- 2 weeks ago
Rip off Britain - Season 18 Episode 9 - Insurer won’t help as our home falls apart
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00:00Today, more than three years after cracks appeared in the walls of their home, we meet
00:05the couple stuck in a battle with their insurer to fix damage caused by subsidence.
00:10This is by far the biggest crack and over time it's grown.
00:14You can even fit a 50p piece in that crack.
00:18Plus the mysterious subscriptions that could be hitting your bank balance.
00:23We meet one man who didn't notice the monthly payment that ended up costing him hundreds
00:28and we'll have all you need to know to flush out any sneaky subs that might be lurking
00:32in your account.
00:33Helping you to protect your money.
00:35This is Ripoff Britain.
00:43Hello and once again welcome to Ripoff Britain HQ in Salford.
00:48Now this is the base for the team that lives just to investigate your stories.
00:53Well, as we just heard today, those stories include subsidence and subscriptions plus another
00:59S, slow broadband.
01:01In the race for a super fast connection we meet the people stuck on slow because whoever
01:06owns their building wouldn't sign the right paperwork.
01:10I had to ask my landlord, then I had to go to Openreach and then I had to go back
01:16to my
01:16landlord who went back to the freeholder and this went back and forth over and over and
01:20over.
01:20Now it's a problem that could affect anyone who rents their home or doesn't own the freehold.
01:26So later on we'll be finding out what you can do in that situation.
01:30But first, to subsidence.
01:32It can be an absolute nightmare for homeowners, not just when it comes to fixing the damage
01:37it can cause, but also when tackling the source of the problem itself in order to make
01:42sure that your home is safe for the future.
01:44For the couple in our first film today, the cause of the cracks in their home seemed clear
01:49from the start.
01:50But the insurance claim that followed has been beset with problems and rejections, which
01:56has left them feeling that the people making decisions about their claim don't really understand
02:02the problem.
02:02Which doesn't bode very well, because as climate change leads to hotter, drier summers, which
02:08cause the ground beneath our homes to shrink, subsidence could become a problem more and more of us have to
02:13face.
02:17The dream for Helen Jenner and husband Josh was always to move back up north one day.
02:22We're really keen to move away from London.
02:25I've been here for 25 years and we're just ready to leave city life.
02:31They want to sell their home of five years in Romford and head to greener pastures.
02:36We want a bit more outdoors, we want to look out and see green space.
02:40We have two dogs.
02:42We want to go out on long dog walks, you know, country pubs, like that's the dream.
02:46But those plans have stalled, because beneath the surface of their house is a problem.
02:56This is where we first noticed the subsidence and this is by far the biggest crack.
03:01And over time it's grown, you can even fit a 50p piece in that crack.
03:08Subsidence is when the ground beneath the building sinks, making the foundations unstable and
03:13often causing cracks and structural damage to the property.
03:17Helen and Josh discovered it in August 2022.
03:21We were really shocked.
03:24This was a house that we had just bought that was going to be our dream house and we had
03:27lots of plans and ideas and suddenly everything was put on hold.
03:31So we were pretty devastated.
03:33So Helen and Josh called their home insurer, AXA, and asked for help.
03:39AXA instructed loss adjusters Crawford and company to investigate.
03:42Their report focused attention on the 23-year-old extension at the back of the house and concluded
03:49that the subsidence was caused by what it called root-induced clay shrinkage.
03:55The investigators dug a trial pit to measure the extension's foundations and revealed, much
04:01to Helen and Josh's shock, that they were just 12 centimetres deep.
04:05We suspected that the issue was caused by a huge sycamore tree that was on our boundary.
04:11When the report came back it said that the extension itself was a bad build and that they wouldn't
04:18pay the claim at that point.
04:20But this came as news to Helen and Josh, who'd only bought the house a year earlier.
04:25We kind of couldn't believe it because when we bought the house, you know, we had building
04:30surveys, we had all of the building regs, we had done our due diligence.
04:34We had all the documentation to show that this build was absolutely perfectly fine and adequate.
04:39So we couldn't really understand where this term bad build had come from.
04:45Convinced that there must have been a mistake, the couple hired an independent surveyor to
04:50do their own assessments at a cost of £450 and it disputed Crawford's findings.
04:57So Crawford sent in subsidence specialists for yet more tests.
05:02They dug another two trial pits and they came back with the same conclusion, that the foundations
05:08weren't adequate.
