Hi We started renting a beautiful home in December. We pay £1,800 a month for the house which is a hell of a lot of money. We have had a letter saying building works begin on a patch of land next to our garden next week and the foundations mean they will have to take down our fence and work in our garden! We both work from home which will be impossible with the noise. We also have a dog who will go berserk at the builders in the garden and she wont be able to go outside. We are absolutely gutted that our dream home has become such a nightmare and we will not be able to use the garden for over 2 months! Well, we can, but not privately! Any advice on if we can refuse to pay rent? or at least get a reduction? The landlord knew about this and did not tell us before we moved in. My other concern is that our garden will now be completely overlooked by the new house. Any advice please?

My wife has been employed by the local pub owner who took on the lease of the village shop three years ago. My wife was employed from the outset to work in the shop. Since day one she has consistently worked over 28 hours a week at a rate above the NMW. She has been paying tax, NI, pension etc and has received holiday pay. However, she was never given a contract of employment. The pub owner has now bought the land that the shop is on, and plans to demolish it and build houses on the land, meaning the shop will close. He is however going to open a small "shop" within the pub to sell essentials such as milk, papers, cigarettes etc. The boss has told the staff nothing more than "I am closing the shop at the end of April and you won't have a job anymore", however he has failed to put anything in writing at all. I have several questions which I hope someone can answer 1) The boss is suggesting that as he never agreed in writing to a set number of hours a week, the position was one of a "zero hours contract". However my wife has worked 28+ hours every week since she started. Am I right in assuming that the 28+ hours a week, in the absence of a contract are implied terms and those are the terms are legally binding. 2) Until as such time as he informs my wife in writing that he plans to close the store and her position is redundant, then legally she is still employed on the terms that she's worked to for the last 3 years. 3) Even without a contract of employment, my wife is still entitled to written notice of redundancy. How much notice is she entitled to, and should the shop close before that notice period expires, he then would still have to pay her in lieu of notice. 4) Unless he puts it in writing that the position is redundant, then is he legally obliged to pay her for the hours she would have been working for had he not closed the shop. Any advice and answers to the questions above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

All the free online word to pdf convertors are not working accurately. Does anyone know of any that genuinely work pls???

This is more of a warning thread, for people having any significant renovations to their homes, to check there is Insurance, should anything go wrong. Here is an article showing a real life example of what could happen. In the article a young couple with small children lost their home and have huge debts after works to create basement living space went seriously wrong. This is just one example of such a situation occuring in the London area. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3484417/Our-1m-nightmare-dream-home-collapsed-shoddy-builders-thought-life-couldn-t-worse-just-start-ordeal.html Before you allow any structural alterations to your homes, please do get advice from your architect and/or surveyors. They will have full knowledge of what Insurance is available and you can then make sure you have adequate cover, whatever happens. DO NOT just take the word of builders, that they have full insurance for the contracted works, your house and all liabilities created. YOU must check any Insurance thoroughly to make sure it fully covers you. People unfortunately are so focused on trying to create a home of their dreams, that Insurance becomes a forgotten aspect. They wrongly assume that between their own Home Insurance and the builders contractors Insurance, that they will be fully covered. This unfortunately may not be the case. Please DO INFORM your Home Buildings Insurers of any structural alterations before any work commences. They can inform you of any requirements, exclusions to cover etc. As a final point, if you are doing any significant structural work as DIY work, don't assume your Home Insurance accidental damage cover will always come to the rescue. I can remember a case years ago, when a husband decided on knocking down a few walls and this led to major damage. The Insurers refused to pay out and it ended up with years of litigation between the wife (joint policyholder) and the Insurers. The husband who created the mess decided to leave his wife and the country, landing her with it to sort out. I did not find out the outcome, as it was dealt with by the Insurers legal team and the policyholder. The advice must be to think about what you are going to do and check that you do have Insurance, if it goes horribly wrong.

Hi there, I am putting up a small extension on the back of our house, 3x3 metres with a pitched roof above it the pitch goes on to the party wall and our neighbour was looking at building out the same on his side at a later date. we started work a good few months ago and the roof has finally gone on this weekend but only structurally. After signing all the drawings saying it looked good and we can build the work on the cavity line he now said he wants a box gutter putting in, in advance for when he does his work (prob never happen) he had some damaged guttering on his side that had a temporary repair in it and when we started removing the guttering on our side it came off about 12- 18 inches on his side where the cast iron had been cracked. I know i have to make good any damage but can i not just stick the piece in. Is there any restrictions of when i can work on the house as he has said i should not be allowed to work sundays.....pretty hard to do as i cannot always work in the week at home. when putting the foundations in we also lifted up some cracked concrete on his side and did some small damage to other parts, i said i would re concrete the damaged bit but his whole drive and back area is already cracked and damaged.... is there a timescale to repair what i have done?

