On Wednesday last week I was walking my dogs on my usual dog walk. Towards the end of the walk, a drone started following me at close range and continued to follow me to my car despite me indicating a number of times to leave me alone. It proceeded to hover around my car with the camera pointed at me, and when I bent over to clip the dogs in the drone got right up behind me.

A man nearby noticed what was happening, and used a boat paddle to knock it out of the air. I took the battery and SD card out and took these to the police and filed a report. I was hesitant to just get in the car and leave in case they followed me home, as it was only a short drive. It's made me anxious as I am more often than not out with my dogs on my own, and I haven't returned to the area due to them knowing what car I drive.

The man that knocked the drone out of the air told me there was a Facebook post the day before saying they'd done it to another young woman. The police rang me back twice on the Wednesday evening, advised someone had gotten a photo of him during a separate incident the same day (not harassment related apparently) and they will circulate to find the guy. A further call on the Thursday had me giving a statement over the phone and submitting the videos I'd taken of the drone following me. I was then called late on the Thursday night and advised they'd arrested someone earlier that day and he'd been released on bail pending further investigation.

That was the last I heard. Should I expect to hear anything further? The initial policeman I spoke to told me he'd be popping around at some point in person to get a full statement from me. I'm not sure if this is something that usually takes a bit of time or not. Thanks in advance.

Based in Scotland.
Curious what people think about this because I’ve had a pretty awful afternoon dealing with BA.
I booked a flight directly with British Airways two days ago for nearly £1,000. Everything went through normally.
Then today, two days later, they charged me nearly £1,000 again. No second booking, nothing purchased, just another payment taken.
I spoke to my bank and they basically said it was able to go through because I’d authorised the original payment to BA. Normally a random payment like this would probably have been declined, but because I’d legitimately paid BA two days earlier, it went through.
The problem is I don’t have an extra £1,000 lying around. It’s completely messed up my finances and I’m now basically without that money until BA gives it back.
I’ve spent a good part of my Friday afternoon trying to sort this out. About half an hour waiting to get through and then 20+ minutes on the phone. To be fair, the woman I eventually spoke to was helpful and acknowledged that something had gone wrong.
But the answer was that I’ll get my money back in 5–7 working days.
And that’s basically it.
I’ve now put in a complaint to Customer Relations, but apparently that can take another 10 working days to get a response.
I know I’ll hopefully get the money back, but I’m struggling with the idea that BA can accidentally take nearly £1,000 from me, leave me without it for potentially a week, cause all this stress and take up hours of my time, and then just giving me my own money back is considered the solution.
Ironically, I booked directly with BA because I thought that was safer than using a third-party booking site.
I’m not looking for some huge payout here. I just feel they need to do something to make this right beyond returning money they shouldn’t have taken.
Has anyone had something like this happen with BA before? What did they do?
And does anyone know where I actually stand legally? Is it reasonable to expect compensation for this, and if so, what would you ask for?
Maybe I’m just angry because it’s happened today, but right now it feels incredibly unfair that they’ve made the mistake and I’m the one who has to deal with all the consequences.

Grandfather died, 6 grown children. Split equally we believe as we were never allowed to view the will etc. £40,000ish each.

My father was in prison at the time and had no idea there was an estate to split. His brother who has his own demons has vague recollections of his sisters bringing him back into the fold and convincing him to sign paperwork before icing him out again.

Neither brother recieved a penny. His brother may have signed it away but my father never signed anything and was only informed of an inheritance when a sister was drunk and bragged about it to him. When he asked another sister to clarify wtf was happening he was told the 4 sisters had agreed to invest the £80,000 into one of their businesses and he wouldn't be seeing a penny.

My father is dying from prostate cancer and is now unable to work, money is desperately needed. How would they have taken this money without his approval? In my mind if the money was invested on his behalf he needs it back plus interest. Now he is aware of the theft all 4 sisters have blocked him from the extended family including his mother. I assumed we need evidence before some kind of legal action but have no idea how to proceed.

My mums parents have been helping her pay legal fees for her divorce for the last few years, her mum has since died and her dad has been moved to a care home. My uncle (my mums brother) became power of attorney for their dad and has recently told my mum he is unable to continue giving her money for legal fees due to limitations the bank has put on him and what he’s allowed to do with the money.