05:09By now it had been a year since the cracks had first appeared and they were no closer
05:13to a resolution.
05:16We were pretty devastated at that point, we were pretty angry as well that we were paying
05:21this money for our insurance premium but they weren't doing anything.
05:26We knew that we would have to take this further ourselves.
05:30Coup, a second independent survey and a second conclusion that Crawford had got it wrong.
05:37Helen sent the report to AXA but after a six month wait, the insurer rejected his findings.
05:44I was really disappointed and just really frustrated because it was a lot of work at this point
05:49and a lot of expense.
05:50So after the two reports were rejected, we were really determined we weren't going to
05:57take this line down.
05:58We were so convinced that we were right, that this building was fine and ultimately we just
06:04wanted to get our house repaired.
06:06To prove Crawford was wrong about the depth of the foundations, the couple got an independent
06:11firm to dig their own trial pit and found that the foundations were not 12 centimetres but
06:17two metres deep.
06:21We were really relieved when we could finally prove we were right all along and the foundation
06:27depths were absolutely perfectly adequate.
06:29We felt really vindicated.
06:32We thought this was going to be the beginning of the end effectively and we were going to
06:37be able to move and sell the house.
06:38By now it was October 2024, Helen and Josh had spent £1,740 and 25 months proving something
06:48that Crawford should have got right from the outset.
06:51When presented with the proof, AXA finally agreed to pay out.
06:56I was in my office at work when I got a phone call from the insurance company and it was
07:01just
07:01total jubilation.
07:03I honestly couldn't believe what I was hearing.
07:06We had just been fighting this for two and a half years and suddenly they believed us.
07:11Things could, at long last, get moving.
07:14Crawford and company apologised, admitting that the site investigations weren't up to scratch,
07:19and reimbursed the money Helen and Josh had spent on independent surveys.
07:25Attention turned to stopping the subsidence by removing the tree.
07:30And after 12 months of monitoring for any further movement, there was good news.
07:35The house had effectively stopped moving.
07:37So when the tree was removed, the subsidence was resolved.
07:42We were thrilled we could move to repairs.
07:45But a further six months down the line, the property has still not been fully repaired.
07:51Helen says that it's been a fight to get the work signed off.
07:56Right now, we're having to painstakingly go crack by crack, issue by issue, damage by damage,
08:03and say this isn't subsidence or proof that this is, and it's just a long, long period.
08:11Helen believes that the subsidence has damaged the floor of the extension.
08:15You see that the door sticks a little bit.
08:20But the loss adjuster, Crawford, doesn't agree.
08:23We've lost all trust and faith in their assessments on the house
08:28because they've been proved wrong so many times, so we just can't trust their word.
08:33The delays have come at a significant cost since Helen and Josh's fixed rate mortgage term has expired.
08:40And until the work is completed, they can't get a new deal and they're stuck on a higher rate.
08:46So we've ended up actually having to pay around £500 a month more on our mortgage.
08:52So, again, it feels like we're being trapped in this house
08:55and we're kind of being held ransom to it until we solve the subsidence issue.
09:01We are just totally and utterly destroyed by this whole situation.
09:06And we just want to move.
09:09Hi!
09:10With that dream move to the country in mind,
09:12and with the subsidence now thankfully under control,
09:16Helen wants to know how easy it would be to sell the house.
09:22So local estate agent Tony Varghese is taking a look around.
09:27What is the general reaction when people come into a house
09:30and they hear this house has had subsidence?
09:34So with anything to do with subsidence, we have to put it on the property particulars.
09:38We have to state the fact that the property has had a history of subsidence.
09:41If you were to go to market without rectifying the issues,
09:46obviously buyers are going to be put off when they see it.
09:47And that could mean only being able to sell to cash buyers
09:51and taking up to 25% less than the house would be worth with everything fixed.
09:57So it's paramount that the insurance claim and the repairs are completed quickly and properly.
10:02I think if you've dealt with everything correctly,
10:05I don't think it's going to stop you selling it.
10:07And I don't think it's going to affect the overall value massively.
10:10What it will do is put off a few people, maybe drop the value anywhere from around the 5%
10:17mark from what it should be.
10:19Even with a drop in the likely sale price, Helen is relieved.
10:22Hearing him talk about that houses are sold after subsidence claims have completed actually gives me a lot of hope
10:30and it makes me think we really can get this resolved.