Hello, I am hoping somebody can give me some advice about an issue I am experiencing with the online store "The Works". On September the 1st I ordered a toy (A remote controlled geotrax toy, costing £4) on September the 2nd I receive an email confirming that the order had been dispatched. Last week it still had not arrived so I email them asking where it had got to, I then received an automatic refund later that same day. I emailed again asking why it had been refunded, I told them that if the parcel had been lost, I'd had preferred a replacement. This is when things get a bit confusing as I started receiving emails from two separate people from the works, one telling me that the parcel had been delivered back to them at store, so that's why the refund had been issued, another one telling me that it had been dispatched and was on it's way still. I asked them to clarify why I had been refunded if it's still on it's way (she told me it hadn't been refunded, but it 100% has been as I can see it on my bank now) This person told me that the parcel had been dispatched with Hermes. I have been onto webchat with Hermes today and they have confirmed for me all the parcels they have had for my address in the past 28 days - one from tesco direct, and another with shoezone.......But nothing from The Works. The person who said it had been redelivered to store, said that she was not at liberty to tell me who it was dispatched with (I know this is incredibly confusing, as the other person who emailed did tell me, I am getting email responses from two people, giving me two different versions) This one also told me that if I wanted to receive the toy, I would need to re-order it. She said replacements were against their policy. So I am very confused about what to do next, should I just leave this or raise the issue with management? I am a bit annoyed that they seem to have lied to me about dispatching it with Hermes, seeing as hermes have no record of it. Sorry it's a bit confusing, I am confused too Thank you for reading.

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the EU Commission. One is from Germany, a second is from Poland and the third is from Italy. All three go with a EU official to examine the fence. The German contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works out some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run to about €1000. That's €400 for materials, €500 for the labour and €100 profit for me." The Polish contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for €700. €300 for materials, €300 for the labour and €100 profit for me." The Italian contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the EU official and whispers, "€2,700." The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys, but how did you come up with such a high figure?" The Italian contractor whispers back, "€1000 for you, €1000 for me, and we hire the Polish guy to fix the fence." "Done!" replies the EU official. And that, my friends, is how the EU Commission works.

I purchased a 5 year old car on Friday- which should have had on board Sat Nav. Dealer said Sat Nav was broken, so replaced the radio with franchise CD player. However, on collecting car- now find that although the radio/CD works, there is no Bluetooth hands free, no clock, no steering wheel controls and no code supplied for replacement (bog standard cheap!) radio. The advert stated all of the above but the replacement unit is obviously incompatible with the standard spec radio which gives all the other functions. Taking car back tomorrow, but any advice on how to play this would be appreciated

Hi I recently let a section (shared space) of a commercial retail space. During the talks I asked if there were any major works planned as they had in my lease that I would be liable to share the costs if anything were to happen - I negotiated and capped it off at £4500 because something made me suspicious about it. Then 1.5 months into lease a tenant from above the shops who owns part of the freehold came in quite upset that my landlord was avoiding him - and he stated you've known this is coming for a long time - which she tried to hush him because I was there. This was in relation to the works on the building. Immediately my thoughts were - wtf - Ive been lied to - I asked. Then 1.5 months later I get an email stating that the freehold has voted and works are going ahead and I need to pay a portion. My landlord acted completely surprised and like we're devastated as well - and can't believe this - we may have to stop trade. When I know for a fact I heard the guy say they've known this was coming for a long time. Not only that but now scaffolding will be erected over my shop front for god knows how long. Due to being a new business this could cause me to go under. Do I have any recourse? Can I sue them for not disclosing major works and also get out of my lease? What rights do I have? Ive completely been taken advantage of and unfortunately its my first time at the rodeo and I completely fell for the nice charming lady act. Clearly just that.

I received a snail mail from a pension company. The envelope was empty, probably because it wasn't sealed properly .. or so I thought... I rang the sender to get the letter re-posted. The company would not resend the letter without a national insurance number. It seems a little odd that they can't trace a letter using a name address and postcode, even though they already sent it!! What if this was a spam complaint under the data protection act? .... The sender seems genuine. It could simply be an awful database. But it could also be a good phishing game. Sending empty envelopes is brilliant. Not everyone would throw it away. A percentage would be curious and investigate. All laws are covered when the customer releases personal info of thier own accord so some people would get caught.

