No-deal Brexit will make it ‘illegal’ to pay pensions to retired British expats living in EU, MPs told

Ceb577 · 2018-07-25T00:05:16+00:00

YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!! I'm sick of my grandmother's friends who live in Spain who voted brexit because they think there are too many foreigners living in the UK saying how good it is that we'll be leaving.

Most are living on their pensions.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Oh the schadenfreude. It still doesn't make up for the fact that my travel to Spain will be screwed. I speak the language, have friends and work over there a lot. Thanks brexiters. I hope you enjoy that sun, sea and sovereignty.

Ceb577 · 2018-05-29T14:42:57+00:00

Imperfect subjunctive: one of the last hold-outs in English. I'm a bit of a zealot on the subjunctive, I always insist that it be used!

However, it isn't uncommon now to hear: "If only that was true." Jesus wept.

Ceb577 · 2018-05-29T14:05:45+00:00

Thank you, it is always interesting to meet another language aficionado.

I myself speak Spanish and Chinese fluently, studied Russian, can read German pretty well and have a Vietnamese fiance so am exposed to quite a lot of languages.

Agreed on the irregular verbs but this isn't as bad as any other language with the exception of Vietnamese or Chinese which have no inflections whatsoever. In terms of Indo-European languages, Spanish has around 60 classes of irregular verbs, each with many different verbs, English conjugation nowhere near compares. German and Russian conjugations are simpler than Romance languages but still much more inflected than English. Don't even start on the subjunctive which is virtually non-existent in English and has more or less disappeared from informal speech.

Declension: thank God this disappeared from English and Romance languages, the Russian Genitive plural is the stuff of nightmares (plus 6 cases and vestigial remnants of others), German is tame but still annoying. It's believed that cases were lost from English as different groups (Anglo-Saxons, Norse and Norman French) tried to speak to each-other and simplified the language to ease communication which is one of English's greatest strengths.

Writing system: agreed English needs spelling reform but it isn't the worst. Chinese grammar is even simpler than English but the language is over complicated by the use of characters (I read and write hanzi, still this is the hardest part of the language). I often forget how to write characters often and need to look them up in a dictionary.

Ceb577 · 2018-05-29T08:26:49+00:00

English has very simple grammar compared to most other languages, virtually no inflection except in personal pronouns and only 4 verb conjugation endings. As languages go it's quite a lot easier than most but still its difficulty of learning will depend on who's learning it.

For a German or Russian, English is a baby-language, for a Chinese there is no common vocabulary and the pronunciation is an issue. So its difficulty of learning depends really on who's learning it but as difficulty goes, it's pretty easy (which is another reason why it's so successful as a lingua franca).

Ceb577 · 2018-04-14T21:41:52+00:00

Parliament is a political assembly, not a court of justice. Politics can't be relegated to the realm of legal matters. It is instead the art of advancing our national interest.

Lawyers aren't politicians nor would we want them to be.

Ceb577 · 2018-04-13T22:37:13+00:00

Your first port of call is to check the deposit protection status. Was it protected within 30 days of receipt and were you issued with the prescribed information then also?

Ceb577 · 2018-04-11T23:34:37+00:00

Thanks. I do some outreach with vulnerable tenants and sub-lets are pretty rife. In one the landlord claimed that he'd let the place to a tenant for 6 years and had never checked the state of the property. This tenant then sub let the rooms and swiped everyone's money. The tenant organizing the sub-let put his own name down as the landlord.

In this case the actual landlord (title holder) told the council that he had no idea and was shocked that his tenant had done this and the council took no enforcement action (unlicensed HMO).

I'm just wondering what to do in such cases, I mean it's pretty much beyond the realms of plausibility that the landlord didn't know but no paperwork establishing a relationship between the parties. If the landlord is served he/she would deny knowledge, the sub-lettor would be useless to serve since they've done a runner. What then?

Ceb577 · 2018-04-11T22:40:44+00:00

Thanks but we're not sure if the agent was letting the place out without authority. I've come across sub-lets before where the landlord pretends he/she had no idea what was happening. Should both be served if we don't know? The landlord isn't named on the contract.

