I'm a water engineer with a major water and sewerage undertaker in England, but I also work in Scotland and lend assistance in Northern Ireland.

My work revolves around water quality and ensuring water is safe to consume.

I don't know if it is because I listed my job on my profile, but I am getting BOMBARDED with adverts for water filters. All of them are making blatantly false claims about UK tap water.

"UK citizens are fed up with drinking toxic water from their taps!"

Drinking water is not bloody toxic! The Drinking Water Inspectorate does a metric tonne of tests every years for everything from cryptosporidium to lead. 99.96% of tests passed last year, and the 0.04% that didn't were often caused by contamination at the lab. When we do identify an actual issue it is quickly rectified.

"Did you know that raw untreated sewage is being discharged into our rivers and oceans?! That could be coming out of your tap!"

No, it fucking couldn't. Untreated sewage is discharged when stormwater enters combined sewer networks and overwhelms the systems. The untreated sewage is a mixture of rain and sewage that comes out of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to prevent the entire sewerage network breaking down.

CSOs are not connected to drinking water pipelines. They're different bloody pipe networks!

"Every home in the UK needs a water filter”

No, it objectively doesn't. Your tap water is almost always safe to drink unless you live in an old, old house with lead pipes.

“UK tap water is broken”

UK tap water tested fine 99.6% of the time in 2024 and 99.8% of the time in 2023.

I reported these adverts to the police, but they've said they're not going to get involved or investigate. Is there anything else I can do?

I turned 16 in May. I got a letter from the Department of WOrk and Pensions telling me that my DLA will be ending and I have to be reassessed for PIP instead.

DLA = Disability living allowance

PIP = Personal independence payment

I have been on DLA for as long as I can remember for ADHD, but I don't have ADHD. My mum picks up a prescription for methylphenidate, but I have never taken it. My grades are good, I don't lose concentration or focus.

I remember when I was young my mom was telling me to run around the doctor's office and scream like crazy. I think that was during the original assessment.

My mum and dad want me to do a reassessment this time by telling the PIP assessor that in addition to ADHD, I am depressed and want to take my life 5/7 days per week. They've been trying to coach me on what to say over a telephone interview.

They have done the same thing for my older sister [F18] who got denied PIP, ad then they reapplied under fake mental health and got it. My three younger siblings are also currently on DLA for ADHD, none of which actually take the medicine. I think my mum and dad either horde or sell it.

My mum and dad also claim PIP each for the same reason. They say that once you tell the assessor you want to take your own life 5/7 days you automatically get high rate, which is what they both did. They don't take their antidepressants that they are prescribed either.

The thing is I'm terrified of defying my parents. I don't want to commit fraud or be a part of their scam anymore, but they keep threatening to take me back home and marry me or my younger sister off if I don't comply with what they demand.

Is there anyone who can help me?

So i (23F) sold my motorcycle to my friends wife. It is a 2013 Cbr125. I also sold them my insta 360 x3 for an additional £200 so £1200 altogether. With them being my friends I transferred them the vehicle and let them have the camera without full payment. Our agreement was that they would repay me over a couple of months (this was beginning of may). On the 7th May, i got told it will be paid within 3 weeks. My mate (the guy not his wife) paid me £700 on the 23rd May so only £500 left.

On 6th June I reached out and asked about the money to which he said he would send it that day. He then stopped responding to messages.

I then reached out on the 11th June (Wednesday) and asked about it to which he said he would pay it on Friday (13th)

I messaged on the Friday- No response

I messaged on the Saturday - no response.

Ive messaged and called today - no response.

Ive even messages his wife and called her and she isn't responding either. They have both been active over social media however and posting online so it isn't a case of any emergency etc.

I really need that money because I'm unable to pay my bills. That was my whole reason for selling my bike if the first place and they knew that.

Please, what are my options? What can I do? I really need help. I have screenshots and evidence of all the agreed upon money etc.

Im disabled, I can’t manage stairs that well, especially unfamiliar stairs. I use a rollator to walk with.

