THE Shopper Crew are right here to unravel your issues.
Mel Hunter will tackle readers’ shopper points, Jane Hamilton gives you the perfect recommendation for purchasing your dream dwelling, and Decide Rinder will deal with your authorized woes.
Jane Hamilton, property skilled
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12 months of the tiger
TUESDAY heralds the beginning of the Chinese language New 12 months and searches for feng shui are up by 40 per cent.
As we enter the 12 months of the Tiger, listed below are methods to introduce the traditional artwork that entails arranging the items in residing areas to create steadiness with the pure world.
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FRONT DOOR: The doorway is your “face to the world” and represents how power, or “qi”, enters the house. Maintain it clear and freed from litter, together with wiping the entrance door weekly. Add a brilliant gentle and clear mat to make company really feel welcome.
BATHROOM AND LOO: Drains are thought to deplete power and may symbolize cash and luck draining away. Maintain your rest room seat closed when not in use and shut the toilet door. Including greenery such because the Chinese language cash plant may steadiness out power.
BEDROOM: Put your mattress within the “command place” so you possibly can see the doorway when you’re mendacity down. Set up nightstands and lights both facet to advertise concord as a pair. Clear litter from underneath the mattress as it’s thought to trigger complications.
LIVING ROOM AND KITCHEN: Lounges ought to have a focus, similar to a hearth, and sufficient chairs for everybody within the family. Maintain the kitchen clear and tidy, together with the fridge, to nourish your spirit in addition to your abdomen.
WINDOWS: Daylight is crucial in feng shui to energise and provides readability. Clear home windows often as they’re the “eyes of the house”.
HOW YOU USE YOUR HOME: Stroll via the busiest components and search for blockages. This might be a settee protruding too far, an awkwardly positioned desk or wardrobes that don’t shut. Repair these to assist your life circulation extra easily.
Purchase of the week
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LEICESTER is the UK’s new-buy-to-let hotspot, in response to newest knowledge from on-line insurance coverage dealer Merely Enterprise.
Snap up this spacious, newly renovated semi for £300,000 at zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/particulars/58863793/.
Rents rising
PRIVATE rents are rising on the quickest price ever recorded, as competitors between tenants intensifies.
The newest Rightmove quarterly rental traits tracker reveals prices hit a month-to-month common of £1,068 outdoors London, up 9.9 per cent on final yr.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property knowledge, stated: “Demand continues to be actually excessive coming into the brand new yr, which means the imbalance between provide and demand is ready to proceed.”
Deal of the week
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TOWIE stars Billie and Greg Shepherd have forked out greater than £10,000 on 80 laurel bushes to create a privateness hedge at their new dwelling.
There’s no have to dig deep into your pockets as a result of hedgesdirect.co.uk is providing pot-grown laurel bushes from simply £5.99.
Decide Rinder, authorized skilled
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“Claiming in opposition to hospital after spouse’s false tooth went lacking. She’s been with out her dentures for months”
Q) MY spouse was admitted to hospital with Covid and after three weeks she was transferred to a different one.
In some unspecified time in the future her dentures went lacking from the pot on her bedside cupboard. A cleaner in all probability threw them away.
She’s now been in hospital for 3 and a half months and with out tooth for 2 and a half. We despatched a declare to the hospital however have had no reply.
Are they legally accountable for changing the dentures?
Michael, Carmarthenshire
A) This isn’t solely about your spouse’s dentures. It’s about sustaining her dignity. I’m deeply troubled by what has occurred to your spouse as this falls approach beneath the usual of care we must always all anticipate from our NHS.
As a matter of regulation, I’ve little doubt in any way the hospital is financially accountable for changing your spouse’s dentures.
Not solely did a workers member throw them away negligently, that they had a transparent duty to take care of them correctly.
As you possibly can think about, most NHS trusts are inundated with complaints and different points in the meanwhile.
They’re woefully understaffed, which is the almost certainly clarification for his or her failure to answer to you.
Your best choice is to seek out out who the chief government of the belief is and e-mail them, making clear you may be suing them within the small claims court docket for the price of the dentures and that they have to be changed directly.
I might additionally counsel you embrace your native MP or councillor within the correspondence as this will usually be useful.
Card lesson
Q) MY eight-year-old grandson obtained maintain of my husband’s financial institution card and ran up a invoice of £860 on his iPhone.
We rang Apple instantly and cancelled every part inside the hour of him doing this, however have solely been refunded £160. We’ve got additionally spoken to the financial institution but it surely has not assisted us. What can we do?
