r/LegalAdviceUK

This goes back to 2024. Cousin and his mother were staying with me after getting kicked out by her husband.

During this time he stole a bank card from a drawer and began spending money from it. The bank app verification was done by sending text message notifications to my phone. He was able to access these via a linked tablet and enter the approval codes.

I don't have my phone during my shift as I'm a prison officer from 6:30am to 8:30pm. During this time I have ZERO access to my phone, email or any electronic devices.

While I was at work he proceeded to nearly empty out my current account. It had £10,000 which had just been transferred into it the week before to pay for roof repairs.

That's hte background and I've managed to handle this well so far by myself. I've just finished in small claims court today and been awarded £6.50 a week. The mother has voluntarily repaid £80 so far.

I did some maths and it's going to take almost 30 years to clear that debt after the interest was added on.

This seems completely fucking ridiculous. Is there any way I can try and get more money out of this? I know she has been deliberately putting off her divorce with her husband to try and keep assets out of my reach. (There's at least £180k in her share of the house and his pension when it sells) I told this to the judge, but they said they can't consider a marital asset at the minute as this man isn't father to the child in question.

Is there anything else I can do?

We bought a house last year with another house at the bottom of the driveway, which is the only access point to their house and ours. We currently own the driveway, which is perfectly functional but could probably be prettier. Neighbour has asked to purchase this from us for £5000 and take over upkeep and make it nice (which we can’t afford to do right now and tbh is low down on our priority list) Is it a bad idea? What’s a reasonable sum per sq ft? How would we go about this if we could agree a sum and what are the important points to consider? In England. Thank you in advance

Edit to update: clearly a terrible idea. WILL NOT SELL DRIVEWAY. Thanks for sounding it out.

My ex is now trying to claim that we had a loan for the money she gifted me to pay off my car finance.

At no point was I aware this was a loan, I viewed it always as a gift as we were engaged and living together.

There is no contract or messages or anything in writing, no witnesses nothing.

She has now done a ‘letter before action’ threatening taking me to court.

The only evidence she has provided are bank statements showing her transferring the money from her account to mine and myself sending her some money while I was working for bills.

None of these have any reference saying what they are.

I also have a screen shot of a text conversation after the break up where she told me to pay her back if/when I could.

Hello everyone, I visited the UK briefly and I'm unsure of the process so would appreciate some advice.

Two weeks ago I left behind my kindle in a hotel - dumb I know, but thankfully when I messaged the hotel they said they located my device and would send it on for me. Great! Perfect! Done!

I bought a royal mail shipping label and emailed it to them but two weeks on, they haven't sent it yet, and now they've stopped responding to my messages (last response was a week ago). It looks like they're not going to return it, but I have them on record admitting they have it and will return it. Is there anything I can do at this point? Filing a police report feels like overkill but I just want them to give me my shit back.

Thanks for your help!

My ex (who is controlling) and I co-parent our son and I (F30) have been his primary carer since he was 3 months old (weekends and school holidays he spends with his dad). We are now heading into mediation because he is requesting primary custody.

He recently had an issue with me taking our son to Switzerland to visit my dad (who’s lived there over 10 years), over a passport renewal miscommunication.

Context: years ago when our son first got his passport (around 10 months old), his father told me I could proceed with the application alone when we were on good terms and as he didn’t want to contribute to the cost (he now denies the money bit). Regardless, I still included him on the application as the father and emergency contact but have always kept the passport at mine. My son has gone on holiday for years with it to visit my dad (with my ex’s knowledge and agreement).

I recently renewed the passport for an upcoming summer holiday to visit my dad and told my ex I was waiting for the ‘new’ one before booking the dates he had previously agreed to. He then became very unhappy, saying he wanted his parental responsibility “to be respected ” because he felt he had not been properly included in the process of a new passport and not been asked for consent or signatures in the application.

I reassured him (days of back and forth and goal posts moved and deep questioning on his end) about it being renewal and not a new application and reminded him that I initially applied alone with his consent and with him on the passport as the dad and emergency contact.