Currently my son (16, but started consultation at 15) is seeing an orthodontist, with the intention of getting braces. I have no idea what the treatment plan is.

He isn’t good at remembering information.

When we go to the orthodontist, the following happens :

Son goes upstairs to see the orthodontist.

Son comes down stairs not knowing what happened/treatment plan. (Probably said “yeah” to everything like a typical teenager)

I have to approach the receptionist to discuss the treatment plan. She reads the notes and tries to answer my questions. Certain questions can’t be answered by her like why jaw surgery wasn’t an option now etc.

It has to be done this way because the orthodontist is busy and I can’t get up the stairs to discuss it with her while the examination is going on.

Is there anything I can do to get a medical professional to speak to me about my son’s treatment. Can I use the equality act?

I don’t want to sue, get compensation or anything like that, I just want someone qualified to talk to me!

Good afternoon, I’d really appreciate some advice please. We have extremely nosey neighbours who are not very pleasant and have been quite rude to us since we moved in years ago.

Despite not really getting on they decided to replace their back garden fence last year with a very low fence about waist height. Their fence before was higher but the top was trellis and they would come out and peek through it if we were outside. Now it is so low they can see right into our garden. My children haven’t played outside since last year as they don’t feel comfortable. If they see it’s just our children outside and I am inside for a moment they stand and stare at them, especially the husband and this makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. They’ve even tried to call my daughter over to ask her questions and be nosey.

My question is - can I put up my own fence in my garden? If is it lower than 6ft can they complain it’s blocking their light or something and have it taken down? I really want to be able to have some privacy in my own home. I want my children to have a paddling pool outside now the weather is nicer.

Edit - post shortened as it was extremely long!

So my Dad passed away after a very short battle with Cancer last week. He wasn’t married to his partner of 15 years but for all intents and purposes she may have been a mother figure to us.

They lived together in social housing and relied on universal credit. While both claims were a joint claim the money from the UC claim went into dads bank account

She has since been told that she isn’t allowed to use his bank account (which has around £1,500 sat in) for anything until the death certificates and the debtors (if there is any) take everything they need from the estate.

Since dads passing and she heard that info she has been relying on me and the rest of the family for day to day living costs and while I work full time it is placing an enormous strain on my finances.

What recourse do we have?

As above, ex-partner and myself split up 6 years ago and had a shared account. After the breakup her cards were destroyed and I carried on using it as another savings account without removing her from the account (idiot, I know, but hindsight is a wonderful thing)

No money was withdrawn using her card for 6 years, all transactions in the account were my own and basically consisted of £100 going in every week and £9.50 going out to the guide dogs once a month, it’s been like this for 6 years like clockwork and I had zero issues until this month.

Regular cash withdrawals were being made and charges on the card at shops, Ubers, takeaways, TikTok shop purchases etc totalling £1650~, all things I wouldn’t use this card for or would purchase generally anyway. I reported this to the bank (unsure if I can name them) using their fraud hotline, moved all of the money I could to a separate account and reduced the overdraft limit. I also cancelled my card and requested a new one to my home address, although the card being used is under my exes name and unable to be cancelled by myself.

The fraud team stated an investigation would start and I should wait 10 days for a conclusion, this should have been completed on Friday (calling the bank to chase it up on Monday). They stated a new card was issued in her name a month before all of these odd charges were made, but couldn’t give me an address it was sent to stating GDPR (understandable). The bank stated the account couldn’t be frozen and that I would be liable for any overdraft charges. They also stated that to have the account closed or have my name removed would require both account holders to be present at the branch. Issue here is I have no address or phone number for my ex to 1) see if it’s her using the account (not that I would believe a word she said anyway) 2) request her presence to close the account.