Edith, Lancashire
A) That is an more and more frequent downside. Children use mother and father’ playing cards for iPhone video games, for instance, and find yourself working up large payments.
Banks, telephone corporations and apps are alleged to have safeguards in place to cease this occurring.
Your greatest wager on this case is to e-mail Apple and your bank card firm once more, reiterating the duty they’ve to make sure your card is protected against this form of misuse by minors.
Additionally remind them that you just didn’t authorise any of the transactions so should not accountable.
Be powerful in your communication. I really feel certain that you’re going to get a full refund sooner or later.
Q) I BOUGHT my daughter her first automotive from a storage with 12 months’ MOT. It turned out to be harmful and would by no means have handed an MOT in one million years.
I sought recommendation and requested for a refund but it surely refused. So I took it to the small claims court docket. It didn’t defend and I received.
At present I’m awaiting cost from the storage. I’m not holding my breath however prepared to go so far as wanted to get the cash again.
So my query is, what do I do with the festering, oil-leaking car littering my drive? I actually need to scrap it however what if the storage needs it again? The place do I stand legally?
Leah, Essex
A) You’ve received your case in court docket and should do every part you possibly can to make sure the judgment is enforced. This may increasingly, sooner or later, embrace lawfully appointed bailiffs seizing automobiles or different property from the storage to fulfill the debt they’re sure to pay you.
The underside line is that you’ve got been awarded a full refund for a automotive which, by the sound of it, has no worth apart from what you will get for the scrap steel.
Ship a recorded letter to the storage telling the proprietor that you just anticipate them to pay the quantity they legally owe you.
Additionally, that as there isn’t a court docket order requiring you to return the car, you may be promoting the automotive for scrap to the best bidder until you hear from them inside 28 days, during which case you might be completely happy for them to gather it on the situation they’ve paid you in full.
Mel Hunter, reader’s champion
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Refund battle after loss of life
Q) MY youngsters’s dad sadly died three months in the past, and he had been resulting from go to Jamaica on a vacation booked with TUI.
I attempted to contact TUI since his loss of life to have the vacation refunded however didn’t get a response. I would like the cash to pay for the funeral.
The TUI retailer then stated they’d assist as soon as I had a loss of life certificates. I gave them an interim certificates, which is all I had because the coroner continues to be investigating.
Now TUI has advised me that because the date of journey has handed there’s nothing it may possibly do. He didn’t take out any journey insurance coverage.
This has been traumatic. I don’t need to be arguing over a refund for somebody who has died.
Angela, North Yorks
A) Having tried so arduous to resolve this within the very troublesome days after your former accomplice had handed away, it was gutting to be advised months later that you just’d left it too late to get a refund.
As I advised TUI, if anybody had helped you while you had first requested, that may not have been the case. You forwarded me eight emails that you just despatched to TUI asking for assist with this. None of them obtained a correct response till you had been advised it was too late.
I obtained TUI to look into this and I’m happy to say that the corporate sorted it shortly, guaranteeing a full refund of virtually £1,700 was processed.
Beneath these distinctive circumstances, and because the subsequent of kin, you had been entitled to the cash and this could have been paid months earlier.
A TUI spokesman stated: “We’ve supplied our honest apologies for the delay in processing the refund, which has now been supplied, and for the inconvenience triggered.”
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Q) FIVE months in the past, Shell Power changed my meter to a sensible meter.
Since then I’ve not had a invoice, regardless of calling and emailing. I pay £79 a month by direct debit.
The agency now tells me it has no document of me having two tariffs, which I did earlier than with Financial system 7, and solely has me down on one.
The particular person despatched out to examine my meter stated I wasn’t to fret as I may “pay in instalments” if I owed some huge cash.
However absolutely it’s Shell Power’s fault, not mine. It ought to have changed my meter with the identical system I had earlier than. I’m 73 and the considered an enormous invoice is scaring the life out of me.
Jean, Herts
A) I requested Shell Power to have a dig round to seek out out what was occurring right here.
There are sufficient worries round rising power costs proper now with out the additional panic.
It seems the power agency had made a mistake that was costing you.
It advised me that when your new sensible meter was put in, a system error meant that the appropriate tariff was not configured on it.
It sorted this out and promised to refund you the distinction between that and a single-rate set-up.
In recognition of the issues you had experienced, it additionally supplied you a goodwill gesture, paying round £200 in whole.
You’re now in a greater place to experience out the approaching value rises.