Eventually he confirmed in writing that he was happy for the holiday to proceed (with legal jargon and under the condition that he checks everything I told him with the passport office r.e the original application).

I then accidentally booked the outbound flight for the final day of school before the holidays rather than the next day. I informed him immediately, apologised and explained it was a genuine mistake. The school advised this would simply require a one-day unauthorised absence form. My son has perfect attendance and the school have raised no concerns as this will be his first unauthorised absence.

I am now worried that despite previously agreeing to the holiday, my ex may still move the goalposts (as he does to punish me) and will attempt to stop the trip legally (as I plan on going anyway) as part of the wider custody dispute.

How likely is it that a court would stop the holiday in circumstances like this and how long would it take for an order?

Many thanks all.

Hi all,

So i use LinkedIn as I am applying for jobs. The mobile app advertised for free premium month and I accepted. I tried to cancel my subscription very shortly after (so as to not be charged for the yearly plan one the free month ended).

It turns out, there is no way of cancelling a subscription on a mobile. As confirmed by their staff, the only way to cancel a subscription is on a desktop computer.

I didn't have access to a machine as I was travelling, so then I'm in a situation where I can never cancel a LindeIn premium subscription.

Surely a platform that only allows cancellation of a service on an entirely different platform is not allowed? This feels either illegal or just horrible business practice.

In either case I will not use LinkedIn again.

Thanks for any help!

Hello,

I hope this is the correct forum and if not I’m sorry and please point me in the right direction.

Basically I was offered a new position with a new company and it is abroad. So I took it.

I had 2 cleaners who would come weekly and help me with the house who I thought were more like friends in the end.

They asked me what I was planning on doing with all my furniture and I said I was planning on selling it on gumtree and if there was anything left I would probably give it to charity’s.

They offered to take it all and save the hassle for me but could they pay me it up each month as they wouldn’t be able to afford it all in a lump sum.

They were due to pay me my “first instalment” in December and then I got a story about how they were poorly, then in a car accident and now she had said she can’t afford to pay me as she also has a wedding to pay for and feels like she is living in poverty…

It’s not a couple of hundred pounds it’s thousands of pounds that I worked day and night to afford these items, we’re talking sofas, furniture, TV’s (even my Xmas decorations lol) I mean they even cleared out my food cupboards.

I have given her loads and loads of things for free and even expensive clothes that her children are probably wearing.

I’m just looking for advice on how to navigate this…

The worst thing is I don’t have her address as I was thinking of going down the small claims court route.

I do no someone who was very close to her and will no her address but I don’t really want to involve this other person.

This is the second time in my life I have basically been used for other people’s gain ( I thought I had a close friend) but when I stopped spending money that friendship became non existent.

I am probably my own worst enemy for being so silly in trusting these people. I now truly believe that the cleaners were never going to pay me at all as I had moved away….

I worked as a contractor for a delivery company that promised bonuses based on if you onboarded and supported new drivers if they took on a full delivery route.

In my contact it said you had to do ride-alongs with new drivers for 3 days and if they got their full round in about a week. I was told by my supervisor that onboarding by phone was fine and ride alongs were not necessary for the first few. Then I was basically given all the drivers in a massive area of England to onboard and support and essentially answering any message (when they came in) for 18+ hours a day to help them via text. Never was I told by management that what I was doing was wrong.

I have evidence I was asked to onboard by phone by management and not do the ride alongs.

For 6 months I worked like this and kept asking every month why I was not paid properly. Finally I found out it was because I was not doing the ride alongs.

I was asked to onboard over 140 drivers and was paid for about 6 of them, do I have a case?

Edit: the £12000 is calculated from what I was not paid from the bonuses. £150 pound if they complete the full round (usually after a week) and further payments if they continue longer. Over 70 made it to the full round hence the £12000. I have the records

For context I work part-time at university in England where I managed and helped out at events or exams. I had an interview last year (start of uni) and was promised a RTW check and staff ID within 2 weeks after giving a successful interview.