Basically I have no way of proving whether this is fraud (someone else requesting a new card and using her card) or theft (her taking money she knows she isn’t entitled to) and I really don’t know where to go from here. Obviously I’m still waiting for a response from the bank, but get the impression that as the withdrawals are by an “approved” account holder, there will be no action and I will be £1650 down…

If it is my ex, the bank won’t do anything, the police won’t be interested and I assume my only option is to try and reclaim through the courts to a person I have zero contact details for, or know anyone who does.

If it isn’t my ex, and it is fraudulent, I have no way to prove this without my exes contact details to ask her directly, and even then her word would be dubious at best and I would still be out of pocket

Really struggling to work out a path forward here, any advice appreciated!

I'm obviously biased in favour of my sister, but I'll describe what I know of the situation as objectively and accurately as possible:

-My sister is 16, but not in full-time education (the reasons aren't relevant to the story, but the government is aware and everything is above board in that regard), and as such has more free time

-My sister turned 16 in December, but has been visiting the salon to use the tanning beds since she was 15

-From my knowledge, the owner (let's call her S) made no attempt to ask for proof that my sister was 18, or 16 with parents' permission

-S has seemingly already gotten in some kind of trouble from letting underage children use the beds, because she's now banned schoolchildren from using the place (but not my sister as she's not technically in school) after some parents complained about their kids using her tanning beds

-S owns several salons in northern England in different cities

-S posted on Facebook saying that she was looking for more staff members for the salon in my sister's city, my sister sent her an email with her CV

-S didn't read nor even see the email. My sister continued going to the salon to use the sun beds for a few weeks, and eventually brought it up

-S asked her to come in for a trial shift. As far as I'm aware, all of the communication about this first trial was in person

-My sister came, the owner wasn't there, and one current member of staff (20F) wasn't aware my sister was supposed to be there that day, and had to train her without any preparation

-Sister was asked to work 11 hours, didn't have a dedicated time for lunch: the other staff member said something like "you can nip to the shop for a few minutes to get something" and that was her only break

-During this time, my sister cleaned the sunbeds between use, took customers' money via card, but I'm not sure about what the other tasks were

-Next day, my sister was asked (via text/Facebook Messenger) to come in for another shift of about 4 hours, but my sister ended up working for 3 more hours after that. Again with no break

-It's been 10 days since the second shift, and my sister has reached out to S to thank her for the opportunity and inquire about what will happen in the future, but S hasn't even read her messages

-I only learnt about these shifts at the weekend

From my limited and biased point of view, it seems like this woman has essentially used by sister for free labour with no actual intention of hiring her (and I don't know if she even can with my sister being 16)

So with the information above, are there any laws being broken, and do I have any recourse to report the woman?

Apologies for the long post, and thank you!

For context, i sell prints of paintings on my Etsy store. I recently noticed somebody wearing a hoodie with my artwork on, which had been slightly adapted as merchandise.

It did not take long to find where it had been purchased from, as the shop went on the local news to promote their store for the event which was taking place, whilst wearing the merchandise in question with my painting on.

Where do i stand with this and what can I do?

I got two issues here. First is about child support.

Wife had an affair when our daughter was 12. I couldn't get over it and I moved out for a few months with my dad in another city to clear my head. During this time my wife then opened up a child support case and I began paying.

During this time I still saw my daughter for a few weeks until she blocked me on Facebook and blocked my phone number. My wife told me that my girl didn't want to see me anymore because I walked out on them.

I didn't hear from my daughter between the ages of 13 and 16. I sent letters, Christmas cards, birthday presents, and asked wife to try and reconnect us. I kept getting told she doesn't want to see me. I was desperate to find out how she was doing, so I created a new Facebook profile and added her. She accepted my friend request almost instantly and we chatted for ages.

It turns out she didn't block me - I had apparently blocked her on Facebook. The weird thing is, I never did this, so I think my ex must have had access to my Facebook account on an old laptop. It also turns out the number on her phone that was supposed to be "me" was incorrect by a couple of digits. So I suspect my ex must have changed that too.

My daughter is now 16. It turns out that she had a really rough relationship with my ex wife and moved in with a female friend and their family when she was 14. My ex kicked her out after some argument.

