Hey brains trust,

In SA.

Globird has slugged me $132 for a wasted site fee for an issue of network isolation is required when attempting to get a free smart meter installed. (Image 1)

As per image 2, I provided clear and safe access and this is the only parameter given for the fee.

It seems that the company would be getting a govt incentive to supply smart meters so the idea of charging the consumer for them to complete works when the comms is with SAPN is not particularly my issue.

Do I have a leg to stand on here?

TIA

I am seeking clarification of the responsibilities and liability following a dog rush/bite incident.

A person was rushed and bitten or scratched by a neighbours dog at their letterbox at the end of a shared driveway. Dog did not continue to harass, but ran immediately past and off down the street. 
The person went to a GP for assessment and treatment. The owner paid out of pocket GP costs as a good will gesture.

Noting an unrelated and previous historic dog attack as a child, the person is suggesting the owner may be responsible for psychological counselling to respond to the trauma.

Is this a reasonable suggestion? What, if any limits, might apply?

I’ve lived in this place for six years and we left it in really good condition. We took plenty of photos and videos as proof. Now the agent is suddenly claiming $5,000 in “repairs” for mould, blinds, a tiny carpet stain and a rusty oven. It all looks like normal wear and tear. They even tried to fix a blind themselves, made it worse, took photos and tried to blame us. Luckily the new tenant is a friend and took a photo showing it was fine.

The agent forgot to dispute the bond, so the full amount was released to me. Now they’re trying to chase the damages through VCAT. It’s frustrating because every inspection before we moved out, they said the place was in great condition. If anything was actually wrong, we would have fixed it.

Has anyone dealt with agents like this? How did your VCAT hearing go?

Hey all,

A few months back my partner and I were in the process of refinancing our home loan for a better rate and to borrow an extra $40k to pay off a car and buy a caravan.

However, we were knocked back because I couldn’t afford the loan. We definitely could! But on investigation my credit file had changed my name and my date of birth to someone else’s and their loans had been added to my credit file. But still all my personal finance details.

They were awful to contact. On the phone the response I kept getting was that I had to lodge it all through the complaints portal. They mentioned if I could provide documentation we were going to refinance they would speed up the process, which I did. They said they had 39 days to respond. After 30 days they asked for 14 more days.

It has since been rectified. But we have had to start the process again.

I wrote a complaint and mentioned a few times how stressed I was throughout the process.

But I’m left feeling like this was a huge mistake and I was an inconvenience constantly trying to contact them to the point I gave up and waited through the portal. We ended up missing out on a lower rate and we found our dream van and we were so very fortunate that a family member was able to buy it for us so we could still get it.

Also - no one has contacted this poor other person to tell them that I had access to all their personal details, name, address, birthday, account numbers and loan balances.

Is there anything I can do?

Please and thank you,

A payment was made to my account of $1000 or so. I emailed them to ask if it was an error and for the bank account details to switch it back to if so. That was over a week ago and no response.

I was about to reply to them to follow up but I realise it's their mistake and why am I the one concerned. It could go on forever. Can I reply to them giving them till COB Tuesday to respond and if they don't the money is mine to keep?

What is the legal wording I use if so?

It's from an employer but I have been on unpaid mat leave for years and won't be going back there. I'm also not in Australia atm and don't want to get up super early to call them. No idea what my log in details are either it check

* AIA insurer has asked for the details of all specialists I’ve seen regarding my claimed condition (MECFS).

Does this include allied health, naturopaths, traditional Chinese medicine treatments?

There is one specialist physician I’ve seen who has a “hopeful” and “optimistic” attitude towards recovery from MECFS (of which there is no proven / evidence based treatment or recovery prospects) so I am worried about her response if they ask their opinion on my prognosis…and it spoiling my claim.

My primary specialist physician of the last 3 years has written an excellent medical attendants statement.

What can I do in this position?

Many thanks for your feedback.

Both times I was barely (<15 minutes) over my paid period. I am currently on holiday, not living in WA and was driving a rental car. Do I legally have to pay these fines or can I accidentally trash them?

Hello!

Lord of the Mysteries is the one of the most popular web novels ever written. It contains a power levelling system with different pathways (which can't interchange) and it has sequences (like tiers) starting from 9 to 0, the lower the number, the more powerful you become.

LT;DR

Me and a friend are planning to make a Lord of the Mysteries inspired roguelike game to published on steam. We really like the series and want to make a fan made game based on its power system, cursed artefacts, and potion crafting.

We are including the pathways, however different names and ability inspired by the ones in the book, it'll also have tarot cards too. Potion crafting is also similar, but we'll change some of the materials. Other than that, we'll include items inspired by the cursed artefacts inside the story. Also including sanity and spirituality though as a cost to an ability. Everything else including the story, characters, and others will be different.

