AliG

Must be some confusion somewhere. I have Rationel windows. So far I they seem good and there are no issues although I haven’t really had much cause to contact them. One thing not specific to them was I ordered a colour that was not a standard RAL colour. This created a nightmare trying to get garage doors to match. So when ordering windows I would consider if you want doors, rainwater goods etc to match them and if that is possible.

I just checked and I think the machine I just threw out was a Core 2 Q6600 from 2009. It was still going string with a RAM and SSD upgrade. So even older. I also upgraded to Windows 10 whilst the upgrade was free. That also helps performance a bit.

I had an even older desktop until recently which was fine for web browsing etc. As you say processor speed had not been increasing so quickly recently. The graphics card was what was letting the machine down. But I upgraded from a hard drive to SSD a few years ago, now you can get a 240GB SSD for around £60. That and extra memory will make your machine fly. Eventually I gave up using my desktop as my laptop is just as fast and its always right there available to use. It is a MacBook Pro and again it is the SSD that makes all the difference, once you have a machine that starts up almost instantly and doesn't chug away for ages installing updates etc it is very hard to go back. I was a big proponent of PCs being better value for years, but as the price of PCs increased if you wanted a nice spec and Apple eventually cut prices, the premium of maybe £200 seemed worth it if the machine lasted longer (I did buy a refurb to keep the price down). Anyway 4 years on it still feels like a new machine. Every other PC based laptop I have had had given up the ghost by now, an almost £1000 HP laptop didn't last three years before the screen broke. My wife has an even older Macbook Air that only cost £665 and it is still going strong. I do feel that the very fast SSDs help a lot. The aluminium casing is a lot more durable also. I have been hankering after a new one but I just cannot justify it when this one works perfectly fine.

Assuming that you have 64 bit windows, when my office PC was upgraded to 8GB it made a very noticeable difference to performance. Many applications will use virtual memory to speed themselves up so they will use up all the memory available. I would also if you haven't already done so replace the hard drive with a SSD. The difference that makes is well wort it.

I have installed Fibaro 2 dimmers behind my light switches. These cost around £50 each and turn a 2 way and off retractive switch into a dimmer switch, whereas a dimmer might cost £20-30 more than a normal switch anyway. They are currently working as dumb switches and working very nicely. In the next couple of weeks we will have the internet up and running and I can connect to the control centre and try working them wireless but so far looks like an inexpensive and straightforward way to add smart functionality to any switches. They also automatically fade the lights out when you switch them off which is a nice touch.

Yes as pertains to the Board and Railtrack, successors are just successor companies. However, the grantor and grantee include "successors in title" who are subsequent owners. The trouble is that this is only if they don't vary things when they sell it on.

It could be but as it states "includes the respective successors in title of such parties except where any limitation contrary intention is stated or is apparent" It could have been varied according to this clause. I tried to buy a house where the original owners of the land continued to have rights over the land. I thought this had been done away with when the feudal system was abolished in Scotland, but apparently the rights can continue if someone has a continuing interest such as being a neighbour. What I am not clear on is when you parcel up the land do all the rights pass on to every owner or not. There is a good chance that "the board" put in a clause that changed things when they sold the land basically.

It is clear from Clause 1 that British rail (The Board) was the original owner of the land and the original Grantor. It is not clear what has happened since then. The plot plan still has the entire area marked with a brown outline which is described as "The Board's Land", even though at this point some of the land must have been sold so why do they still consider it all their land. The clauses shown appear to have been written to stop people interfering with the running of the railways. They may have been granting Railtrack access or they may have been granting the builder of the houses access. The rights here may not have been passed on to the current owners, but I am not sure of this. This is where a real lawyer needs to look at all the paperwork.

Sorry, this is a bit piecemeal and I am in the middle of proofreading a book for my wife. Reading that, you (or more correctly the builder/previous owner of the plot) are the grantee. The grantor is Railtrack/The Board of British Rail The 48 hours notice is the notice the builder (grantee) had to give them (grantor) to access the land, not the notice that they have to give you. Clause 5 refers to rights of access presumably somewhere in clauses 2-4, clause 1 is referred to as a right of way. I always work on the assumption that the only person protecting my interests is me and that I have to read every word of things like this and then ask a lawyer to clarify if I don't understand it. The lawyers maybe should have read it and understood it, but ultimately it becomes your problem, not their's (unless they have been negligent enough to sue them, but then do you really want to take a lawyer to court) @ProDave's advice is correct. It seems that they have not used their right of way much over the years and they will probably stop again. It is really your neighbour who has the problem of being blocked in and you would be helping them out if you offered to provide parking.

