r/LegalAdviceUK

I genuinely don't know what to do and would really appreciate advice from people in Bradford or anyone who's dealt with stalking before.

I've been going to the same gym for about a year. I'm visibly Muslim, I wear hijab, and at the gym I wear very oversized clothes, a hat and headphones. I don't talk to people there. I literally say hi to the staff sometimes, do my workout and leave. I've never had an issue with anyone.

I'm actually only in Bradford because my company sent me to the UK for a two-year work contract. I live here alone and I'm due to leave the UK by the end of next year, so I don't really have an established support network here, which is making this situation feel even more scary.

About a month ago, a new guy started going. I noticed that whenever I was at a machine, he would repeatedly end up at the machine right next to me. Not once or twice, but several times. I also kept catching him staring at me.

I tried REALLY hard not to assume anything and just carried on with my workouts. But today it got to the point where I was doing back extensions and he sat on the machine directly next to me, didn't even really work out, and was just sitting there staring at me while I was exercising. It was very obvious he was looking at me and I felt genuinely intimidated.
I eventually looked at him and basically said with my face, "What are you looking at? Do you need something?" He nodded and immediately left the machine without finishing his set.

Then I finished my workout and went to leave. He had only been in the gym for maybe 15 minutes and left before me. I live literally opposite the gym, so I was already conscious that I didn't want him seeing where I lived.

My dad called me as I was leaving, so I stopped outside and stayed on the phone. The guy was sitting outside the gym.

I deliberately walked in the opposite direction from my building. He got up and followed me.
I changed direction again and went around to another side of the building. He followed me again and was just lingering around, looking at his phone.
At that point I thought, okay, maybe I'm being paranoid, so I started walking in a completely different direction away from my home. About 30 seconds later, he was on the same street as me again.

I stopped at a corner to see what he would do. He saw me stop, turned around and started walking away, so I followed from a distance to see if he was actually just going somewhere else. He then seemed to hide/duck down an alley.

I went back the other way and waited a bit, hoping he would leave. He followed me again.
That's when I completely lost it and asked him, "Are you following me? Are you following me?" I told him I was going to call the police. He immediately turned down an alley and when I looked down it, he was literally running away.
I told him he better not come back to the gym.
I don't want to make assumptions about him, but for identification purposes, he appeared to be Indian/South Asian.

Now I'm genuinely scared.
I live alone. I work from home. I go to this gym 3-4 times a week and my building is literally opposite it. I also don't really have anyone here that I can rely on, which is making me feel even more vulnerable.
I'm planning on going to the gym tomorrow to speak to management, but I'm worried they won't take me seriously because I don't have a recording of him following me. There are CCTV cameras around the gym and outside, but I don't know if they'll cover everything.

I'm also worried because he's a paying member and the gym might just brush it off.
I'm in Bradford and I'm wondering:
Should I report this to the police even though I don't have video evidence?

Should I call 101 or make an online report?

What exactly should I tell the gym tomorrow?

Should I ask them to preserve/check CCTV from today?

Should I stop going to the gym?

Is there anything else I should do to protect myself, considering he knows which area I live in?

I know technically I don't know what this guy's intentions were, but the repeated staring at the gym followed by him following me through multiple changes of direction and then running away when I confronted him has really scared me.
I don't want to overreact, but I also don't want to wait until something worse happens before taking it seriously.
What would you guys do?

Hypothetically, if i found my dad dead on the kitchen floor and i immediately buried him the garden and then called the police and reported what would happen to me. I know its a crime but the argument im currently having with my alive dad is that it would be custodial sentence, whereas i think the law would see me as kind of mental but not dangerous or worth putting away, after all i reported it and had no ill intentions.

