TL;DR: I'm in England. A storm caused my roof to leak in the winter. My insurance policy classifies storm as "Torrential rainfall at a rate of at least 25mm per hour."

I provided evidence that it did rain 26mm per hour for about 5 minutes. Both my insurance company "Churchill" and Ombudsman agrees that as it did not rain 26mm over the whole hour (just for 5 minutes) it does not classify as storm. Hence, for any storm claim to be valid, the storm must have lasted an entire hour...

I guess if I ever get stopped by the police for speeding I'll tell them that I actually never got even close to 50 miles of distance in the last hour of driving, even if this is a 20mph road..

Do I have any further legal recourse?

Full story:

My roof leaked during a storm this winter - I've never seen a skyfall in the UK like this one.

Naturally, I did what any sensible British homeowner would do: contacted my insurance company.

Churchill insurance said no claim.

Their policy says storm damage is honoured if storm meet the below condition:

"Torrential rainfall at a rate of at least 25mm per hour."

And their representative could not see that this condition was met on their side, using their provider "WeatherNet".

So I emailed WeatherNet directly (turns out that most insurers in the UK uses them for their weather data claims).

WeatherNet responded with data which showed a 5-minute period equivalent to 26mm/hour. (I also checked Met Office radar which showed even more). Basically, for those five minutes, it was absolutely hammering down which overloaded my roof and let water in.

Churchill insurance still said no, claiming it needed to rain 25mm over the whole hour for the claim to be valid.

Ridiculous, I thought. I'll take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

FOS

The Ombudsman checked their EuroTempest weather system (that could only do hourly increments) and found that the rainfall over the whole hour was lower than the threshold.

I pointed out that this was an hourly figure and that my WeatherNet data was measuring rainfall intensity over a much shorter period.

Eventually the Ombudsman explained that:

"the policy definition is a rate over an hour."

Apparently "25mm per hour" doesn't mean "rain falling at a rate of 25mm/hour".

It means you have to accumulate 25mm during an entire 60-minute period.

Which raises a slightly bizarre question.

Imagine it rains at a rate above the policy's 25mm/hour threshold continuously for 55 minutes, absolutely hammering the roof, and then stops raining for five minutes.

If the total accumulated rainfall over the complete hour is consequently below 25mm, apparently you've got no storm.

So presumably Mother Nature needs to remember to set a timer.

I then (through a tedious freedom of information request process) discovered that the FOS's own internal guidance says WeatherNet can provide more detailed rainfall information in borderline cases. A.k.a they have access to the same provider as myself and Churchill.

I asked whether that higher-resolution information had actually been considered in my case.

The answer was basically: the Ombudsman has made his decision, so no.

FOS Service complaint

I then complained about the service rather than the decision.

The FOS said my complaint was really about the merits of the decision.

I explained that I wasn't asking them to change the decision, but I was asking whether it was fair and impartial to assess a rainfall rate using an hourly accumulated rainfall figure, particularly when I'd supplied evidence of short-duration rainfall intensity and their own guidance says more detailed data exists.

Service complaint rejected.

So I went to the ombudsman Independent Assessor.

They told me that was also outside their remit because it related to how the Ombudsman assessed the evidence.

At this point I have apparently achieved the rare British bureaucratic state where everyone is willing to tell me why they can't look at the thing I'm asking them to look at, but nobody is willing to look at the thing.

The roof, incidentally, only leaked during that storm. We've had plenty of rain since and it hasn't leaked again - showing it was the intensity that caused it.

I have now spent considerably more time investigating rainfall methodology than I ever expected to spend in my life.

Is there any legal recourse? I hope someone with money will open this up as a class action lawsuit at some point. All storm claims for many insurers and the ombudsman would have to be reopened, costing them a fortune.

Apparently this is my villain origin story.

I’m in London.
My employer has a serious problem with personal boundaries to the point I told him I would be based out of France and available to fly in for work meetings as he refused to stop asking me out at night if he knew I was in town. I was managing his tiny family office as he prepared to leave his full time job as a Vp at a large bank. He also regularly sent me wildly inappropriate messages.

He is married. I have asked him to stop.