Hi I do not know if in the right forum but I am a leaseholder of a flat from a local authority but has now been taken over by aprivate company , i put my own double glazing in and now they are doing the double glazing themselves and i think they want to charge me for the rest of the other properties but I am sure I was told by the local authority that mine had to be like for like and my only contributions would be for the communal stairwell windows and not my own and other properties, is this right. Thanks in advance Roy

Hi I don't know if this is the right area of the forum but I need some advice. I recently had some artificial grass installed and the total job was £800. I paid £400 deposit and then the rest would be paid on completion of the works. The work was substandard and on re-addressing the job the owner of the company said he was not going to do anything to resolve it and walked away. He then issued me a letter stating that he was taking me to the small claims court. I responded and stated that I was more than happy to pay the remaining amount when he completed the work to the required standard. Today I have arrived home and he has trespassed onto my property and removed all the grass and the foundations resulting in my garden now being a pool of mud. The police are involved but state there is nothing they can do and this is even with the statement of the neighbour who saw the whole thing. does anyone have any advice ?

Hi I wonder if you can help me I am at my wits end I own aproperty with my ex-girlfriend, We split up in 2006 with her living at theproperty with the children after a court ruling which also confirmed she wasentitled to half the house it was agreed by private arrangement between us as Ihad paid the first half of the mortgage on my own with no help from my ex, Andas she was entitled to half she should pay for half, my ex agreed and for 5 years I now know thiswas the case Now over a year ago I was solicited by a ppi claim firm so Irang the mortgage company to find out if ppi was on my mortgage only to be told"was I aware that my mortgage was on interest only payments"!! And totop it had been this way for 36 months The mortgage works (TMW) now part of nationwide buildingsociety has made major changes to my mortgage without my knowledge or consent!And I believe has resulted in a breach of their contract and also failing toput in place after a reasonable time period (I am informed by TMW of it beingapproximately 3 months) a capital repayment vehicle all of which would beacceptable to themselves, all of this is printed in bold letters on everyletter i now receive I complained which resulted in the mortgage being revertingback to repayment, My ex refused to pay, I offered to allow interest only if myex via a solicitor put forward a plan to pay the capital as per their ownpaperwork and rules they refused to get involved!! even though they had causedthis problem. And the property fell into arrears and then TMW startedrepossession proceedings and the property is now up and is in the last stagesof selling. There is a court order pending for repossession on 7th January2014. TMW refused the complaint saying they were following rulesset by the fos and acting fairly to my ex on low income (but not fairly tome!)and it was then sent to the fos who also refused my complaint (no wonder ifindeed the fos rules allowed this to happen) without no mention of the timeallowed on interest only, no vehicle in place etc let alone my consent, notupholding any part of my complaint and taking no notice of my updates into thefailings and conversations with TMW. Indeed saying I should take my ex to court I am indeed thinking about this but feel that had i beenasked at the time I would have answered the same, my ex to put in place avehicle to pay capital and if not the property would have sold then! Not witharrears on it, letters, and court costs and as no payments have been made forthe last 5 months due to TMW informing my ex of my liability a high redemptionfigure. Also as my consent was not sort, I have lost approximately £8000 incapital payments had to reduce the property so to get a quick sale beforerepossession and the fact selling wasn't in the plans the property wasn'treally ready for sale and TMW have to be held to account for this? When werethey going to tell me? When I was liable for £35000-£70000?? at the end of themortgage term. I also feel that the fos has treated me unfairly as TMW ishiding behind fos rules and a quick look on their website has resulted in themupholding far less involved cases! One involving early redemption clausessaying their costs and terms was hidden on page 5 subsec 24! And even payingout for his distress! My rules come on every letter and underlined and in boldtype. TMW have said that they didn't have a forwarding address forme but I informed them that I had indeed left the property and their obligationto both parties ref in a letter sent by my solicitor back in 2006 referring topayment changes which they have still on file What conversations TMW have had with my ex in relation to meI do not know and indeed my ex has never said and has obviously deceived me atevery stage but if she was asked or told changes would require my signature shecould have passed me letters or asked me at any stage I was in contact viaphone, text, email, facebook, work, etc and seeing my children on a weekly basis's and I was indeed relaxedabout the property due to what I thought was the safety of two signatures andthe mortgage contract. And as I was no fixed abode for 5 years after eviction Icould give no address You can’t even begin to understand the stress this hasbrought to me out of the blue and to my current partner who is having to go throughthis with me, something we both agree should have been sorted out three or moreyears ago before we met TMW has failed to act in the best interest of both of itsclients and acting impartially, swinging to my ex and leaving me exposed. Do I have any recourse in relation to these sets ofcircumstances? I await your response in anticipation due to the imminentforced sale of my property and once these matters are closed redress may beimpossible to come by?

