I figured I'd revive this thread as opposed to creating a new random rant one:
Long Story:
I finally got myself a... 'terribly-paid-but-decent-if-you-put-in-six-days-a-week job,' after a few terrible, terrible years of scratching to get by, and I had a surprising figure in the bank, so I figured I'll treat myself to a holiday this summer to Las Venturas... Errr, Sin City.... Las Vegas! I went a decade ago (Literally! (Well, it will be, my old passport was stamped June 2007)), indeed, I mentioned it in a thread way back when... (Ye gads I feel old... Hell, this place feels old). I have well more than enough saved now to pay for it, emergencies, etc, etc (Just in case someone wants to rant about poor people sneaking out of their holes)...
So, holiday to Vegas, blah, blah.
My passport was a couple of years out of date so I thought (being vaguely sensible on occasion) I'd have a nose at prices a couple of months back... Hey! Those prices look alright, I'll sort my passport out and live it up this year...
Fast forward to yesterday morning... I know my passport is in the post. I look up prices... It's gone up £300! since just a couple of months back! Bloody ridiculous! I go to bed (working nights). I check again, before work (same evening) ... They've gone down £100 for the same flights, the same hotel!
- Next day I receive my new passport nine (9! Only! I was semi shocked!) days after applying and... The price had gone down £50 for - You guessed it, same days, same flights, same hotel...
Long story short:
Places should set a price for a day and sodding well stick to it. <Grumble, mumble, rumble...>
Give me a sodding reasonable price and let me book, as opposed to playing roulette before I even get out there!
I'd forgotten the 'fun' which was booking a holiday yourself, as opposed to taking as gospel the travel agent price... Sure, you pay through the nose, but, GYARGHHHHH!!!!... I'll hunt the next few weeks, but regardless... It's BLOODY STUPID!!!!
...
Since starting this post a while back (and forgetting it) the prices have varies another chunk of change... Sodding well sort the price out!!!!! Hate! Hate!! HATE!!! ... (Well it's not real hate but it is incredibly annoying srring thr dame flights/hotel vary so often)... ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Set a sodding price and stick to it! Let it be first come-first served at those prices! Don't just randomly vary the price by the 'phase of the moon in Jupiter'... ARGGHHHH!!!
Ranty McRant Thread 2
Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum
I HATE making travel arrangements. Booking flights, hotel reservations, rentals, all that crap... And, price fluctuations are, I agree, ridiculous. (Make 'em early! :/ ) To me, if I pay a little bit extra for a travel agent to do everything, it's worth it. Not "100% markup" sort of worth it, but worth it if I get some bells&whistles along with it.
It's worth noting that casinos and such can have some good package deals, including airfare, lodging, meals, etc... (Not sure about overseas flights, but maybe?) It's in their interest to make it easier and more convenient for you to lose your money at their establishment.
Not a big fan of gambling and such. Maybe a friendly game of poker or something and that's about it. The excitement of the win vs risk just never got to me.
It's worth noting that casinos and such can have some good package deals, including airfare, lodging, meals, etc... (Not sure about overseas flights, but maybe?) It's in their interest to make it easier and more convenient for you to lose your money at their establishment.
Not a big fan of gambling and such. Maybe a friendly game of poker or something and that's about it. The excitement of the win vs risk just never got to me.
My own rant for the day:
The Watered Down World of Profound Thought - Welcome to the Internetz.
A five-year-old runs into the room and announces to their parents, "Howdy Doody just said something neat!" Then, they rush back out to finish watching "The Howdy Doody Show" and leave their parents in peace.
This living-nightmare made of wood was, at one time, a much-beloved source of entertainment for many 'Murican kids.
Most of the "social-media celebs" have little difference between themselves and a wooden doll on strings. Yet, for some strange reason, people think they're "important." Sometimes, people think they have something "profound" to say. In the bajillion years since Teh Interwebz was founded, I've never read or heard anything profound related by any social-media-other-crap person that hasn't already been said by someone who's even more profound, more well-respected, and should be more well-known.
I think people just don't bother with learning stuffs anymore. They want some vacuous moron to dribble out mouthings directly into their head instead of actually taking the trouble to "learn stuffs" by reading some of what truly great thinkers have to say on any given subject.
So, today I booted up the 'puter, opened up my Firefox, and saw the article suggestions listed there by Firefox's new "Pocket" recommendations for the day. Stupid fookin' "Must Reads" like "A list of stuff that truly effective leaders do" which is stupid, since effective leaders start their day by not reading about drivel that some ineffective self-proclaimed expert-leader has to say. If you're reading that article, you're either looking for confirmation that you're a leader, which really means you aren't already one, or you're looking how to be a leader, which means you're not one. SO WHY THE F ARE YOU READING IT???
