very high? Also because I have had so much information off them (in one month I had 10 pieces of correspondence) I have overlooked that they have also been charging simple interest on the charges! As a result, I didnt realise that by leaving these charges until the end of the loan period, I was still being charged interest on them. I was treated appauiling by this company, I was never shown any sympathy, in fact I almost felt bullied by their "callers" and felt that they "harrassed" me at an extremely difficult time. I responded to every call they made - I gave them every bit of information I could, but unfortuantely for a long period I could pay them no money and therefore did everything I could to sell the house. When circumstances changed for the better I offered them the maximum I could afford which included paying the full monthly payments plus a further payment towards the arrears . I was advise that it was not enough and that the arrears would have to be paid within in minimum period of 12 months. They therefore took me to court for repossesion. Thankfully it was not granted and was adjourned on the terms I had previously offere them. Despite this however there are legal fees also on my statement, which could have been avoided had they accepted my proposal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure how much I can do on this but I need to ask if there is something I can do. In February this year I was caught speeding on a motorway that had a restricted 50mph speed limit on it. I was caught at the end of the restricted zone doing +-62mph. Documents were sent to me that I duly completed admitting my guilt and these were returned in time apart from my licence and counterpart that I couldn't find at the time. As I was due to go on holiday the following day I felt that it could wait till I returned before I sent it. The fine of £100 was paid electronically. In about June, I received a cheque for £100 from the court whom I contacted to be informed that the money was returned as they had not received my Licence and counterpart and that I must now wait for more papers. As you can see I forgot about the licence when I returned from holiday. After searching again I couldn't find the offending items and so I asked for duplicates from the DVLA which I received. The next set of documents arrived which were duly completed along with a statement of my mitigating circumstances as above and I enclosed the new licence and counterpart. A couple of days ago I received notice from the court that my fine was now £700 with a £70 victim surcharge and £85 costs a total of £855!! This is a large increase from the original fine of £100 and all because I failed to send in my licence. I had completed the original documents, I had paid the fine, I had completed the next set of documents, I sent in my licence and now I have a fine that is, in my opinion, out of context with the original offence. I have spoken to and now written to the court to ask why this has happened and the reasons for it and have asked for that fine to be reviewed. I have also asked the court to hold the Enforcement Notice. The fine was due to be paid on the 1st. October. Does anyone have any other way that I can appeal this vast increase for something which is fairly easy to have been resolved. All they had to do was to send me a reminder for the licence and it would have been done. Thank you in advance. Alan.

Motorists could demand the refund of more than £100m in parking fines, after what experts described as an “explosive” tribunal ruling left local government traffic officials in “absolute panic”. Councils have handed over parking management to private companies, but in many instances have also asked them to handle any appeals against penalty charge notices (PCNs). This process is supposed to be handled by councils, partly because it would be a conflict of interest for a company to examine its own possible mistakes. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal is the second point of appeal and an adjudicator, Christopher Nicholls, has spelled out that council contractors must not be left to process PCN objections. His ruling stated: “I find that no reasonable local authority could have concluded this contract met the terms of its regulatory and public law duties.” As a result, 13 motorists in Gloucestershire were awarded their parking fines and costs after their initial appeals were turned down by the county council’s contractor, Apcoa. The motorists were repaid sums ranging from £42.50 to £155.67. The decision has widespread implications for people who may have been incorrectly fined. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drivers-may-reclaim-millions-in-unfair-parking-fines-9746466.html