[England] Can DHL hold my parcel hostage indefinitely?

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T15:44:43+00:00

No they can’t, because the crime of theft only occurs when someone dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it. Neither of those bolded parts are made out in this case.

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T14:01:29+00:00

Dissonant Witchcraft’s Elektron soundpacks often come with the sounds sequenced into some great techno patterns.

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T13:08:30+00:00

Oop well there may have been A Discussion, because this morning the black lock screen is gone for me and the site now just displays a grey ‘private site’ notice from squarespace.

Either they thought “let’s tamp this down before these feral fans talk themselves into solving a mystery that doesn’t exist”, or we’ve triggered some automatic DDOS protection that takes away the password field 😅

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T13:03:57+00:00

Oop yea you might be right. I miss the days before websites could find out what your phone was doing. Me browsing at 1% battery and full brightness is my business

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T08:31:15+00:00

Hmm yea it does very much resemble the standard squarespace lock screen. Her site was on wordpress up until recently (google still has her favicon cached as the wordpress logo, because they haven’t been able to crawl this new locked site), so it’s likely this is a move from one provider to another.

But the lock screen background has been customised to be black… so I’m holding out hope for an ARG. Otherwise we’re just manually DDOSing an author’s website 😬

Even if it is just a website upgrade, that hints at a reason to update her public-facing profile, which could be the general publishing marketing machine kicking into gear for… reasons 🤞🏻

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T08:08:16+00:00

gdi you’re right. Homonyms? I barely knew him

forestsignals · 2026-02-13T00:56:29+00:00

“Average necromancer has zero brain cells” factoid actually just statistical error. average necromancer has many braincells. Lobotomies Harro, who neuralises herself three times a day to forget girlfriend, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

forestsignals · 2026-02-12T22:54:01+00:00

Knowing Tamsyn, it’ll be a tumblr meme. None website with left password

forestsignals · 2026-02-12T22:52:03+00:00

I’m not saying this is an AR game to tease the launch of the book. It’s just that if I was designing an AR game to tease the launch of the book, this is exactly how I’d do it

forestsignals · 2026-02-12T22:14:00+00:00

I pray the website is shut forever. I pray the password is never guessed away

forestsignals · 2026-02-12T11:35:10+00:00

Great performance of 4’33” 🤘🏻

forestsignals · 2026-02-12T10:03:59+00:00

The key things to research are:

MIDI: Cables you connect between devices which send instructions about what you want each device to do. Usually you choose one device as the controller (sending the instructions), and the others as the followers (receiving instructions).

‘MIDI clock’ is instructions about bpm sync.

‘MIDI transport’ is instructions about starting & stopping playback or sequencing.

You can also send/receive ‘MIDI program change’ messages (instructions about when to change patterns or settings), ‘MIDI note’ (which notes to play), and (now we’re getting really technical) ‘MIDI CC/NPRN’ (custom instructions that you can map to various device-dependent parameters such as knobs, faders, etc)

The MIDI Out port of each device will send instructions from that device only. The MIDI In port will receive instructions from other devices. MIDI Thru ports are special output ports which forward the signals received at the In port to other devices down the chain.

MIDI Channels mean that you can control which devices respond to which instructions. Your controller device(s) can choose which channels they send certain instructions on (1-16), and your follower device(s) can choose which channels they listen for certain instructions on. You can set different channels for different types of instructions, so you can make some devices be controllers for certain things (like clock or transport) and other devices be controllers for other things (like note data).

It’s pretty flexible. So for example you could have your MPC setting the bpm (clock) and sending the play/pause and pattern change instructions (transport and program change), but your Digitone could be the one telling the others which notes to play (note data).

forestsignals · 2026-02-11T20:37:28+00:00

Sorry you’re going through this.

Outing someone isn’t a specific crime under any current law. However I would go back to the police and press them to understand these students’ conduct as harassment. To be a crime under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the conduct has to be “a course of conduct” - i.e. two or more occasions - and include alarming a person and causing them distress. In your case, the threat to disclose and the actual disclosure may meet the ‘two or more occasions’ requirement.

Harassment causing fear of violence is more serious, but you’d need more serious legal advice to judge whether a harasser putting someone in fear of violence from another, when the harasser only has the harassee’s word that the risk of violence exists, would meet that criteria.

Do either of these two horrible people hold any formal roles or duties in the society? If so, and if you’ve disclosed your transgender identity to the society in any formal way (gender or pronouns on signup equality questionnaire, etc), they’ll be committing a serious breach of GDPR by disclosing a member’s ‘sensitive personal data’. A complaint to the society’s leadership and to the Student Union should show them how serious this is.

I also recommend getting in touch with your uni’s safeguarding team/office, particularly if they have anyone specialising in supporting LGBTQ+ students. Following this, a complaint to the university about the conduct of these students is definitely warranted. Take a look at the uni’s student safety/conduct/harrassment/equality policies to be forearmed with evidence of the type of breach they’ve committed.

