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    • You typed it in? actually typed it all out? if so, maybe you took too long or something, like session timed out. Does the status show defence filed or no change?
    • Hi just typed all defence clicked next and it's deleted all. Any help
    • I forgot to say, there is one last possibility and that is that they will receive your letter of rejection and simply fold, accept the rejection and refund you. Don't wait too long for this. Seven days maximum – but in that seven days you could send your letter of claim anyway and when that you don't hear from them or when they start mucking around at least you are seven days closer to beginning the legal action – and they will know it (which is the important thing).
    • Okay that is excellent that you have an email between the garage and the warranty company confirming that there is a serious problem with the gearbox. That is very powerful evidence. I think the situation is this: you have sent them a letter of rejection but the reputation of big motoring world is that they won't take a lot of notice and they will try to prevaricate and maybe even blame you. Clearly you don't want the car any more and anyway it sounds as if the cost of repairs is going to be enormous. You don't know if the warranty company is going to step up to the mark but the whole thing is going to take a long time and I understand that you have lost confidence in big motoring world because of this event and also their reputation which you are now discovering on Facebook and on this forum and no doubt elsewhere. On the basis that you don't want the car any more and you want your money back, you need to hurry things along. I think the first thing is that you need to decide if you are prepared to bring a claim in the County Court. Even without the warranty money, the claim is worth more than £10,000. For actions less than £10,000, you bring a "small claim" and this means that even if you lose the case you won't be liable for the other side's costs. If you win the case then not only will you get your money plus interest but also you will recover all of the costs of the action. For actions more than £10,000, you go to something called the "fast track" and in the event that you lose the case, then you could be liable to reimburse the winner some of the costs. This means that in addition to not recovering your own money, you would lose your own court fees and also you would have to to bear the costs of the other side probably something less than £5000 – but as a rough guess. If you bring your court claim then your chances of success are almost 100%. Frankly if you brought a court claim then I can imagine that big motoring world will put their hands up and pay you out rather than face go to court and losing and getting a judgement against them. However, it you need to consider that this is a risk factor – although my view it is a negligible risk factor. If you did bring a court case, it wouldn't be instant. If they put their hands up then it would probably happen very quickly. If they didn't put their hands up then you could take anything up to a year for the matter to be resolved and during that time you would be without your car and without your money and in the middle of litigation. I'm explaining this to you say that you understand how it works. Bring a court case would be really the last resort when everything else has failed. However, I'm quite certain that you would win and it would be stupid of big motoring world to try to resist. In order to bring a court case you would have to send a letter of claim giving them 14 days to accept rejection and organise the refund otherwise you would begin the claim. Don't imagine that you could bluff this. If you did send a letter of claim then you would have to go through with it otherwise you lose all credibility and you might as well pack up and go home. So with this in mind, here are possible courses of action you could take. You can simply wait and see what their reaction to your letter of rejection will be. However they may not reply or else they may find some other reason to delay and of course during that time you will be without your car and without your money blah blah blah, not knowing if big motoring world were going eventually to start acting sensibly and respectfully towards you. The second thing you can do – and I think this has been suggested on Facebook – is that you can go along there and simply make yourself present and talk to other customers and generally speaking make a nuisance of yourself and embarrass them to the point where you would be explaining to other potential customers to be careful, to look on Facebook, and to do some careful research before they put their business to big motoring world. This has a reasonable chance of success although you would have to be careful. You should go accompanied by a friend and there should be no anger, no arguments, nothing that could be considered as being overly aggressive so that big motoring world would have no justification in kicking you out or even worse, calling the police. If you did this, then I would suggest that you record everything on the telephone carried in a pocket. A fully charged battery will probably keep a voice recorder and a telephone going for more than 20 hours or 30 hours. The other person can video any incidents so that everything is clear and you can inform big motoring world then it will be going up on the Internet. If you did this, my favourite option would be to issue the letter of claim giving them 14 days, and then going along to big motoring world with a copy of your letter of rejection and a copy of the exchange between the mechanic and the warranty company and a copy of your letter of claim – all settled together – and probably about 20 or 30 copies in all and I would start handing them out to any customers who came in. Big motoring world will soon get the picture and they will either move your the premises in which case you stand outside and carry on doing it or they will finally give in. Of course there is a chance that they won't give in and they will simply call your bluff – but in that case I think you have no choice other than to follow through with your 14 day threat in the letter of claim and to begin the legal action. At the same time you should be putting up reviews on Google and also trust pilot explaining exactly what has happened and also explaining that the mechanic has confirmed to the warranty company that there is the serious problem, that you have asserted the right to reject and that this is been ignored by big motoring world and that you have now sent a letter of claim and that you will be starting a legal action in 14 days. Once again, don't bluff about the legal action. If you threaten it – then you must mean it – and on day 15 you click of the claim. You don't need a solicitor for any of this. It's all fairly straightforward and of course we will help you all the way that it the decision is yours to make and I think you need to make it fairly quickly. I think the cost of starting an action for about £13,000 is 5% and then also if it goes to trial which I would say is almost impossible – there would be an additional fee. You would claim interest at 8%. A judge might award a lower figure but frankly if you can show that big motoring world is attempting to ride roughshod over your very clear statutory consumer rights, I can imagine that the judge will want to show displeasure by awarding the full 8% which is a pretty good rate – even though it's not compensation for the hassle and the distress you are going through. If you decide to get solicitor, then if you win the case, because it is over £10,000 you will recover some of your costs but you won't recover all of them. If the solicitor begins by having exchanges of letters then I doubt whether you will be up to recover the cost of those and you could easily find that you're chalking up 500 quid or even a thousand simply on initial exchanges of correspondence. Also you need to bear in mind that if after having exchanges with a solicitor, big motoring world cave in – then you definitely won't get those costs back because you won't have gone to court and therefore a judge will not have made the order for payment of those costs. I suggest very strongly that you avoid paying any money for a solicitor and that you do it yourself. It's not a big deal – although you will have to you react quickly to the help we offer on this forum. Also, an additional benefit is that you will learn a lot and you will gain confidence and eventually you will feel good about suing anybody else who gets in your way. Nothing not to like! If you do decide to instruct a solicitor then you must take control of the solicitor. Most of them prefer to sit in an office writing letters on the clock. If you do decide to instruct a solicitor then you must instruct the solicitor very firmly that they should send one letter of complaint giving seven days. A second letter – a letter of claim giving 14 days and that they must then begin the action. If you don't do this. If you don't take control then it will simply cost you money, you will be without your car even longer and of course without your money. The whole thing is a nightmare. I think I've laid out the options but please do ask questions. I hope you can see that this is the kind of advice that you won't be getting on Facebook. Nothing against Facebook. It's good as a meeting place and to make people realise that they aren't on their own – but after that the advice given is weak and confusing.  
    • What makes you say that?  I have no idea how I would go about that or why they would even entertain discussions now that they've won the Court case
  • Our picks