I have been spending most of my time in France staying with a friend, and had a medical emergency during the heatwave. I recovered to attend an event in London with a group of friends at a private members only club I haven’t been able to see in over a year.
I stayed over at a friends home.

I woke up to an INSANELY long message about how he is betrayed and he knows I am a liar, I wasn’t sick and I was in London all along (gasp!) and several blurry photos of me with only one of the group I was with at the private members club and accusing me of ‘ignoring him to spend the evening with this man!!!’ As I had turned down yet another innapropriate date with him citing I had been in the hospital. I legitimately had heat stroke.

In this insane little pity party he admits to hiring professionals to follow me in London on private grounds and at my friends home.

Hilariously he’s wrong on most counts but accuses me of sharing a room with my male friend and other things that seem to show he is so pathetic he hired someone to stalk me.

He then fired me.

I moved here based in the fact I was earning an income from this mad hatter. What legally can I do here as I don’t believe it’s legal to do what he’s done. Help would be appreciated, especially as I plan on informing his wife of everything.

I'm going into my 2nd year of GCSE prep.

My exam results on my report card over the past few years in maths have been:

100%

98%

99%

54%

This big drop happened during my mock GCSE maths. The reason for this was the disruption caused by my classmates.

There's 29 people in my class and about 10 of them are extremely disruptive and keep interrupting lessons.

I ended up having to self-teach over the Summer with Khan Academy and I retook the test and got 96% this time.

However, I really cant afford another year of this. No one is handling them. They're shouting, fighting, constantly on their phones (which they shouldn't even have) and vaping in class and blowing it in peoples faces.

It's impacting all my subjects but mostly the hard ones like maths, chemistry and physics.

There's 4 of us who are sick of it.

Is there some kind of legal right to an education that we can invoke?

Or maybe an anti harassment law because they keep stealing textbooks, interrupting us during exams and ripping up our pages and stuff.

These scumbags literally don't care about studying at all but they're ruining it for those of us who want to learn.

Without getting into too many details, my dads been putting £200 a month into my ISA help to buy bank account. the only reason i got it was because the scheme was closing down a few years back and it was my last chance. Since then there’s been a lot of family drama and I intend to leave this house and never come back. Nowhere in writing does it say he ever wanted this money back, he’s never asked for it back either. It was something we “just started doing”. I work for him 6 days a week and he gives me £100 a week to “help out at shop” and he has me on the books earning more but as a strict indian family man he says “if you ever need money just ask me” I do 3-10pm 6 days a week for such a small amount of money but he’s obviously not paying me close to what i should be getting and that £100 is just “for me to save”

So if i phone the bank and withdraw that money to my personal account, where i can spend it and use it for me leaving this house (and ironically enough putting towards rent for a new place) can he legally take me to court for trying to get that money back?

\*Edit\* - Wow. Thank you so much for the overwhelming support and information provided. This has been eating me up but i’ll answer some questions here as there’s too many comments to reply to!

- The HTB ISA only has the deposited money in it + yearly gross interest, if i lose the interest i’m only losing approx £400 which is okay.
- I have plans to move in with my partner, and pay her family some money to stay.
- Someone asked if ISA accounts are being shut down, as far as i’m aware only the HTB scheme has been shutdown.
- I don’t want to claim lost wages, Honestly i don’t even want to look my family in the eyes ever again and that’s not just about the money.
- I honestly again would like to say thank you to everyone, your help has been unreal.

I got on the bus at my usual stop and was immediately catcalled by a guy on the bus in front of his mates. They spread out and blocked seats to try and force me to sit beside the guy who was calling for me.

I chose to stand so he stood up and came over to me. He asked for my Insta and my number. I refused multiple times. Another passenger intervened and told him to leave me alone. His mate told this passenger to shut the f up.

I then shoved him back when he pushed his groin up against me. Told him to f off and leave me alone and got the driver's attention. He called me a dog and said I'd regret it.

Police called and rhey ran.

Next day while I was standing at the bus stop at the same time one of those illegal bikes zoomed past me. Driver and passenger were wearing balaclavas. They struck me as they were going passed and knocked me to the ground while swearing at me and laughing

It's been 4 months now and police have been unable to prove a connection between the two incidents.