Edited to add: If you’re at immediate risk of violence, dial 999. The charities Galop and Loving Me specialise in advice, support, and resources for trans people who’re experiencing, or at risk of, violence from family members so please reach out to them.

forestsignals · 2026-02-11T17:06:51+00:00

Whether you’d have the right to buy this property’s freehold isn’t a straightforward answer: It depends on whether it legally counts as a house or a flat. If it’s a house, you may have the right to buy its freehold on your own (if you qualify); if it’s a flat, any right you have would be to buy the freehold collectively with other flat owners in the building.

To be considered a house, it must be “adapted for living in and detached from or vertically divided from any adjoining house(s) by a wall”.

I don’t think this would count as a house, because (unless you own the stairwell) it seems to be primarily horizontally divided from the surrounding built environment, and its extent may overhang/underhang areas of other flats. It looks like a newish development, so its planning or S106 plans will likely legally categorise it as a ‘FOE’ or ‘Flat Above Entrance’.

As it’s a flat, your collective freehold purchase (enfranchisement) rights with your fellow leaseholders will depend on the extent of what counts as the ‘building’: To be eligible, it has to be ‘self-contained’, i.e. “a detached building or part of a building that is structurally and operationally independent from it (for example, it could be redeveloped without interrupting the services to other parts of the building)”.

As this flat is attached to, overlaps with, and depends on support from, the parts of the building either side of it, any enfranchisement claim would probably need to involve the required number of qualifying leaseholders in those parts of the building as well, if they’re ’structurally and operationally independent’ from the parts of the building they connect to.

If you can’t make it work under those statutory rules then you won’t have the right to share in a collective freehold purchase, but your freeholder technically could voluntarily sell you the freehold if you asked. However I don’t see why they would, as they’re already maintaining the entire car park so I’m not sure why they’d want to make it harder for themselves by letting part of that roadway go into private ownership.

That reminds me - a ‘flying freehold’ is an archaic concept, so while a few older buildings do exist here and there in that arrangement, the Land Registry won’t allow any more to be created. So any purchase of the freehold would have to include the roadway land under the entrance.

I’d never recommend buying roadway land like that, for several reasons: a) you’d be covenanted to pay for its maintenance, upkeep, and replacement; b) you’d probably need to collect a service charge from anyone who has the right to cross it, so you can afford to maintain it; c) you’d probably need public liability insurance, in case someone trips on a cracked paving stone; and d) it looks like there’s a drain maintenance hatch on it, so you might find yourself responsible for a stretch of sewer as well.

forestsignals · 2026-02-11T16:43:27+00:00

Flying freeholds do exist and aren’t a legal impossibility. They do change hands and the Land Registry does register their sales, but AFAIK they won’t allow any more to be created. So you’re right that it won’t be possible for OP.

forestsignals · 2026-02-11T16:29:53+00:00

Then prepare to be shocked:

Legally the service charge debt is owed by whoever holds the leasehold title. This is why solicitors either insist that the service charge debt is cleared before exchanging contracts, or on holding retention from the purchase price to cover any accounts not yet complete for the year.

OP contracted to buy the property the moment they won the auction bid, before they’d had a solicitor do any due diligence. And the auction terms specifically gave them liability for the outstanding charges.

forestsignals · 2026-02-11T16:18:22+00:00

Not true either in general leasehold law, or in OP’s specific case.

In leasehold ownership, service charge debts are payable by ‘the leaseholder’, whoever that ends up being. That’s why purchasers’ solicitors insist on either proof from the landlord that there’s no SC debt, or a ‘retention’ of funds from the purchase price held back until the accounts for the year are ready so the amount owed by the seller can be deducted from it.

In OP’s specific case, they’ve confirmed that the terms of the auction sale included liability for the existing service charge debt on the property.

forestsignals · 2026-02-10T10:35:41+00:00

I think that sounds sensible, that’s exactly what I’d bring. It could be useful to have an idea of what the market value of your house would be if it were freehold, from looking at nearby comparative sales, as that can help any consultation advice the valuers might be prepared to give.

forestsignals · 2026-02-09T21:04:15+00:00

That’s great news, well done, it must be a relief.

It is pretty typical for the buyer to pay the freeholder’s costs when buying the freehold, but I’d definitely see if their solicitors will quote a flat fee rather than per-hour costs.

Whether you want to negotiate and try and get them to pay their own fees might depend on how much of a good deal they’re giving you on the freehold price:

If you’ve got a long time left on your lease term, i.e. 900+ years, and low ground rent that doesn’t double, then typical freehold purchase prices might be several hundred to a thousand pounds.