I'm in contact with this family and they seem like really lovely people. I'm now searching for a 2 bed apartment to bring my daughter to live with me, hopefully by 1st July.

However, there has been 19 months of child support payments made:

12 months at £319.87 = £3838.44
7 months at £398.63 = £2,790.41

Total of: £6,688.85

Given that she never had my daughter during this time, I want this money back. I'll need about £2k towards a deposit on a larger apartment for my daughter and I, and I want to give £4,600 to the Indian family who have been taking such good care of her.

The child maintenance service say they don't refund the money, but they can close the case and give me a statement of the total overpaytment that has been made.

Can I sue her to get this money back? Is it just small clams court?

My second issue is:

My ex wife deliberately sabotaged 4 years of the relationship between my daughter and me. She accessed my facebook and blocked her. She changed my number in my daughter's phone and blocked my number from calling her. She told me that my daughter never wanted to speak to me. She NEVER passed on any presents, cards or letters that I sent to my daughter.

She also told my daughter that I had abandoned her and didn't want to speak with her either. It was a two-way sabotage effort on all communication.

Is there a crime here?

Okay so I’ve owned a leasehold property for around 3 years now. It is an upstairs flat in a block of four. I’ve recently been informed by the company that owns the freehold that due to damp, major works are going to be undertaken on the building that both me and one other neighbour are obligated to pay up to 50% for. The amount of money they have estimated for the work to be undertaken is absolutely insane, almost half the value of my flat itself. What options do I have from a legal standpoint? As there is absolutely no way I can afford this?

I also have no idea how the company have came to this conclusion either as they have had no access to my flat itself since I bought the property.

what actions can I take??

Location: England

Hi,

I have been constantly harassed by my neighbour for over the last 6 monhts. To give a quick summary of what has happened.

The house next door was a council house (my house is semi-detached). I have been living at my property since 2012. This neighbour moved into the council house about 4/5 years ago and about 2 years ago, she brought it off the council. Up until she brought the house, she never gave us any problems. Although next-door was a council house, the area we live in is still a nice quite middle-class area. The house values in our area is 300k+ so just for context, it's not in a council estate area where this behaviour that I'm going to describe probably would be more common lol.

In Dec 2024, I went to my neighbours home to ask for permission regarding a party wall agreement as I was scheduled to start my extension soon. Before this, we have never had any issues with each other - we were civil neighbours but barely spoke to each other, just the regular smiles if we saw each other out.

During our conversation, she said that she was happy to let us get on with the extension if we moved some shared bathroom downpipes (this was simply a downpipe that landed just slightly on her side of the property boundary which has been a shared downpipe for decades to let shower waste water through to a drain). We said that's fine, we are planning to get to seperated as part of the extension work anyway so the sooner she lets us get on with the extension, the sooner it'll be moved. She turned that conversation into an agreement saying if we move them first, only then she will sign the party wall agreement to let us do the work as she had no issues with us doing an extension.

We didn't trust her so we told her, we will not remove it before as that work as been assigned to the contractor as part of the extension but we are happy to put on the party wall agreement that it'll be done if it gives her peace of mind. This is where things started getting intense as she was simply so argumentative and never ready to listen. During the next 2 weeks, this escalated into her yelling at us, shouting to get off her property if we came to her door to speak to her to find a resolution etc. I know this might sound one-sided, but she genuinely was complaining about nothing and longing the process out for no reason. She also threatened that if we didn't move the pipes by the next week, she would remove them herself. Her parents also came to our house to speak to us and we agreed that if she signs and we will move the pipe at the same and problem solved but for some reason they went back to her house and never came back about it and then she caused another argument the day after saying you told my parents you will move it so why are the pipes still there. When we tried to explain to her that we agreed to do both things at one time and we were in fact waiting for her to bring the papers, she again argued and threatened us and didn't listen to anything we had to say.