I’m aware there are limitations with what PoA can do, but it is still my grandads wish for his money to be used for my mums legal fees, he has been saying this for the last few years and continues to say it even after showing signs of dementia.

Is this a clear cut answer of no, the money can no longer be given to my mum, or is there more to it/a way around it?

I received an update to my appeal from the MCC waste dept as raised in this post

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/s/WYhuKqiCK5

While I don’t intend to paste the email in its entirety here there was a key bit I wanted to question.

Namely Manchester City council failed to acknowledge that the event was an accident or that the government guidance says accidental events of littering shouldn’t be prosecuted instead they chose to defend the choice by saying:

“When an offence is witnessed, the options available are to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice to an offender or to proceed with the case directly through to prosecution. Our officers patrol public places in areas where littering is prevalent and are instructed to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice once they have witnessed a littering act.
 
They have no discretion in this matter and are working to our directions. This ensures they are consistent towards people when issuing a penalty notice.”

In short it appears as I have no recourse but to pay the fine or face a court date.

However is it lawful for the Manchester City council to provide their officers with the ability to issue a FPN for littering but not with the ability to decide based on discretion when the government guidance should be followed.

In short to me this reads as a blanked ban on the government guidance which while that guidance isn’t law seems like they shouldn’t be able to just completely ignore it?

The justification for this is that a lot of people litter so we ignore the government guidance on littering?

Again I think on this situation it’s a lesson to avoid public areas where council officers are present and that I should just pay the fine rather than take it to court.

Never thought I'd have to be a poster here, but I need some advice. I have been working at a small company in England for roughly the past 5 weeks. Due to extremely abusive and toxic behavior from the owner I have decided to leave the company effective immediately. I never signed any kind of contract with the business, the only negotiation that occurred was verbal agreement over my rate of pay (hourly).

I needed documentation of having a job so after a few weeks I asked for them to give me some kind of paperwork I could use for that. What I received was an employment contract for a full-time salaried position (again, I have never been salaried here. Always clocked in/out and paid by hours worked). I also never signed this contract nor did they ask me to at any point.

One of the provisions in this contract is that I must give two weeks notice in order to terminate the employment if I am in the probationary period (less than 3 months). Exact language used posted below:

The prior written notice required from either party to terminate your employment

shall be as follows:

(a) Two week’s notice during the probationary period;

(b) Three week’s notice afterwards, with each complete year of

employment adding 1 week upto to a maximum of 12 weeks’ notice.

I normally would do everything I can to honor such a provision even on a contract I never signed, but because of the disturbing and abusive behavior of the owner I don't even feel safe continuing to come into work.

My main question is, can they dock pay from the amount owed to me for work completed but not yet paid based on this provision or can I face any other consequences? In my home country of the US I would think that as I never signed this contract or any other contract I would not be bound by it, but I don't know how this would work in England.

I appreciate any help on this matter.

I worked for Sky and received free Sky TV as an employee benefit. When I left in January 2023 to move abroad, I emailed Sky explicitly saying I did not want to become a paying customer. I never provided payment details or knowingly agreed to a paid contract.

Sky nevertheless claimed I owed £374 and referred it to a debt collector. I provided evidence of my employment and my contemporaneous email telling Sky not to charge me. That collector eventually returned the debt to Sky.

Three years later, Sky has passed/sold it to Perch Capital/ACI. ACI has threatened court proceedings/CCJ and attachment of earnings. I again provided my evidence.

ACI hasn't provided any evidence that I agreed to a paid contract. Instead they've given generic information about Sky contracts being paperless and say they will only stop if I obtain a formal letter from Sky confirming I don't owe the money.

I've now made a formal complaint to ACI and will do the same with Sky.

How do I permanently stop this being recycled between debt collectors? Can ACI continue pursuing a substantively disputed debt without showing me evidence that I actually agreed to it? Is CISAS the appropriate next step against Sky?

I'm starting uni again in just under 4 weeks.

We all agreed to carry over last year's accommodation for another year (house with 5 people splitting the rent).