Then, there's "self-help" garbage like "Here's how not to procrastinate" that says, in summation "Do stuff you need to do." ... NO !$T%$$@@ @$%@$%! Horry Clap, a revelation! MY LIFE IS SAVED! Fookin' nitwits. (I would have finished reading it, but then something else came up...)
Then, there's a bunch of psychologists rambling on "Why people don't like stuff." And, they end up with profundity like "People don't like things because they don't like them" or "Few people like liking things that they don't really like." Holy crap, pure genius you guys! The best stuff is "How to like something" articles that tell you to "Find something to like about it." I want to buy an internet-bat.
I was especially amused by a few social-media-heads that I happened to come across who, for no discernible reason, think they are relevant. I don't mean that they didn't say relevant things, I mean that they thought, for some unfounded reason, that what they said was important merely because they were saying it...
"The sky is blue, you guys. Therefore, I invented the sky by telling you it was blue."
How about just go shove yourself up your own ___. All of it, legs and all, right up there. Go ahead. Do it and I'll contribute to your Patreon.
The crazy thing is that most of these basement-dwellers don't even realize they're just saying the same thing people like Locke or Hobbes or Paine or any number of political talking-heads have said hundreds of years ago. I'm not even going to credit them with parallel evolution of ideas since if they were really some sort of authority they'd have already read something by someone who was already acknowledged as being smarter and more profound than they are...
People often say that the Internet is the most amazing, most beneficial, most wonderfullest contribution to humanity since air. I'm quickly starting to think that it's the opposite, no matter how many great things there are to be had from it.
The problem is that most of the Internet Surfers don't bother with availing themselves of all the "Good Things" it has to offer, especially when it comes down to "learning things." Instead, they take the path of least resistance and jump into their Echo Chambers or gravitate towards social-media personalities that are more ignorant than they, themselves, are. Then, when they think they've found something "profound" they run around like a five-year-old, interrupting the valuable time of other people with inane crap.
After all, it's on Teh Interwebz and it has five-bajillion subscribers and likes and happy-smiley-@$% faces on it, so it must be true and good and right...
Edit-add: Like this wingnut..NYT: The Misguided Drive to Measure ‘Learning Outcomes’
Ah, OK, cool, let's go!
"...Blah blah blah has a problem blah blah blah and fifty-hundred years ago blah blah blah with the invention of sand blah blah blah and then goat fornication conflicts blah blah.."
So, wtf are you trying to write about?
"Blah blah blah I teach intellectual history blah blah."
No @$%%...
"blah blah blah measure blah blah blah useful or not blah blah blah"
And then..
"blah blah measuring for suitability for work blah blah blah"
Businesses wanted to figure out how to measure whether or not a student "learned sufficient stuffs" to be of used to them. If I'm running a fookin' hospital, I want to know if the Brain Surgeon applicant can fookin' brain surgeon, not whether or not he had an opportunity to "explore complicated intellectual problems" or found meaning in "curiosity and discovery."
And, she got paid to write that article. Even if it has a lot of source material, in the end it says nothing. Here, I'll rewrite it:
"Businesses want to know what the knowledge level is of their applicants. Institutions not only have to measure their success at teaching, but they must also help to enrich the intellectual lives of their students. It is in such institutions of higher learning that students can gain truly desirable intellectual abilities and rewarding fascination with learning and exploring new things and difficult concepts. These are important to employers as well and contribute towards providing them with effective and valuable employees. We must approach teaching these things to students with just as much of the energy and enthusiasm that we devote towards teaching them basic skills in their chosen subjects of study if we are to succeed in our assigned task."
But, I guess I wouldn't have been paid as much as she was, since I used less words... (Go figure, I used less words than someone else to write stuffs!) She's writing for the NYT and I'm posting here, so I guess she's got that going for her.
Updated Feb 28:
I don't even... Why is this? Wat?
Plan a better meeting with Design Thinking Plan
If you're going to go to all the trouble to "have a meeting" shouldn't you have @$^W^$@ DECIDED WHY YOU NEEDED TO HAVE A @$^@%^@%^#@%^ MEETING?
This is the sort of stuff that just boggles my noggin, not as if it takes much to do that... But, honestly, why? WTF? Are these websites or even the people who'd actually pay real money to host these consultants actually so very desperate for someone to create content for them or solve their problems for them that they will... allow this crap to pass as "knowledge" of some sort?
The Watered Down World of Profound Thought - Welcome to the Internetz.
A five-year-old runs into the room and announces to their parents, "Howdy Doody just said something neat!" Then, they rush back out to finish watching "The Howdy Doody Show" and leave their parents in peace.