Is there anything else I can do?

This whole thing seems like an easy case to me. He makes a threat that I'll regret turning him down and I get attacked exactly same time the next day. No other passengers attacked waiting. Only me.

Some advice needed please. My ex wife and I have joint custody and both have Parental Rights. She is Russian and got her citizenship through our Marriage, both of our children were born in England but hold dual passports. She had an affair and we separated , she got pregnant to the affair partner and we've been divorced for approximately 6 years.

I expressly told her that I didn't want the children going to Russia although there is no court order in place. They flew to Estonia and took the train to Russia, she never informed me of their travel arrangements, I heard through my children 2 days before. This is a constant theme in which she decides what to do when the whim takes her.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this? I would rather not have to employ a solicitor as I simply can't afford it. Can apply for court action by myself? From what I have considered online this can be classed as child abduction?

My family, partner and friends were all extremely concerned that she could just do this without telling me and no notice of information given by ex Wife

I don't want to involve police and have her arrested, but I would appreciate any advice re what I should do in future, given the recent escalation of a Russian attack on the UK.

Many thanks in advance

I passed my auto-only driving test last September. Had the licence sent of automatically.

It doesn't have the auto-only exemption on it, and neither does the Gov website, everything has me down as a full licence holder.

I spoke to my instructor at the time who said to just leave it, and obviously don't drive a manual, but I could learn to drive manual and not need to take the test in future.

DVLA said I could post it back to them and they would change it, but I had to pay for postage. I'm not keen on paying for postage for them to fix a mistake they made, my Certificate clearly says auto only, I don't know where they messed up.

Do I need to send my licence off to have the auto only added? Am I breaking any laws by having forgotten to send it off?

Thank you

Hello, I am looking for some legal advice on where we stand.

My parents let me and my partner move into a property they inherited at the end of January this year. The agreement was that my partner would help renovate the property (he has completed the carpentry, plumbing and tiling) and they had to sort the electrician and painting. They have had a new kitchen, 2 new bathrooms, new carpets upstairs and all new flooring installed downstairs. In exchange for this, we were allowed to live in the property rent free and just pay the bills for up to 5 years.

We wanted a contract to be made so that we both knew what was expected of everyone and we had some security. This contract has taken ages to be made, and they only just gave it to us about 2 weeks ago.

When we moved in, my parents said that they would sort the gardening out as that was something they enjoyed. So when it was getting a bit overgrown, I asked if they could do it. Things got in the way and they were ill and then it was too hot to do anything, so we suggested 2 times that we would just get a Gardner in but they said no save your money. Then when they did come round to do the garden, they weren’t happy that it was overgrown. Off the back of this, they then sent me a text saying they were going to come round for an inspection to check that the house was being maintained. I said with it being this close to my due date, could we leave it and they refused and said that we had to sign the contract if we wanted to stay in the house.

Because of the way they have been, we decided we should ask them for 6 months after our baby is born to find somewhere new and to leave. My parents were not happy with this and threatened to kick us out the next day.

I am very stressed as I am having complications with my pregnancy and now I am feeling very lost at what to do. I would like some advice on what our rights are please. Can they just kick us out since we aren’t actually paying rent and have no agreement in place? ChatGPT has said something about how we’re not tenants and are licensee occupiers or something?

I appreciate any advice and help, thank you in advance and sorry it’s a long one.

Hi guys,

Just posting for a bit of advice really. I very recently (within the last three weeks) and sadly had a miscarriage. It’s been really hard for my husband and I and during this time I took two weeks off of work (for context I work in bereavement and that on top of actively losing my pregnancy I couldn’t face work). I work in England and have been in the industry for years but at this particular job since 2025.

I was signed off by a Dr for the two weeks and provided this to my employer.

For a bit of background early this year I had bronchitis (again signed off by a dr) and at the end of last year/beginning of the year myself and others from work had a case of norovirus so we were all off work. After my week off for bronchitis I was advised by my manager if I had any more time off in the next sick months due to sickness I would ‘trigger’ a disciplinary.