Hi, Just a quick question regarding following works procedures. If you do your job and the company accept the way you (and others) have carried out your duties over a long period of time, can they all of a sudden say you have not followed the procedures laid out and dismiss you for gross misconduct ? Having never been told/warned or had any discipline about it previously. Or is it a case of tough luck. Thanks

Hi, I would like to ask for some more information about Company Sick Pay. I am working on full time contract over 4 years (from 30.03.2009) and I am entitled to Company Sick Pay however I do not know haw it is working. Terms and Conditions of Employment is saing: " Company Sick Pay Your entitlement to sick pay is detailed below, all payments are at the discretion of local management and normal monthly pay will be made up after allowing for the Statutory Sick Pay. Continuous Service - Entitlement Less than 1 year - 10 days 1 year-3 years - 6 weeks 3 years plus - 12 weeks Again your continuous service date is taken into consideration. If on joining the organisation, you are in the possession of either a leaver's statement SSP (1) or a Form BF220 from your local DSS office it must be given to the Human Resources department at the earliest opportunity. " We can have 3 periods of sickness during rolling year and any more will couse a disciplinary acction but I do not know how it is related to Company Sick Pay, for example: If I am off sick 4th time in rolling year but it is my 3rd time from April 1. Is my Company Sick Pay entitlement renew every year (from April)? If "No" how it works? Thanks for any help.

Hi Guys I have a query regarding EOS. I signed off JSA over 9 months ago after referral to the WP, since then they are continually trying to contact me asking me where I am working. They never found me employment and I therefore do not feel obliged to provide them with any information. In any event it is my private info. I have ignored their calls and they have now started contacting my parents asking them for details. Why are they so persistent ? Any advice welcome. Thanks

I have a cafe which is seasonal and right on the seafront. We have tables and chairs on the terrace and pavement outside. Adjacent to us is a major development being carried out of a former hotel etc and right in front of our cafe is the delivery entrance where large vehicles ie cement mixers and articulated lorries carrying all manner of building materials are being delivered, and this is going to intensify as they progress and will carry on for at least another 12 months. The vehicles pull up outside our premises and reverse into the site, when they have finished, they then drive out of the site again in front of our premises, this is causing all sorts of airborn debris to come over to our premises landing on tables etc and in some cases onto food and drinks, and we believe it has had an effect on our passing trade, as they have removed the parking bays and there are red and white barriers everywhere putting foot customers off coming to our area. We have had a preliminary meeting with a solicitor who has suggested we try for some compensation for the disruption to our businesses, this will initially cost each premises owner £350 + VAT of which there are three of us, and we anticipate the cost to spiral from there if we decide to carry it further. Is this kind of claim generally successful or would we be spending good money after bad?

my pc HAS decided it now wants to run in safe mode and will not do a system restore, any help welcome, I have not done anything to it.I came to put it on today and it is running in safe mode so it is making it very hard to do anything.I have shut it down and restarted it but still doing same, was fine last night, I am using Windows Vista home premium. Comp is about 3 years old, have tried system restore but when it has finished it I get a message saying unknown error prevented it doing it.I found what I thought were the back up discs I got with it, tried them but it is still same, IT will not let me do a restore and I have not installed anything new.