This living-nightmare made of wood was, at one time, a much-beloved source of entertainment for many 'Murican kids.
Most of the "social-media celebs" have little difference between themselves and a wooden doll on strings. Yet, for some strange reason, people think they're "important." Sometimes, people think they have something "profound" to say. In the bajillion years since Teh Interwebz was founded, I've never read or heard anything profound related by any social-media-other-crap person that hasn't already been said by someone who's even more profound, more well-respected, and should be more well-known.
I think people just don't bother with learning stuffs anymore. They want some vacuous moron to dribble out mouthings directly into their head instead of actually taking the trouble to "learn stuffs" by reading some of what truly great thinkers have to say on any given subject.
So, today I booted up the 'puter, opened up my Firefox, and saw the article suggestions listed there by Firefox's new "Pocket" recommendations for the day. Stupid fookin' "Must Reads" like "A list of stuff that truly effective leaders do" which is stupid, since effective leaders start their day by not reading about drivel that some ineffective self-proclaimed expert-leader has to say. If you're reading that article, you're either looking for confirmation that you're a leader, which really means you aren't already one, or you're looking how to be a leader, which means you're not one. SO WHY THE F ARE YOU READING IT???
Then, there's "self-help" garbage like "Here's how not to procrastinate" that says, in summation "Do stuff you need to do." ... NO !$T%$$@@ @$%@$%! Horry Clap, a revelation! MY LIFE IS SAVED! Fookin' nitwits. (I would have finished reading it, but then something else came up...)
Then, there's a bunch of psychologists rambling on "Why people don't like stuff." And, they end up with profundity like "People don't like things because they don't like them" or "Few people like liking things that they don't really like." Holy crap, pure genius you guys! The best stuff is "How to like something" articles that tell you to "Find something to like about it." I want to buy an internet-bat.
I was especially amused by a few social-media-heads that I happened to come across who, for no discernible reason, think they are relevant. I don't mean that they didn't say relevant things, I mean that they thought, for some unfounded reason, that what they said was important merely because they were saying it...
"The sky is blue, you guys. Therefore, I invented the sky by telling you it was blue."
How about just go shove yourself up your own ___. All of it, legs and all, right up there. Go ahead. Do it and I'll contribute to your Patreon.
The crazy thing is that most of these basement-dwellers don't even realize they're just saying the same thing people like Locke or Hobbes or Paine or any number of political talking-heads have said hundreds of years ago. I'm not even going to credit them with parallel evolution of ideas since if they were really some sort of authority they'd have already read something by someone who was already acknowledged as being smarter and more profound than they are...
People often say that the Internet is the most amazing, most beneficial, most wonderfullest contribution to humanity since air. I'm quickly starting to think that it's the opposite, no matter how many great things there are to be had from it.
The problem is that most of the Internet Surfers don't bother with availing themselves of all the "Good Things" it has to offer, especially when it comes down to "learning things." Instead, they take the path of least resistance and jump into their Echo Chambers or gravitate towards social-media personalities that are more ignorant than they, themselves, are. Then, when they think they've found something "profound" they run around like a five-year-old, interrupting the valuable time of other people with inane crap.
After all, it's on Teh Interwebz and it has five-bajillion subscribers and likes and happy-smiley-@$% faces on it, so it must be true and good and right...
Edit-add: Like this wingnut..NYT: The Misguided Drive to Measure ‘Learning Outcomes’
Ah, OK, cool, let's go!
"...Blah blah blah has a problem blah blah blah and fifty-hundred years ago blah blah blah with the invention of sand blah blah blah and then goat fornication conflicts blah blah.."
So, wtf are you trying to write about?
"Blah blah blah I teach intellectual history blah blah."
No @$%%...
"blah blah blah measure blah blah blah useful or not blah blah blah"
And then..
"blah blah measuring for suitability for work blah blah blah"
WTF?...Producing thoughtful, talented graduates is not a matter of focusing on market-ready skills. It’s about giving students an opportunity that most of them will never have again in their lives: the chance for serious exploration of complicated intellectual problems, the gift of time in an institution where curiosity and discovery are the source of meaning.
That’s how we produce the critical thinkers American employers want to hire. And there’s just no app for that.
Businesses wanted to figure out how to measure whether or not a student "learned sufficient stuffs" to be of used to them. If I'm running a fookin' hospital, I want to know if the Brain Surgeon applicant can fookin' brain surgeon, not whether or not he had an opportunity to "explore complicated intellectual problems" or found meaning in "curiosity and discovery."