10:33We're just ready to move and ready to start new lives.
10:36And we'll certainly be keeping in touch with Helen and Josh as they get closer to starting afresh.
10:41But if they hadn't been so dotted in their determination to prove Crawford's assessments wrong, things, you know, might have
10:48been very different.
10:52So joining me now in HQ to discuss what we can all take from their experiences are building industry expert
10:59Roger Bisbee and solicitor Gary Rycroft.
11:03Gary, when mistakes are made like that by official people, what are your rights overall?
11:09Well, the mistakes were made by the loss adjusters.
11:13Now, loss adjusters are appointed and paid for by the insurance company.
11:17I'm not saying they're biased, but certainly if you're on the receiving end of their reports, you can absolutely question
11:24their conclusions.
11:24You can ask questions. And if things don't stack up, you can commission your own report.
11:30Now, that does have a cost, but it might be a really good investment if the outcome of commissioning your
11:36own report is an insurance claim that is successful.
11:39rather than one that's rejected.
11:42Gary says getting your own survey can also be used as evidence if you need to refer a complaint about
11:48your insurance company to the financial ombudsman service.
11:52When we spoke to the loss adjuster Crawford and company about Helen's case, it told us it was very sorry
11:58for the distress and frustration that she and Josh have experienced.
12:02It says subsidence claims can be particularly challenging, often requiring extensive investigation, monitoring and engagement with multiple parties to assess
12:11the cause and deliver an effective solution.
12:14Crawford said that it is now working to resolve the outstanding issued.
12:19Meanwhile, AXA admitted that the service the couple received fell short, adding that it is reviewing what went wrong and
12:26working closely with its suppliers to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
12:30AXA confirmed all aspects of the claim will be covered in full.
12:34The remaining work will be completed as quickly as possible and that Helen and Josh will be reimbursed for the
12:40cost of the independent surveys and provided with compensation.
12:44So they'll be very glad to hear that.
12:48And I'm very pleased to say that since filming, AXA has appointed a new claim handler to manage the claim
12:54and Helen and Josh will soon be moving into alternative accommodation while the repairs take place.
13:00But aside from Helen and Josh's experience, subsidence is something more and more of us may soon experience, thanks to
13:07the impact of climate change on the ground that our homes are built on.
13:11Roger, we're going to turn to the problem of the subsidence itself.
13:15It is apparently getting more common, but why is that?
13:19The weather that we're getting now, they tell us we just had the hottest summer on record, then we have
13:23the wettest winter and it does play havoc with ground conditions.
13:27It will heave when it's wet and it will shrink when it's dry and that will have an effect on
13:33the house and the foundation.
13:35So that's why we're getting more building movement than we used to get.
13:39Roger says the ground on which your property is built on can be crucial in determining the risk of subsidence.
13:46And it turns out that over four million homes in Britain are built on something that's especially susceptible, clay.
13:54What happens is it swells when it gets wet and then it shrinks when it gets dry and it's causing
14:00these problems with the cracks.
14:03And then something like sand is all right most of the time.
14:06It's the water that will wash the sand away and then you'll get the subsidence.
14:10So if you find a house that's built on sand, get the drains checked out, get a camera survey on
14:15the drains.
14:16Then you get things like chalk. Chalk's pretty good, except that sometimes you get underground streams and that will open
14:21up chasms suddenly and sometimes catastrophically.
14:24So, Roger, here's the big question. How can we all tell, actually, if we want to investigate what our home
14:30is actually built on?
14:31Well, there's a great thing called the British Geological Survey and it's free.
14:37So we put a postcode in here and it zooms straight into exactly where we are now.
14:42And if we click on that, it tells us that the bedrock geology here is a chest of formation sandstone,
14:50247 million years old.
14:53Is that all?
14:54Well, it could be 250. They're a bit vague on that.
14:57Yeah. So we're on sandstone, which is pretty solid stuff. But over the top of it is some clay, some
15:03sand and some gravel, which would have been washed down by the river.
15:06It's amazing, isn't it?
15:07Yeah.
15:08All that information. This is open to anybody countrywide.
15:11Absolutely. Everyone will look at it and I spend hours on it because I'm such a sad person.
15:14But it saved me a lot of money in the past because when I've been looking at a building project
15:18and I've been able to do this bit of research, first of all, it's worth a lot, you know.
