EVERY Saturday, The Consumer Crew are here to solve your problems.
Mel Hunter will take on readers’ consumer issues, Amanda Cable will give you the best advice for buying your dream home, Maddy Tooke rounds up the best coupons to save you money and Judge Rinder will tackle your legal woes.
LOOKING to cash in on the Airbnb boom? In the past year, 8.4million guests used the accommodation website to find rooms in the UK, netting £854million for British households.
While London remains the most popular destination, Wales and the East and West Midlands are the fastest-growing rental areas.
On average, homeowners using Airbnb earn £3,100 a year from renting out space. So if you want to cash in too, what is the best way to find guests? Here is how to get started.
WIGAN has been named the UK’s easiest town in which to get planning permission.
All applications have been accepted over the past year where figures are available.
But there is no need to extend if you move to the North West town – you can buy this stunning luxury detached home for £230,000.
See onthemarket.com/details/6803514.
FANCY your own Casa Amor? Now you can – if you have £2.5million handy.
The villa where Love Island’s male cast members have been whisked away to in recent years is for sale.
Hidden behind electric gates, the four-bedroom property is described as “one of the most stylish homes to have been built in Mallorca in the last 20 years”.
It has a designer interior, private pool and a vineyard. You can discover more about the villa on the rightmove.co.uk site’s overseas property pages.
MOROCCAN-style tiles are the Insta hit of the summer – perfect in bathrooms and kitchens.
Get the look with these Napa vinyl tiles from burts.co.uk, down from £13.99 to £6.99.
SAVE: £7 per square metre
Q) I BOUGHT a ten-week-old black labrador a few weeks ago. On going to collect the puppy from the breeder he told me: “Don’t worry – the puppy has a tiny amount of diarrhoea. It’s just a reaction to the wormer she had a few days ago.”
I took the puppy home. A tiny bit of diarrhoea is an understatement. This dog was very sick. I immediately messaged the breeder and he insisted nothing was wrong.
I took the puppy to the vets and got some medication. The puppy continued to be poorly and had been to the vets for treatment and tests five times in three weeks.
Tests came back positive for a disease which the vet said can only be caused by dreadful breeding conditions.
The breeder is refusing to pay for the vet bills, has blocked me online and is refusing to pay. What are my rights? Michelle, Carlisle
A) As a matter of law puppies are goods like anything else you might purchase.
They are therefore covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which means the breeder would have to prove that this Labrador was of satisfactory quality at the time it was sold.
The difficulty in cases like this is that the law boils down to the question of what it would have been reasonable for the seller to have known when you purchased the dog.
It seems you have very strong evidence from a vet that the dog’s stomach problems were caused by improper treatment and care.
You should therefore be entitled to a refund for the dog or anything you have paid up to this point for the dog to be treated.
Given the seller has blocked you, this may be tough to pursue but there is no reason why you can’t find another way of communicating making clear you intend to take legal action as your consumer rights have been breached.
Q) I RECENTLY booked and paid for a weekend break to Bulgaria through a travel agent. But a couple of days after confirming our booking, they emailed to say the hotel we had picked was not open so they were changing us from a 5-star to a 4-star hotel. No compensation was offered.
I contacted the hotel direct and they are in fact open and would welcome our booking and would offer us five per discount if we booked online.
I went back to the travel agents and told them this fact and they said they cannot put us in that hotel and they insist we have to move. As they have lied to us and we have it in writing, can we take them to a small claims court? Mick, London
A) There is a lot that you can do before going to court. The travel agency have misrepresented the true situation and is contractually bound to honour your original agreement.
I would write to the agent in the strongest terms making clear that they are in breach of contract and have made false statements in the course of your dealings with them.
Do not be fobbed off. This company is clearly legally in the wrong.
Q) I SOLD my car privately and, after a friend vouched for the buyer, stupidly let them take the car after paying only half, with the rest to follow a month later.
It has now been three months and I have had no payment but they contacted me by text asking for bank details so they could pay. They are now ignoring me and still won’t pay. So is the so-called friend.
I kept the log book in my name until full payment had been made but I have now received a parking fine and a tax letter for £153. Can you please advise what can I do to recover the money or vehicle? Stella, Northampton
There is plenty that you can do. Firstly you should relinquish official ownership of the car so that the authorities stop pursuing you,
Just because you’ve retained the V5 ownership document does not mean that you are the legal owner. You almost certainly ceased to be the owner when you sold it, even though you only accepted half of the money.
I would write to this person making clear you require full and final settlement within 28 days or you will take them to the small claims court.
In the meantime, make sure you are no longer the registered keeper of the car – the authorities need to know who the true owner is, especially if they are committing offences.
Q) MY son and I visited my sister in the US last summer and while there, my son gashed his shin and needed stitches.
Before taking him to the hospital I contacted my UK insurance company, Cheaper Travel Insurance, who then transferred me to its North American partner. I was given a reference number and permission to take him to a hospital.
In September, my sister received a bill from the hospital, addressed to my son, which the insurance company assured me would be paid.
A few months later, a final demand arrived, threatening creditor action. Once again, I was assured all was being paid. Now we have had another final demand, stating my son is responsible for almost 600 dollars of the claim.
There was a small excess on the policy but nowhere near this amount.
This has been going on for more than nine months and I feel I am just getting the run around. Mandy Stockdale, Co Tyrone
A) The US health system can be a costly mess and particularly complicated for non-Americans to navigate, as you discovered.
You did everything right – taking out insurance before you travelled then phoning the insurer’s helpline to get permission for treatment before doctors even saw your son.
I tracked down Insure And Go, the parent company for your insurer.
Although it initially did not seem to know that Cheaper Travel Insurance was one of its subsidiaries, once I provided proof, Insure And Go looked into your case.
It finally gave the confirmation you needed, saying that you were all paid up.
Neither you nor you son owe a penny, and the insurance claim has now been fully settled.
Q) A WEEK after buying a sofa and chair from ScS, my wife and I noticed the left-hand side of the sofa was lower than the right-hand side.
We contacted the aftercare people who found a manufacturing fault, with two bolts missing on an arm.
Unfortunately, this didn’t fix things and we called them again.
This time we were told there was nothing wrong and that it was because we sit on that side all the time.
We were not happy with this, so a super- visor came out. He agreed it wasn’t right and said we could have some packing put in or a replacement.
We haven’t heard anything from ScS since. We have had no apology and feel they just don’t want to know.
George Ryder Mansfield, Notts
A) You finally got another date for a second repair, but then this was postponed for another three weeks.
After waiting nearly six months to put your feet up, you were understandably cheesed off.
Under consumer law, ScS has the right to try a repair first. But this opportunity had been taken and failed.
Any repair should cause minimal hassle to the customer. Clearly this wasn’t the case.
The store saw sense and agreed to give you back your money “as a gesture of goodwill”.