I’m in County Durham and I’ve recently ended up in a dispute with my neighbour over a small alleged pedestrian path/access through my garden.
I’ve lived in my house for around 7 years. My neighbour has a gate in the boundary which faces directly into my garden, but in all the years I’ve lived here she has never needed to use this gate or the alleged access route.
The issue actually started because I recently put a gate/fence up to secure my garden. Before this, the garden was open and I had no reason to think that my neighbour claimed to have any legal right to cross it. Once I secured my garden, she objected and suddenly started asserting that she had a right to use the access.
The alleged path doesn’t physically exist anymore. There is no concrete path or other obvious formed walkway through my garden. Both ends of where the path is supposedly located have been blocked/closed off for years, and this was already the case before I bought the house. As far as I’m aware, it hasn’t been a usable through-route for many years.
My neighbour has said things along the lines of “what if I want to bring my dog out that way?” and “what if I need to bring the hosepipe round to the front of my house to water my plants?”
She already has a back gate leading onto the back street and a front door leading onto the front street, so she has other ways in and out of her property.
The alleged route itself was only a small pedestrian path and isn’t remotely suitable for vehicles.
Initially, we were actually able to discuss the matter reasonably between ourselves and my neighbour agreed that we should get solicitors involved to establish the position. Unfortunately, things have since become much more hostile, so I’m now trying to properly understand the property side of things.
I’ve checked both our current Land Registry titles. Neither appears to clearly state that she has a right of way over my land.
I’ve then started looking into the historical documents. Her title refers to old conveyances from the 1920s, including a 1922 conveyance, but the physical path I’m talking about doesn’t appear to have existed at that time.
I’ve also looked at historical maps. From what I’ve been able to establish, the neighbouring house existed by the 1950s, but the property which is now my house wasn’t there at that point. It was subsequently a Sunday school, and I have plans for the Sunday school which don’t show the path either. The path appears to have been created considerably later.
I’m aware that none of this necessarily proves that there isn’t a legal easement. I’m not trying to convince myself that I’m right — I’m trying to establish what the actual legal position is.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have dealt with historic rights of way/easements in England:
How did you establish whether the right actually existed?
Did your solicitor have to trace old conveyances and plans?
Can an old right exist even though it isn’t obvious on the current Land Registry title?
How precisely is the route normally defined?
If a pedestrian right of way exists, does that normally mean the person can access the rest of the garden, or can the owner fence off the remainder while leaving the access route available?
Does the fact that the physical route has been blocked and effectively ceased to exist for many years have any significance?
Does putting a gate up to secure your own garden normally cause an issue if someone subsequently claims they have an easement?
How difficult/expensive was it to get the position established?
I’m not looking for someone to give me definitive legal advice from a Reddit post. I’m mainly curious about other people’s experiences and what happened when they had similar disputes.

Hi all,

Throwaway account with some details sanitised to not be too specific but the process will be bullet pointed.

I applied for a job in March, after being arrested for a low level offence. A question in the application was "do you have any non spent criminal convictions?" With option for yes (give more details) and no. I answered no.

I started employment in early July. In mid July, I attended court and was convicted of common assault battery relating to my arrest. This was a drunken, totally uncharacteristic one off that I don't remember. Really bad look for me. I was given a 12 month community order and have to do 150 hours of unpaid work. I will have completed this unpaid work by the start of next week and the court order will be terminated early as a result. The conviction will then be spent.

I followed company policy and disclosed my unspent conviction. This resulted in my suspension and subsequent dismissal for lying on the application. The manager suggested, to the effect that "I should have known an arrest would have resulted in a conviction so should have disclosed "relevant information ". I appealed this decision and following my appeal, the company has apparently discovered "procedural inconsistencies " meaning they reinstated my employment and I will be back-paid, but I was immediately suspended again and a new disciplinary process is underway.

I have sought advise from unlock, who have provided references explaining to the company that there is no requirement to disclose arrests etc. I have spoken to ACAS who have advised me to see the process through and cross that bridge when I get to it. The union is also helping.

This role is not exempt from the rehabilitation of offenders act. They are entitled to conduct a basis DBS check only. The role is based in England and so am I.

I'm just posting to see if there's anything I'm missing to help me advocate for myself and give me the strongest case that I haven't lied which I don't believe I have.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Last week I was riding my e-bike when I was stopped by Essex police. They stated that they suspected my bike was illegal as I was clearly going faster than 15.5mph. I was, because I was going down a rather large and long hill.

My bike is a 2024 Cube Stereo, a well known legit mountain bike from a reputable manufacturer that complies with UK laws for road legal use. It has no throttle and only provides peddle assisted power, and then only up to a max speed of 15.5mph.

The officers lifted my back wheel and spun the pedals to demonstrate that the bike is clearly capable of doing more than 15.5mph. This is irrelevant - the law is that the bike can only be powered to that speed. Despite my protests, the fact that I had been riding faster than this seemed sufficient evidence for them to seize the bike. Apparently these officers had no understanding of how gravity works.