15:25Now, Gary, you deal with a lot of surveys and so on. So would the risk of subsidence turn up
15:30on the survey?
15:32I've read lots of surveys over the years. Now, the bottom line is that the risk of subsidence might not
15:38be revealed by a survey.
15:40But I would say it's always really important to have a survey because number one, it gives you a baseline
15:47for your starting position with regard to the risk.
15:51Whatever it turns out to be, you've got a baseline. And secondly, you've got the surveyor effectively on the hook
15:57because they are giving you a confirmation of what the state and condition of what that property is at that
16:05point in time.
16:05Having a survey will put you in a better position if you do eventually want to make an insurance claim,
16:12because in effect, that's your first report.
16:15I want to go to the selling aspect of it. If you know that you have a risk of subsidence,
16:20presumably there must be very strong advice that you have to give people like that about what they declare up
16:25front.
16:26Absolutely. A hundred percent. If you are selling a property, you have to be open and transparent about any historic
16:33issues that they've been with regard to the structure.
16:36And if you aren't, it's a potential misrepresentation and you can be sued by the buyer.
16:41What good advice. Well, thank you both very much. Really a lot to absorb and appreciate you coming in. Thank
16:47you.
16:48And we put all of that advice and the link to the website that Roger mentioned on our own website.
16:53That's bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain.
16:57But now it's time to put more experts to work on your problems in the advice clinic.
17:04The advice clinic is on the road, bringing the best consumer advice.
17:09This is something we hear about quite a lot.
17:12Think about going through the small claims court to get your money back.
17:15To you.
17:19Here's our home today for the advice clinic, BBC Radio Berkshire in Reading,
17:24which is super exciting for me because this is where I began my career as a reporter over 30 years
17:30ago.
17:31The team are inside. They're ready. We've got lots of things to sort out. Let's get started.
17:37Jeff Haynes is with us today.
17:39He's come to us for help with a mysterious subscription for Amazon's audio book service, Audible,
17:45that's been leaving his bank account without his knowledge for years.
17:50Solicitor Lisa Webb from Consumer Group, which is on hand to help.
17:54Jeff, come in here. Hopefully we might be able to get some answers to some of your questions.
17:58Take a seat there. This is Lisa Webb.
18:00Jeff's issues began in October 2025 when he was checking his bank statement and spotted an £8.99 payment to
18:08Audible,
18:09which he hadn't approved. And when he checked his old statements, the same payment kept occurring.
18:15Had you ever, as far as you remember, had an account with Audible?
18:19No, not at all. Never. I called up Audible to find out what was going on.
18:25They said there was an account with Audible, that my name had been used.
18:29And so I gave them my email address and they said, well, no, that's not the email address we've got
18:34here.
18:35So I said, but that's my bank account details and the money is going out of my bank account.
18:41The email address used to open the Audible account was not one he'd ever used.
18:47And Jeff says Audible told him it couldn't close the account because he wasn't the account holder.
18:53And in the meantime, he calculated he'd spent hundreds of pounds on what appeared to be someone else's Audible membership.
19:01So what did you want from them? A refund or what did you want?
19:04Yeah, I wanted a refund for all the payments they'd taken from my account.
19:08And they were having none of it? No, they wouldn't do it at all.
19:12And I went and told my bank about it and they refunded me for three years of payment.
19:17They refunded you? And did they stop those payments?
19:21Yeah, they stopped the payments but they said I had to reimpose the block on Audible every 13 months.
19:28That 13 month time period is all to do with the way Audible memberships and a lot of other subscriptions
19:35are paid.
19:35So there are different types of payments that go out each month.
19:39Sometimes people have direct debits, sometimes people have standing orders
19:42and sometimes there's this thing called a continuous payment authority.
19:45Direct debits and standing orders are sort of one type of beast that the bank themselves can cancel.
19:50They can say that's not going to happen anymore.
19:52A continuous payment authority comes from the requesting bank, which is why it's harder for your home bank to do
19:59anything about it.
20:00The standard position is that they'll put a block on that CPA, that continuous payment authority for 13 months, which
20:06is what they've told you.
20:08Geoff, I mean, you've tried to detangle this, haven't you? How much stress has it put you under?
20:12It's making me really worried about, you know, what else is going on in my account that I haven't detected
20:19yet or I haven't seen.