And, she got paid to write that article. Even if it has a lot of source material, in the end it says nothing. Here, I'll rewrite it:
"Businesses want to know what the knowledge level is of their applicants. Institutions not only have to measure their success at teaching, but they must also help to enrich the intellectual lives of their students. It is in such institutions of higher learning that students can gain truly desirable intellectual abilities and rewarding fascination with learning and exploring new things and difficult concepts. These are important to employers as well and contribute towards providing them with effective and valuable employees. We must approach teaching these things to students with just as much of the energy and enthusiasm that we devote towards teaching them basic skills in their chosen subjects of study if we are to succeed in our assigned task."
But, I guess I wouldn't have been paid as much as she was, since I used less words... (Go figure, I used less words than someone else to write stuffs!) She's writing for the NYT and I'm posting here, so I guess she's got that going for her.
Updated Feb 28:
I don't even... Why is this? Wat?
Plan a better meeting with Design Thinking Plan
Uh, wait. What -...Start by putting your own expertise and agenda aside and thinking about the people who will be affected by your meeting. Develop empathy for them by asking ....
Wut?..Next, set a frame for the meeting. Once you’ve attentively listened and observed, you’ll want to suggest an overarching purpose for the meeting and articulate clear outcomes that will connect to achieving it...
If you're going to go to all the trouble to "have a meeting" shouldn't you have @$^W^$@ DECIDED WHY YOU NEEDED TO HAVE A @$^@%^@%^#@%^ MEETING?
Couldn't get a real job, could you?Maya Bernstein is an independent consultant working ...
Same boat as Maya, huh?Rae Ringel is the president of The Ringel Group, a leadership development consultancy specializing in...
This is the sort of stuff that just boggles my noggin, not as if it takes much to do that... But, honestly, why? WTF? Are these websites or even the people who'd actually pay real money to host these consultants actually so very desperate for someone to create content for them or solve their problems for them that they will... allow this crap to pass as "knowledge" of some sort?
Leasehold and "reasonable"
1st, I own a property. It won't get much sympathy for being in such a position with some.
2nd, it's an apartment and it has service charges/ground rent to pay each year.
I've paid the service charge to one company on time, every year.
I've just received a letter threatening court with regards to the ground rent.
So I bought the property where I used to live, want to live, will live. But work has me 100 miles away, so it's rented out. Only when a registered letter arrived did the front desk contact me to say "we've got a letter". I've no knowledge of any letters.
So this letter says they've written to me numerous times, also to "The Occupier". Again, never received anything - but I don't live there and trusted I'd be told if anything for me did arrive.
So I don't disupte I owe £450 in ground rent for 2016/2017/2018!) - which is £150 a year.
What is shocking are the additions:
Interest - £160.85
Notice of Transfer fee? - £162.00
Arrears fees? - £468.00
Solicitor fee - £480.00
Total £1,720.85
Currently searching for the lease hold agreement ot even see what "arrears fee's" are - as if they're NOT in the leasehold, they can bugger off. What, also, is "notice of transfer"; think it's "transfer of lease" - as in changing from previous to new.
Yes, it should have been paid, yes it's my own fault, but some of these charges are... bonkers. Not helped by I read other people online having similar issues - they've got fees of £70 admin, and perhaps similar solicitor fees... I've got £790 for "charges" alone. Mental.
Fairly sure the interest is BS to start; 15% - that doesn't come to £160?
There's been a lot about the excessive increases in ground rent (which is archaic to put it politely, think mine is actually owned by a teachers pension company or something), but some of the charges if unpaid seem mental too!
(this should have been in the rant thread, whoops - can it be merged?) <Done. Alan Phipps>
2nd, it's an apartment and it has service charges/ground rent to pay each year.
I've paid the service charge to one company on time, every year.
I've just received a letter threatening court with regards to the ground rent.
So I bought the property where I used to live, want to live, will live. But work has me 100 miles away, so it's rented out. Only when a registered letter arrived did the front desk contact me to say "we've got a letter". I've no knowledge of any letters.
So this letter says they've written to me numerous times, also to "The Occupier". Again, never received anything - but I don't live there and trusted I'd be told if anything for me did arrive.
So I don't disupte I owe £450 in ground rent for 2016/2017/2018!) - which is £150 a year.
What is shocking are the additions:
Interest - £160.85
Notice of Transfer fee? - £162.00
Arrears fees? - £468.00
Solicitor fee - £480.00
Total £1,720.85
Currently searching for the lease hold agreement ot even see what "arrears fee's" are - as if they're NOT in the leasehold, they can bugger off. What, also, is "notice of transfer"; think it's "transfer of lease" - as in changing from previous to new.
Yes, it should have been paid, yes it's my own fault, but some of these charges are... bonkers. Not helped by I read other people online having similar issues - they've got fees of £70 admin, and perhaps similar solicitor fees... I've got £790 for "charges" alone. Mental.