It’s been over a week and I have not received a seizure notice. The station basically refuse to engage - they tell me they need a seizure notice before they can tell me anything about the case.

I’ve been told anecdotally that there’s little chance of me getting my bike back, and that the officers say in these matters is final.

What are my options, and what is the likelihood that I’m going to receive a fixed penalty notice or points on my licence? Am I able to contest this?

This was a ticket purchased in England for a return flight with Ryannair From London to Copenhagen and back by my mate, who is currently in Copenhagen airport still waiting for his alternative flight back to England as we speak.

He arrived at the airport yesterday with his young son in plenty of time, and were checked in along with their luggage, but because of a staff shortage / possibly strike by border control officials at Copenhagen airport, after queueing for hour and hours they were refused entry on to the flight because they were 10 minutes late, along with everyone else on the flight. Everyone's luggage was unloaded and the plane left empty, with Ryannair saying it was not their fault and they would have got fined by the airport if they'd left late. So my mate had to book another flight for today for which he had to pay full price as it was with short notice.

Does he have any rights to claim back off Ryannair in such circumstances? Where would legal responsibility lie, or is it just 'tough'?

EDIT: Interesting clarification from my mate: He and a handful of others got to the boarding gate IN TIME, but the overwhelming majority of the passengers were still in the queue for passport control. So Ryannair wouldn't let anyone board and just unloaded all the luggage and flew off without even the ones who were at the at the gate in time, because all their luggage had been unloaded as well.

Hi,

I have been privately renting a house for the last 5/6 years, my landlord has been suddenly acting suspicious and asked if he can send two ‘professional ladies’ round to look at the property , these ladies did come and visit and they seemed to be looking at the house as if they were looking to live in it themselves. They way he posed it was as if they were letting agents, however, they clearly seemed like family or friends. They refused to say why they were here and said we should speak to the landlord himself. When we asked if he was selling, he refused to comment.

Fast forward two weeks later, he called us stating that he is looking to move back into the property himself, as he is struggling to pay his own rent. However, he wants us to hand the notice in ourselves via email (which I have not agreed to). He also has said that he wants to get estate agents to manage to property but we are on a rolling contract, as they didn’t renew our tenancy last year even when we tried to get a new person added to it. We’ve never been involved in an estate agent in the whole time we’ve been here.

He has also deleted all WhatsApp messages of him asking for us to let these women visit and any prior communication before this week. In all honesty, is sounds extremely dodgy. He’s stating the wants to live in the property but all signs point to him either re-renting it out.

What do we do in this situation? Am I right in thinking this is not feeling legit?
We are looking for other places to live, as we had a feeling he wanted to sell when they didn’t renew our tenancy. I plan to speak to my local council help team in the morning.

Edit; Thank you so much guys, after all the great advice and ammunition you all gave me Amazon has just emailed me telling me I will be getting a refund, my bank has confirmed that the money is expect to arrive in the account in 5 days.

Please can someone help me, I'm freaking out right now.

I placed an online order with an Amazon seller for a PlayStation 5 Console 1TB on the 6th of August 2026. Costing £544 Total.

It was expected to arrive on or before the 13th of August 2026, which it did not. It is now the 18th of August and the seller has refused to send the item, and declined to reply to my messages.

The tracking number given (T00TLA6515201556) by the seller shows that the delivery company (Evri) has yet to receive the item.

I started a refund process with Amazon as the package didn't arrive and this should fall under their A to Z guarantee, but today I recieved an email from Amazon stating that I need to report it to the police because the package was delivered. But how could they think it has been delivered if the delivery company hasn't recieved it yet?

I don't know what to do or who to turn to, I tried reporting to the police but because the package wasn't delivered I have no location or evidence of a crime ever taking place!

I feel sick this is so stressful!

Scotland

I was employed by my mum for 34 years in her shop. I was paid FT at £200pw Tax and NI paid. The lower wage was on the basis that once she retired I'd take over the business so I was paying her in advance.
Couple of things I'm hoping someone might help with:

Mum is now retiring at 78. The shop has closed because of the retail situation. The business no longer exists.