After a few weeks of my interview, i asked the seniors and manager when I’d get my staff ID and RTW. They told me it was being processed and I’d get it soon and to not worry.

I then received some emails about shifts I could take. I asked if I could take those shifts, no one warned me no one stopped me and those in senior positions assured me it was okay and I’d get paid for it (backpay) but at that point I still hadn’t received RTW or staff Id. I also attended a mandatory staff meeting with people who were official and unofficial staff. So essentially i was already being treated as an employee.

My RTW meeting wasn’t arranged until 3 months into this year. I gave my documents (british passport NIN etc) and was told i’d hear back from them a few weeks later.

Long story short i never heard back from them. Other students who did interviews after me who are in the same year and course as me received their RTW and staff ID except me.

The head of curriculum had a meeting with me telling me there was nothing she could do and I shouldn’t have taken the shifts but doesn’t understand that I was lead to believe it was okay to do so.

I understand it was stupid of me to accept the shifts now but I feel like I can’t be blamed for such a high portion. Head of curriculum says it’s 50% my fault and 50% their fault and i basically just “volunteered” for those shifts.

I have explicit texts stating that once i’d have my staff ID and RTW i can log them into the timesheet on Teams and get paid. And that it was okay for me to take on the shifts, that HR was processing it, that they’re “chasing them up on it.”

Not sure where to go from here. Is there anything that can be done so i get paid for the hours that i am owed?? It took months for them to send me a RTW meeting (to scan my documents) but then nothing following that. No staff Id, no apology, no form of communication regarding this on their end, nothing.

I had physical maternity notes (the green book) and when I was discharged from midwives they took the notes to processing as is usual procedure. I contacted them to ask to get them back as I left some documents and scans inside and I hadn't made a note of my baby's birth time.

I was told they have been moved to storage so I have to do a Freedom of Information request. Which I did.

After a lengthy wait I was given 72 hour access to scans of the notes via an online portal.

The trouble is its just one long, long pdf of my notes and its nearly impossible to find anything without going through every page as they arent book marked they way they would be in real life. Also I want my physical scans not photocopies.

Can I request my physical notes? Or is there some legal reason they can refuse and keep them in storage?

I live in England

About a year ago, my partner and I moved into a privately rented house through an estate agent. We’ve always paid our rent on time and generally had no issues.

Early on, we reported a small maintenance issue to the estate agents, who passed us directly to the landlord. Long story short, the landlord never fixed it, so I ended up paying to have it repaired myself. During that process, the landlord got my direct number. At the time I wasn’t bothered because our conversations were friendly and the relationship seemed fine.

Fast forward to mid-April this year, and we were served a Section 21 with 2 months’ notice because the landlord wants to sell the house.

This caused a huge amount of stress because we’re a blended family with 4 children between us, so we need a large property. We were renting a 5-bed, and in our city most 4/5-bed houses get snapped up as student lets, so finding somewhere suitable has been extremely difficult. We asked the landlord if we could remain in the property while he looked for a buyer and were told “absolutely not.”

We have now managed to find somewhere else, but we’re downsizing from a 5-bed to a 4-bed and the house is currently chaos with packing, sorting belongings, and trying to manage children around it all.

At first, we allowed 2 viewings, but after that we told the estate agents we would not accept any more until we hand the keys back.

The landlord has now started calling me directly and has sent me a long WhatsApp message saying we need to allow viewings.

I am currently privately renting. My spouse passed and I can no longer afford to pay my rent. I communicate directly to the landlord. I’ve called them and not been called back (I haven’t exactly followed up either). I have a child. What happens now?

My friend's daughter is in her second year of university. The daughter got in touch with me last week asking me to be her rent guarantor for her final year commencing this September.

Her parents are financially comfortable. Dad is in Hong Kong and mum is running a small business in the UK. However, the business is not turning a big enough profit for mum to be her guarantor. Apparently in general landlords do not accept paying rent upfront as an alternative.

I am aware that there are companies who act as guarantors for a fee. I am guessing the parents wish to save some money.

I have watched the girl grow up and she is a good kid. I do want to help. However, I also need to protect myself.