Fairly sure the interest is BS to start; 15% - that doesn't come to £160?
There's been a lot about the excessive increases in ground rent (which is archaic to put it politely, think mine is actually owned by a teachers pension company or something), but some of the charges if unpaid seem mental too!
(this should have been in the rant thread, whoops - can it be merged?) <Done. Alan Phipps>
[Okay - I'm responding to a rant with advice; if it's not what you want then feel free to ignore, I won't be offended]
The interest is wrong - should be 8% per year (that's a standard legal thing) so about £15 per year, or £45 total. The notice fee and arrears* fee must be in the terms (there's no legal basis for them) and must still be 'reasonable' - ask them to justify them. The solicitor/legal fee is reasonable if they've taken reasonable steps to collect. Here you could have difficulty as they've written to you at the address you'd given them - check if you've ever given them an alternative address or telephone contact that they haven't used.
I'd suggest writing to them to dispute the excessive charges, but make sure you pay what you actually owe ASAP. As a general legal principle, you can't withhold what you owe simply because someone is treating you badly. So, pay the ground rent and a reasonable interest as soon as you can (if you can't pay, then be honest about that but admit what you owe and your intention to pay). Dispute the additional charges and ask for further evidence of the legitimacy of the other charges, including the different ways they tried to contact you (other than sending lots of letters to one address).
*Is this just the amount of arrears - it's close to 3*£150?
The interest is wrong - should be 8% per year (that's a standard legal thing) so about £15 per year, or £45 total. The notice fee and arrears* fee must be in the terms (there's no legal basis for them) and must still be 'reasonable' - ask them to justify them. The solicitor/legal fee is reasonable if they've taken reasonable steps to collect. Here you could have difficulty as they've written to you at the address you'd given them - check if you've ever given them an alternative address or telephone contact that they haven't used.
I'd suggest writing to them to dispute the excessive charges, but make sure you pay what you actually owe ASAP. As a general legal principle, you can't withhold what you owe simply because someone is treating you badly. So, pay the ground rent and a reasonable interest as soon as you can (if you can't pay, then be honest about that but admit what you owe and your intention to pay). Dispute the additional charges and ask for further evidence of the legitimacy of the other charges, including the different ways they tried to contact you (other than sending lots of letters to one address).
*Is this just the amount of arrears - it's close to 3*£150?
Rapier - The Orifice of all Knowledge
Godwin's Law is not one of the Forum Rules.
Search just the forum with Google
Godwin's Law is not one of the Forum Rules.
Search just the forum with Google
Cheers, i've calculated their specified interest in the leasehold, and they've way over calculated. It's a total of £79 for all 3 payments for the duration of each individual outstanding one (i.e. 1 for 793 days, one for 427 days, 1 for 62).
Checking the leasehold (its about a billion pages long!) for any mention of transfer fees, can't see anything so far. Checking leasehold, only says "reasonable costs" and since they've not had to enter property or anything else (and legally they can't as original isn't approaching point where court could rescind leasehold), the amounts are excessive. Their costs are sending a few letters by the looks of it.
The lawyers as far as I can make it, have sent 1 letter with a few photocopies of documents attached for their £480.
There's a form to contest and state what you think you should pay. I'm going to phone offering the full ground rent, the correct interest, and outline my points about the rest. I'm more than happy to go to tribunal to judge whether their costs are "reasonable".
Checking the leasehold (its about a billion pages long!) for any mention of transfer fees, can't see anything so far. Checking leasehold, only says "reasonable costs" and since they've not had to enter property or anything else (and legally they can't as original isn't approaching point where court could rescind leasehold), the amounts are excessive. Their costs are sending a few letters by the looks of it.
The lawyers as far as I can make it, have sent 1 letter with a few photocopies of documents attached for their £480.
There's a form to contest and state what you think you should pay. I'm going to phone offering the full ground rent, the correct interest, and outline my points about the rest. I'm more than happy to go to tribunal to judge whether their costs are "reasonable".
Also (forgot to add earlier) try to make sure they've not passed anything to any credit reference agencies - and if they have, demand that they get it removed. That could be the worst thing of all in the long run.
Rapier - The Orifice of all Knowledge
Godwin's Law is not one of the Forum Rules.
Search just the forum with Google
Godwin's Law is not one of the Forum Rules.
Search just the forum with Google
According to the leasehold agreement, any proceedings around late payment/outstanding payments - then I pay for their legal bills.
Literally - if I fight anything, even if I am right and win about unfair costs being tacked on to otherwise legitimate bill, I have to pay for their legal representation.
Searched and found people being taken to court to pay for legal cost bill up to £14,000 in similar circumstances. I've given up, I will pay, the risk is greater than any possible reward.
