r/LegalAdviceUK

England.

I work in IT and get a fair few cold calls from recruiters, it's pretty standard for my role and they're generally ignored.

About a month ago I did bite to a few and had a few chats to try and establish what my market worth is, in preparation for an annual review / pay chat.

I spoke with 4, 3 of them were internal recruiters for competitors, one was an external recruiter for the sector.

A senior manager at my company rang me on Friday to say a recruiter had contacted them saying I am looking to leave, they have my CV, and we're actively looking to place me in another role, would the company like him to start finding my replacement. (I know. Mental.)

Due to the way this message has been conveyed, it is almost certainly this one individual due to the nature of internal / external recruitment.

My question is, has he broken any laws here?

Is there anything I can do here aside from publicly posting the story whilst tagging the individual and their company?

Luckily, my senior manager understood and took my explanation of looking to establish market value so I don't believe I am at risk of losing my employment.

I did debate reaching out to the recruitment company to explain what's happened, but from what I hear of recruitment as an industry, he'd likely get a pat on the back.

Thanks.

Hi, my daughter and her boyfriend split up about 6months ago. He refused to leave, despite her being the only person on the tenancy agreement, paying all the rent plus bills. After 3 months she moved into a friend's house and generously gave him 3 months to move out. He will not leave. So..

On the 31st October I plan to go the house and tell him he has to leave and if not I will call the police to remove him, he can collect his belongings at a convenient time for her. Or they will be boxed up and brought to my house to collect. I'm going to get a locksmith in to change the locks also, letting the landlord know of course. Does this sound reasonable? She is still paying full rent for a flat she can't live in, he's basically squatting. He must go and it must be as agro free as possible. Any thoughts, thanks

So this is obviously a lot to unpack but the general gist of it is that on Wednesday i received a Letter from Klarna telling me I owed money, I called up, and found out he made a second account under my name and I know it was him as my phone number was linked to it. I’ve since bank transferred Klarna the money and the account has been frozen.

My main 2 issues are that: He’s taken an Xbox of mine, He admitted to having it at his girlfriends house (which i no longer believe) but since I found out about the fraud he isnt responding to any calls or texts and isn’t coming back home. We do not know his Girlfriend’s last name or where she lives, only the general area.

And Secondly, in January before he started being a dickhead i let him start renting a PS5 in my name, yes i know it was stupid but he was my brother and i trusted him. Obviously i want this to stop now but without contact i have no idea what to do. I can’t even access the account which its being paid through.

I just want advice please, nobody telling me how stupid i am, because im fully aware.

Hello, my husband has fully comprehensive insurance but a learner policy and I (someone with a full UK driving license) has been chaperoning his practice drives before his official test in November.

We were pulled over on Friday night and had the car seized on the grounds of "supervisor (me) needs to be insured on (husband's vehicle which I don't drive) to meet conditions of provisional driver being supervised therefore, not correctly supervised".

Gov.uk says I don't need to be insured on his vehicle as a supervisor, nowhere else that I've found says I do either.

Am I missing something?

It's obviously a bit costly with impound costs etc and we will try get car back tomorrow. First to police station to get a stamp for impound to release car.

I'm completely confused and would truly appreciate some help as I've given up on the Internet (Google search and AI overview) and in laws opinions.

Oh! I forgot! Even his insurance says that I don't need insurance to supervise him.

Cop said it was a grey area but I smell a rat.

Please help if you can.

Thank you. (UK)

As in the title, I work in England, my employer of 18 months changed their attendance policy, most notably on sickness. On the 18th of Sept I took sickness. In my return to work meeting, my manager confirmed I had not triggered the sickness policy.

Two days ago I recieved an invite from HR saying I triggered the sickness policy and was invited to a meeting to discuss. I was informed the policy was changed on the 15th of Sept, but no management or staff was aware of this change (confirmed in writing my manager was not aware)

A possible outcome of this meeting is dismissal.

Is this policy change enforcable under these circumstances?

A few months ago, I, a university PhD student ended up bumping into some university staff members at the local pub. I was hanging with an older staff member and some other researchers.

Once the younger researchers went home it was just me and my friend, a staff member. He suggested we join tables with some other older staff. I was with them maybe an hour and one man decided to talk with me the whole night.

It went from him first bringing up some work things he was pissed off with me about which was weird.

Then the conversation turned more normal and we talked about cooking, thank god.

Then he reached over and touched my face and called me "his little bitch". I kind of reflexively said "don't touch me" and this escalated into him immediately becoming aggressive, wanting to take it outside and fight me.

I left almost immediately after. I made a report to the university and I got the pub to set aside the footage.