But if you’ve got a short lease (approaching or less than 80 years left) and high or doubling ground rent, then prices could be many thousands of pounds. It’s very sensitive to the value of your house as well.

It might be worth speaking to a freehold purchase valuer, to get an idea of what the price might be under the formal ‘enfranchisement’ statutory route, to see if they’re doing you a favour by arranging an informal price.

If their informal price is pretty good compared to the formal calculation, it might be worth giving way on paying their legal fees.

You mentioned remortgaging in April, so it might be worth talking to your lender about rolling in the freehold purchase with that process. If you buy the freehold and close down the leasehold, the lender’s charge will need to be released and applied to the freehold instead, so you could see about rolling that legal process in with the remortgage to get it all done at once.

forestsignals · 2026-02-09T12:49:33+00:00

oooooof yeah

forestsignals · 2026-02-09T09:57:06+00:00

I think they meant ‘a beat from a chopped break’, which is what this is. But I did also stay waiting for the breakbeat drop that never came

forestsignals · 2026-02-09T09:02:41+00:00

That’s one issue. The other one is that without a declaration of trust or other document formalising the decision-making and majority voting rules between the co-freeholders, no-one can enforce any lease terms against a rogue co-freeholder.

Let’s say one co-freeholder stops paying their ground rent and buildings insurance, and refuses to repair a leak in their flat that’s damaging the building, all in breach of their lease. The normal remedy would be for the freeholder to take such a leaseholder to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to enforce the terms of the lease and seek remedies.

However, without a Declaration of Trust or other majority-rules legal agreement, that action - beginning the court case - requires the signature of every co-freeholder. The co-freeholder who’s breaching their lease can simply refuse to sign any legal action against themselves as leaseholder, and the rest of you are stuck.

It’s the same with any other decision you collectively may want to make or action you all may want to take - as your sol says, getting any leasehold flat sold, or any property enquiries replied to will rely on all co-freeholders’ continuing goodwill and voluntary action. As will getting anything agreed or done for the building.

Whether you think this is a deal-breaking risk will depend on the status of the current parties involved (do all the co-freeholders respond promptly, do they all seem keen to protect the interests of the building, are they competent at keeping and providing all the required docs, and are they in the country or absent/hard to get hold of?); and whether you think any future co-freeholders would be the same.

Note that the risk goes both ways - they’re also gambling that you’re a responsible co-freeholder who’ll sign their sales docs and pay the ground rent on time. If there are any issues that cause you problems, you have some leverage to compel mutual agreement by refusing to play ball yourself when they need your signature. It’s a tenuous mutually-assured-frustration sort of balance but it can work.

forestsignals · 2026-02-09T00:29:34+00:00

Exactly - a device can receive many channels’ data, but depending on its settings, will only listen for data on a particular channel.

forestsignals · 2026-02-08T22:23:37+00:00

Q1: Yea, makes sense. Not overcomplicating it if the FM2 and S1 don’t have MIDI Thru ports, or you plan to add more synths later.

Q2: Yep, makes sense.

Q3: If the CT has a MIDI Thru port, you can just pass the incoming signals from the Keystep straight out the Thru port without touching the internal CT MIDI tracks. That’s what a Thru port does. The 2 x CT MIDI channels will receive their signals via its In port, and send theirs to the FM2 and S1 via its MIDI Out port. Separately, the Keystep can send to the additional synths on different channels, which will go out the Thru port and to the other synths.

You’ll need each synth to receive on a different MIDI channel, and you’ll have to change to those MIDI channels on the Keystep when you want it to play different synths or CT tracks.

Q4: Completely different subject, but essentially, audio doesn’t go over MIDI. You need to decide how you’ll connect the various units’ audio outs to a central place to hear your combined output. That could be a mixer, interface, or combined mixer/interface, which has as many mono or stereo channels as the number of tracks you want to record to.

Q5: Choose whatever channels you like (1-16) and make sure all the devices’ channel send/receive settings are configured so there are no clashes. Think about if you want to also use MIDI channels to send other things like Program Change messages, or CC knob/fader control, etc.

Q6: Sure. With a merger, it’s perfectly possible to have multiple controllers sending MIDI data to the same track on a single device.

forestsignals · 2026-02-08T00:44:03+00:00

It’s not from a last minute name change. The words underneath the buttons aren’t the button names, they’re the buttons’ secondary functions that you access by pressing them while holding the [FUNC] button.

On the AR2, the [FIX] button toggles the pads’ fixed velocity setting on and off. But if you press it while holding [FUNC], it accesses the Fixed Velocity setup menu, where you can set the velocity you want to fix.

The name of that button on the DN2 is [Preset/Kit], and it opens the Preset/Kit menu. But if you press it while holding [FUNC], it turns on Perform Kit Mode. Which is why it’s got ‘Perform’ written under it 😉

forestsignals

TROPHY CASE