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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A PROPERTY drought means each place up for sale has an average of 29 potential buyers competing to seal the deal.
With house prices at record levels, we have teamed up with homesearch.co.uk to bring you these top tips for buying a home.
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- Protect yourself financially. Gazumping is when someone outbids you just before you were due to exchange. It is legal – and rife in a competitive market. Consider taking out homebuyer protection insurance to claim back on upfront costs such as searches and surveys.
- Decide how much you can really afford to pay. Rising interest rates could make it harder to repay your mortgage. Check how much you can borrow and get your mortgage pre-approved.
- Don’t rely on property portals. One in five homes for sale don’t make it on to Zoopla or Rightmove. Connect with agents in your target area and get on their early mailing lists.
- Assemble your dream team. Get the estate agent on your side when buying and ensure you have a good solicitor who works quickly and accurately.
- Launch a charm offensive. When you have found “the one”, move fast. Sellers don’t always just accept the highest offer. Some prefer to sell to the buyer they like best, so try to build an emotional connection.
- Make it easy for the seller to move. Be willing to buy their furnishings – such as curtains, sofas and carpets – even if they are not to your taste. It helps build a rapport with the seller and makes it easier for them to complete the sale to you.
Most read in Money
Buy of the week
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IF you like to be beside the seaside, Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex has topped a list of property hotspots where far more places are coming up for sale compared to last year. Snap up this two-bedroom beachfront flat for £295,000 at rightmove.co.uk.
AND JUST LIKE THAT… WALK-INS ALL THE RAGE
WALK-in wardrobes are all the rage thanks to Sex And The City sequel And Just Like That.
Carrie’s closet in the show is behind a 25 per cent leap in enquiries, according to bedroom specialist Neville Johnson. Designer Jennifer Porter said: “We’ve witnessed a surge in demand for walk-in wardrobes and bespoke dressing rooms ‘just like Carrie Bradshaw’.”
Deal of the week
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KEEP your eyes on the prize with this statement “hanging eye” mirror, just £6 at bmstores.co.uk.
SAVE: £8 on similar styles elsewhere
Judge Rinder, legal expert
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‘Courier offered £20 compo for lost car exhaust that cost £500 . . . now I’m exhausted fighting for money’
Q) I BOUGHT a car exhaust on eBay and booked the collection through Hermes. Two weeks later, it still hadn’t turned up, so I contacted customer services and an agent said they would look into it.
At first I was told that they couldn’t find it, then I got an email saying it was found in a depot without an address label.
I confirmed it was mine and was told via email the parcel was relabelled and ready to go out to me. But after another three weeks, we still didn’t have it.
This time the agent said it was lost and told me to put in a compensation claim. Since then, I’ve heard nothing.
All I have is a standard email from Hermes offering £20 compensation. But the item was worth £500. Is this worth chasing via a small claims court or any other way please?
Jess, Carlisle
A) It is absolutely worth pursuing this claim. Although some delivery services do not cover the cost of lost items unless, say, you buy extra insurance, the situation in this case is far more legally straightforward.
In the course of their correspondence with you, a representative of the courier company has, in effect, admitted their negligence caused your goods to go missing. (They lost the item after they had relabelled it, so had a duty of care to get it to you.)
Following on from this, I would email the head of Hermes’ customer services asking them to justify why they believe they are not responsible for the full price of your items.
If they ignore you, I see no reason why you should not take them to the small claims court.
BANKING BLOW
Q) OUR son in-law died from Covid five months ago. Our daughter has heard from all the financial bodies he had accounts with and they have been very helpful – except one.
A certain bank wants her to pay money owing on his account. Does she have to do this? They were married but it wasn’t a joint account.
IAN, Basingstoke, Hants
A) I am sorry for your loss and appalled by the actions of this bank.
If your daughter is the sole beneficiary to your late son-in-law’s property, which I must assume, she may be liable for his bank debt. But this cannot be resolved until the estate has been sorted out and it’s clear there are sufficient funds to cover the debt.
The bank does have a perfectly legal discretion to cancel this debt which, given the circumstances here, it should have applied. Your daughter’s best option at first is to email the most senior person she can find at the bank, explaining what has happened and making clear any debts were accrued by her late husband in his name only.
She should mention that other lenders have forgiven these small arrears and remind the bank of the emotional and financial impact its demands have caused. The tougher she is, the better the outcome here.
Q) I LIVE in a council house. After there was a storm at Christmas, I contacted the council telling them the garden fence had blown over and needed replacing or fixing. The council told me it doesn’t repair fences unless it is a boundary.
This fence separates two council houses and my neighbour is worried her pet dog will escape, while I feel I have no privacy. What can we do?
BRIAN, Newcastle
A) Carefully check your council’s housing policy but many local authorities do not cover the cost of fence repairs. In this case, however, it seems to me the council is acting unreasonably. The fence is on a boundary between two properties. Based on what they have already said to you, the local authority appears to have a legal obligation to repair it.
Even if the fence is not on a boundary, your council still has a duty to ensure shared parts of housing estates, and all the land it owns, are kept in good condition.
Your best option is to write again to your local authority insisting the repairs are made.
I would also urge you to get in touch with your local council ward representative, who can often be of help.
Mel Hunter, reader’s champion
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Leak got on my Wickes
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Q) AFTER numerous emails to and from Wickes, we are at a stalemate with the company over a kitchen it installed in September 2019.
We discovered a water leak last July and reported it to Wickes at that time – within the two-year guarantee period.
The leak occurred because a washer was missing from one of the pipes to the washing machine, connected during the installation and not moved since.
It has caused a lot of water damage to the kitchen flooring.
Wickes is insisting we prove the water leak was the installer’s fault. We have asked the company many times how we might go about doing this but it does not answer.
Wickes says we should claim through our home insurance. Unfortunately, any claim should have been made within 30 days of us finding the leak, so this is no longer an option.
Keith Wright, New Milton, Hants
A) You were willing to compromise here, asking that Wickes come and dismantle the existing units to expose the floorboards and joists. You would then take appropriate remedial action – at your own cost – allowing Wickes to come back and reinstall the units.
I thought this sounded reasonable and asked Wickes if it could meet you in the middle.
I’m pleased to say the deadlock was broken and Wickes did agree, with the work due to start in the coming weeks to get to the root of the problem.
Once a full report is completed and the cause confirmed, Wickes may also reimburse you all the costs for the flooring work, then repair any units that have also been damaged.
This has finally brought an end to months of stress for you.
A Wickes spokesperson said: “We were sorry to hear of Mr Wright’s experience as we always strive to give great customer service. We can confirm that the matter raised is being resolved and work is taking place at a time convenient to Mr Wright.”
Q) IN August I noticed a £23.94 payment to a “TMTI Ltd” I didn’t recognise. It is a gadget support firm I had been paying twice a year since February 2014 – in all, £383.
It turns out this firm gave a month’s free support when I bought a new phone and as it wasn’t cancelled within 30 days, I was charged twice a year.
I had returned the phone to EE after just a few days. The payment should have been cancelled with my contract. But TMTI says unless I prove the handset was returned within the 30-day trial, I will get no refund.
Corrie Ickringill Studley, Warks
A) I asked EE for proof you had returned the handset but it said it no longer had those records. So I went to TMTI directly.
It acknowledged you had made no use of the service over the past seven years and agreed to refund you in full.