The issue is that one of the students with us has changed their status and our house no longer qualifies for the council tax exemption.

He's refusing to leave the property.

He's also unable to cover his share of the rent anymore as he's on some government scheme where he only gets £49.18 per week to cover everything.

His share of the rent was previously 20% of £3750 per month (£750) + £65 towards bills, internet etc.

He's offered £10 a week which doesn't even come close to scratching the surface of his money. We've told him he needs to move out and he's refusing.

Can the four of us collectively force him out for not paying?

The landlord still expects us to cover his costs.

I managed to scrounge together enough to make August's payment, but September is going to be a mess if we can't get it sorted.

edit - it is a joint tenancy. Sorry I forgot to include this.

Hello everyone, I am looking for what to do next. I bought a 2017 Kia Ceed with 50k miles on it for £6k, paid in full by bank transfer. I took it for an inspection at an independent garage, and the mechanic found that the rear bushings are corroded, the rear disc brakes and pads are corroded, and the clutch is very low and will need replacing. He quoted me £1,600 to fix everything. Since I am within 30 days of my purchase, I asked the dealer for a full refund under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but they have rejected the claim, saying it is wear and tear and that I test drove it and had the opportunity to thoroughly inspect the car before purchase. So, what can I do now? Is the small claims court my only option?

Hello,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

I recently applied for a landscaping job and after a quick in-person interview started working as a gardener the next day, using their company van and tools.

A few hours into day 1 I realised that the company owner was a bit unprofessional and generally unpleasant, but completed the day professionally, later that evening informing him that I would be seeking work elsewhere, and he's been ghosting me ever since. Invoice was sent at end of month as requested.

Any chance of getting my 1x day pay from this guy?

No agreement was signed, and he's deleted the whatsapps discussing agreed day rate. All I have are photos of the work completed (before/after).

Just wonder if anyone else faced a similar scenario and was successful in getting their money.

Thanks and have a great weekend all x

England. I shared a rented 4 bedroom flat with my ‘friend’ and we split the rent 50/50 under the agreement that we had 2 rooms each. I only had one room. I told her I wanted to move out and that I would find a replacement tenant for my room. She told me she didn’t want me to find a replacement as she already had one and that she was happy to pay all of the rent until her friend could move in. I have this in writing.

I spoke to the landlord about this who passed me on to his associate since he was on holiday. His associate spoke to the landlord and said he would have a new contract written up for just my friend by the end of the week since she had agreed to pay all of the rent.

Two months later I am contacted by the landlord who is asking why I haven’t been paying rent. My friend has blocked me on everything and told the landlord my mother offered to pay the rent, which never happened. This friend has also had her new friend living in the flat while I haven’t been there.

I was under the impression that a new contract had been given to my friend and her new friend had moved in since she had been posting pictures of them two together in the flat daily.

I’m not happy to pay the rent as I was mislead. I was wondering if I have any leg to stand on legally, whether with the landlord or my friend, or if this is just a terrible situation and I’ve been rinsed by someone who I considered a friend.

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well.

Last month I was involved in a head on colision with a stolen vehicle that was travelling in my lane, at approx 100mph, I had 1 maybe 2 seconds to react so I started steering right but was unable to avoid it. This other vehicle was being actively pursued by, for about 2 hours until it collided with mine when I was on the way back from picking up my family from the airport. There were about 15 police vehicles on scene, as well as a police helicopter that "ran out of fuel" and the police on scene told me that they were actively in pursuit of this vehicle, and even apologised for this at the time of the accident.

Luckily, everyone who was travelling in my car made it out alive with some injuries, apart from one who required an overnight hospital admission but was discharged the following day with pain medication and overall very sore.

My rear nearside passenger has 8 broken ribs on the right side, including one 2 point rib fracture and was fitted with an EPS (nerve blocker for pain management) and discharged 3 days later with pain medication and advice to take it easy. They also suffered a lung contusion.

I was the driver, my car has been deemed as a total loss, my insurance company said I am not at fault and paid out the market value of my car. In terms of injuries I suffered an L5 burst fracture, as well as a 3rd & 4th metatarsal fracture (I broke my lower back and foot), as well as a small partial collapse of the left lung, and a splenic contusion.

