Consumer & civil
Goods, services, deposits and the ordinary arguments between neighbours
Most civil disputes in this country are small. A kitchen fitted wrong, a deposit held back, a builder who took the second payment and stopped answering, a company that will not honour a refund it already agreed to. They are small enough that hiring a solicitor costs more than the argument is worth, and large enough that walking away hurts. That gap is the whole reason this business exists.
01
Faulty goods and refused refunds
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you three things on anything bought from a trader: satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, and goods as described. Break any of them and the short-term right to reject runs for thirty days from the day the goods become yours.
Past thirty days it becomes one repair or replacement, then a refund which may be reduced for use. Inside six months the burden of proof sits with the retailer, not with you, which is the single most useful fact on this page and the one shop staff most often get wrong.
Where you paid by credit card and the item cost more than one hundred pounds, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes the card provider jointly liable with the trader. We run that in parallel with the letter, because it costs nothing extra and it works when the trader has stopped replying.
02
Services not performed with reasonable care and skill
Builders, fitters, garages, gardeners, removal firms. The statutory standard is reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, at a reasonable price where none was agreed. Vague words, but they have been argued over for long enough that they have shape.
The practical problem is almost never the law. It is that nobody wrote down the scope, so six months later there are two honest accounts of what was agreed. Where there is a written quote we work from it; where there is not, we build the scope from the messages, the payment pattern and what was actually done.
Half finished work is its own category. If the trader has abandoned the job you are entitled to the cost of putting it right, not simply a refund of what you paid, and getting a second trader to quote the remedial work in writing is worth more than any letter we could send.
03
Tenancy deposits and end of tenancy deductions
Before arguing about the carpet, check the scheme. A deposit on an assured shorthold tenancy must be protected within thirty days of receipt and the prescribed information served in the same period. That is section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 and it is not negotiable.
If it was not done, section 214 lets a court order the deposit returned plus a penalty of between one and three times its value, and it remains available after the tenancy has ended. It also blocks a section 21 notice while the deposit sits unprotected. We check the register first on every deposit matter, because it takes ten minutes and it changes everything.
Where the deposit was properly protected, the scheme’s own free adjudication is usually the right route and we will say so. What we help with there is the evidence bundle, because adjudicators decide on documents alone and most tenants submit a paragraph of indignation instead.
Other civil matters we take
Unpaid invoices under £10,000
For sole traders and small companies chasing a customer who has gone quiet. Letter, then papers for the small claims track if it comes to that.
Deposits and cancellations on events
Venues, caterers and photographers holding a deposit after a cancellation. A deposit that exceeds the trader’s genuine loss may be an unenforceable penalty rather than an agreed sum.
Boundary and shared access correspondence
The written stage only. We prepare the position and the correspondence; anything that becomes a registered land question goes to a conveyancer, because that is reserved work.
Subscription and cancellation traps
Automatic renewals, cancellation terms buried in a portal, charges after a cancellation was confirmed. Frequently resolved with one properly cited letter.
Holiday and travel complaints
Package travel and accommodation not as described. Where an ADR scheme exists we point you at it first, because it is free and it works.
Deposit and holding fee disputes on lettings
Holding fees kept without cause, and fees banned outright by the Tenant Fees Act 2019 that are still being charged in practice.
Lines we do not cross
Not caution for its own sake. These are activities reserved by Schedule 2 of the Legal Services Act 2007, or areas where a regulated adviser is genuinely better for you, and doing them would be both unlawful and useless.
- Anything involving a child, a family breakdown or an occupation order
- Possession proceedings and eviction defence, where free specialist advice already exists
- Immigration matters of any kind, which require OISC or solicitor regulation
- Employment tribunal representation, and any discrimination claim
- Wills, probate and the administration of an estate
- Conveyancing, registered land transfers and anything requiring a reserved instrument
- Personal injury and clinical negligence, including the low value protocols
- Debt advice where insolvency is on the table, which belongs with a free debt charity
If your matter is on this list we say so on the first call, we do not invoice you for the call, and where we know a specific organisation that helps for free we give you the name rather than a general suggestion to seek advice.
Describe it in a paragraph and we will tell you if there is anything in it
No charge for that answer, and no follow up sequence if the answer is no.