My stepson works in his local WMC glass collection usually on a weekend while he does college through the week. He's just turned 19 although has some form of Autism so with this being his first job me and his mum look out for him a bit. He's been there about 3 years now and usually does around 2 shifts a week over the weekend the wmc decided they were going to do contracts for everyone. In the contract it stated that stepson/glass collectors are classed as casual staff so they are working in a needs of the club basis. Now once this contract was issued he started getting the odd shift which was 1 day a week which meant his wage would only be about £20. The landlady said after he spoke with her not to worry about it as he gets 2 shifts (they do have too many glass collectors) So ok we then looked into how his holidays were worked out with him being casual staff as we wanted to know how they worked them out as he was told 8 days per year but in the contract it stated that they would look at hours worked over 12 weeks. We also asked about smokers breaks usually because he does 4 hrs they don't get a break and if they do it is down to the landlady/boss that night. usually they do however in the contract it only ever refers to smokers getting a break and as long as they sign out it's ok so we asked if the contract could be changed to inc non-smokers. this we as reply we got in summary, Dear ..... None of the bar staff of glass collectors have contracted hours so it would be unfair to say you are guaranteed 2 shifts per week. Holidays are worked out from your working week pro rata over the last 12 weeks worked (fair enough) (only gripe I have with that is holidays run from January-dec so the secretary didn't explain if from January he needed to build up 3 months of holidays or whether they go from the last 3 months which would be from the end of december 2012) I will look into that. As for smokers breaks he basically said they don't have to give one but they do they have to sign out in a book so they know where they are and went onto say that as a non smoker he has to stand in the smoking area so they know where he is if there is a fire. he doesn't smoke and he ended the letter with. Stepson...you have more than 50 years left to work and you will find this type of discrimination where ever you work.

Hi I am desperate for help! Years ago this site helped me limp out of debt and beat down the horrible debt collectors and keep them away. I am now blessed with a clear credit history, two morguages and a baby! Righto, I bought a flat in a block of flats with a service charge of £1,500 annually.a few years later i met my partner and let the flat to my dad at a discounted rate, the bank gave me another residential mortgage and we now live in a lovely little two up two down. Life is great...we'll... The service charges on this flat have now gone up to £3,000 per year! But thats life, what I cant handle is the invoice i got earlier in 2012 for £6,000 for my share of the new boiler. Not good, but i managed to pay it. Today I have just had another invoice for "phase 1" of the new building works. for £5,600. I can just about pay this with our new car, rainy day and holiday fund savings. But that it. They now tell me there is going to be more bills this year and next for roughly £10,000!!!!! I owe £131k on the flat and it worth £120K if i am lucky. The lease is 67 years and a new one is £12k. What are my options? I don't appear to have any. They say if i don't pay they will issue legal proceedings. But there is no more money, i would pay if i could but i would need to borrow the money. Any advice on this, or where best to get advice would really help me. Please please help. Thanks. Don

I ride to work on a motorbike. This is my choice due to the volume of traffic I encounter on my daily commute. Now that the weather is doing its cold thing, the car park at work has become an ice rink. The car park has no public access. There is a small amount of gritting which is predominantly on footpaths. However, the main car park is left untouched and dangerous in a car, never mind on a bike. It is necessary to cross the car park to access other parts of the facility and people need to get from their cars to these gritted areas on untreated ground. I know that places of work have a duty of care to their employees, but I am not an employee; I am a long term on-site contractor (if that makes any difference). I have contacted the H&S dept to highlight my concerns, but I've been knocked back with statements along the lines that they are doing employees a favour by gritting the areas that they do. I was also informed that I have a care of duty to myself and that I should not come to work on a motorbike on such days! I will point out that this is not a small company and that the gritting is done as an apparent favour by Security which is not part of their T&C which suggests to me that this company doesn’t have a proper strategy for dealing with the icy conditions. So, to my point. If I was now to slip off my bike whilst on-site, who would be liable now that I have bought this issue to their attention? I ask because I feel that there is a very real possibility of it happening and I want to know my legal position.

Hi guys, MMF just called my work phone number (Security Department in an MOD building) with a pre-recorded message saying "We are looking to speak to a Mr. Yukiko regarding an outstanding account; please contact us back to prevent a home or workplace visit". Is this legal? My manager has just rang them and given it to them hammer and tongs, and he's backing me all the way. There's no way they should have this number as when it's called from, it is witheld. Cheeky much!?

Why we’re marching Austerity isn’t working Our country faces long-term economic problems. But our political leaders have failed to face up to them. For the next five years or more, unless policies change the economy will not grow, incomes will not rise, and there will be almost no new jobs. If the government keeps on with big spending cuts and austerity we face a lost decade. Even on their own terms government policies are failing. To close the deficit we need a healthy growing economy that generates tax income. But austerity has led to a vicious circle of decline. Instead of just letting the banks go back to business and bonuses as usual, we need policies that promote new and old industries. This new approach would create jobs, especially for young people. It would encourage companies to raise average pay, penalise big bonuses and invest in training and new industries. It would crack down on tax evasion by big companies and the super-rich. It would tackle the growing inequality between the super-rich and everyone else. Rather than deep, rapid spending cuts, we need to reverse our decline and build an economy that works for ordinary families. We need a future that works. Will you join us? http://afuturethatworks.org/why-we-are-marching/