I've found out that while the shop had an active and paid vat account, no tax has been paid by mum for 20 years. She says its because the business has not made a profit.

She cannot pay my redundancy (£12000) as there is no money. She has told me not to go to acas/tribunal as I would get her into trouble for not paying tax. She has no idea what, if any, tax is due.

She owns the shop premises and has suggested transferring this to me instead of giving me redundancy. This would also help compensate my low wages.

She is now procrastinating and my acas deadline is in 2 weeks.

Can someone advise?

ETA had instead of has in a line

Eta Thank you all for your insights, its been really helpful.
For info: Mum was a sole trader running a shop in a premises she personally owns. I have worked for her from age 34, I'm now 59. The £200 per week was from 2016. Prior to that I received £150 I found myself in this position as my grandfather put money into the business on my behalf which was intended to buy my partnership. I have never been a partner.

Since the environmental and economic future looks so incredibly bleak for young people and there is pretty concrete evidence that the main driver of this climate deterioration is fossil fuel emissions, do I have legal grounds to say that the companies have directly impacted my future and therefore my human rights? Do we have codified rights to a clean environment and a safe planet? To clean water and air? To raising families?

Basically, on what legal grounds can I say that the UK government relying in any way on fossil fuels is a direct violation of my human rights.

How can one start to think about doing this?

Edit: I understand they have more money and legal backup than I would as a random citizen, I am hypothetically asking if there are codified legal concepts that back me up. If there is an ongoing case that im not aware of, let me know.

Edit: OK, no suing, but can i hold them in criminal contempt of violation of my human rights?

Location: England

I currently work with my husband for my Father in Law. On Sunday, my husband and his father have had a massive falling out, not related to work, and my FIL is demanding that we both hand in our resignations at the end of the month. My FIL told my husband on Sunday to not come to work on the Monday, and he will pay our accrued holiday pay but he wants us to hand in our notice.

None of this has been relayed directly to me by my boss/FIL. He has put none of this in writing and just keeps threatening my husband. Obviously, going forward I am going to contact my FIL directly regarding this issue. I think he is avoiding putting anything down in writing because I am fairly certain he knows he cannot demand or force a resignation. I am under the impression that if he wants me gone, he should take steps to fire me?

To make things more complicated, I am 6 months pregnant. My FIL has known this since May and he has also received my MAT B1 at the end of July. In July I advised him of my maternity leave dates, which he did not acknowledge except to say "Can you please be flexible with this?"

I have worked in the same place since Sept 2022. 6 months after I started working, my initial employers sold their store to my FIL. I met my husband there. My FIL manages several small franchised stores. In Sept 2025, my FIL temporarily lost ownership of his businesses pending investigation into financial discrepancies at all his other branches BAR the store I and my husband work at. During this time, a temporary owner was installed and I was paid through them.

In April 2026, my FIL got access back to his stores, and thus became my employer again. He seems to think because he has not been my employer for 26 weeks then he does not have anything to pay for my Statutory Maternity Pay if I did resign as he is wanting. To be honest, I am very close to just resigning like he wants if this will mean he will leave me and my family alone in the future. However, I am very wary of potentially screwing up my baby's future with this move. I know I can potentially claim Maternity Allowance, since I will have "recently stopped working".

I guess my question is, should I allow my FIL to force me to resign vs. making him fire me?

Evening everyone. I'll cut to the chase.

I.designed a belt buckle that would be part of a series of 4 belts, each with an issue of 20 belts per issue.

I have been dealing with a company based in Dubai with a view to producing my design. They came back with a price which was a lot, but I started reading the specs of the design which I did last week and the company have put on their mail back to me which has the design on. They had Copyright 2026 and how it can't be reproduced and had the designer as one of their own employees. I'm fuming. They literally had the design for 48 hours and copyrighted it in Australia. I've obviously told them.i won't ever work with them.again.

My 2 questions

1 How do I copyright my own designs in 48 hours?

2 . Is it possible to copyright a series of buckles as a set rather than an individual buckle?

