THE Consumer Crew are here to solve your problems.
Mel Hunter will take on readers’ consumer issues, Jane Hamilton will give you the best advice for buying your dream home, and Judge Rinder will tackle your legal woes.
Jane Hamilton, property expert
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Try DIY for a tasty kitchen
DOING up your kitchen can be a recipe for profit.
It is one of the most popular DIY jobs – and might add an average of £10,649 to your home.
That is a big incentive, as seven in ten home-owners spend less than £4,000 to make the changes, according to trades recommendation service RatedPeople.Com.
Interior design blogger Jessica Hurrell, of Gold is a Neutral, said: “There are many affordable updates you can make which will transform the space from drab to fab.”
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These are her six top tips for a kitchen makeover.
- Focus your budget. Write a list of the areas that bug you the most.
- If in doubt, paint. It is quick, easy to do on a budget and if you don’t like the colour you can just paint over it. You can give walls, ceilings, cabinets, splashbacks and even tiles a fresh new look with a lick of paint.
- Put doors in the frame. Hate the cabinet style? Keep the part of the unit known as the carcass and update the doors. Try Superfront and Ikea.
- Tap of the list. It is worthwhile keeping as many appliances as you can. But splash out on new taps. They are a focal point and can dramatically change the overall look.
- Get a handle on it. The wrong handles can date a kitchen, so swap them for something more modern.
- Be shelf-ish. If you are lacking storage or simply want to open up a space, shelves give a modern feel. If you have wall cabinets, one option would be to remove the doors and paint inside for a contemporary look.
Buy of the week
GET ready for the return of the rule of six.
This three-bed semi in Peterlee, County Durham, has a spectacular hobbit house-style barbecue in the garden. Perfect for hosting friends, it’s yours for £89,950 (onthemarket.com/details/10135152).
GOING up the wall trying to hang wallpaper?
Arthouse has launched an affordable range of self-adhesive, peel and stick wallpaper called ArtiStick. The paper can be used for both walls and up cycling furniture – no paste required. Available from £18.99 per six-metre roll at Very, The Range and Wilko.
Deal of the week
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GARDEN furniture is selling out everywhere ahead of the Easter break. Be quick and grab this bargain Churchgate bistro set for just £69 at dunelm.com.
SAVE: £25 on similar styles elsewhere
Judge Rinder, legal expert
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‘Fumes from new shop fan will pollute my home – can I ensure it won’t be installed?’
Q) I LIVE in a leasehold property which I own. The freehold shop below me has just been sold. The new owners want to change it to a cafe/restaurant and on the building plans it shows an extractor fan running parallel on the outside of the brick wall to my roof garden. The top of the fan is level with the top of my wall.
All the fumes and muck will be coming into my garden and house. Does the fan have to be a certain distance from my property and facing away from it? And how can I ensure it is not installed?
Kim, Bournemouth
A) The shop owners are entitled to apply to change the commercial use of their property but they are not allowed to cause a nuisance to yours. A legal nuisance includes creating unreasonable noise or muck from an extractor fan which ends up on your property.
Now that you have the shop owner’s plans, your first step is to get in touch with the council (where the application is being considered) to make your objections known.
This should include as much evidence as you can find including (preferably) an opinion from a surveyor who will corroborate your concerns about the impact of the fan.
If permission for the fan is granted, you would have a number of strong legal remedies if the noise and detritus proves to be a problem. You are not at that stage yet.
Contact your local councillor, make clear objections to the planning department and find as much expert help as you can. The law can be on your side but you are going to have to be tough and strategic.
Q) WE are three sisters having an issue with an intestacy probate from our half-sister who passed away eight years ago (our half-brother will also be a recipient).
We believed it would be fairly straight- forward. However, her ex-partner has come forward to put in a claim on the estate.
He has stated he contributed to the house – which she owned – and bank accounts.