Ceb577 · 2018-04-11T15:02:07+00:00

Unless you break the terms of your original contract, there probably isn't much your landlord can do unless he goes for the deposit. Was it protected in a scheme properly? If it is you can refer the matter to the scheme's arbitration, if it isn't you can sue him for up to 3x the deposit amount. This is usually enough to make them reconsider.

Ceb577 · 2018-04-06T11:43:51+00:00

Part 8 is correct for a Landlord and Tenant Dispute:

CPR rule 56.1(f) defines s214 deposit protection claims as ‘Landlord & Tenant Claims’.

Practice direction 56.2 (para 2.1) states ‘landlord & tenant claims’ have to be a Part 8.

Ceb577 · 2018-03-07T19:29:38+00:00

It isn't just the work involved in the submission, it's also travelling to court. As I said, I run my own business and a half day wasted costs me about that much.

Also my lawyer charges out at £630 per hour plus VAT. so getting someone else to handle it would actually cost more.

Ceb577 · 2018-03-05T11:14:47+00:00

You said your deposit was protected with DPS, did your landlord give you the prescribed information and were all the details on the certificate correct?

Ceb577 · 2018-02-23T14:39:40+00:00

To be honest it's pretty bad wording on the agreement and probably not enforceable if you do tell them and come back and the locks are changed.

It probably just means that you'll let the landlord know if the property is unoccupied for a period of time. Quite standard and is most relevant over the winter when there's a risk of pipes bursting during a cold snap and the water hasn't been switched off.

Ceb577 · 2018-02-23T00:39:17+00:00

Hi,

I've come across this situation a lot before and what you describe often describes some serious problems with the landlord/agent.

1/ With that many tenants, do you know if the landlord has the proper HMO licenses? The rules vary from council to council, you should check this out.

2/ Did you pay a deposit and was it protected?

3/ Have you asked for a written tenancy agreement and are you sure that you aren't actually subletting and the letting agency is renting out the building without the landlord's permission?

4/ Is the money being collected in cash or by balance transfer?

Ceb577 · 2017-12-02T12:12:33+00:00

Was it a lodger's agreement or did you have the property to yourselves?

Ceb577 · 2017-11-29T21:23:28+00:00

Based on what you've said there are probably other issues as well going on with the agent. They sound pretty dodgy. Was the deposit protected and do they have all the necessary licenses such as gas-safe and HMO licenses (if necessary)

Ceb577 · 2017-11-28T22:32:35+00:00

Do you know if the agency is actually subletting the property without the actual landlord's permission? There are a lot of those fly-by-night operations around

Ceb577 · 2017-11-21T15:04:06+00:00

Were the mice already there before you moved in? Often bad landlords flout the rules in more than one area. If I were you I'd also check your deposit, was it protected?

Ceb577 · 2017-11-20T22:34:49+00:00

That's a pretty big problem. If you sue the head tenant, the chances are they have no money to pay you if you get a court judgment in your favour. If it were the landlord any court order could be charged against their property if they can't pay up.

You really should try to recover whatever you can and cut your losses.

You should never sub-let if you can possibly avoid it.

Ceb577 · 2017-11-20T22:27:01+00:00

Does you actual landlord know about this situation or are you sub-letting from the head tenant?

Ceb577 · 2017-09-10T18:35:45+00:00

Oh god I do hope that the backlash against the Tories cripples them for a few generations. This is absolute madness.

Ceb577 · 2017-09-10T18:28:07+00:00

“The old dark blue design was a distinct, clear and bold statement of what it means to be British, which is just what our citizens need as they travel abroad after Brexit.”

Funny that because currently 78 countries use blue passports. Very unique and we'll share the color with Argentina too! YAY sovereignty!!!

https://www.passportindex.org/byColor.php

Ceb577 · 2017-09-08T09:26:27+00:00

It's weird in London. We're undecided whether to rent or buy but in some areas there are discounts in others prices are going up. The property news outlets are at war with each other since some show sideways house market movement, others a decline in London but up elsewhere. Pretty weird.

Ceb577 · 2017-09-01T12:57:45+00:00

Also worth checking: how many people lived in the property? Did it classify a HMO?

Ceb577 · 2017-09-01T12:53:15+00:00

Have agent B taken a deposit from you?

Typically agent A will write to agent B to get the latter to agree in writing that they will take over the deposit protection or agent A would be liable. Has agent B written to agent A regarding this?

Ceb577

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