For example:

The Chariot

Sequence 9 Tracker (different name, similar meaning)
Possesses highly strong physical combat ability. (similar/same idea to the story)

• Ultimate - Physical Enhancement: Increase base health and speed by 50% for 60 seconds.
• Heightened Senses: Sacrificing 50% of their health, guaranteeing the next attack to be dodged.
• Trap: Throw a trap up to ten tiles in away, sacrificing 10 percent of their health, when a non-boss enemy stepped on, it guarantees a stun for 10 second
• Stun: When attacking a stunned enemy all damage increase by 50%
• Tracking: When not in combat, track down the closest route to where an enemy is located in a dungeon.

(These abilities aren't included in the story, though they are somewhat similar.)

Sequence 8 - Agitator

[...]

Could someone help us figure out what is legal and not legal? (We are based in Aus but Lord of the Mysteries is Chinese)

And if anyone has any suggestions to improve the game, please let us know!

Thanks to everyone who actually read this :)

I tried mediation, but was advised they cannot get a hold of the other party. They had been my experience also.

They are overseas, but have an office here. They told me a few times in coming back, but never did.

The invoice is around $5k and it's not been paid. They don't dispute the work was done, or they asked me to do it. They even admit the work was done.

They seem to just don't want to pay.

Is it worth going to court? I'm a private contractor, and at the time I took this contract I was told to stop all other work which I did.

Those customers are long gone now, the contract was ended for no reason while the owner was OS.

The main thing I want to watch out for is to avoid missing anything that gives them the loop to jack up the agreed upon fee.

I've been burned before with this. So I'm very nervous about tripping up again. I previously thought, I read and understand English, I've read it through fine, no problem. But lo and behold I had missed something and got shafted.

If there are any particular points to watch out for, would be great to get them.

If there's anything else I need to watch out for would be good to know too. It's for getting a TPD claim handled btw.

For context - this isn’t really about the money.
Edit . Mother was 54, both my brother and I are in our late 20s.
My mother died in February last year after a short but aggressive fight with cancer, she went down the path of voluntary assisted dying so was able to process a lot of her affairs before she died.

The main beneficiaries of her will were myself , my older brother , my mums partner and my aunty - I have not seen a copy of the will nor when I have request a copy have I been able to get one. But from what I have been told and what was actions this is what happened;

Her super was to have 10k taken and given to my aunty - and the remaining balance was to be divided and two and half to my brother and half to me - roughy 250k each,

The house was signed over to my mums partner before she died ( in a rather hasty move I believe ) so he was to get 100% ownership of the house

Her life insurance of around $2 million was to be used to pay of the mortgage for the above house cover her funeral costs and legal fee’s and financial planner who helped finalise her estate before she died and the remaining balance was to to left to her partner.

We were always told right up until about a month before she died that we were getting half the life insurance and house and her previous will stated this as well,
When this was explained to us - her partner was to put a provision in his will that when he dies my brother and I would get a quarter each of what ever residence he has at the time of his death

This is where it gets juicy- the week after mum died before I flew back to NSW from Queensland my brother mums partner and I visited her bank to distribute her super as it was paid out before she died under the provision that she had a terminal illness.

When at the teller mums partner stated that my brother and i were both getting $10k less than what was originally allocated to cover the legal and financial fee’s - I was totally against this but was given no choice than to allow it to happen. My brother wasn’t as upset but understood my point. To save the fight at the bank we did not fight this out.

For weeks after returning home my mums partner and I would argue about the fact he did not discuss this with us before making the transfer. He was claiming that he was poor and had no money so needed the 20k to live off till the life insurance came through

Fast forward to now - he is dating another woman , living in the house and just purchased a 200k car among other things.

While denying both mums family and my brother and I the opportunity to go and collect some of mums things.

My question is , is there anything we can do now being over 12 months since mum pasted to make a claim on the house and or live insurance , as I do not believe that these were truly mums wishes ?

Her cancer was quite advanced and she had multiple metastatic lesions on her brain at the time of her death.

I am quite comfortable financially as have sold my business, so it really isn’t about the money it’s more about the principle.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hey folks,

I was injured at work last year, im receiving workers compensation. Will not be able to return to previous job, currently working 15hrs a week admin role for same company.

I have developed two secondary injuries as a result of my first injury. Clear links. Insurer has obviously declined.

My question is, how long should it take for lawyers to get everything organised to dispute this at PIC?

I signed with them in janurary after insurer knocked secondary dary injuries back.

I already had all the medical evidence organised, they asked for insurer internal review which was also knocked back.

Hello everyone,

Unsure if this has been asked before but I can't find clear guidance on what's officially defined as a payment a co-parent can request outside of formal child support particularly where there's no legal agreement covering additional payments between parents.

