In December my carry on bag was lost/stolen whilst queuing to board a flight overseas. It contained just about everything important, laptop, camera, clothes, sunglasses,makeup the lot. As terrible and distressful this was I knew i had travel insurance to cover me for up to £2k of personal possessions. So i thought! I submitted my claim at the beginning of January. When you submit the claim they take 10 days to respond and tell you if they need further info,this has happened twice, meaning that today 20/2/19 still battling with this. "Please note that your insurance policy has a limit of £150.00 in total for unreceipted items. Therefore, as you have only been able to provide a receipt for the trainers of £73.97, our maximum liability for your claim will be £223.97. This will be paid into your nominated bank account within the next 5 days working days. This has been paid as a gesture of goodwill based on the report you provided as it still does not give all of the necessary information. We suggest you contact the airline for further compensation as they are responsible for the loss, we trust this clarifies our position". I called them and said I was very disappointed with this, as there was nothing for the laptop (It says they will cover upto £500 - the laptop was a gift from my late partner and i sent them receipt which was address to me). I also clarfied that the airline were not responsible and provided documentation accordingly. I.e lost and found reports comcluding item not found. I have missed my mortgage payment as have had to replace my laptop (as i cannot work without it) - they are taking so long to come back to me. Also I purchase essential items on arrival and they have not covered them either. They are not covering the majority of items in my bag basically. They have suggested i contact them via the complaints procedure. I am so annoyed, I took out this cover for peace of mind and it was hardly worth it. For the amount of time its taken to get the claim together, I should have just worked more hours doing my job and i would have basically been better off. Does anyone that is familiar with insurance policies know if it is acceptable to time they take to respond to these things, if i complain today (for them not covering the laptop and essential purchases which were receipted) they will probably take another 10 days to respond!

Hi folks and thanks for taking an interest. I have a consumer issue which I would like some opinions on please? Please forgive me if this is in the wrong place. On 18/07 I selected and booked accommodation for two nights via the Booking.com website for a place called Juras Mols in Bigauņciems Latvia. I was hoping for a few days away from consumer related hassle, ha ha, must have broken a mirror recently. The website clearly says on the accommodation page: 2nd Paragraph: “Guests can enjoy a sauna and a heated indoor pool. ….” 4th Paragraph: “Free Wi-Fi and free private parking are available. …” My children very much enjoy swimming pools when they’re not on the internet and my wife also enjoys saunas and so I booked on the basis of the information supplied. The general facilities tab for the accommodation shows: Pool and wellness • Swimming Pool • Indoor pool (all year) • Fitness centre (Additional Charge) • Sauna Internet • WiFi is available in all areas and is free of charge. All rooms include: “Private bathroom, Hairdryer, Ironing facilities ….” From the rooms available at the time I booked a “Standard Quadruple room with Balcony” containing 2 single beds and 2 bunk beds at a total price of €138 which I paid via a Visa Debit card though the web site. The description of the accommodation and facilities along with the claim on the web site of the 2nd best hotel in Bigauņciems gave me good expectations that the accommodation would suit our needs for an enjoyable break. (laughable really as when I got there, I found there are only 2 hotels in that location ). On arrival we were met by a member of staff, who showed us the common dining room and kitchen and took us to room Num 3 where we were shown the door to our ‘balcony’. This was in fact a metal fire escape leading to the ground. It had close growing conifer trees and overlooked the ‘hotel’ junk yard which I obviously photographed for the record. We asked about the “pool” as we could not see anything that might be a pool and were told that there was no pool and no sauna available. My wife later discovered on the second evening while having a conversation with a member of staff in Russian that there was a sauna in a room marked “Private”, but that (paraphrased), ‘we don’t use it because we have so many guests’. Later we were allowed to store our luggage for a couple of hours between check out and departure in the same Private room. We saw that it was being used as a store room with mattresses and bed linen and was obviously not available to guests. The staff clearly didn’t want us to photograph this room. The only sign of any ‘pool’ was an empty circular ‘plunge pool’ of not more than 1m diameter. Wifi: The facilities says, “WiFi is available in all areas and is free of charge.” The normal expectation of a reasonable person would be that this would provide access to the internet. (Isn’t there something about internet access being a basic human right?). In truth is was sometimes possible to get a Wifi connection, but it did not give Internet access in most parts of the building that I tried. It was useless to us, unless we were in the common dining area on the ground floor. Not a complete disaster, but certainly not what was advertised. We returned from the beach on the first evening around 9 p.m. we found the shower was broken, and judging by the condition of the broken fitting, was of a long standing nature. Not the biggest problem in the world to hold the shower head up, although more difficult for the children to shower on their own, but certainly not a quality experience. Soon thereafter my children complained to me that the hot water in the shower had gone cold. I checked and there was no hot water from the shower or sink. I went to the reception and was told that it was because too many people had used the shower and that the accommodation’s boiler wasn’t able to make enough, but that it would be ok in about an hour. We ate and I checked the water on several occasions up until midnight and it was always cold. I checked again in the morning when it was at best tepid. So I ‘enjoyed’ two invigorating cold showers. I checked again in the late evening following our return from a day trip and again the water was cold. I spoke with another guest who said that they had never had hot water on any evening of their stay. – I took their name and address. This property and the facilities available to guests had clearly been misrepresented. Due to the lack of the advertised facilities: Wifi, proper balcony, indoor pool and sauna etc., I photographed and noted all of the problems and kept a copy of the website pages. I contacted the booking .com customer services on my return and informed them that I considered them to be in breach of contract due to their misrepresentation of the hotel and requested a full refund and claimed damages by way of the cost of a trip to the nearest indoor swimming pool with a sauna. I said that: I believed it was an express term, of the contract for services, that the facilities described would be provided as part of my booking at this hotel. It was also an implied term that the service provided would be done so with reasonable care and skill. Under UK law there are a number of pieces of legislation that provide consumer protection from unscrupulous or negligent traders, namely the: Misrepresentation Act 1967, Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (amended 2014), Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 and most recently the Consumer Rights Act 2015. I note now from their website that they disclaim liability for pretty much everything and state that “any dispute arising out of these general terms and conditions and our services shall exclusively be submitted to the competent courts in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.” I said I would be most surprised if there was not similar provision for consumer protection from misrepresentation by a business under the Dutch Civil Code. I also believe that Article 6 of EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DIRECTIVE 2005/29/EC – the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive covers misleading business practices (“A commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful or in any way, including overall presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer, ….”), is generally applicable in this instance. And in any event the Consumer Right Directive 2013 should still apply. First off they claim to have not received my email. Then they offered 25 Eur compensation without acknowledging or answering any point of my claim. Next they said that it was difficult after the event and again offered 25 Eur. They now claim that: it’s nothing to do with them as they are just an ‘advertiser’, that the hotel does not accept my complaint and again they offered 25 Eur. I have raised the matter on the ODR platform for what it is worth. I have asked Visa about a charge back and they have said, “It’s a very weak claim, but if you want to submit it we’ll take a look.” Misrepresentation of the fraudulent kind is fairly clear in my eyes. I’ve taken a look at the Resolver web site, but that talks about legislation relating to package holidays, which I don’t believe is appropriate for room only bookings. So, please: 1 Am I barking up the wrong tree or being unrealistic in expecting things to be as described? 2 Anybody know about the ‘harmonisation’ of consumer laws across Europe or the Dutch Civil Code? 3 Which is the most appropriate legislation? 4 Anybody had experience of the “European Small Claims Procedure” (I hope I've included the relevant link) Thanks in advance for any info. Dave