    • If you are buying a used car – you need to read this survival guide.
      • 1 reply
    • Hello,

      On 15/1/24 booked appointment with Big Motoring World (BMW) to view a mini on 17/1/24 at 8pm at their Enfield dealership.  

      Car was dirty and test drive was two circuits of roundabout on entry to the showroom.  Was p/x my car and rushed by sales exec and a manager into buying the mini and a 3yr warranty that night, sale all wrapped up by 10pm.  They strongly advised me taking warranty out on car that age (2017) and confirmed it was honoured at over 500 UK registered garages.

      The next day, 18/1/24 noticed amber engine warning light on dashboard , immediately phoned BMW aftercare team to ask for it to be investigated asap at nearest garage to me. After 15 mins on hold was told only their 5 service centres across the UK can deal with car issues with earliest date for inspection in March ! Said I’m not happy with that given what sales team advised or driving car. Told an amber warning light only advisory so to drive with caution and call back when light goes red.

      I’m not happy to do this, drive the car or with the after care experience (a sign of further stresses to come) so want a refund and to return the car asap.

      Please can you advise what I need to do today to get this done. 
       

      Many thanks 
      • 81 replies
    • Housing Association property flooding. https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/438641-housing-association-property-flooding/&do=findComment&comment=5124299
      • 161 replies
    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

      Please note that a recent case against UPS failed on exactly the same issue with the judge held that the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 did not apply.

      We will be getting that transcript very soon. We will look at it and we will understand how the judge made such catastrophic mistakes. It was a very poor judgement.
      We will be recommending that people do include this adverse judgement in their bundle so that when they go to county court the judge will see both sides and see the arguments against this adverse judgement.
      Also, we will be to demonstrate to the judge that we are fair-minded and that we don't mind bringing everything to the attention of the judge even if it is against our own interests.
      This is good ethical practice.

      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
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Hi,

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I had a small business that was never profitable. I had young kids and incredibly stupidly buried my head in the sand about tax returns as (in my crazy mindset) I just needed to hold off for a little while longer and money would start coming in. It never did. I was taken ill in April 2009 and had to give up the battle but it took me until August 2010 to develop some maturity and start dealing with HMRC.