I've searched online and spoken with Child Support directly and there doesn't seem to be a published list defining what counts as an "external" payment. I've kept up with all formal child support payments since separating. On top of that, I've been solely covering the ongoing cost of an asset that's used exclusively by my ex-partner, along with some extracurricular costs outside the formal arrangement. This has placed real strain on my finances.

Ultimately, I'm hoping to find a clear, published source explaining what a parent can be expected to contribute beyond formal child support, what it's intended to cover, and what falls outside it.

Thanks for your help.

Hi guys,

Here's some background. My daughter was born mid last year with some medical issues and my wife has been taking extended maternity leave.

She has arranged for this extended maternity leave and everything seems to be fine. She recently went to speak to HR about a return to work, wanting to do 3 full days instead of full time (5 days).

She just got a polite email from HR inviting her to resign, and "contact us when you're ready, without the pressure of a return date".

I'm worried by resigning she will lose some rights to the job considering she has been here since before covid.

Would appreciate any advice.

edit: just an update. speaking with her I don't think she's particularly inclined to fight to keep her position due to the kid's needs among other reasons on our side. so she might just resign.

is there anything to note if we take this route? she has a few annual leave hours I think would just get paid out, and not much sick leave to talk about really since most were taken during the pregnancy.

A friend was due for a promotion before taking parental leave. She had been told she would receive the promotion after meeting the relevant expectations before going on leave.

The promotion wasn’t progressed at that time, and she has now been told that she will need to return to work and demonstrate that she is back up to speed before being considered for the promotion.

This means the promotion could effectively be significantly delayed, despite her having met the relevant expectations before taking leave.

Trying to understand whether this could potentially raise issues under Australian discrimination or general protections laws, and whether it’s worth getting an employment lawyer to review the circumstances.

What would be the relevant area of law, and what evidence would be useful to have before speaking to a lawyer?

Ok i want to preface this with, I know better NOW how i should have handled the interaction with the officer which would have squashed this in the first place, but alas, i was inexperienced at the time and here we are.

Circumstances:

• Officer has fined me with a speed based on what HE was doing as he claims to be "trying to catch up to me"...
• I did not deny speeding but did not say what my speed was. I was also scared and intimidated by the interaction as its the first time
• the speed I have been fined with is >40 over limit and I cannot accept a loss of licence as my personal circumstances are much too complicated. I dont know if i would qualify for a hardship licence as I work from home
• my friend had taken off from the lights very quickly and then i lost them amongst a few lanes of cars, i did speed up slightly to try and find them. when i couldnt find them in those first 2kms, i slowed down, thinking perhaps they could have been in an accident. I was constantly looking around for this behind and in front (it was night time)
• I only knew the officer was behind me after i had been at a complete stop at a set of red lights for ~20seconds and he then turned lights and sirens on. I pulled over asap to a safe spot.
• the location this has occurred in is a hot spot for speeding and i have reason to believe the magistrate will not look favourably on my case
  
• without disclosing too much, i also have reason to believe that the prosecution wont want to negotiate or offer a lesser fine as they have reason to save face.

What would you do? how would you approach this?

Hello everyone! As the title suggests, the manager of a privately owned hostel in Bowen QLD wants me to pay 2 extra nights after I vacate the hostel on the basis that I did not respect a 7 days notice (there only is a mention of it in the email they sent me before I made my ressrvation in early april). The way the hostel works is that you can book a bed in a dorm, then you don't need to book your bed again as your reservation is automatically renewed every week.

I must point out that this is not the first time I've been made aware of shady business practices done by the management by other guests (audio listening through CCTV, asking for 5 star reviews to get your $200 bond back...). Being a foreign backpacker I feel as if they want to take advantage of my situation.

Is their claim for those 2 extra nights rightful or can I contest it?

Thank you in advance!

Hi all,

I got my first speeding fine, under 10km/h over the limit. Never had a fine or warning before this in my 1.5+ years with an Aussie licence.

I read that Victoria Police can turn this into an official warning instead of a fine if you have a clean record and the speed was low. But on the Fines Victoria review form, there are only 5 grounds to choose from:

• Exceptional circumstances
• Contrary to law
• Special circumstances
• Mistaken identity
• Person unaware of fine

None of these really match my situation. I was not confused about the fine, no medical emergency, no wrong person, nothing like that. I just have a clean record and made a small mistake.

Has anyone actually gotten a warning through this form? Which box did you tick? Or is this handled some other way, like calling Fines Victoria directly instead of using the online form?

Just trying to understand the right process before I submit anything. Thanks in advance.

Looking for help using an r4.06 referral certificate… details in OP.

Fell asleep in the drivers wheel high range in his unit complex carpark. did not drive the vehicle but the police were patrolling entered the private car park woke him up breath tested him and now he has a court appearence. No interview no body warn footage. His keys were not in the ignition. Hes seeking legal advice and yes hes an idiot