Nine month delay in move to new home

My solicitor has written three letters but, to date, Miller has not replied. If there are problems, I am worried about insuring the property when it is completed — and the prospect of reselling it.

Miller Homes has said that we can withdraw from the contract and they will return the £25,000, but there is no mention of compensation or interest.

Joy Deane, Cambridge

Miller did not explain the problem to you for one reason: it did not want to cause panic among other buyers. It would have caused less panic had it been upfront from the start.

The delay was caused when it found that two trees had been taken out in the corner of the site. This meant that standard foundations were not sufficient for some of the houses, so it has had to put in super-deep foundations instead.

The homes have the standard NHBC ten-year guarantee, so you should not have any problems with insurance. Nor will new buyers have difficulty with a mortgage.

As for compensation, Miller offered to pay ten months of your rent, the cost of storage and removal, and the loss of interest on your £25,000. Your complaint was handled by a Miller senior manager. All this came after Troubleshooter intervened, naturally. It is a shame that it could not have made the offer without the involvement of this column.

In October last year I consulted the website checkatrade.com to find a roofer to do some work on my house in West London. To cut a long story short, he turned out to be dishonest. After a difficult struggle, I finally managed to get my money back from him after I threatened litigation.

I wrote to Checkatrade, which recommended this roofing business, and advised it of the situation. It has not responded and still recommends this business on its site — with no indication of my experience.

It seems that Checkatrade, which describes itself as listing traders who are “recommended, vetted and monitored”, has no interest in addressing the failings of one of its members and continues to advertise a dishonest trader as “recommended”.

Ian Bellinger, Kingston upon Thames

A plethora of websites claim to sift the cowboys from legitimate tradesmen. But many of these sites include false recommendations, no vetting procedures and a lack of customer reviews. In future you may find the website trustmark.org.uk, a not-for-profit organisation supported by the Government and consumer protection groups, more reliable.

Troubleshooter spoke to Checkatrade, which claimed that it had never received your complaint. If you want to resend it, it says that it will contact the roofer concerned and give him 21 days to respond to your complaint. After this time, both your comments and his will be published.

EDF has sent me a quarterly bill for £18,446; my previous one was £114.36. I am approaching 60 and only my wife and I live in our cottage. The company now tells me that it is applying to the court to disconnect our supply unless we pay in full immediately. We have been with the same supplier for the past 33 years. It wasn’t like this in the old days of Seeboard, its predecessor.

Mr Morrison, Canterbury

Your bills have been underestimated since 2004, resulting in this eye-watering backdated bill of £18,446.

But in what other industry is it acceptable to charge a customer a rate for four years, then say: “Oops! Sorry, we got it wrong. You actually owe us thousands of pounds.”

It is completely unsatisfactory to land you with such an extortionate bill and demand repayment. Energy providers know this, which is why they offer discounts and repayment plans. But this problem should never have arisen in the first place. It is inexcusable and Ofgem, the regulator, should launch an inquiry.

There is no way that you can prove that you do not owe this money — and therein lies the problem of backdated bills. EDF can say anything and demand that you pay any amount. It has offered you a flexible repayment plan, which you have rejected.

It refused to write off the debt, even after Troubleshooter called, as such a move would spark a flood of other claims.

The rules lay down that if the energy provider is at fault, it cannot backdate the bill for more than a year. While customers are expected to help check that they are being charged correctly, it is “encumbent” upon the provider to ensure it. Troubleshooter would argue, therefore, that the energy provider should always be found at fault for failing to correct the customer’s bills earlier.

Troubleshooter is not in charge of such matters, however. Contact the energy ombudsman on 0330 4401624 or 01925 530263, energy-ombudsman.org.uk.

Readers to the rescue

My neighbours in the flat above me have asked if they can pay to borrow my wireless internet. They are living in the UK temporarily and don’t want to pay for the installation of a telephone landline. They are very pleasant but I am concerned that my internet will slow down and security will be compromised. Should I agree?

Jeremy Ford

£25 voucher winner

The answer is simple: get a Fonera wi-fi router for £29.95. This lets you have a public and a private wi-fi connection. You can use it free, but others will pay to use it and you get a share of the proceeds. You will be part of the BT Fon community and get free access to the other 500,000 “Fon” wi-fi hotspots around the country. Have a look at fon.com/en.

Keith Rider

First, check in your contract whether this is allowed, and then satisfy yourself of your neighbours’ identity and that they will be traceable after they leave in the event of any questionable use of the service. You could then set up an alternative wireless security code for them in your modem/router and negotiate a timeshare under your control and at your convenience, keeping a log of their times of use.

If you are using a BT Home Hub, this has a built-in facility whereby any users within range can freely use up to one-tenth of your bandwidth without affecting the security of your own service, if you choose to make this available.

John Chambers

If your neighbours want internet access they can buy mobile broadband from any of the main mobile operators. These are fast, cheap and don’t require a phone line. If these do not meet their needs, then it is likely that their intended use of your internet connection will slow you down.

Dave Brown

Regardless of internet security, most contracts contain a clause that would preclude you from offering access to third parties. By doing so you are likely to be in breach of contract and your connection may be terminated.

Simon Burton

Wow, what a miserable hostile country the UK has become.Your computer can be hacked and turned into a zombie bot even without accessing your wi-fi. If you are that worried that someone will steal your data, don’t use wi-fi at all. I did a similar thing with my neighbour here in Canada and it worked absolutely fine.

Peter Smith

Can you help?

E-mail troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk with your answer to the following question for the chance to win a £25 gift voucher.

It has always been my ambition to retire to the South of France, and I was planning to move in the autumn as I turn 60. However, my daughter has just had a baby and is devastated that I will live so far away. Should I give up the dream?

Paula Kennedy

On the brightside

Valerie Hudson writes: “My Canon digital camera, bought in 2005, with an underwater housing developed a fault just before our diving holiday. I took it to the high street camera shop where I had bought it and they said that it would not be viable to repair it and offered to sell me a new camera.

“I then rang Canon, which suggested that such a fault on older cameras may be repaired free of charge. I was told to send it to Lehmanns, of Stoke, a camera repair specialist and explain the urgency and I would receive a free repair. The camera was repaired and returned by special delivery a few days later.”