 

I submitted the 3 relevant tax returns on the same day and rang back every week hoping to reach an agreement with them to pay what I owed. In October 2010 I spoke to an advisor who said that everything had been processed and due to my circumstances they would let me make an agreement under time to pay. By this point I was getting better healthwise and working part time PAYE. I made an agreement to pay the c.£6k debt at £256 per month by direct debit and breathed a sigh of relief. This was a lot more than I could afford on £10k income a year but I wanted to pay the debt. I am better still healthwise now and working more hours to make ends meet. I have paid it by direct debit since October with no missed payments. My partner is on £14k a year if it is relevant for advice purposes.

 

I received a letter from HMRC last week saying that our agreement was that I wouldn't create any new debts to them (it was) and that a new debt had arisen of £1350 thus invalidating our agreement if I didn't pay it in full immediately. This was the first I had heard of it and rang them straight away. It turned out that they hadn't captured the smallest of the debts on their system at the time of the agreement and with late fees it was £1350. I have tried to argue that this was their mistake and that I should be allowed to include it in the payment schedule without joy.

 

I tried to demonstrate last week that it wasn't in my interest or theirs to make a partial arrangement that didn't include the full debt and that I had no knowledge of this so could we please alter the payments up by £60 per month so that the full amount was paid off in the same period but they were intransigent. They wanted full payment of the £1350 or the agreement would be cancelled. I asked for them to give me the weekend to try and find the money and they agreed so rang them back this morning. The man I spoke to this morning was not at all helpful and said he would not negotiate the payment plan. He said the £1350 had to be paid and had I tried to take out a loan to pay it? I said that I had not as I didn't think I would be able to get one on my income but that I would try and then ring back this afternoon. I moved every bit of money i could to my current account and begged from my family and rang back to offer to pay half immediately and half on the first of July but the lady that I spoke to (very nice and as helpful as she could be this time) said that I could pay it if I wanted but that the man I spoke to previously had already cancelled the agreement and asked for a letter to be sent out to this effect and that the full amount was now payable (c.£6.5k including the new debt). She answered as many questions as she could but the gist was that they are immediately pursuing me for the full amount and that no agreement to pay in instalments will now be possible as it is against their rules to change the decision of an officer. For what it is worth (and I know I couldn't prove it- he never said to me that he had made this decision and he said it would be ok to try and find the money and ring back so long as it was today).

 

I have tried so hard to rectify my mistakes and never wanted to make the debt go away and go bankrupt but I feel I am left with no choice. The lady told me to wait for the letter cancelling everything and demanding full payment and then take it from there but she suggested that it would not be negotiable.

 

I am not in arrears with anything else and the only other debt I have is a credit card close to it's limit on £3k.

 

I am sorry for the essay and to those who have made it this far could you give me any advice from experience whether this is sortable or if I should just give up and tell them to declare me bankrupt. I wanted to pay the debt but I suspect I am being very stupid in trying. When I fell ill we gave up what bits we had and ended up in a council house and driving a £400 car. I only have the second hand furniture in the house and the car as assets and suspect I am being stupid even fighting to pay it.

 

My concern is that someone is going to turn up at the door and take the kids beds and cancel my partner's bank account if I go for bankrupcy. I don't much care if it causes me big problems but I want to insulate them as much as possible as I was trying to do by paying things. I am morally obligated to pay the tax that I owe but if they are going to pursue me anyway and not accept a reasonable schedule and declare me bankrupt I want to go for bankrupcy as fast as possible so that I can try and move on.

 

Thanks in advance

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Hi,

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I had a small business that was never profitable. I had young kids and incredibly stupidly buried my head in the sand about tax returns as (in my crazy mindset) I just needed to hold off for a little while longer and money would start coming in. It never did. I was taken ill in April 2009 and had to give up the battle but it took me until August 2010 to develop some maturity and start dealing with HMRC.

 

I submitted the 3 relevant tax returns on the same day and rang back every week hoping to reach an agreement with them to pay what I owed. In October 2010 I spoke to an advisor who said that everything had been processed and due to my circumstances they would let me make an agreement under time to pay. By this point I was getting better healthwise and working part time PAYE. I made an agreement to pay the c.£6k debt at £256 per month by direct debit and breathed a sigh of relief. This was a lot more than I could afford on £10k income a year but I wanted to pay the debt. I am better still healthwise now and working more hours to make ends meet. I have paid it by direct debit since October with no missed payments. My partner is on £14k a year if it is relevant for advice purposes.

 

I received a letter from HMRC last week saying that our agreement was that I wouldn't create any new debts to them (it was) and that a new debt had arisen of £1350 thus invalidating our agreement if I didn't pay it in full immediately. This was the first I had heard of it and rang them straight away. It turned out that they hadn't captured the smallest of the debts on their system at the time of the agreement and with late fees it was £1350. I have tried to argue that this was their mistake and that I should be allowed to include it in the payment schedule without joy.