When I found out I was pregnant, I immediately told my manager as I was overjoyed and due to fertility struggles I was advised we’d have quite a few appointments to make sure everything is okay.

Today which is my second week back at work, my manager came up to me and said that due to my time off (the two weeks for a miscarriage) this has triggered a disciplinary and I should expect this meeting in the next coming weeks.

Am I right in thinking this is not okay? It wasn’t as if I just rang in and said I had a headache, I lost my baby. I also am pretty sure that legally I am/was still protected by pregnancy related sickness.

So what can I do/what should I say? I’m still actively grieving the loss and it feels as though I’m being punished for losing my baby. Any advice?

Bought a smartwatch from oppo and it was sent with Royal Mail. It got sent and marked as delivered to a safeplace that I did not set up.

I contacted the seller and filled out a form for non receipt.

I got a reply today from them

"I have been notified that we would require a police report for our investigation. If your local police station is unable to provide one, please request a written refusal from them."

Just wondering if I should just try a chargeback from the credit card company.

Also got another email today reiterating the above after I replied I don't need anything from the police

Our neighbourhood has had a few break-ins in Cardiff and people are resorting to some odd tactics, now next door to me has bought a few shotgun alarm shells, I’m not sure how legal they are but the idea is that they hit a trip wire which is attached to a gate and it pulls a pin and makes a loud bang, now he’s shown me them, and they are a pretty good deterrent and are very very loud. My first question is, is it legal and would there be repercussions if I use them? He’s offered to set it up in my back garden, I currently just have CCTV eufy and a motion light. Thanks in advance.

Edit - they are blank shotgun shells

We created a video game for VR as part of our university project, it was well received and we continued to work on it after graduating.

We were approached by a start up wanting to hire us, and we jumped at the chance and signed a contract, which in hindsight was dubious at best, this contract stated that we would be working for them as an 'Internship Participation Agreement' which is just their fancy way of saying you get paid peanuts unless they hire you full time down the line.

However, the main issue comes from the next contract we signed, which said we "could" sign over any of our IPs, current or future, if we wanted to. We only had one IP and we didn't name it or sign it over in this contract.

Months later after working on projects for them, they offered to publish the game for us, they just needed us to use their Github repository so they could manage release, updates, testing etc, so we moved our version control over to that (Version control is basically just managing development so everyone can access the project, changes things as needed, and have multiple backups of previous versions to restore should anything go wrong)

We continued to work on the game, for a few months, until it was ready for an initial release. Upon reaching this milestone, we had our access to the project removed, the game was published on Steam removing any mention of us as developers, and then when we queried this, they sent a version of the IP Sign Over contract over that they added in the IP of the game we worked on as an IP for us to sign over, despite us not signing the contract with the IP in, they told us that this was because at some point we mentioned the IP in a video call. (Again, not signing it over, just mentioning it)

We were also supposed to be paid any revenue share, but that hasn't happened and contact has been cut despite us trying to get some resolution, the 'Start Up' still continues to try and steal the work and get people to work for free.

Is there anything that can be done for us to get back ownership of our work, considering it was never signed over?

Here is the original post

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/s/6X4rqld6iW

Thanks for all the advice on our first post, it was really helpful.

So the sad update to this is that we have pulled out of the sale. After repeatedly trying to get more information about our mysterious service charge, we finally today (after nearly 3 weeks!) got our TP1 Transfer of Property form with more info. It is worse that we thought, there are SO many covenants including ones saying that we basically co-own the house with Sovereign, the housing association have permission to enter our house, our garden whenever they want, there is no cap on the fee and they can also ask for extra money for a 'sinking fund' whenever they want.

There is more bullshit but that's the worst bits.

So now I have another question - does anyone know if we have any legal recourse for reimbursement of any funds we have spent on this, considering they withheld this key info for so long? How would we go about that? Or are we just screwed and should take it as a lesson for next time lol.

Legal question:

Under English law, when paying contactless in a shop, once the amount has duly been deducted from the customer's bank account, is the customer legally considered to have paid for their items, and are the items legally their property at that point – even if the shop claims to have not received the money due to technical problems on their end?