I am planning to ask for a copy of the rental agreement to look for small prints. I will also find out the details of the arrangement such as if she is renting by herself or with friends.

Would asking her mum to give me a lump sum deposit be a fair request? The deposit will be returned to her when her tenancy ends minus any money that the landlord wants from me.

I have asked to speak to her mum this Sunday.

What else would you advise? Thank you very much for your help.

I'm an A&E nurse working in Scotland and have to attend court as a witness against an aggressive patient who presented in triage to me last year. Giving the context in court as to why the patient had attended would make things easier but I am not sure if I must still uphold patient confidentiality while in court or if as a witness I am obliged to tell the full story. Any advice is appreciated.

Hello,

in the new assured periodic tenancy agreement, the landlord obligates to use the just move in service, which is a free (to the tenant) service to switch all the utilities and council tax to my name without me doing anything.

I have issues in the past with a different service doing the same function and I don't want this to happen again.

I am happy to provide all the documentation of my switch.

Can I oppose this? under which terms? the agent already said it's mandatory, but i cannot find any legal binding for this

Thanks

I’m American (23) and I have an ex-boyfriend (1 year) (20) from the UK. Specifically Macclesfield in England. He threatened to send my nudes to my underaged siblings & friends online. He messaged his own friend’s girlfriend pretending to be me and sent her my nudes. He also doxxed me and threatened to kill me, and my mom. Is there anybody I can call? Is there anything i can do?

I was sitting by myself in a coffee shop studying for my exams. Man in his early 40s comes over and sits down oppsoite me.

I'll trt and keep things as factual.

• Coffee shop was empty and he sits down at my table in the corner
• Stares at me silently. I don't react or engage. I froze up.
• He made some groaning noises.
• Took my course textbook and turned it around then flipped to the front page. Saw my name wss written there.
• Said my name and grinned at me.
• I turned my book back around and kept my face down.
• "Here alone, (my name)? No boyfriend."
• I replied, "please I just want to study."
• He then took my empty coffee cup, said I had left lipstick marks on it and dragged his tongue around the rip of it.

Cafe Nero staff saved me and took me away wjile they ushered him out. Police were called. Ultimately they decided that there was no crime as "being creepy isn't a criminal offence."

The man was allowed to walk away after lingering outside and I took a taxi home instead of the bus.⁹

I just feel really let down by police. Is there nothing illegal here?

Hi all, I am employed in England as a band 3 clinical staff NHS for 4 years, I am 23. I will not go into all details of my past mental health, I am currently on a full week leave for it due to being on suicide watch in A&E Sunday. I have had alot on my plate and stupidly began self medicating suspected ADHD with cocaine for about last 6 weeks, after quitting alcohol use 2 months ago, a coworker gave me a number for a dealer.

I quit last week, called FRANK. I attended my first SMART recovery group meeting Saturday then self referred to a local rehab program. I was then driven to A&E Sunday due to risk to commit suicide. The next day I saw my GP and was prescribed antidepressants, admitted to them my drug misuse and had an urgent referral put to Oxleays. I am now also attending private ADHD assessments, shared care.

My line manager was updated on all of this and told me to take the week off to get this sorted. I felt extremely guilty and admitted to them over the phone that I had also fallen into drug use and that my cocaine use got so bad I began using it at work when I had it for up to 3x a week for the last 4 weeks. I couldn't bear being dishonest, I feel I have betrayed my family and my workplace by being so stupid. Fortunately no direct harm came to people at work as a result of my misuse. My manager told me she'll keep me off the rota for the foreseeable future and get back to me on what will come of this confession, but I was still being referred to occupational health for a chronic health condition, mental health and now also my drug misuse.

I never misused drugs before this brief period. I am no longer in possession of any drugs as I quit last week and do not intend of ever touching it again and deleted the dealer numbers, and have no intention of returning to alcohol use either, and intend on staying on the recovery programme.

What is my likely outcome? Is there a possibility to keep my job? Will I be arrested? I recently joined the GMB union, should I contact them? What should I do?