 

I tried to demonstrate last week that it wasn't in my interest or theirs to make a partial arrangement that didn't include the full debt and that I had no knowledge of this so could we please alter the payments up by £60 per month so that the full amount was paid off in the same period but they were intransigent. They wanted full payment of the £1350 or the agreement would be cancelled. I asked for them to give me the weekend to try and find the money and they agreed so rang them back this morning. The man I spoke to this morning was not at all helpful and said he would not negotiate the payment plan. He said the £1350 had to be paid and had I tried to take out a loan to pay it? I said that I had not as I didn't think I would be able to get one on my income but that I would try and then ring back this afternoon. I moved every bit of money i could to my current account and begged from my family and rang back to offer to pay half immediately and half on the first of July but the lady that I spoke to (very nice and as helpful as she could be this time) said that I could pay it if I wanted but that the man I spoke to previously had already cancelled the agreement and asked for a letter to be sent out to this effect and that the full amount was now payable (c.£6.5k including the new debt). She answered as many questions as she could but the gist was that they are immediately pursuing me for the full amount and that no agreement to pay in instalments will now be possible as it is against their rules to change the decision of an officer. For what it is worth (and I know I couldn't prove it- he never said to me that he had made this decision and he said it would be ok to try and find the money and ring back so long as it was today).

 

I have tried so hard to rectify my mistakes and never wanted to make the debt go away and go bankrupt but I feel I am left with no choice. The lady told me to wait for the letter cancelling everything and demanding full payment and then take it from there but she suggested that it would not be negotiable.

 

I am not in arrears with anything else and the only other debt I have is a credit card close to it's limit on £3k.

 

I am sorry for the essay and to those who have made it this far could you give me any advice from experience whether this is sortable or if I should just give up and tell them to declare me bankrupt. I wanted to pay the debt but I suspect I am being very stupid in trying. When I fell ill we gave up what bits we had and ended up in a council house and driving a £400 car. I only have the second hand furniture in the house and the car as assets and suspect I am being stupid even fighting to pay it.

 

My concern is that someone is going to turn up at the door and take the kids beds and cancel my partner's bank account if I go for bankrupcy. I don't much care if it causes me big problems but I want to insulate them as much as possible as I was trying to do by paying things. I am morally obligated to pay the tax that I owe but if they are going to pursue me anyway and not accept a reasonable schedule and declare me bankrupt I want to go for bankrupcy as fast as possible so that I can try and move on.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Its up to you if you go bankrupt or not, but its your decision. With regard to asset's, i l was made BR in march 2011, kept the car as its under the 2k limit and needed for work, the OR have no interest in anything in your house unless you have picasso or van gough painitngs, when they say assets its expensive cars,property, land, aeroplanes that sort of thing.

 

Your partners bank account, providing its not with a company you owe money to it will be fine. They may freeze it for 24 hrs to let them know you have gone BR, it will be fine to use then. Or if its just your partners it will not be touched.

 

It was the best thing i have ever done and have advised on few people on here to go that route.

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Were you operating as a sole trader or as a Ltd Company?

 

I understand you frustrations and the problems you are having with a Govt. Dept. Whilst I agree with what Matt says above it sounds like your total debt is less than £10K which in terms of bankruptcy is a very small debt. It may be worth looking at a Debt Relief Order which is for debts under £15K

 

However, if you were operating the business as Ltd Co you don't owe them anything the company does and they can go and run for their money. I do hope this is so!

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Thanks for the advice so far.

 

Sadly I was a sole trader. I really don't have a problem with paying it so long as they can do it over a couple of years. It just seems crazy to me that they would force me down the bankrupcy route over a few thousand. Does anyone know if they are likely to be bluffing or should I just let it run it's course? Cheers

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HMRC dont bluff, if they say they are going to make you bankrupt then they probably will,

 

I know it seems odd that they would make you bankrupt for a relativly small amount of money but it is how they make sure that other people do pay because they take serious action,

 

HMRC are probably the entity that makes most people bankrupt in the UK

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Yeah I had pretty much come to that conclusion debtinfo.

 

Was just really hoping that there may be some wiggle room as it seems crazy to me that they have my financial info on their screen and can see how little I am earning and how I have stuck to our agreement but they are going to take it to the endgame as a result of a small error on their part rather than let me include the new amount. I am going to ring my bank in the morning and see if they are feeling very generous in their loan approval department as someone has suggested to me this evening that maybe HMRC can see that I am more loan worthy than I think I am but after that I will be out of options.

 

Cheers

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