They could literally make things up knowing that if I won I would still be financially worse off than just paying. It is not worth the potential pitfall. I will be paying claiming I do not agree to the debt though, just incase retrospectively I find out I wasn't liable in the first place (i.e. they had correct address (home) to send it to, instead of apartment, and therefore they served the notices wrong from the start).
Literally - if I fight anything, even if I am right and win about unfair costs being tacked on to otherwise legitimate bill, I have to pay for their legal representation.
Searched and found people being taken to court to pay for legal cost bill up to £14,000 in similar circumstances. I've given up, I will pay, the risk is greater than any possible reward.
They could literally make things up knowing that if I won I would still be financially worse off than just paying. It is not worth the potential pitfall. I will be paying claiming I do not agree to the debt though, just incase retrospectively I find out I wasn't liable in the first place (i.e. they had correct address (home) to send it to, instead of apartment, and therefore they served the notices wrong from the start).
I presume that they have to justify those "legal expenses" and that those expenses have to be "fair and reasonable."
In the US, one can't claim their legal expenses in such a situation are extravagantly high. It's about what is standard for the sort of work required, not "how much were they charged by counsel."
Also, while you may be "at fault", it sounds as if they're running pretty close to "usury" when it comes down to these fines and fees. I don't know the law in the UK, but if what they are asking in their contract is illegal, as in illegally exorbitant fees, then the whole contract becomes a bit suspect.
It could be that they wouldn't want to go to court because a judge would look at them and say "Shame on you" after reading how high those fines and fees are and slap them with a criminal charge.
Up to you, though. It's your neck and you're the only one in charge of whether or not you should risk it. As always - Seeking the advice of legal counsel would probably be a good idea. If you can afford the fines you've listed, I would assume you could afford a one-time consulting fee for a half-an-hour consult with a qualified attorney that specializes in these matters.
In the US, one can't claim their legal expenses in such a situation are extravagantly high. It's about what is standard for the sort of work required, not "how much were they charged by counsel."
Also, while you may be "at fault", it sounds as if they're running pretty close to "usury" when it comes down to these fines and fees. I don't know the law in the UK, but if what they are asking in their contract is illegal, as in illegally exorbitant fees, then the whole contract becomes a bit suspect.
It could be that they wouldn't want to go to court because a judge would look at them and say "Shame on you" after reading how high those fines and fees are and slap them with a criminal charge.
Up to you, though. It's your neck and you're the only one in charge of whether or not you should risk it. As always - Seeking the advice of legal counsel would probably be a good idea. If you can afford the fines you've listed, I would assume you could afford a one-time consulting fee for a half-an-hour consult with a qualified attorney that specializes in these matters.
Yep, their charges all have to be "reasonable". However, asking for a breakdown = paying about £50 for that. If I contest it, it's a day in court charge of their lawyer... which at £480 for whatever work they've done already will pail into insignificance with actual court or tribunal appearance fees.Morkonan wrote:I presume that they have to justify those "legal expenses" and that those expenses have to be "fair and reasonable."
They don't throw away the supposed costs if "unreasonable", they'd just moderate it to something acceptable. So it'd never vanish, it just may reduce (in a tribunal).
Fighting to be proven right / correct can, and will, cost more than I'm already charged - because it won't remove all charges, just reduce perhaps the arrears fee and possibly the transfer charge fee because they're legally entitled to charge those reasonable fees. So unreasonable -> reasonable is still a fee. It may, for example, reduce the arrears by 2/3, it may reduce transfer fee. But it may add a lawyers court/tribunal appearance fee.
So I'll still pay some charges. Only if they'd made a fundamental mistake would i not be liable for the charges. However, I would still liable to pay for the lawyers fee (and the ground rent, no matter what, that + interest is owed).
It's a wonderful system :/ I've combed through several sections of relevant laws and contact several agencies about it. I have the original conveyancing solicitor who is digging out what they did to ensure this is all legit to start...
Pay some qualified property/lease attorney 200 for an hour or so to sit down with you and go over your contract. Ask them about the fines and if they're reasonable or what your recourse is. Ask them about the basis of this particular contract law so you'll have a good handle on it for the future. Fit in whatever other questions you've got, too.
Then... charge your friends for relaying this information when they find themselves in a similar fix. Just to recoup your costs, though, but without giving any specific advice or offering "legal counsel." Surely you've got four friends who are going to screw up their own lease issues over the next few years that you can charge 25 to help them go over their lease contract before you refer them to the attorney that helped you. (Maybe you'd get a referral fee, too? )
Then... charge your friends for relaying this information when they find themselves in a similar fix. Just to recoup your costs, though, but without giving any specific advice or offering "legal counsel." Surely you've got four friends who are going to screw up their own lease issues over the next few years that you can charge 25 to help them go over their lease contract before you refer them to the attorney that helped you. (Maybe you'd get a referral fee, too?