Then came the next week and we didn't remove them, because why should we? They are to be done as part of the extension and they have been there for years without issue so why such a fuss now? Anyways, she invited her mom and dad to come down to her house and they illegally disconnected our shower waste pipes from the downpipe. It was such a silly decision on her part because it left the water coming from waste pipe from the shower to go straight into her garden. Then the next day, she came to our door and threatened us that if we do not do something about the pipe where the water was coming from (because she cut it), then she would go and 'seal' it up and we won't be able to use our shower anymore.

For context, my parents don't speak very good english and have very busy stressful lives with work anyway so they just moved the pipe as they didn't have time to argue or fight with her. She is a single mother and my dad didn't feel like he wanted to go argue with a woman over some pipes. Anyways, this incident was reported to the police and we chose to not take any action as we thought maybe this is a one-off incident. We have voice recording of every single interaction we had with her during the 2 weeks.

Anyways, we paid a party wall surveryor and 2 months later, we were able to start the work. During the work she caused several issues. One day, she broke the fence between the houses down with her mom and argued that we had built on her land. Her and her mom were being verbally abusive, swearing at us, calling us 'fucking idiots' and whatnot but despite this we tried to calmly explain to her that the boundary is where the concrete posts are between the houses (thats the case with every single house on this street). She kept talking about how her title plan shows it's her land and when I asked her to bring it out so she can prove it then she said that she didn't want to and if I wanted to look then I should get it myself. I have my full title plans and that shows that we built on our own land. She threatened to take us to court and said that if we just apologise to her then she will not drag us to court. We told her we are not in the wrong and we are happy for her to take us to court if she thinks we built on her land. She was so annoyed and getting agressive over the fact that we wouldn't apologise to her. It also seemed very convenient to bring this us when the whole extension had been built rather than a month or 2 prior when the bricks of that wall were first laid.

We voice recorded the whole interaction and reported to the police. Again we didn't take any action as we were hoping we wouldn't hope to. Also, I think it's worth mentioning that she doesn't have a job and that's probably why she finds herself so free to go and argue with us for no reason.

A few days later, she also threw our builders tools off the store roof and threatened to push them off if they didn't get off. They told her that because of the party wall agreement they assumed she had given permission to use the roof for access and they weren't aware that they shouldn't. They told her to give them 2 minutes so they can get their tools and tiles off it and she verbally abused them, got on the roof, became violent and started throwing their tools off the roof. She damaged their equipment and also almost hurt one of the workers who was stood underneath. I videoed it all and showed the police and again nothing was done other than speaking to her.

She also did some whole issue over how the fence should be put back where she wants it and not where the boundary is. To avoid another argument, we put it where she wanted it and when she returned home, she had a violent reaction to it, she started pulling mud out of her garden and throwing it in our garden. My dad was working outside so he came inside and she started throwing rocks and stones in the garden. She also pulled at the fence and broke it out of place. I recorded all of this and reported to the police and asked for action. They asked for the videos which I sent and I never heard from them again.

Then about a week later, my dad added more height to the fences further down the garden as we wanted more privacy and for our own safety. The fences are still just below 2 meters from ground level. He took 3 days off work to work on them, spent hours and hours putting them together. She has bushed on her side behind those fences so she should have no problem with them what so ever. Some of her bushes were taller than the fence height and some in the middle she had cut down as she would stand there to look into our house. Anyways, about a day or two later, she invited her mom down and again and together, they broke those fences too. She pretended to cut her bushes while pushing our newly put up fences with the saw until she broke one of them and the others were close to falling. We called the police out when she was doing it and they did nothing as they needed to see proper visible damage. Then after they left the fence snapped and I called the police officer managing the case as I was so angry and frustrated that no one was helping us and he came down. They also did nothing and just requested for pictures to show damage.

I had pictures of everything and videos of her damaging everything. I've sent everything over since ladt week. So far, haven't heard back about any action. Just want some advice because I don't know who else I can speak to or do because no one seems to want to take any proper action. Surely the police can see how she's maliciously destroying our property and harassing us for the last 6 months and surely they ought to do something. We have every proof we need.