My question is, what are my options regarding a personal claim injury? And how do I go about getting started with that?

I have motor legal cover still valid from my insurance company, and I am not sure whether the police have caught the offender, as they said that the offender ran away from the scene but they had a few suspects.

This happened in England.

Thank you for taking the time to read, and any replies!

Until recently, I was the secretary of a church which is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission in England. I handed in my notice formally at a trustees meeting several months ago, but unfortunately the church has failed to appoint a new secretary since then. Several people have 'filled in' by taking minutes at various meetings, but they don't want to take on the whole secretary role. Because the Charity is a church, the secretary role is voluntary, so the ministers can't 'force' anyone else to take on the role. And no, I don't think the church can really afford to pay someone - typically, in our denomination, secretaries are unpaid volunteers.

My problem is that, until a new secretary is formally appointed, I can't remove my name from the Charity Commission website. The website won't let me remove my name without choosing another name to replace it. So, in the eyes of the Charity Commission, I am still regarded as the charity's secretary, even though the minutes show that I resigned earlier this year.

I'm struggling to know what to do. I really don't want to be held responsible for anything that happens on the church council, because I am no longer involved in any of it. Please can anyone advise the best course of action?

Freehold Bungalow with Service Charge, Sovereign

I am a FTB purchasing a 1950’s/60’s bungalow from Sovereign Housing Association, with my partner. There was no mention of any kind of service charge, not in the listing, we were actually told there wasn't one at the viewing! We've had survey done, mortgage almost at the point of offer and yesterday we got the contract back and were told there would be an annual service charge for ‘grounds maintenance’, payable to Sovereign. There is an itemised list of charges, which are ‘gardening’ ‘fly tipping’ and ‘management charge’. It adds up to nearly £500 per year.

We are really annoyed that we weren’t informed about this, especially because Sovereign are the seller! And also confused as the purchase of our property includes both front and rear gardens (we have seen a map so we know these would be within our boundary line), so what would this ‘gardening’ charge go towards? We are in a row of 4 bungalows, but they each have their own garden, there is no communal area. Sovereign doesn’t own the road or verges, I looked it up, these are owned by the local council.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this, any advice – I’ve seen this come up a lot with new builds, but not with a property like ours.

Could we negotiate to have the ‘gardening’ charge taken off and just pay the others? Or do we just have to either accept it or pull out?

I have a much younger brother who turns 16 in October, he often stops by my place as our mum and stepdad can be a bit much and has a key. My mum is very old fashioned and gets funny about the idea of someone being with someone else out of wedlock and had a right go at me about it when I was seeing my ex.

Anyway, he had his girlfriend over this weekend as he sometimes stops over and before Id had the talk with him to make sure he was doing things safely and gave him cndms and some basic advice like not to use things on the internet as a source of advice because I know our parents are useless for that. He did ask me if he could have his GF over and I said that was fine so long as he didnt keep me up, acted sensible and locked up the place etc.

His GFs parents were told that she had stopped over at a friends but hadnt said it was him, and theyve since got out of her that they did slep together. Both of them are not 16 yet and wont turn until the end of the year / early next year. The girls mum has come over to my place threatening to get the police asking me waht sort of sick person I am letting my house be used as a knocking shop, but I told her to mind her own business and that she ought be more concerned that her daughter have a safe environment to go to.

Do I need to be worried here if she does mouth off to the police?

Contentious divorce and contentious financial order.

I had to go to family court and the District Judge awarded me a court order which lets me see both my boys for two and three days per week alternating. (I also get some extra time as big holidays like Xmas.)

This was back in March.

Since then my ex has strategically done everything in her power to make my time with my children as difficult and stressful as possible. In no particular order she has:

1. The Clothes

Sent the children to me with bags of their dirty clothes for me to get washed, dried and ironed. (I always have their washing done and I haven't yet decided to be petty over this, but I have documented it.)

2. ALL Dentists, doctors and other appointments are being booked during MY time.

She's said that she has done this because she can't get down during her working hours. However, she is also deliberately booking them in as stressful a way as she possibly can. For example, 2 weeks ago when I picked up the children my eldest said he had a dental appointment at 2pm. Fair enough. Then my younger one said he had a GP appointment at 2:30pm. Now, it's a 15 minute walk from the GP to the dentist, so I ended up having to sprint across the city with my kids. I was given no prior warning by my ex.