20:21And then there's the whole stress of I've got to think when I'm going to reimpose this block on every
20:2813 months.
20:30I can understand why you're getting so annoyed with this.
20:33When you have spoken to Audible, what information have they been able to give you about the account?
20:37Well, they just send me a standard letter, which is that.
20:43Let's have a look. So they're saying I was able to find the charge on another customer's account for an
20:51Audible subscription.
20:53If you still do not recognise this charge, this is a fraudulent charge. Please dispute the charge with your bank.
20:59So looking at what Audible have said to you here, they're admitting that they are taking your money for someone
21:04else's account, which means they need to stop taking it.
21:08Yeah. I really think they've got it wrong here.
21:10So what does he need to do right now then?
21:12So I think there are a couple of things. We need to talk to Audible, explain to them that the
21:17problem you're having is that they're taking your money.
21:20They have the control. They are able to not take that money.
21:24And then on top of that, I think you can speak to the Financial Ombudsman Service about what's happening with
21:29your own bank.
21:30They can consider whether or not the bank's being reasonable by saying they'll only apply a block for 13 months.
21:35And actually, they might be able to step in and tell your bank to extend that block for longer.
21:39One other step would be for Jeff to cancel his card or change accounts altogether, which would stop the payments
21:47and any need to reinstate the block.
21:53But Jeff didn't need to take any of those steps after we got in touch with Audible.
21:58It told us that the account was originally set up in 2018, but had laid unused for years.
22:05Audible also said it takes allegations of unauthorized charges very seriously and understands Jeff's concerns.
22:14However, its strict privacy policies mean it cannot disclose details about one customer's account to another, even in cases where
22:22fraud is alleged.
22:23Audible encouraged people to get in touch with any similar concerns and confirmed to us that the account linked to
22:30Jeff's bank details has been closed.
22:34Jeff has probably lost at least £400 and Lisa believes his experience shows just how important it is that we
22:41all check our bank accounts for recurring payments every month.
22:46There'll be other people watching who will think, you know, it's definitely worth going through your bank accounts, isn't it,
22:52to watch those recurring payments.
22:54Definitely. I'm so glad you checked because by checking what you've managed to do is stop this in its tracks.
23:01So, to help you spring clean your bank account for any recurring subscriptions, Lisa has this advice.
23:08Step one, pore over your statements going back more than a year.
23:12That'll mean you can spot charges that are made annually rather than monthly.
23:17Step two, highlight anything that you don't recognize and if you really can't remember, ask your bank what it was
23:24for.
23:26Step three, identify the type of payment, whether it's a direct debit, standing order or a continuous payment authority like
23:34Jeff's and tell your bank to cancel it.
23:37Step four, tell the company responsible to cancel the next payment and check the subscription won't auto renew without your
23:45say so.
23:46Step five, remember, like Jeff's bank, yours might only be able to block a recurring card payment for 13 months.
23:54So keep checking.
23:57It's advice Jeff won't easily forget.
24:08Now, if you've got a problem and you think that our advice clinic team can help, and I know that
24:13they can, then do let us know.
24:15The email address is ripoffwritten at bbc.co.uk and our WhatsApp number is 0306781321.
24:26And of course, we remind you of those details and the other ways to get in touch later on in
24:30the program.
24:31Well, Gary is back and we're also joined by consumer rights expert, Martin James, because in a moment, we're going
24:37to be quizzing them on some of the questions you've sent in.
24:39But first, for an update on a story we first covered in 2025, and I think it was one that
24:45you advised on here in HQ too, Gary.
24:48Do you remember the names Naz and Anita?
24:51Yeah, they were desperate for help after buying their first family home and discovering the dreaded Japanese knotweed in the
24:59garden.
25:00Here's a quick reminder.
25:04There was these big shoots as big as that that were growing here.
25:09I read about it and it seemed very scary to me because of what consequence it can have on the
25:16foundation.
25:18Japanese knotweed is an invasive plant that can wreak total havoc.
25:23Its strong roots have been known to grow through concrete and some people claim undermine building foundations.
25:30One of the pages here specifically asks for the presence of Japanese knotweed on the property or even in the
25:40surroundings,
25:41and it's clearly marked no by the sellers.
25:44Had the knotweed been declared by the sellers or in the survey,
25:48it could have affected Naz and Anita's ability to get a mortgage on the house
25:52and might even have stopped buying it altogether.
