Consumer
A warranty is a promise about time, not about quality
A manufacturer guarantee and the rights that attach to a purchase do different jobs, and treating them as…
· 4 min read
Imran Sheikh
Deputy editor, What's Your Case
Imran writes the explanatory pieces on consumer, housing, work and prefers a plain explanation to a clever one.
22 articles
Consumer
Changing your mind and being sold something faulty are different arguments
One is a matter of policy or a special right attached to certain sales; the other is about whether the…
· 4 min read
Housing
The condition report at move-in decides the argument at move-out
An inventory is not administration. It is the evidence both sides will rely on a year later, and the party…
· 4 min read
Work
What a notice period is actually buying for each side
Notice is not a countdown to a departure already decided; it is a period during which the employment…
· 4 min read
Consumer
A rolling contract ends on its own terms, not when you stop wanting it
Continuing services are built so that inaction renews them, which means most disputes about subscriptions…
· 3 min read
Consumer
An ombudsman scheme is a different animal from a court
Sector complaint schemes decide on paperwork, cost the complainant little, and bind the two sides unequally…
· 3 min read
Housing
Sharing a tenancy usually means sharing the whole of it
Where several people hold one letting together, each of them can commonly be pursued for the entire rent…
· 3 min read
Work
A reference is written for the reader, not for the person it describes
Duties around references run in more than one direction at once, which explains why so many employers now…
· 3 min read
Family & Estates
A power of attorney is authority to act, and it ends when the giver dies
Appointing someone to act for you is a living arrangement with a hard boundary at death, and the two…
· 4 min read
Courts
Winning a case and being paid are two separate projects
A judgment declares what is owed; collecting it is a further process with its own applications, costs and…
· 4 min read
Courts
Bringing a claim is a decision about exposure as much as about merit
Who pays the legal costs of a dispute is one of the sharpest differences between legal systems, and it…
· 4 min read
Consumer
Some terms are in a contract because the law will not leave them out
Implied terms fill the gaps the parties never discussed, and in consumer dealings a good many of them…
· 4 min read
Consumer
When a product causes harm, the question moves past the shop
A defective item that injures someone raises a different claim from one that simply disappoints, and it can…
· 4 min read
Consumer
Paying by finance can put two parties on the hook for one purchase
A credit purchase is usually two agreements at once, and in many systems that structure gives the buyer a…
· 4 min read
Consumer
Buying from a person is not the same transaction as buying from a business
Consumer protections generally attach to the seller’s status rather than to the goods, which is why a…
· 4 min read
Housing
Boundaries are rarely where the fence is, and shared walls belong to nobody alone
Property lines are legal constructs recorded imperfectly, and structures sitting on them carry obligations…
· 4 min read
Housing
Whether you are a tenant or a lodger is decided by the arrangement, not the label
Occupation rights turn on whether someone has exclusive possession of a space, and that single distinction…
· 4 min read
Work
An employer’s safety duty is about the system, not about the accident
Workplace safety obligations are preventive and continuous, which is why an investigation looks at…
· 3 min read
Family & Estates
Living together for years does not create the rights people assume it does
The belief that long cohabitation produces something like marriage is widespread and, in many systems…
· 4 min read
Consumer
What you can expect from a used item is measured against what it was
Second-hand goods are held to a standard set by their age, price and description, and an auction adds a…
· 4 min read
Work
Monitoring at work is limited by proportionality, not by who owns the equipment
Employers may supervise work, but owning the laptop does not settle what may be collected about the person…
· 4 min read
Courts
When many people have the same complaint, systems handle it in very different ways
Collective procedures exist to make small individual claims viable together, and whether a person is…
· 4 min read