Now the solicitors who are managing the estate have told us they are not acting on our behalf but that of our half-sister, so are not very forthcoming when pressed for information on how anything is proceeding.
We do not believe the bank accounts were in shared names as they are asking for a formal request for discovery.
We would like the matter resolved but can’t seem to get anything from the solicitor to say how or when this can or might happen. What should we do next?
Frances, London
A) These solicitors appear to be acting as the executors for your late half-sister’s estate.
If so, they are under a legal obligation to disclose all relevant documents relating to their work and your late half-sister’s property to all the beneficiaries (you and all your siblings).
I am very concerned about how long this has gone on for and do not understand what has taken them so long.
These solicitors appear to be saying that they cannot distribute whatever is left of your half-sister’s assets until the court determines whether her ex-partner is entitled to some of the property.
You and your other siblings need to instruct a new lawyer to represent you all as soon as possible. This is a tricky legal situation and should not be dealt with without the help of a qualified professional.
Refund wait
Q) I AM 85. I booked a holiday for last March for a pal and I, for £395.
It was cancelled due to Covid and I was told we would get a full refund. It has not happened. I’ve been trying to get this refund since February last year. How can I get my money back?
Valerie, Brighton
You have been promised a full refund and are now entitled to one. The chances are this company is hoping you will simply go away. Don’t! See if you can get the email address of the managing director (anybody with basic computer skills can help you with this) and explain what has happened.
If you haven’t had your money back within 14 days after that letter, make clear you intend to bring proceedings in the small claims court. This is pretty straightforward and inexpensive.
Mel Hunter, reader’s champion
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Covid stuffed Granada trip
Q) WE booked a four-day trip to Granada with easyJet Holidays for March 16, 2020.
We had real concerns prior to departure, given the emerging Covid outbreak there, which meant many things were closed, including the Alhambra Palace. But we couldn’t get through to easyJet or our accommodation to talk about it.
With Government advice not to travel, we decided not to go. Our insurance would not have been valid, plus our return flight got cancelled.
We believe our choice was reasonable and the product had fundamentally changed. But all we get from easyJet are automated responses.
Stephen Bannister
A) Travel refunds have been a regular part of this column for a year, with thousands of readers fearful of losing the hard-earned cash they put towards cancelled holidays.
Both cases this week come from readers who have been waiting all that time for their money back.
It has been a desperate year for the travel industry, of course, and it is absolutely reasonable and right to exercise some patience and understanding for the predicament companies are in. But neither should individuals like yourself be left out of pocket.
There was no way your holiday could have gone ahead. The pandemic had hit Spain and our Government banned international travel from the day after you were due to fly.
Your request for a refund was entirely right, even though easyJet Holidays appeared not to want to help you. But I persisted for you and got your £656 returned, nearly a year to the day after you should have flown.
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Q) I WAS in Australia in March 2020 and hastily rearranged to return here before the first lockdown.
I was due to fly from Sydney to Auckland on March 16 but that was the day New Zealand imposed a 14-day quarantine for new arrivals. I was only due to be there for eight days, so going was pointless. By returning to the UK, I lost out on a flight from Sydney to Auckland, hotel stays and car hire – plus I incurred a charge of £275 to change my return flight.
My travel insurer refused to refund me and said I should go through the travel company, Gold Medal. The airline agreed.
Gold Medal replied initially but after many requests for an update they are ignoring me.
Laura Hainey Sudbury, Suffolk
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A) YOU checked emails and your bank balance repeatedly over the past year, desperate for the owed refund. I asked Gold Medal to investigate and finally got some answers. It said its records showed your case had been closed – and the money paid – last spring.
I assured the firm this wasn’t the case and it transferred your refund within days, just before the trip’s anniversary.
Gold Medal said: “We’re sorry for the delay Ms Hainey has experienced. Due to an administrative error, her refund claim had been closed and showed on our records as having been paid last year.”
Woman reveals chic kitchen makeover using Wilko paint
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