Unfortunately that seems pretty clear. 1. They have a right of access across the whole site edged in brown, not just the shared driveway. 2. They have a right to park at the blue letter A which indeed would block your neighbour's driveway. 3. They can also ask to park anywhere else on the entire piece of land which you would have to agree to "reasonably". So they can ask to park on your area and you could only object if it was "reasonable" to do so. I don't see how a solicitor could have missed this, especially as pertaining to your neighbour's plot which it could obviously block. There is certainly no 48 hours notice mentioned here. They still cannot remove a padlock without a court order, however, having seen this with no mention of the 48 hours notice they would get one and you would probably have to pay costs. Sadly unless you can show us where the 48 hours is mentioned your solicitor was duped. I am not a lawyer, but at work where we have had legal wranglings I have usually found that reading every word of a contract carefully they can be surprisingly clear. Did someone really tell you that their right of access was just on the shared driveway. It very clearly states the whole piece of land edged in brown, which is the entire site.

1. They cannot remove a lock from your gate even if they have a right of access. Without a court order enforcing their rights that is criminal damage. I cannot believe they even suggested that they would do that in writing. Their or their lawyer's opinion on their right of access is worthless unless they can prove it in court. 2. It would probably depend on the exact wording of the deeds, but I would repeat that a right of access, including vehicular access, usually means a right to traverse a piece of land, not to park on it.That is not the normal definition of access unless it is specifically stated in the deeds. 3. They certainly do not have a right to park on your land or block your or your neighbour's access to your property. It is hard luck on them if there is nowhere for them to park unless they have been given specific rights to do so in the deeds. You can ask that they park somewhere else and walk. 4. I assumed that the vendor was Railtrack. Your solicitor should never have relied on an assurance from the vendor's solicitor if the vendor was not the person with the right of access as that assurance is basically worthless. 5. I would expect that their right of access can be conferred on their subcontractor. However, as they have told you that they don't have anyone working there then you are well within your rights to deny them access as Railtrack have removed their rights by denying their existence.

I would keep it locked and send that correspondence to their lawyers. If you keep it locked they are going to have to get a court order to enforce their access. I think you might find them a lot more willing to engage with the gate closed. I don't think you take much risk in doing this, although I am not a lawyer. I would also take it to another lawyer to clarify their reading of the access rights. It would probably entail paying a few hours fees. Even if they are not bound by the deeds they may be bound by the letter that they sent to your solicitor as that seems to put their intentions in writing. Your lawyer should have clarified what the actual deeds said, not what the other side said, however, I would think having put it in writing they are bound by it. Sadly I find this kind of thing typical of the poor service that many expensive professionals provide. If you have been badly advised you would have to claim against them which is going to be a pain. Even if they do have a right of access, access is quite clearly traversing the land, not parking there. That is not access.

My thoughts exactly. If they have budgeted for giving people a 5 year warranty then they shouldn’t care what date you apply. Indeed I believe the machines are delivered direct from the manufacturer and thus they shouldn’t really need you to register for the warranty at all. Thus my opinion is that the T&Cs are deliberately hidden to reduce the cost of giving out warranties.

In fairness £2100 after cashback is taken off, but still way higher than other makes which might give you an expectation of better service. That was at a heavy discount to the list prices which would be around £3000 which is crazy. They better last the 20 years that they are supposed to.

All other items in the house will be Siemens. I have had them in the past and they have been reasonably reliable and there have been no issues with obtaining service when problems occurred. I did have one combination oven microwave which kept breaking the same way, but they kept fixing it under the extended warranty. Only on the new washer and dryer did I feel that the large Miele premium might be worth it. I also like that they are quieter. So far I am very disappointed in my dealings with them. I hadn't looked at Trustpilot due to their reputation, but the reviews of their service are very bad. I am well aware that these things often have strict T&Cs, I knew that for the cashback and have complied with it. In my opinion they hid that the warranty was a similar promotion which is false advertising and I have complained about this.

@dpmiller I had to check I wasn't missing something. This is a direct quote from an email I received from Miele customer service "Unfortunately, there is no way to access the serial number without unpacking the appliances. All appliances should be unpacked upon delivery to check for any damage from delivery or from being stored in the warehouses." The Miele website says that the data plate is inside the door of the washing machine and the serial number is in the format NR xx/xxxxxxxxx. This does not appear on the label on the package. However, looking at the picture of the label the builder sent me it says- Fabr Nr : xxxxxxxxx. The Fabr. Nr. is the second part of the serial number. However, considering they told me that the serial number was not on the packaging, it is labeled differently to what they say it will be on their website and it is in a different format I am not sure how I was supposed to know this. It is somewhat of a moot point as I didn't look for the serial number until more than 28 days after purchase due to this T&C not being made obvious.