)
I'd agree that close communication is usually a key point in mitigating fines. But, it may not always help when it gets to the point where an attorney is involved. The original creditor is more likely to reduce fines and fees in an effort to resolve the situation amicably. Attorney's are generally adversarial and may have a vested interest in collecting the most money for their client.Santi wrote:Another option is to call them, and tell them you willingness to pay your debt, but your inability to pay all the "extra" charges, and try and find an agreement.
But, if there isn't a true attorney yet involved, there's still a decent chance some fees may be waived. Maybe?
In any event, paying the principle and coming to an agreement on fines and fees to be paid off over time might be possible if the creditor won't wave them.
One thing I really dislike about situations like this is that some creditors/contract holders actually look at fines and additional fees as part of their normal means of generating "income." Whenever that's the case, it's almost impossible to deal with these sorts of people, even when one shouldn't be liable for such charges.
Well, I paid up and now my Solicitor is admitting an error and reimbursing me the fines/charges added on - then they'll contact the company and see if they can't argue to recover some of that.
I wish them luck, but I doubt they'll have any. It's a good result for me, but it's still a nasty result overall - those charges are ridiculous. £30 to send a letter indeed.
I wish them luck, but I doubt they'll have any. It's a good result for me, but it's still a nasty result overall - those charges are ridiculous. £30 to send a letter indeed.
Why do people keep calling my days when I'm working from home 'my days off'?
Those days always, and I do mean always, start at 8 in the morning, and I sometimes have trouble finishing by six at night.
Sometimes I resent having to go into the university for just meetings, because it loses me so much time I could get things done in.
Where possible, for good students who I know it suits, I'll do skype meetings, but only where it suits them.
It doen't often, so that means I have to fit them in around teaching. Which means days I go in are packed with teaching and meetings, no coursework development occurs.
So having those days when I can finally pile into updating my coursework and seeing whether my stuff is matching what industry is doing 'a day off' rather irritates me. It is so far from easy it ain't funny.
My son did it last week, and I snapped at him somewhat....
Those days always, and I do mean always, start at 8 in the morning, and I sometimes have trouble finishing by six at night.
Sometimes I resent having to go into the university for just meetings, because it loses me so much time I could get things done in.
Where possible, for good students who I know it suits, I'll do skype meetings, but only where it suits them.
It doen't often, so that means I have to fit them in around teaching. Which means days I go in are packed with teaching and meetings, no coursework development occurs.
So having those days when I can finally pile into updating my coursework and seeing whether my stuff is matching what industry is doing 'a day off' rather irritates me. It is so far from easy it ain't funny.
My son did it last week, and I snapped at him somewhat....
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. ... Niccolò Machiavelli
So, Firefox's "Pocket" automagical article suggesterizer suggesterized an article for me, today.
It's the most terribly written mess I've ever read from a respectable, supposedly, source:
New York Magazine - Thirteen Reasons to Believe
It's about UFOs, aliens, pop-culture belief systems, etc... But, I have no issue with the subject matter, it's the writing - It's atrocious!
Imagine me, drunk, if I drank, and deciding that I had something to post on the forums. So, I go to my clone machine and clone-up a bunch of drunk copies of myself. We all sit around a table and each type out a sentence. Then, one of us, drawn by lot (The one who hasn't yet passed out), copies and pastes all the sentences together, at random, and then runs a macro that inserts random "kitschy" words into every darn sentence and then posts it for your reading pleasure.
That's this darn article. It's... horrible. It's an eyesore. Sure, it's got seven darn co-authors, but some editor passed on this and allowed it to get a page!
SOMEONE GOT PAID TO WRITE THIS!
Never underestimate how bad an article written by committee can read.
They... got paid to write this pile of crap. Again - I don't care about the subject matter. All I care about is how it's written and this is @$%$ writing.
It's the most terribly written mess I've ever read from a respectable, supposedly, source:
New York Magazine - Thirteen Reasons to Believe
It's about UFOs, aliens, pop-culture belief systems, etc... But, I have no issue with the subject matter, it's the writing - It's atrocious!
Imagine me, drunk, if I drank, and deciding that I had something to post on the forums. So, I go to my clone machine and clone-up a bunch of drunk copies of myself. We all sit around a table and each type out a sentence. Then, one of us, drawn by lot (The one who hasn't yet passed out), copies and pastes all the sentences together, at random, and then runs a macro that inserts random "kitschy" words into every darn sentence and then posts it for your reading pleasure.
That's this darn article. It's... horrible. It's an eyesore. Sure, it's got seven darn co-authors, but some editor passed on this and allowed it to get a page!