The investigation consists of witness statements which I know will be lies. All of these men are friends with this person. And I don't think they feel any particular responsibility to hold him accountable. Including the man I'm friends with, honestly, push come to shove I don't trust him to tell the truth.

But that shouldn't matter, I have the CCTV footage. Except no I don't. I've been told that due to GDPR this man will need to consent to his footage being shown.

So that's it. He'll be off the hook and there's nothing I can do because the perpetrator does not consent to sharing evidence of his wrongdoing?

Should I escalate this to the police at this point?

Hi,

My partner and I were together in England, UK for arround 8years. We are both from an EU country with settle status, she also has british citizenship and my child too. However, our relationship deteriorated and she also struggle to find work in the UK so she wants to come back to her home country with our child. I don't want to leave the UK so my question is : can she leave the UK indefinitely with our child without my consent ?

Many thanks,

Just over a year ago i sold a high value item on ebay totalling £1,120, the item was securely packaged, sent via Yodel with tracking.

The delivery updates went from ‘out for delivery’ to ‘failed to deliver, return to sender’ quoting it was damaged. The person that bought the item said it never arrived, and requested a refund. I then went on to ebay support and was told that because it was the couriers fault, that the money was mine and to not worry about it. So I withdrew the money, but a couple of days later I got a notification saying that I need to return the money.

After contacting ebay support again they said there was nothing they could do, try yodel.

So off I went to the depot and a woman was very helpful and showed me that it was scanned at a sorting facility, but hasn’t been seen since. She gave me her number and email and told me she would chase it up. After contacting I got radio silence and couldn’t get through to them anymore.

So now I’m -£1,120, no way of getting my item back, and to top it off the person that bought it left a review saying “Very good rig, worth the price.” Am I wrong to believe he may have known the delivery driver and was able to scam me?

Due to some serious life things the past year, I sort of gave up hope but is there any chance I can get my money back through small claims or something like that?

(In England for context)

Yesterday I (24yo) was made aware that my 2 sisters (16 and 11) had been left at home alone from Thursday night until my arrival last night. My mother was round at her boyfriend’s house with plans not to return until at least this afternoon.

When I arrived the house was in an appalling state, it’s a borderline hoarder situation with a kitchen that looked ransacked. There was limited edible food in the house apart from pot noodles which they have been mainly surviving on even when our mother is present from the sounds of it.

My mother has a history of being abusive towards me and my siblings (5 of us total including the 2 children) and social services have been involved throughout our lives without much action being taken. The abandonment is a new step up however.

I made the decision to travel to where they live (1 hour away by train) last night when I found out they were alone and only text my mother to let her know once they were in my care, that I was taking them due to her inability to care for them. I let her know I’d be calling social services.

She has since rushed home and is sending messages that are very clearly being crafted with the knowledge that social services might see them. Playing innocent, claiming she was on her way home already before I got there (proven false by my sister having life 360 on her phone showing she only left her boyfriends house 30 mins after we had been on the train back).

I am their older brother but I know this doesn’t grant me automatic legal rights and I am unsure how to move forward. My mother wants them back today as they have school tomorrow and they’re already on thin ice with attendance. Who do I need to speak to to confirm if they will remain with me in the immediate term at least until office hours when I can get social services involved. Is this a case for the emergency line? They are safe and at no further risk of neglect or abuse while in my care so I don’t know if this applies. However if I am compelled to return them to my mother now she has returned I would think the criteria had changed and the emergency line may be needed?

For added context, I have a good job and have the financial means to support them. Certainly more so than their current living situation.

Apologies if this is a bit scattered. Kind of just word vomiting my thoughts right now.

Any advice would be appreciated

EDIT: Thank you for some detailed answers. I thankfully had the foresight to take videos of the state of the house and screenshots of the life 360 at the time. We have lots of evidence.

As suggested I have called the emergency line for their local authority and they agreed the situation wasn’t acceptable and have said that they will notify the social worker who is already involved. I asked that my number was passed on and a note left for them to ring me as a matter of urgency tomorrow.

They did also say that the girls would need to be returned as my mother has legal custody, however a comment mentioned asking the girls as their opinion holds a lot of weight and the older one wants to return (citing school and friends as the reason, the younger wishes to stay which complicates matters)

We sold a car today. It was a good car, has been running fine for us, long journeys not just short ones and we have put real effort into getting it ready to pass onto the next person.

We sold it through auto trader and a person called us last night and put in an offer - we let them talk us down £1000 as it will need new tyres soon and there are a few scratches.

They came and did the whole revving the engine you can hear that's a hole in the turbo routine and we said it's this price or you can walk away (nothing wrong with the engine).