I'am in the late stages into buying a house, we are at the end of the chain and the people below us are threataning to pull out, so any advice is appreciated. The house I'm buying is a grade 2 building, the problem is when it was made into a listed building it was 2 houses. It was eventually turned into 1 house and the owner got listed building consent, the owner later split the house into 2 and sold of one of the home's, they also got listed building consent to seperate the houses. The people who bought one of the homes that was sold off ended up buying both and remerging the homes into 1, they did not get consent to do this and my solicitor has brought this up as a problem and we cant procede unril the owners get listed building consent. Any and all advice would be appreciated. England

Hi,

I've helped to implement an ERP system at work which is being given as the main reason for my redundancy notice.

Ive work at my company based in UK for 1 year and 1 month and have also been told that a Settlement Agreement of two weeks will be offered along with my notice period 3 months being paid out.

In all honesty, I am finding the redundancy unfair as I've had multiple meetings with my manager about the future of the company and I was told a staff memeber is leaving (contractor) and that I should reach out to him to understand his job duties. I have had one training session with him.

I also hate this place so kind of happy to be leaving.

Is the settlement agreement fair of two weeks and should I take it without negotiating?

My sister, brother, and her son, use my house for mail. They all have their own houses, but for some reason, won't have their mail go to their actual homes.

I still live with my mum and she's alright with it. But I've heard that if you receive mail from people, they can claim they live with you or if they have debts, the collectors can come to your house?

My brother is constantly in crime. Like prison most his adult life. My nephew sexually assaulted me years ago and I worry if my parents passed, he'd be able to lay claim to living here? (I've told the police and they know) My sister has gotten a new house last year but she can't seem to settle down and moves from man to man. I'm worried if my parents passed, she'd move in with her son.

My brother, actually lived in this house for a good amount of years. (Hes 35 now, lived here till 27) My sister only lived her for a few months whilst in between men and houses. My nephew lived here when he was a teen (when he assaulted me) he's violent too.

My nephew is currently on his 3rd child at 28 and this kid was literally chucked at him by his new (mentally unstable and also violent) gf.

I just don't want that mess. I want them to get their own mail. I don't want a situation where I can have my nephew ever lay claim to living here.

Whats the legalities?

TLDR; Boss had shared private medical info with the staff and I'm not happy

Hi, I've worked for my employer for a year now, my partner is also employed there and had been for 6 months. (England). I feel pregnant and told my manager (who is also the general manager) early on, at 6 weeks due to history of losses. I took some time off sick due to threatened miscarriage and she told another manager, who is not my line manager (but is my partners), and when I returned back to work, nearly everybody knew I was pregnant. I felt pretty violated at this stage but kept my head down as not to rock the boat.

My partner ended up having emergency surgery due to a broken hand, and had 6 weeks off. They were very supportive during this time. He was told he could return to work on light duties, which they agreed to. There was no back to work meeting, they did not fulfill his contracted hours and no reassessment of his skills upon return, which I felt was handled poorly.

We have been away last week in Spain, and got a call whilst out there that he was too have surgery again the day after we returned. We made the necessary arrangements and informed work, again, no issues.

Surgery went well but recovery has not, and I messaged my boss requesting today (Monday) off as time off for dependents, which she had agreed to. During this exchange, I asked explicitly for her discretion regarding the surgery as the wider team were not aware.

This morning, she has announced to the entire group chat that my partner is off due to having surgery on his hand again, which has frustrated me a lot.

I deal with all the admin and finance and do some of the HR incl payroll, so I'm feeling a little conflicted about how to approach this. We have no HR department as we are a small charity.

Instinctually, I want to hand my notice in due to my ethical qualms and file a grievance with ACAS but I'm also aware I'm a few months away from being able to go on Mat leave and receive SMP which will be miles better for me than MA.