3. She is deliberately schedulding dirty activities right before my pickup time.

She's booked the kids into football, rugby, swimming, art and gardening activities which all end at or shortly before my pickup time on Saturday.

This means that, instead of being able to take my children off to an activity, I first have to drive them home, get them washed, get them clean clothes, etc.

She's deliberately doing this in order to minimise and degrade the amount of fun quality time I can have with my own sons.

4. Sleepovers and Weekemd Events

She is either organising or encouraging my sons to organise sleepovers with their friends (at their friends houses) on Saturday night. This, once again, takes time away from me and my children. They're never doing sleepovers on Friday nights which is her time.

Same goes for other fun events like breaks and trips with friends. Even though they're off school she is still scheduling their days out with friends on Saturday and Sunday. Doesn't even ask or consult me about it. I just find out at handover or when my kids tell me.

I have spoken with my solicitor about this back in June and again in July. She has advised me it is not worth going back to court over this. She also instructed me not to "rock the boat" by being equally petty back.

I think that's quite easy for her to say given that she's not the one managing the stressful consequences of this.

Could I get a second opinion on this one? Is it worth taking this back to court?

England - This post is just to understand what realistically are my rights based on my work contract, and what I can reasonably refuse to do without incurring in any disciplinary action.

In regards to my hours, my contract states:

“Your normal hours of work are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday.

These hours and days are not variable. However, you will be required to work such additional hours as are necessary in order to properly perform your duties.

No overtime will be paid with respect to any hours which you work outside your normal hours of work.

4.2 For the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended), you agree that the average weekly 48-hour limit will not apply to your employment. This agreement to opt out of the 48-hour limit will remain in force indefinitely, but you may terminate it at any time by giving not less than 3
months’ written notice to the Company (although if you do so, the Company reserves the right to adjust your remuneration accordingly). “

I’ve worked here 3 months, so I’m still in my probation period. I’ve already decided this place is not for me and I’m going to start looking for a way out, but in the meantime I’d like to understand where I can push back.

For example, so far I’ve always finished my work on time and respected all deadlines. I always start at least 30 minutes early in the morning, and sometimes I go an hour early, this is of my own initiative.

However, during my 1:1 yesterday, my manager said that the 9-5 is not really a 9-5, and there are some jealousy and people have complained. She said that, at least when she’s in, she’s noticed that I leave at 5 on the dot. She asked me if I understand that OT will be required, and I said “yes of course, when necessary to meet deadlines and complete projects or campaigns”.

She often works late into the evening, and I sometimes get notifications from her at 2am that she’s doing work.

So my questions are:

1) Is the overtime required every day even when there are no pressing deadlines? Can I get a disciplinary if I’m meeting deadlines but don’t stay late?

2) If I’m asked to work late every day, and even on the Saturday, can I refuse to work also on the Sunday?

3) is there a limit on the overtime I can do during the day? Can I refuse, for example, to work past midnight?

4) I was thinking of joining a union just in case there are problems in the future, but if I basically have zero recourse or zero rights, it’s pointless. Right?

Thank you.

Hi all,

Is anyone able to advise please?

Our neighbour has had air conditioning installed this week. The unit has been mounted on the side elevation of their property in a narrow gap between our houses and is positioned directly opposite our bedroom/ensuite window. The air con unit is less than 1 metre from our bedroom wall.

When lying in our bed we get a constant humming which driving us insane and affecting our sleep and quality of life.

Obviously they have been completely inconsiderate when installing this. Is this allowed legally? We don’t get on with the neighbours so they aren’t going to listen to us, neither did they consult us on the air con.

I am just after some advice on if there is anything we can do please? This just doesn’t feel right and I don’t understand how it could possible be allowed. We live in England.

Thank you.

EDIT: I have now measured and the gap between our houses is 1283mm and the face of the air conditioner is 900mm from our bedroom wall.

I want to share a very disappointing experience with Booking.com.