25:55But as the new owners, they are now stuck with it, not to mention the challenge of getting rid of
26:01it.
26:03To help them work out their options, we've got an expert opinion.
26:08Hi there, Anita.
26:09Hello, Anita.
26:09Thank you for coming.
26:10Please come in.
26:11Thank you very much.
26:12Matt Day is the director of Environet.
26:15It's one of a number of companies that can survey your property and detect and remove invasive plant species.
26:22And it doesn't take long for him to establish what Naz and Anita have to deal with.
26:28If we're looking at how long has it been on the property or within the area for,
26:32we're looking at least 10 years, but most likely 20 plus.
26:36If we were to excavate, prices range from around £5,000 to £15,000.
26:41That's shocking, Matt.
26:43That's...
26:43That's a price because we didn't expect this.
26:46No.
26:46No, not at all.
26:47And this is additional cost, not of our making.
26:49Yeah.
26:50The cost you never accounted for.
26:51Yeah.
26:52Well, that is very, very scary, I have to say.
26:55And I would hate to find that in my garden with you.
26:58Yes.
26:58But I am thrilled to say that there is good news to report.
27:02Because after the advice that they were given on the programme,
27:05Naz and Anita raised a legal claim against the sellers of the house
27:09because the knotweed had not been declared on the sales paperwork.
27:13Now, the claim was settled before it went to court.
27:15And as a result, hey, Naz and Anita now have a good chunk of money.
27:20And the money, of course, is going to be spent on removing the knotweed for good.
27:24Gary, you must be happy with that legally.
27:26I'm really delighted, actually, because they're a lovely couple.
27:28And they had a sense that they'd been treated badly.
27:31But I think what we did here is to give them that oomph
27:35to make them go forward and to press their claim.
27:37And I'm really glad that there's been a satisfactory outcome.
27:41Well, time to put some more of your questions to Gary and Martin.
27:44And Martin, one for you from Nigel Williams in Flinshire,
27:47who says he paid nearly £130 for a suit online, but it never arrived.
27:53He says his bank account has shown that amount pending since he ordered the suit.
27:58And that means he can't spend the money again.
28:00The retailer says they now can't locate the transaction and isn't being any help.
28:05So what can Nigel do?
28:07Well, this is one of those frustrating computer says no moments, isn't it?
28:10Because whenever we transfer money, no matter what form that transfer takes,
28:15your bank or the medium that you use to send that money will always know where it's gone.
28:19Now, what I think has happened here is there may have been a problem,
28:23which means the details it's gone through to the other parties' bank accounts,
28:26it hasn't been recognised.
28:28Money then sits in a holding account waiting to be told where to go.
28:33Now, it just needs someone to do that.
28:35The obvious choice is your bank and they should be getting onto this
28:39and then it can be sent on to the suit company.
28:42Now, sometimes banks can be very difficult about doing this.
28:46So, threaten to go to the free financial ombudsman service.
28:50That will get their attention.
28:51That should put something under their backsides, get them moving.
28:55Yep.
28:56Well, that's one way of putting it, Julia.
28:58Gary, this one is for you this time.
29:00Catherine Lowe emailed on behalf of her dad,
29:02who used a courier company to send a WhatsApp that was worth £100
29:05and he was sending it off for repair.
29:08Catherine says the tracking shows that it was delivered,
29:10but the jeweller says he never received it.
29:13Eight weeks on, her elderly parents are extremely upset
29:15as the courier company is taking no responsibility.
29:18So, is there any comeback for her?
29:20In legal terms, Catherine's dad has a contract with the courier company
29:25and their job is to transport the goods to the destination,
29:30but we need some evidence in this case.
29:32So, we need a statement from the jeweller to say,
29:35I have not received the watch.
29:37She then needs to go to the courier company and say,
29:39look, the jeweller has made this statement,
29:41the watch hasn't been received,
29:42please prove to me that you have delivered the watch
29:47and where did you deliver it to.
29:48Now, they should have a photograph,
29:50they should have perhaps something called a GPS stamp,
29:53which actually identifies where goods have been delivered.
29:56Now, if she gets that evidence
29:58and it shows that the watch isn't at the jeweller's,
30:02then she then has her evidence to go to the courier company
30:06and say, you have not fulfilled your contract
30:09and she can then raise a formal complaint.