They had claimed to have owned several of these cars before yet messaged a few miles down the road asking how to open the fuel cap.

They just messaged saying they have broken down, oil everywhere.

So far we have ignored this message. Where do we stand legally? I am reasonably sure this is a scam. I am also pretty sure they didn't insure it or tax it before they drove off.

We made sure we had money in our account before they went, sent them a receipt that said - bought as seen and that we made sure the DVLA knew the car is no longer ours.

Other than worrying about potentially unlawful people knowing where we live (oddly they asked if we worked from home in passing) where do we stand legally. Is ignoring them the best option? But scared and a bit frustrated.

Hi, my nephew has taken my late mums furniture to his work warehouse

also it’s his fathers business, he said at the time he will keep it for free. it I have asked for it, and he is saying he wants to charge me for storage for the past two years. The mum is bitter and texting this, what can I do.

Hello,

I am looking for advice on how to approach this situation.

I relocated from the UK October last year to Australia, prior to leaving I handed my vehicle at the time back to the finance company. This was signed over and collected by them.

Fast forward to this month, I have recently had posts received from my property in the UK. This post contains multiple fines from this year from the vehicle I gave up last year. The fines are all within london from Hammersmith and Fulham and Transport for London.

I have contacted the TEC, but they are of no help and are telling me to submit PE3/PE2 forms. Fines have now been passed on to debt agencies with one also being an order for recovery.

x2 are for 250

x1 is 281 with Bristow Sutor

Obviously I can prove I was outside the country and no longer had ownership of the vehicle.

How should I approach this? Is there anyone else I should contact?

Appreciate any advice here.

I bought a vehicle on hire purchase on 14th September 2026 and within 30 days I noticed a crack on the windscreen. The vehicle appears to have been supplied with pre-existing windscreen damage that had already undergone a repair before sale. I've mentioned to the finance lender and the dealership that I exercised my short-term right to reject the vehicle. The dealership have supposedly given me 2 options which is to repair or swap the vehicle. But they want to repair first if I can swap straight away then I’ll do that of cours.

I have been working at the same company in london, england for almost 2 years.

Considering the posibility of getting pregnant but wants to return to native country (i am not a uk resident) after birth with her partner, hence resigning around the 9 month mark.

I am not sure if maternity pay will still apply if me and my partner leave the UK since neither of us is a uk resident. I believe after the 6 month mark of pregnancy you are entitled to it, but not sure. Need guidance

Thanks in advance

In 2024 England I engaged with an accountant to setup my trading activity into 2 companies and then do ongoing tax filings for a monthly fee.

However, after 2 months, he stopped doing work and immediately resigned out of no where (in the 3rd month).

The issue with this, is that he still kept his address, email and also phone number as the official details so all correspondence was sent to him.

I immediately asked for everything to be handed over in my control, but he refused. Every time I requested a HMRC code change from HMRC, address change or to submit tax/sign up for payroll - it sent the details to one of his details. Companies House sent the code to his address. HMRC sent a 2FA code to his phone number. I couldn’t pass security checks for my own companies!

This was really obstructing as you can imagine while trying to run 2 companies. I easily spent 30-50 hours probably 200+ over the past 2 years trying to figure out how to get control back and to be able to pass it to another accountant. I couldn’t easily instruct another accountant because they also need the codes and access that my accountant was keeping.

I sent around 5-10 emails over the last few years and each time it just was ignored, and once saying he had destroyed all details, from the very email that was registered to my company! He also tried to charge an extra £400 to put it right. Also, the work he did do, was wrong (submitting fake expense) and the incorporation documents contained careless typos!

The initial plan was to sell the business last year, but in part due to his delays I am only in a position to sell now, as I have only finally been able to get full control back and appoint a new accountant this week!

Im just wondering what I can claim for. I should think a refund of the first 2 months at the very least, but what about lost time and business profit?

Hi, im looking for some advice and support on what to do here. We live in england and have recently discovered that our 12 year old daughter (who only turned 12 in the last couple of weeks) has been using snapchat and having conversations with an allegedly 16year old boy who is in ireland. He has been sending some very very extreme sexual messages, images, and intimate "selfies" to her and her friends via snapchat aswel as encouraging her and her friends to reciprocate.

We have contacted the police who have said they wont be getting involved because apparently "a child cant groom another child", but this just doesnt feel right, and surely there should be some kind of safeguarding put in place? Just wondering if anyone knows more about this, as also we dont know for certain this person is actually 16, this is just what he has told our daughter and her friends. Obviously we have removed her phone for now and are talking to her abput it, but it just feels wrong how the police arent interested in a child and her friends being sent these types of things. Its extreme stuff too.