SOMEONE GOT PAID TO WRITE THIS!
Never underestimate how bad an article written by committee can read.
They... got paid to write this pile of crap. Again - I don't care about the subject matter. All I care about is how it's written and this is @$%$ writing.
-
Alan Phipps
- Moderator (English)
- Posts: 30425
- Joined: Fri, 16. Apr 04, 19:21
I think it was a "We need content" article that they were assigned, or decided to put together, and then someone sat on their hands until the day before the deadline before actually writing it.Alan Phipps wrote:@ Mork: Perhaps they mistakenly ran it 10 days early and this was really meant for 1st April?
It's fookin' crappy. I don't care about what it's saying, only how it's saying it. It's like a group of drunk hipsters recorded their ramblings in a hookah-bar and just decided to push the "transcribe" button. I really do hope that no professional editor or copy-editor signed off on it. It's.... terribad. It makes my eyes hurt and is an affront to my delicate sensibilities...
A separate rant, but one I wanted to introduce as a sort of illustration for some unfamiliar with US healthcare and it's "costs."
So, I had a CT Scan not long ago.
I went to the hospital, where it was to be administered and where my doctor had his offices, and where he had prescribed me to go, and sat in front of the counter, going through all the "registration" crap.
"I see you are "self-pay," she said. For reasons I wasn't using insurance that won't go into, I replied "Yes."
So, she starts with her spiel...
"Well, the cost is going to be $12,500 for the scan."
And, before I could declare her insane and call the cops, because she was obviously a hazard to others, and herself, considering how many times she was about to be punched in the face...
"But, since you're self-pay, you get a big discount of around 85%! If you are paying today, you'll get an additional discount of %20. That brings the final cost to around $1,300 and some change..."
...
With all those "discounts" the price is still about three times more than I paid when I had an emergency CT Scan done in the hospital's own CT Scan room, presumably directly by the hospital servicing the E.R. But, this wasn't the "Hospital." It was a physician's group that just happened to be IN the hospital...
I suppose their CT Scanner is "more betterer" than the other CT Scanner, justifying the increase in costs.
And, I ended up not having a "contrast" done, which is a second sort of CT Scan done at the same time, using a different tracer, that is used for.. "contrasting" the two scans.
But, did I get any money back for them not having to go through that second stage, which was decided during the scan, itself, and only after I had paid.
@$$@^ no I didn't.
Get fifty-bajillion stupid "discounts" before I pay, because, of course, nobody has ever paid "list" price for any medical service in existence in the US, yet I can't get refunded for services I paid for, but didn't receive, because those monies really matter, since they're already in their pocket.
I could have gotten the scan done with an outside agency for a few hundred bucks. Would the doctor have approved me doing that instead of in the facility he directed me towards? Probably not.
The whole darn health system is going to friggin' implode one day soon. I'll be there, handing out free marshmallows to roast over that fire.
So, I had a CT Scan not long ago.
I went to the hospital, where it was to be administered and where my doctor had his offices, and where he had prescribed me to go, and sat in front of the counter, going through all the "registration" crap.
"I see you are "self-pay," she said. For reasons I wasn't using insurance that won't go into, I replied "Yes."
So, she starts with her spiel...
"Well, the cost is going to be $12,500 for the scan."
And, before I could declare her insane and call the cops, because she was obviously a hazard to others, and herself, considering how many times she was about to be punched in the face...
"But, since you're self-pay, you get a big discount of around 85%! If you are paying today, you'll get an additional discount of %20. That brings the final cost to around $1,300 and some change..."
...
With all those "discounts" the price is still about three times more than I paid when I had an emergency CT Scan done in the hospital's own CT Scan room, presumably directly by the hospital servicing the E.R. But, this wasn't the "Hospital." It was a physician's group that just happened to be IN the hospital...
I suppose their CT Scanner is "more betterer" than the other CT Scanner, justifying the increase in costs.
And, I ended up not having a "contrast" done, which is a second sort of CT Scan done at the same time, using a different tracer, that is used for.. "contrasting" the two scans.
But, did I get any money back for them not having to go through that second stage, which was decided during the scan, itself, and only after I had paid.
@$$@^ no I didn't.
Get fifty-bajillion stupid "discounts" before I pay, because, of course, nobody has ever paid "list" price for any medical service in existence in the US, yet I can't get refunded for services I paid for, but didn't receive, because those monies really matter, since they're already in their pocket.
I could have gotten the scan done with an outside agency for a few hundred bucks. Would the doctor have approved me doing that instead of in the facility he directed me towards? Probably not.
The whole darn health system is going to friggin' implode one day soon. I'll be there, handing out free marshmallows to roast over that fire.