Hi all. Its been a while since I posted on CAG but I am concerned about the LA and the DFG. My uncle is in his mid 80's and suffers from dementia and severe arthritis in his knees so walking is a major problem for him. I had to take over his finances because a young nephew "stole" all his money and left him struggling. Social Services got involved and got him to go to a day centre which he had to pay for. His condition has deteriorated and now has care in his home. At first he was paying for all this care and it took me some time to persuade Social Services that he could not afford this. My uncle then had a financial assessment (he owns his home but has an equity loan on it) and it was decided that he could get financial help with his care. The problem being that him firstly paying for his care had drained his bank account. (Sorry for going on a bit) His deteriorated condition has led Social Services to insist that he needs a ramp to his front door, so a DFG was applied for. (All going well). Another financial assessment was done and it turns out that he has to pay over £2000 towards the cost. He does not have that kind of money. It has taken me more than 2 years to get some sort of order to his finances but all that Social Services say is that we (SS) with go to court and get an order to take over his finances. I have explained to them all of the above plus other points but they are not interested. I do not have Power of Attorney, when I realised that PoA was needed it was too late because of his dementia. Can SS do that (take over his finances) without any input from relatives.

Hi, I have a freehold property that I own. Unfortunately, we share the estate with some flats and have common communal area that I am liable to pay a service charge. The TP1 defines: "communal facilities: the Common Access car parking spaces and all open space and landscaped areas shown for the purposes of identification shaded green on Plan 2" "Projections: Including foundations chimneys flues eaves gutters spouts canopies pipes fence posts wall piers and similar projections now or within the Perpetuity Period constructed on the Estate" SERVICE CHARGE COSTS 1. Repairing maintaining inspecting and as necessary reinstating or reviewing the Communal Facilities A cropped photo of plan 2 is shown in the attached. On the left hand shaded area reside 2 chimneys which are listed buildings, which are part of the service charges. My question is that does the definition of Communal Facilities as states in your opinion include the chimneys even though they may reside within the shaded area? Thanks for your help.

Hi all. My OH has been disabled for some years with arthritis and had difficulty showering. We applied some time ago for a grant to convert our bathroom into a walk-in shower. After many, many months we were advised that a grant was available and 3 contractors were appointed to produce a quote (so far so good). We are both pensioners with no savings and live as private tenants. Our landlord has sent me a copy of a letter from the Council informing him that the grant exceeds the £6000 maximum that they will pay towards the work and that they want to "PUT A CHARGE" on the property to cover the excess. WE are in receipt of CT and Housing benefits and the wife receives DLA. I have trawled the web for answers but cannot shed any light on what the council can do. I have found that the max grant is £30,000 which is way above the cost of the work. Any thoughts........ Trevor.

Can anyone tell me if you are receiving an income based benefit, are you able to have an overdraft and credit card facility as long as the credit limit is under 6K Thanks