In England would it be reasonable to argue that someone with an ADHD diagnosis (though we have not confirmed that) who has told us they do not take their medication is contributing to there own situation and that we cannot be required to make addtional more adjustments. In an interview (for a volunteer role at a charity) the interviewee disclosed that that had ADHD and that becuase they did not liek their medications (the side effects) we must allow them to be inconsistent with their attendance and time keeping. If it were somethng like giving written instructions I could accpt this but we cannot run the charity with people who do not turn up in time to meet the minibus of service users or who leave early without allowing us time to address cover. I know that voluntary roles are different but how do I navigate this through the law - The interviewee will face sanctions from DWP if they do not take part in the role that they have applied for if we offer it.

Are there any cases where defence was actually harmed because the defendant did not mention when questioned something which they later relied on in court? (England and Wales)

I’m a self‑employed personal trainer in the UK. I recently bought liability insurance from FitPro:
https://www.fitpro.com/insurance/personal-trainer-insurance/

• After payment, I got no policy documents or email for several hours. I can’t train clients in a gym without valid insurance, so this was a real issue.
• I ended up buying cover from another provider, which issued my certificate immediately.

I then tried to cancel FitPro:

• Called multiple times over several days: often no answer; when someone did answer, they promised a callback that never came.
• Emailed to cancel and request a refund: no reply.
• I was left paying for two overlapping policies.

I raised a chargeback with my credit card company. my credit card company just closed my case without trying hard . have reasoning i didn't provide cancellation form . on fitpro , there isnt any option to cancel the insurance

I feel completely let down. If something had gone wrong with a client while I was waiting on their documentation or unable to reach them, I could have been in serious trouble.

Who should I escalate to in the UK if they still don’t respond or refuse?

• Financial Ombudsman Service?
• FCA complaint?

Any tips

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The men's toilets are awful. Tiles are cracked. One of the two urinals has been broken since 2023.

Toilet seats are the cheapest plastic.

Hand dryer hasn't worked since before Christmas.

The toilet roll is like sandpaper.

Last week our work got a delivery of supplies. I opened it up and saw that there was toilet paper there. Packs of Cushelle and some nice handsoaps. I took some of them and restocked the mens' bathroom as we didn't have any.

Later on that day a colleageue was in the mens' bathroom when one of the women came in and swapped out the nice toilet rolls and soaps for the cheaper rougher ones.

After all the women had left for the day two of us decided to take it back. The women's toilets are incredible in comparison. All their dryers are working. They have brand new Dyson dryers. Their toilet seats are like a nice brown wooden effect, not the cheap plastic. They also have Rituals handwash, whereas we're getting "pink slop".

We've done some digging and they were refurbished with new dryers and seats a few weeks back. We've also found out they're always getting the nicer toilet paper etc.

On Tuesday morning we sent an email asking when the men's toilets would be getting fixed and when we'd be getting new dryers & the nicer toilet paper. The response is:

>There are adequate facilities for the mens bathroom. We are not looking into repairing or modernising these facilities at this time.

>We have provided different toilet roll options in the bathrooms so that everyone has access to the most suitable option for their needs. The softer toilet roll is reserved for the women’s bathrooms, where it is particularly useful for personal hygiene and comfort.

Any advice on this? It hardly feels fair. These are all being funded by our employer btw. None of it is privately purchased by employees.

EDIT: Removed an identifying personal detail.

England

Contractor chopped down my hedge, claiming he was instructed by the owner to clear the garden. Their garden was a dry overgrown mess abandoned for 3 years. My hedge was green healthy and maintained though it had some mega growth these past weeks. Never seen the owner until now.

The hedge was planted my side of the property boundary line and grew to form the shared boundary/fence.

My fence-> hedge-> | boundary line | neighbour

Owner knows the property boundary line though was arguing it was their hedge.They were swiftly disabused of this notion.They scarpered quickly after that.They don’t live there though I have a contact phone number.

I just want my hedge back, what’s the best way of achieving this? Owner does not present as a reasonable person and while I could send a letter, I think they’d ignore it.

Thanks for reading and appreciate advice

ETA1: owner is a developer, hasn’t got PP for what they want to do has been rejected twice and says wants to go third time, no interaction with them before. Contractor currently on site.

ETA2: neighbour on other side said criminal charge should be made?

Some people i know run an independent bakery where they make items using "name brand" items. Ie freddo brownies etc. They have recieved a number of takedown requests from fb relating to their items. Requested from the controlling corp of Cadbury.

Just wondering where they stand. As they are not saying they created the "ingredient" just that their item has it.

Fb post for context: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19KXhNQfoZ/