Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some queries sent in by users of the site, with responses from the Advice Services Alliance. The issues discussed here may answer some of your ADR questions.
- Tenancy deposits
- I paid my tenancy deposit and it cleared my account a week later. I signed a tenancy agreement and moved in. I have been chasing my deposit scheme ref: number and have found that the letting agent didn't give my deposit to the deposit scheme. It is my understanding that the deposit should be paid to the scheme 14 days after receipt and that there are penalties for not adhering to the policies (3 times the original deposit as a fine). Do I have a case? It begs the question are their affairs in order.
Landlords and agents are required to register tenancy deposits with one of the approved tenancy schemes 14 calendar days after receiving the deposit (see Tenancy deposit disputes). If a landlord has not placed a tenancy deposit in one of the schemes within 14 days of receiving it, s/he can be liable to pay the tenant three times the deposit in compensation. This was upheld in a case in Birmingham County Court in November 2008 (and has since been upheld in a number of county court judgments). The landlord only paid the £500 tenancy deposit into a protection scheme after beginning possession proceedings. The judge held that the court had no discretion to ignore this penalty, and required the landlord to pay the tenant £1,500.
So technically, yes, there are penalties for not registering the deposit within this time. However, you should get advice about whether or not you should issue a claim against the letting agent, especially if he/she has now registered the deposit. It may be that courts will not uphold a claim where the landlord has registered the deposit before court proceedings have been issued, even if they registered it late - in your case about one month late. Shelter, the housing advice organisation, states on its website (www.shelter.org.uk) that "...this fine may not apply in instances where the landlord does protect the deposit, but fails to provide the required information within 14 days."
However, if the letting agent has not yet registered the deposit, then you may need to issue proceedings in order to ensure that he/she complies, and it may be that the court will find you are entitled to the penalty payment.
- Neighbour disputes
- My neighbours are DIY fanatics. They will hammer and drill at all times of the day. They are fond of working outside the council's curfew. I called the council today at my wits end. For the last two hours there has been hammering on the connecting walls. We have confronted next door on several occasions but the situation has become worse. The Council have advised that as we are both private tenants we may have to seek alternative advice. Please can you advise on this situation? I don't know how much of this I can take. It simply just isn't fair that I can't find peace in my own home to study or rest.
P.S. he is now drilling!!!!!
Neighbour disputes can be really difficult to deal with, and it is not easy to get access to a legal remedy. You might find it helpful to have a look at the government leaflet on Neighbourhood and Community Disputes.
Community mediation can be a helpful way to get neighbours talking when they can't agree about something; but of course both neighbours need to agree to take part. If you think it might be worth trying, your local community mediation service may be prepared to contact your neighbour to propose a meeting - it's up to you whether you think this would be effective or not. You can find your nearest community mediation service either through an internet search, or through your local council.
- Sheltered Housing
- We need advice regarding service charges in sheltered retirement flats. We are private leaseholders and are run by a housing association, who have put a 27% EXTRA CHARGE on our service charge. PLEASE can you advise? Thank you.
Age Concern run a service called AIMS (Advice, Information and Mediation Service) specifically for people living in sheltered and retirement housing. You can read about it under 'sheltered and retirement housing' on the Housing and Homelessness of this site. Hopefully they will be able to advise you on your rights in this situation, and possibly to help you resolve any dispute with the housing association.
- Consumer problems
- I bought a second hand car from a dealer. After 2 months and less than 1,500 miles it started going wrong, so I returned the car for repairs under the 6 month warranty. A few days later, I have a rattle in the engine, so I take the car back again. They put some type of cleaner in the engine, I drive away. 7 miles down the road, car packs up again. I phone the dealer and ask him to take it back. This was 2 weeks ago. How long should I give them to fix the car before asking for my money back ???
Garages and second-hand car dealers are consistently among the most complained-about services for long-suffering consumers. There is still no cheap or free ADR for consumer disputes. If you'd like advice on your consumer rights in this situation, you should either call in to a local CAB (you can locate your nearest on the Advice Guide) or call Consumer DirectGov, the government-funded consumer helpline. - Complaints about furniture, kitchens and showers
- In August I had a special care shower fitted. On the first day the bathroom flooded, and within four weeks the tiles changed colour. They sent a new fitter who said that the original fitter had not tanked the walls. They delivered new tiles, some tanking, and grout, but they have not been in touch since then. I have had to turn the water off as the bathroom is flooding again. For £7,500 I expect better. Can you help???????????
Your shower supplier is a member of FIRA, the trade association for the furniture industry, which runs the Furniture Ombudsman (Qualitas). If you are not happy with the way the company has dealt with your complaint, you can contact the ombudsman's consumer helpline – 08701 620 690, Monday-Friday, 9am - 5pm. - Someone owes me money
- I am an architect in dispute about non-payment of a final invoice. I had intended to go the Small Claims route, but wondered about the alternatives of Arbitration or Mediation. The impression from the advice on your web site is that Mediation would be unlikely to bring a satisfactory result and that Arbitration on a small one-to-one case like this could be very costly - even if the client agrees. The amount in dispute is around £2,500 which I can ill afford to lose.