TBH if I had known about the 28 day issue I would have opened it up and got the serial number anyway, it just made it a little more awkward and didn't help. The real issue is that they just say it has a 5 year warranty with no mention of it being a promotion or any special T&Cs. I only found this out accidentally when I was reading about an unrelated thing on the website. I am sure a lot of people have bought these washing machines and have no idea that they do not have the warranty that they expect to have.

They told me I should have opened up the packaging to check it as soon as it was delivered. It would be crazy to open up an expensive item on a building site until ready to install it. I too expected to be able to get the serial number without taking off the protective packaging.

Any thoughts on this one? Before Christmas I bought a Miele Washer and dryer. Total cost almost £2400. Part of the attraction was a 5 year guarantee on the washing machine. There was also cash back on both products. With delays in the build they did not get installed and we left them wrapped up for safety. In January when looking to make the cash back claim I noticed that the 5 year warranty was listed on the same promotions page. The promotion said that it had to be claimed within 28 days of purchase. I had no idea when I purchased them that this was also a promotion. To claim the 5 year warranty you need the Serial Numbers. This is not on the packaging, you have to unwrap them to get it. In contrast I registered my LG TV straight away that is still in the box as the serial number was on the box. I emailed when I discovered this issue and basically they replied, tough, more than 28 days had passed. Today I got the serial numbers and called them up. I checked the website and it just says 5 year warranty with no mention of any special T&Cs. It says this in three separate places, nowhere does it mention it is a promotion and you have 28 days to claim it. The very patronising person on the phone today told me it was my fault and the T&Cs were freely available elsewhere on the website. Any mention of T&Cs would have me reading them and adhering to them. I knew that the cash back had to be claimed by today hence I made sure that the builders got me the serial numbers. I said that as far in my opinion this was sharp practice to avoid giving people the warranty. I am awaiting a call from someone more senior. I have already made a complaint to the ASA. The warranty is well advertised with no mention of special T&Cs. On looking on Trustpilot, I see that people are generally appalled with the level of customer service that Miele now provide. If nothing else asking this question may help other people avoid this issue. I am sure that other people buy the machines and don't even register, only finding out they don't have a warranty when they try to claim. I bought a VAX and it broke 5 years from purchase, with a 6 year warranty. They just sent me a new one, no argument. That is good customer service. Sorry if this thread is problematic in light of other threads, but I am annoyed. The 5 year warranty is well advertised and clearly encourages people to buy the products. Trying to wriggle out of giving it to people via the use of hard to find T&Cs is very unreasonable. The only reason for this T&C is to avoid giving people the warranty.

If you look here https://broadspeed.com you will get an idea of what you should be paying for these cars. The A6 Avant with a replacement imminent can be had with a £10k discount for example, most other cars mentioned can be had with around 15-20% off the list price.

Having often considered this issue myself and having loaded the car up with large items only to be terrified that they puncture the headliner or scrape the boot, causing a repair that might run to hundreds of pounds I came to the conclusion that it is probably better to pay for delivery or rent a van. Nowadays you can rent a van cheaply for a few hours and don't have to worry about damaging your car. Assuming that the need to require this kind of item is rare, this might be the better solution.

Surprisingly few cars will take a 2m load behind the front seats. As @gravelld says the Skoda superb is a great combination of value and space, Google suggests a 2.13m load length. They also have an enormous amount of space for 2nd row passengers and a nice interior. An A6 doesn't offer much extra luxury for a lot more money. E-Class has lots of space but personally i would be put off by most being rear wheel drive. Also I think the Skoda is a bit tougher if you plan to lug loads. A people carrier like a Ford S-Max also makes an effective van with all the seats down, but Google suggests only 1.97m load length. The 5m long A6 still lists the boot as 1.97m it appears, same as a Mondeo estate. The Skoda is a bit more compact than some of these as it is based on the more space efficient Golf platform.

I have a block build, my builders still managed to put 2 pipes on the wrong side of a wall! Looking at the comments I am not alone, I could see that pipes were out of line just by looking, but in the end they just went ahead and cemented them in before fixing them as discussed here. @nickfromwales you are right (as usual ) I didn't have a close enough look at the DPC. I think my guys did cut into the subfloor also and they had a bit more room to maneuver as my cisterns are all concealed so they were coming up inside a bulkhead.

is that just the subfloor laid? Is there still insulation and screed to go on top of that? If so you should be able to attach an offset bend to move the second one over to the wall in the depth of the insulation and screed.

Thanks, my main issue is insulating the service ductwork. After looking at the costs, the 50mm duct insulation is not that expensive. Hopefully we won't have issues on the exhaust duct as we don't have an ASHP getting the air so cold. But it is not too big a job to add armaflex to the exhuast. What caught me out was a very high cost quote from the MVHR supplier for the insulation. They were almost 2x the price I can buy it for.