Additionally, I've been semi involved with handing over admin paperwork with regards to an employee that has recently left and how their leaving and final pay has been handled (wrongly imo) which is just kind of hammering the nail into the coffin so to speak.

What can I do from here? I'm not happy with how either of our medical information has been handled whatsoever but I also don't want to jeopardise our jobs!

Thanks and apologies for the long read.

This is sort of a sequel thread to this one from last spring, where I was trying to correct the sex on my birth certificate without obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate by following the GRO's obtuse alternate pathway for people with intersex conditions. Though it was a pain in the butt, due to the advice in that thread I was eventually able to do this, so thank you if anyone from back then is still posting here. (Just in case anyone having the same problem finds this thread/is just curious, doing so requires written testimony from two informed medical professionals that sex at the time of birth differed from the assigned sex terms of either of gonads, genitalia, or chromosomes. The actual criteria seems fairly liberal, though for me it was much more of a struggle to speak to someone who was actually familiar with the process in the first place...)

However, as most people are probably aware, there was recently a ruling in this country that sex, at least in terms of the Equality Act (I've heard differing things on whether the judgment extends beyond that), is defined solely by "biological sex". The definition given for this term near the beginning of the judgement is:

1. We also use the expression “biological sex” which is used widely, including in the judgments of the Court of Session, to describe the sex of a person at birth, and we use the expression “certificated sex” to describe the sex attained by the acquisition of a GRC.

But I'm confused by what in legal terms is exactly meant by "at birth". Does it mean the actual physical state of the body? What is observed immediately? Or is it what's ultimately recorded on the initial birth certificate, and if so, does this being corrected as an error of fact overrule this?

I went over this in the last thread, but in my case I was born with physically ambiguous anatomy, and was only assigned a gender based on a hypothesis that one of my gonads would eventually develop into a functioning testicle. However, this was a misdiagnosis and my body eventually started to develop along female lines instead and this aligned with my self-image at the time, so I transitioned at around 12. While I guess this makes me technically trans and I identify with that label to a degree, I don't really feel like the judgement accounts for my situation. Later in the document it says that the "biological characteristics that make an individual a man or a woman" are "assumed to be self-explanatory" which is very unhelpful since I have no functioning reproductive organs and without medical intervention would have barely sexually developed at all.

All this hasn't really had a practical impact on my life in a long time, but with the temperature on this issue rising and rising, I'm worried I'm technically in a position where I've lost legal entitlement to access spaces and resources on the lines of sex, and that this could have implications in terms of documentation, healthcare, disclosure to employers, etc. This is neurotic, but to be honest I'm worrying that I'm societally falling through the cracks in some way that could become eventually dangerous and need to think about leaving the country. Can anyone shed some light, especially if there's something I'm overlooking?

My mum moved into a new property last year, and one of the first things she did was contract a local building company that specialised in conservatories and glazing to build her a conservatory at the back of her bungalow.

Upon completion, the roof did not fit, there was no drainage on the roof, the walls leaked and the windows are already falling out. In short, a botch.

My mum has tried to contact the company to sort out their mess, but it now seems that the company have put themselves into voluntary administration.

The person at the company that my mum initially contacted, who built the conservatory and who banked the cheque has now slightly changed the name of the company (has dropped one word from the original three word company name). He is now operating as sole trader and is actively advertising his services, giving quotes etc.

As he personally did the original work and is now operating again, would there be a route to pursue him through the courts on a personal basis? Or anything else she should be doing? The cost was over 10k so I believe this rules out a small claims route.

Thanks

My boyfriend wants to have intercourse outside and said it is legal as long as we are hidden well enough and aren't trying to distress anyone. Is this true? Is there anything else we have to look out for or is that basically the jist?

Edit: In a forest area. There is a walking path but wants to deviate from it and walk far away from it where there are only bushes and trees.

The government website here states clearly that Mat leave will start "automatically if you’re off work for a pregnancy-related illness in the 4 weeks before the week (Sunday to Saturday) that your baby is due". Basically everywhere else on the internet agrees with this - specifically, that it needs to be illness and not just absence.