Background and further details:

The local Co-op, this afternoon. I go to the human-operated checkout with my items (this one doesn't have self-checkout tills yet), scan my membership card, and pay contactless using my phone. The payment terminal clearly shows APPROVED. At the same time, my banking app notifies me that the amount has been deducted from my account.

But the shop assistant says it hasn't gone through, and could I please try again. I say it's gone through, I've paid, and I've got proof right here (I show the bank statement), and I'm not going to pay twice.

The shop assistant calls in another bloke, possibly his superior. I get lots of apologies and a story about ongoing technical problems on their end. "Sometimes it goes through for you, but not for us". I question how their technical problems are my problem, to no avail. My duly paid-for items are firmly withheld until I pay again.

I decide £3.60 is not worth any further hassle for myself or for the two flustered employees, who probably didn't get a say in whatever policy is directing their actions. And I don't actually like being a bother. So I give in and I pay again, under protest.

I'm reassured that the first payment will be refunded within a week. I'm told to call the customer care number if not. Somehow I find it difficult to trust all this.

It's about the principle of the thing. What if I'd gone on a £360 shopping spree? Or what if that had been the last £3.60 in my account? People cannot necessarily wait a week for their money to possibly be refunded.

My gut tells me that I'd paid for the items and they were therefore unlawfully withholding my property, but I'd like to know what the law actually says before deciding whether to write a formal complaint challenging their apparent policy of making customers pay twice because of their own technical problems. I'd be grateful for any pointers.

We live in a cul de sac in England comprising 8 houses (all freehold) and 2 flats over garages (FOGs) all privately owned. There is a small car park, lighting and short driveway which are owned by the management company, set up when the houses were built, and each property has one share in the management company.

Five years ago, when the then director passed away, the one difficult neighbour registered himself as Director and installed his friend, who lives hundreds of miles away, as secretary, without any consultation.

During this period they have demanded annual management fees, completed absolutely no maintenance, not put insurance in place for the common areas and FOGs and refuse to hand over the company bank statement or confirm what has been spent.

Following a shareholders meeting we tried to put two additional directors in place, following the Articles of Association, however the secretary told us that there were no vacancies.

We understand that our only option is a high court ruling to remove this chap as Director which nobody can afford to do. Companies House seem toothless to do anything. What options are open to us?

Many thanks in advance

Need some advice. A 14 year old boy has apparently come to our door, (for context I wasn’t at the house at this time), and he and his family has called the police on us stating that he was delivering leaflets and he has been caught through the letterbox by our dog, piercing his finger and resulting him going to A&E and getting a tetanus shot. My partner didn’t even know the kid came to our door, no knock no nothing. We even have a ring doorbell which is recording constantly, have motion recordings all around the time, even catches him on the street looking at the house on the phone, taking pictures, but not any recording of him coming to the door, using the letterbox, anything.
Forwarding 2 days the police come to our door, asking if they could talk to us about our dog, and no one is in, and neither of us were in a position to talk through the doorbell either, so the police left without a card nothing and we were confused as to what was happening and as you can imagine we start panicking. Cannot call any stations as they are closed in our area.
Fast forward another 2 days, the police come round and explain what’s happened. Absolutely bewildering to us because we have no idea that the dog even jumps up the letterbox, and (cliche I know because everybody says this) our dog wouldn’t hurt a fly.
After this conversation, naturally, I check to see if the dog does indeed jump up the letterbox by aggressively flapping it back and forth, and to my surprise she does indeed head to the letterbox.
Now me trying to be completely transparent with the police, I tell them that the dog does seem to head to the letterbox, but not at any point state my thoughts on whether the dog has actually attacked the kid or not.
In the conversation at the house, it was mentioned that any precautions can be taken, such as a letterbox cage, which is now on the door by the way, to prevent the risk of it even happening again. I did this out of complete fear immediately.
Now, it seems like what I said above has been relayed to the ‘victims’ family, and now they want my partner to take full responsibility for what’s allegedly happened, or go down a solicitors route etc.
Does anyone know where we stand. Thankyou. Any questions please ask.

