shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Got a leak specialist coming over today. They’re claiming if they say it’s not their fault (which is totally is) then I’ll need to pay £350. Got a complaint outstanding with them waiting for a reply.
Got a leak specialist coming over today. They’re claiming if they say it’s not their fault (which is totally is) then I’ll need to pay £350. Got a complaint outstanding with them waiting for a reply.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Should be at least 16 degrees according to guidance.
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
I work from home which is costing a fucking fortune in heating but the chaps in the office have been told the heating isn't being turned up to normal temp this winter to save money.
stay_up_skyblues
Well-Known Member
Ok mate. If you don’t get the outcome you expect give me a shout.
stay_up_skyblues
Well-Known Member
Have you claimed the (minuscule) tax relief toward heating and electric?
Nick
Administrator
Was about 10 when I got in... Now 13.
Nick
Administrator
At home it would be OK, I'd just have a massive fleece blanket on and slippers.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
I'm at home and it's cold here too!
Though I bought a base layer from Mountain Warehouse that works pretty well
Nick
Administrator
ccfctommy
Well-Known Member
They are!
itsabuzzard
Well-Known Member
Nick
Administrator
Probably stood around chatting or on strike or something.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
You don’t get that now I thought? Only if you have an office but can’t work from it or something?
stay_up_skyblues
Well-Known Member
Dunno mate, I’ve never had a notification from HMRC to say they’d stopped it. Still get the mighty £250 odd a year. Provided home is your primary place of work was the old rule. I know they relaxed it for covid but if you do mostly wfh you should qualify.
Edit: I have always been officially a home worker but with the option to go into the office as and when (I don’t).
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
I was looking into it and it looked like I wasn’t eligible (despite working from home as a rule)
stay_up_skyblues
Well-Known Member
Yeah, does look like the criteria has changed slightly then. I’m sure when I applied 7 or 8 years ago it didn’t matter if you chose to work at home or not, just so long as you did primarily.
Sorry you’ll miss out on that very generous relief. I mean £4 a week doesn’t even cover boiling the kettle over 35 hours anymore
.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Yeah, does look like the criteria has changed slightly then. I’m sure when I applied 7 or 8 years ago it didn’t matter if you chose to work at home or not, just so long as you did primarily.
Sorry you’ll miss out on that very generous relief. I mean £4 a week doesn’t even cover boiling the kettle over 35 hours anymore
I remember being a contractor in the early 2000s and you could claim everything including a quarter of my rent and my phone bill.
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Sick Boy
Super Moderator
In a lot of accommodation it’s because it’s not been properly maintained by the landlord. We had a flat that literally had water running down the walls and loads of black mold getting bigger by the day. We had enough and left and apparently they couldn’t get it back on the market and rented out for a year because it was fucked.
The downstairs neighbour told us that apparently the landlord had to redo the kitchen because they discovered the wall was dark black behind the cupboards - fucking grim.
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skybluejelly
Well-Known Member
they must be bloody massive now
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
So the leak man came, took the bath panel off and immediately spotted the issue. The waste pipe hadn’t been tightened and there was PTFE tape all over a fresh install, also any water that hits the shower screen just pours down the inside of the bath.
Been told it only “leaks” intermittently because it goes into the wall (which is registering 99% humidity!) and then when that’s saturated it moves to the ceiling where I can see it.
Basically I can’t use the bath until it’s been reinstalled because it’s been installed too low and the whole thing needs ripping out and refitting. So definitely not my fault then.
Any advice on asking for compensation? Been six months now showering as little as possible (thank god for work from home) and using relatives showers. Surely they should give me something?
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
I had something similar to that once, had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. Water coming through into the kitchen and despite having all the floors up nobody could work out where it was coming from until one day I had a plumber in to look at something else and he said the waste pipe wasn't fitted properly
Good luck with compensation. In my last place the oven died and it took them six months to replace, basically got told to go away when I asked for compensation as I'd had six months of not being able to cook anything
stay_up_skyblues
Well-Known Member
So you’ve got a solid claim for breach of contract with your insurers. They’re gonna put it right and (presumably) repair any damage at no cost to you.
In terms of pure compensation (I.e. not actual financial loss you can prove) over and above anything they want to give on a discretionary basis, the courts tend to resist unless the upheaval and inconvenience is significant (think living amongst a building site or having to move out temporarily) and even then it’s modest.
It’s a “general damages” claim for stress and inconvenience you wanna put forward. I’d cite the trips to and from friends/family and also plead loss of use of your bathroom. Maybe tell them you want £25 a day loss of use plus £500 general damages and see what they say.
If you only have the one bathroom and cannot use the bath then you should have a solid loss of use argument imo.
You should put this forward as part of your proposed outcome to the formal complaint.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Really useful thanks.
Robinshio
Well-Known Member
Note the working from home allowance is not limited to £312 times your tax rate
so if you work from home for say 37.5 hours , that is close to 1/4 of the time
if your annual gas and electric bill is £2500 (current cap) you could then quite rightly claim £600+
How much you can claim
You can either claim tax relief on:- £6 a week from 6 April 2020 (for previous tax years the rate is £4 a week) - you will not need to keep evidence of your extra costs
- the exact amount of extra costs you’ve incurred above the weekly amount - you’ll need evidence such as receipts, bills or contracts
so if you work from home for say 37.5 hours , that is close to 1/4 of the time
if your annual gas and electric bill is £2500 (current cap) you could then quite rightly claim £600+
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
But only if your company requires you to live away from the office or there is no office. Not like most WFH people who work from home despite there being an office somewhere (in my case London).
Robinshio
Well-Known Member
not if your office is an unreasonable distance away
Who can claim tax relief
You can claim tax relief if you have to work from home, for example because:- your job requires you to live far away from your office
- your employer does not have an office
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
that's the thing, what do they class as an office not being available. My company had an office locally and I was in the office 5 days a week. since covid they no longer rent that office and I work from home however they have a head office which is a 6 hour plus round trip so technically you could argue there is an office I can go to
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Except my job doesn’t require that. I could move to London if I wanted. Believe me I checked. It means things like “go live in the bum fuck nowhere to keep an eye on the company sheep” or something.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
And they would argue that in my experience. They basically hate WFH people. I suspect the exchequer would be fucked if we could all claim what used to be standard.
JAM See
Well-Known Member
Somebody's been to their local CO-OP today to post a parcel; then get four cans of Special Brew, a multipack of Walkers ready salted, a small loaf of Mother's Pride, a tub of margarine and twenty B&H.
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fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
I was able to claim that relief even though we had an office that the employer just wouldn't open.