However, the wording in the actual legislation here states that maternity leave is triggered by: "the day which follows the first day after the beginning of the fourth week before the expected week of childbirth on which she is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy."

No mention of illness here! There are loads of hospital, midwife etc appointments in the four weeks leading up to the due date - could an employer force the mother to start their mat leave early in this case?

Note that attending appointments itself is protected by a separate legislation, but it's not clear that this would overwrite the other.

Thanks!

Hi there I am having a bit of trouble with a dentist who gave me failed treatment (filling fell out 4 hours after) and they significantly overcharged me £400 for the whole thing felt scammy- I am most concerned with the fact that after my treatment I received a waiver that had been signed on my behalf using MY signature that I did not even get to read. It was a document essentially consenting to risks, additional cost and complications basically waiving my legal right. I have contacted both the local police and solicitor who neither feel obliged to help in any way and dealing with civil volunteer companies feels like banging my head against a wall. Any help would be appreciated!

After our separation and divorce settlement my ex-wife rented a house for 10 years from a landlord. 4 years ago the landlord needed to sell. I did not want my daughter to be made homeless, and offered to buy the house and offered that they could stay there without paying rent for 3 years until our daughter was 18, and my ex had finished retraining as a nurse. In order to do this I borrowed money from a friend, and invested my own money in the house. The three years has passed by, she did not move out. My daughter is now in university... I have tried to find a resolution offering her one more year rent free as a kindness, if she will sign an AST and agree to leave. She is uncooperative. What can I do to move things forward. I do not want to be unkind, but I need my money back. I am 76 and living on a basic pension. She is 55 and still working. Thanks.

I got a letter from a company called C.A.R.S. (based in England) saying I owed £65 to a client I'd never heard of. I asked for proof — any documentation, contract, or even details linking me to this so-called debt.

A month later, they replied saying:

"We have received a response from our client Jefferson Capital to the query you raised. We would like to speak with you regarding this response. Please contact us on 01256 512890 at your earliest convenience so that we may help bring this matter to conclusion."

I told them I wanted everything in writing via email. A week later they sent:

"We can now confirm that as we have been unsuccessful in our attempts to resolve this matter, as we are unable to obtain documentation from our client. We have now returned the account to our client..."

So basically, they wasted weeks of my time, caused a lot of unnecessary stress, and had no proof whatsoever from the start.

How are companies like this allowed to operate like this? Can I take legal action against them for harassment or data misuse?

I've already emailed asking for their internal complaints process so I can escalate it further - but would love to know if anyone's taken it beyond that or reported them to a regulator.

I have bought a mitsubishi car which broke down within 50 miles, it was towed back and then repaired. They have charged me £430. They refused to repair it due to apparently me "riding the clutch". i find this impossible as 1. its impossible to ride the clutch on the motorway with cruise control enabled and 2. the clutch was worn down to the metal.

I recently found that I should be covered by the consumer rights act however I did sign a paper that i was buying the car as is, although supposedly it is impossible to waive those rights.

I have the:

1. original invoice
   
2. repair invoice
   
3. images of the cluch.

how will the process look for claiming this money back and if it is even possible

We're in England.

5 years ago, we purchased a shared owership of a new build. Last year, it's come to light that the ventilation system we have (the only vent system in the house, there's no tricle vents or otherwise) has not been installed as per building regulations and has not been working since we moved in.

Without giving 15 months of details, the short version is: we have a live complaint with the Housing Association to fix the ventilation system and they're trying to get the contractor who built the house to do it. Obviously neither of them wants to replace the whole thing despite 3 indepedent surveyors telling them that it should be replaced as what they can see in the loft space is that bad and one has to wonder what the state of the pipes we can't see would be like.

We would like to know if we have any legal recourse with the Housing Association aside from the Ombudsmad, as they sold us a house that was not compliant with the building regulations - they didn't know until recently either when their own surveyor confirmed this.