The factors to think about in a case like this are, of course, the likelihood of your getting the money which you believe you are owed, and the cost involved in doing so.
Arbitration is a process in which an independent arbitrator looks at the facts of a case, and makes a decision about the outcome. Normally both parties agree in advance to be bound by the decision. This provides certainty, though the cost may be disproportionate. You also have to think about how you would enforce the decision if the other side simply refuse to pay up - this would probably involve a court application.
In Mediation, the parties themselves are responsible for coming to an agreement on the dispute, and the mediator, unlike the arbitrator, is merely there to facilitate the negotiations. In a case where the dispute is about money owed, the likely outcome is a compromise agreement to pay a reduced sum. The small claims mediation pilots which were researched and evaluated a couple of years ago found that a high proportion of cases reached agreement, though the amount agreed was on average around half of the claim; on the plus side there were virtually no problems with enforcement - everybody paid up. Mediation will only work at all if both sides agree to take part, and the costs of commercial mediation can be high. However, you can get access to fixed cost mediation via the Civil Mediation Directory, which is sponsored by the government.
You may want to consider beginning a small claims court application - this is not difficult, and you don't need a solicitor. There is helpful guidance on the Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service website. Once you have put in an application, you will be offered free Small claims mediation. It is possible that the other party may agree to this in order to avoid a court hearing. You can also read a summary of the findings of the 2006 Small claims mediation research on this site.
- Pros and Cons of ADR
- I am in the process of researching the pros and cons of alternative dispute resolution as it relates to the civil justice system. If you can provide some assistance it will be greatly appreciated.
This website should provide some of the information you are looking for. Have a look at Pros and Cons of ADR for a summary of some of the issues. You can also see an overview of the way in which the civil procedure rules encourage ADR on ADR and the courts. Two other useful sections of the site will be Court cases which summarises some of the key cases over the last eight years, and the section on ADR Research Summaries which gives a précis of some of the most relevant empirical research into ADR issues in the UK. You could also look at my summary of Hazel Genn's recent Hamlyn Lectures on our main ASA site. Good luck with your research!
- Telephone and internet providers
- I left my broadband provider in February 2008 and transferred to a new one. A year later I received a demand for £50.98 from a debt collecting agency on behalf of my old supplier. The debt collector refused to give me any information. I have written to the broadband company asking for details, but have not had a reply. Will you please advise me on how to use your ADR system to force them to respond? Bearing in mind the debt collecting agency has threatened to send a debt collector within 13 days.
We don’t provide an ADR service ourselves, but there are two schemes which deal with disputes about telephone and internet service providers - Ombudsman Services - Communications and CISAS.
Every service provider is required to be a member of one of these schemes, and the supplier you are in dispute with is a member of CISAS, the adjudication scheme. They require you to make a complaint to your supplier before trying to use their free adjudication scheme - the rules are explained on the CISAS page on this site, and there is a link to their own site from the bottom of that page.
- Energy providers
- Very good information, but how and where do I write to the ombudsman to try to get a resolution to my complaint? I've been having problems with
my gas supplier and they've cost me two days pay, a plumber and six weeks with no gas.
There is an Energy Ombudsman, and from October last year all energy suppliers have been required to be members of the scheme. They will only look at your complaint once you have exhausted the complaints process of your supplier, so you'll need to make a formal complaint to them first. There's an overview of the Energy Ombudsman scheme on this website, and a link to their own website at the bottom of that page. If you need some advice on your rights, you can contact Consumer DirectGov on 08454 04 05 06. Good luck!
- Divorce
- My husband and I are divorcing. We need advice on reaching a financial settlement but our solicitors give us conflicting advice. How can we get advice about a fair settlement without resorting to the courts? We have been using a mediation service but our mediator seems to be unable to give us a clear indication of how we should proceed.
There are a couple of things you and your husband should bear in mind. Firstly, mediators shouldn't give advice - their role is to help separating or divorcing couples reach an agreement about any issues in dispute, and the rule in mediation is that while the mediator is responsible for the process, the two people mediating are responsible for the outcome.
Secondly, you might expect solicitors to give you conflicting advice - in effect, you are on different 'sides' when you are divorcing, and you may not have the same interests. Each of you will have a solicitor whose job is to represent you, and try to get the best possible outcome for you. You may decide not to fight for the best possible deal in order to have a less acrimonious divorce, but that is your decision.
The Advice Services Alliance produced a series of leaflets about mediation, funded by the government. They explain how mediation works during divorce and separation - you might find it helpful to have a look at them, especially 'We're splitting up', which looks at all the options you have. You'll find them at Advicenow family mediation.