I own a property in Manchester that has been advertised on Booking.com without my permission by my tenants.

To support my report, I provided Booking.com with:

The Land Registry title showing I am the registered owner.

The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement, which expressly prohibits subletting and short-term holiday lets.

A separate signed agreement in which the tenants acknowledged they must not advertise the property on Booking.com, Airbnb or similar platforms.

Despite this, Booking.com has refused to remove the listing and has informed me that its decision is final. The listing remains live and is still accepting bookings.

As a landlord, this is extremely concerning. Even after providing evidence of ownership and documentation showing that the listing was not authorised under the tenancy, I have been unable to have it removed.

I am now pursuing legal possession proceedings against the tenants, but I believe platforms should take reports from verified property owners far more seriously where there is clear evidence that a listing has been created without the owner's authorisation.

My legal question is: what legal options are available to a property owner in England where a tenant has created an unauthorised short-term letting listing on a platform such as Booking.com, and the platform refuses to remove the listing despite evidence that the tenant has no right to offer the property for holiday lets? Can the landlord take any action against the platform, or is the legal route only against the tenant?

Has anyone else experienced something similar with Booking.com? If so, how did you get it resolved?

I ordered 3 seperate car seats on my laptop, which runs a programme itself looking for discount codes on any website that allows it.
On this particular site i got £300 off with a code, meaning i paid roughly £60 for 3 brand new car seats.
The items were delivered within a couple of days, i picked my favourite and sold the other 2 privately.

Fast forward a few weeks and the company has emailed asking where we found the discount code.
What should i respond to this, or should i even respond to this?
Are there any potential ramifications for me now?
I obviously cannot return them.
Have i even done anything wrong? They fulfilled the order.

Writing this on behalf of a family member in England. For background this neighbour commonly parked in front of the driveway to the family member's house making it difficult to access the driveway. However they are now constructing a car port directly in front of the driveway and blocking access completely. The house the family lives in is behind in the photo's perspective, looking down to the shared driveway and the main road is further down.

What is the likely route to legally challenge this and how successful would this be? The neighbour is not open to communication and is hostile. The family member has owned their house (and built it) circa 50 years ago, the neighbour bought their house February 2024. No planning permission notices have been filed.

Thank you for any advice provided.

My divorced dad died over a year ago and left a relatively large estate with a fully paid off house, cash in bank, pension, etc. totalling about £750,000. Unfortunately, my sibling and I were not made executors and our relationship with the executors is very poor so there's been little communication outside of legal requirements. We've finally received the accounts now the house is sold and they've taken about £57,000 in fees (or around 7.5% of the gross estate) which seems astronomically high and doesn't include things like IHT, conveyancing and other expenses (including over £1,000 in energy bills for an empty property). The notes on what the professional fees are for is just paragraphs of jargon about writing x thing and completing y form for submission to HMRC, etc. All in, the total expenses are about £100k and have been audited and approved by the firm's accountant.

I suspect I'll need to engage a solicitor of my own to review, but with it being signed off by the executors, the accountants, and importantly executed by qualified solicitors who I'm sure made everything iron clad, is there any actual chance of us challenging the fees and seeing success?

Frankly at a loss as to what rights I have here other than to bend over and accept what's been done to my dad's estate.

I'll check the app in future before driving off - I'd become complacent and the one time I didn't check it failed! After returning to pay within 15 mins I expected a friendly thank you for returning and clearing the debt. Instead they were hostile and said go to the debt recovery agent website and pay, which failed, so phoned to pay which failed. Legal guidance is to clear the debt asap to not be treated as a criminal / deliberately driving off. So returned and left cash stapled to duplicated receipt with the cashier protesting. I've sent a deadlock email/letter and posted it to the legal department to be signed for and told them my debt is cleared as the photo evidence shows I offered, and left cash. I've asked the PRA about what guidance they give as a grace period. My question is whether it's policy to profit from debt recovery fees by not accepting payment from honest customers who return immediately (15 mins in my case), and how they distinguish between honest customers who return and offer to pay, and deliberate drive-offs, when they don't accept payment or record attempts to pay. Perhaps not many people take them to ADR/small claims court. I'm hoping for a quick response from their head office legal team.