East London Solicitors

What can be done about noisy neighbours ?

The first step that should be taken is to personally discuss the problem with your neighbours. If it is not possible to speak face-to-face with your neighbour because you feel uncomfortable, or for any other reason, you should send them a letter outlining the causes of the noise, and how you would like this problem to be addressed.

What can I do if a local business or traffic noise disturbs me?

Noise from sources such as these can be dealt with in a similar way to noisy neighbours.

If you are a household suffering from traffic or train noise get in contact with your local authority who may be able to provide you with a noise insulation grant.

When will a Noise insulation grant be awarded?

This will depend on how regularly noise happens, the times and place the noise is occurring and who the people causing the noise are.

If the local council consider the noise to be a statutory nuisance, a notice will be served on the relevant person to either end or significantly reduce the noise.

What legal rights do consumers have  ?

Consumers are granted certain rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979. If a transaction between a consumer and business in the course of trade does not run smoothly the consumer can assert their rights.

Businesses selling goods to the general public often have written on their receipts “your statutory rights are not affected”. This in effect means that whatever the businesses’ own return police is will not affect your rights under the Sale of Goods Act.

The Sale of Goods Act requires the trader to comply with the following requirements:

The Goods must Fit the Description

This requirement applies to new products and also second hand goods and antiques. If a trader includes a qualification to his advert or on the box which is being sold such as ‘not to scale’ then a breach under the legislation would not occur.

If the goods do not fit the description there will be a breach under the Sale of Goods Act as well as the Trade Descriptions Act.

The price must also be disclosed otherwise a breach under the Sale of Goods Act as well as the advertising standards regulations will have been committed.

Are the Goods of Satisfactory quality ?

This section of the Act requires that the goods be safe and not have any defects.

Once this is established the next requirement will vary depending on the amount paid for the goods and whether this suggests the goods are of high or low quality. If a cheap product which has been derived from cheap sources is sold the satisfactory test will be lower than a similar product considered ‘luxurious’ and costing much more.

Are the goods Fit for their purpose?

If the goods do not fulfill the purpose for which they were bought ie a dishwasher is not capable of cleaning cutlery, then there will be a breach of this section of the Act.

This section will be relevant if you ask whether a product is fit for a certain purpose and the seller tells you that it is but after having purchased the product you find it does not fulfill that requirement. This is because the seller has a duty not to mislead the customer in relation to the product’s capabilities.

Your right to reject the goods

If the Act is breached under any section you as the consumer have the right to reject the goods within a ‘reasonable time’. The length of time will depend on the nature of the goods acquired.

Is it easy to enforce a County Court judgment  ?

We would always recommend that this issue is considered right at the beginning of any civil legal dispute. Enforcement of any judgment obtained is a crucial consideration, since having a judgment against a defendant that either can’t pay or won’t pay is not only pointless but will result in potentially significant loss of costs incurred.

Secondly, it is fundamentally important to understand that a civil court will do nothing to enforce any judgment it gives. It is entirely up to the judgment creditor to take steps to enforce a judgment. This will cost further money, since court options for enforcement involve payment of further court frees.

Be aware also that, whilst every matter and circumstances are different, many litigation lawyers will advise that the court procedures for enforcement are somewhat “toothless”.

As regards options for enforcement, these include :-

• Pay the fee to send the court bailiffs to attempt to obtain payment on threat of removal of possessions. This rarely works with residential premises as the bailiff has no power to force entry !
• If the debt is over £750.00 consider use of a statutory demand.
• Attachment of earnings.

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