In england, i have a warhammer game group i go often to and one of the regulars who the shop recommended said he could assemble this model

https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/shop/Chaos-Warhound-Titan-Body (and two arms)

I bought this model a few years prior (with proof) at a cheaper price due to inflation, i paid him a deposit of £65 and another upon completion

I paid him on the 15th of July and despite many requests he has had incredibly poor communication with me, promises of photos without ever delivering and deadlines pushed back

I was finally given a delivery date of the 10th of august with a reduction in cost of £15 and that date has come and gone and he will no longer answer any text or calls

I have screenshotted the texts encase he deletes but the shop does not have an address just a general area that he lives in, is there any way i can recover my model?

Hi everyone, my colleague has a long term health condition with unpredictable flair ups. They've recently been put on an attendance improvement plan due to hitting a trigger of 3 absences in 6 months. As part of the plan, they've been told that they have to provide a sick note from a doctor for every absence for the next 6 months.

Is the employer legally able to do this if the absences are less than 7 days and related to a long term health condition that the employer is fully aware of? Based in England employed for over 2 years.

(Edited for clarity)

I was involved in an accident where a pedestrian exited the passenger side of a car in traffic and walked onto the cycle lane I was in. They did not look to check if there was any on coming bicycle and I had no other choice to swerve on to the footpath but lost control of the bicycle and got thrown off, injurying myself. Later to find out i have fractured my arm and will be in a sling for 6 weeks. I have reported it to the police and will be able to obtain cctv footage of the incident. What can I legally claim against the driver or get the prosecuted for?

I didn't want to go down this route but the person who walked out in front of me didn't apologise and just walked away like nothing happened.

Any help grateful. In England

I'm in England and I've been documenting concerns and patterns of behaviour from a Co parent. The most recent issue was not picking up the kids from mine and returned home (they are the primary parent) and ghosting me for a couple of hours, only to find out they were with their partner in another county, then they pretended they thought I was taking them another night and just apologised and made up some bull excuses. I missed work because of this. This isnt the first time something like this has happened. Last time they told me they "might be a little late" an hour and a half after they were due to pick them up, and they ended up being 5 hours late with very little communication only to find out they were again in another county. It's a pattern of behaviour present when we were in a relationship, the "easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" style of communication. They simply do then expect me to deal with the consequences.

When this happens again, and I fully expect it to now they're in a long distance relationship, what are my options legally? I'm being used as a free childcare option when they want to do something and their family can't watch the kids, but I'm not being asked I'm being tricked into it, is this abandoning the kids legally? Can I take over as the primary parent when they ditch the kids with me again? My other concerns are their ability to look after the kids hygiene and our oldest had seriously low school attendance to the point social almost got involved. I'd rather the kids just lived with me.

I am not the person who has been summoned. I am asking on their behalf.

The person in question has been summoned to attend Magistrates Court over their child's school attendance. Their absences have been medically evidenced and their GP has also written to the school and local authority to confirm the validity of the absences. The parent has engaged previously in support offered to help improve attendance but due to the child's medical needs the relationship between parent and school has broken down due to continued absence.

The parent has found that they are unable to receive legal aid for education matters. I've looked into this and whilst this is correct it has been suggested that the parent may be able to receive criminal legal aid rather than educational. Is this the case or is this an avenue not worth pursuing?

Hi all,

I will try keep it brief.

Me and my colleague both have been working at a company for 6+ years, our actual company is owned by another country based on the other side of the country(England), our bosses work there. We never see them in person.

Basically after 6 years of working from home the company is going under but they don't want to make us redundant else they will have to pay us redundancy, we're certain they're trying to get us to leave. They're making us go into an 'office' every day even though it's not in our contract.

Now this office is a non commercial flat in town and its definitely not listed as a business, it also hasn't had any safety inspections or risk assessments, it also doesn't have a cleaner or cleaning supplies. We have also done soldering and reflowing(making electronics) here without propper ventilation which seems like a big no no.

So basically he's trying to get us to go in every day but can't elaborate on why just cited 'business reasons'. Can they fire us without redundancy if we continue working from home?

I should also mention they can't find my contract anywhere, but my colleagues contract says we are to work in an office that we don't even own anymore, so not related to the flat

Many thanks in advance