30:12So, she needs to piece together that evidence methodically
30:15and then go for it.
30:17Now, next to broadband.
30:19In what feels like no time has gone from a useful service
30:22to an absolutely essential one,
30:25which is why so much effort is being plied into ensuring
30:27as many homes as possible can access a super fast,
30:31full fibre connection.
30:33But if you rent your home or you don't own the freehold,
30:37then like the woman we're about to meet,
30:39you could discover that even though the cables you need
30:42for that lightning fast connection run right up to the pavement
30:45outside your house, getting permission to connect
30:48across the final few metres into your living room
30:51could be a hurdle that seems impossible to clear.
30:58This is where I live. Come on in.
31:01This is my office.
31:03This is where I spend most of my time.
31:07Freelance arts producer Sarah Bryn
31:09rents this house in Lewisham in South London
31:12and often works from her own specially adapted home office.
31:16I have a muscular skeletal disorder called Ehlers-Danlos,
31:20which makes certain things more difficult or more painful.
31:22So I've got a few things here that help me work ergonomically.
31:27And this set-up helps me kind of look straight ahead
31:30and keep my body in the healthiest position possible.
31:33But thanks to unreliable and patchy broadband at home,
31:37Sarah has had to abandon this set-up and...
31:41Instead, I have to work at coffee shops like this.
31:46Sarah is a regular here.
31:48Hi, I want to get for you today.
31:49And it's become rather expensive.
31:52I spent a small fortune buying coffees
31:55just so I could legitimise using the Wi-Fi at these coffee shops.
31:58Not to mention painful makeshift home office.
32:02I have something called cervical cranial instability.
32:05It physically hurts to look down at a computer
32:08for as little as five or ten minutes at a time.
32:10It feels a little unprofessional to be in a busy environment
32:15and have a Zoom call.
32:18Sarah's been calling this place working from home since August 2025,
32:23when her home broadband started to glitch.
32:27I wasn't able to access the network.
32:30It was a mess.
32:31The internet quality had become so poor that I wasn't able to work at all.
32:36Sarah's lack of speedy broadband is not for want of trying.
32:40In fact, she signed a contract for a super-fast full-fiber connection
32:44with her supplier Vodafone in August 2025,
32:47which promised to solve her broadband woes.
32:52But she hit an unexpected hurdle when the engineer came a few weeks later.
32:58It turns out that the technician needed something called a permission to work form.
33:03And I was told that there was a third party who needed to sign,
33:07but they could not tell me who that was.
33:10Permission to work is a type of contractual agreement
33:13that's needed by broadband providers to install cables in other people's land.
33:18And in this case, it turned out it was the freeholder
33:22who owned the land on which Sarah's rented house was built
33:26who had to sign it off.
33:27Without it, network infrastructure provider OpenReach
33:31had to put Sarah's full-fiber installation on hold.
33:36And although the installation seemed like a simple job...
33:40All they need to do is run a cable underground from here to here.
33:50Getting the paperwork signed certainly wasn't.
33:53I had to ask my landlord to communicate to me from the freeholder
34:00what pieces of information they were looking for.
34:03Then I had to go to OpenReach and they had to give me answers to their questions.
34:07And then I had to go back to my landlord who went back to the freeholder.
34:10And this went back and forth over and over and over.
34:12So I was really feeling stuck.
34:17I was really feeling overlooked and really frustrated.
34:21By November, Sarah had been working in the coffee shop for three months
34:26with no indication of progress with the freeholder.
34:29There was no more information we could give.
34:31I was like, wow, this really shouldn't be this difficult.
34:34I was like, do I have to move?
34:36Do I have to move to a place where it's not this difficult and complex to get internet access?
34:42That would be an extreme measure.
34:45But it's true to say that while 78% of homes can access full fibre broadband,
34:51the near 20-year rollout programme is sometimes beset by snags.
34:55That's because getting full fibre to the street is often the simple part.
35:00The complications tend to arise in the last few metres where the cable enters your home
35:06since a freeholder can block a householder's right to upgrade their internet speed simply by doing nothing.
35:14It's an all too familiar problem for this open reach team who are out on jobs in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
35:20And these are all together. Yeah.
35:22Regional build manager Tom Westall says the red tape around permissions is frustrating.
35:29He delivers around 5,000 connections to residents in apartment blocks across Merseyside and Cheshire every three months,
35:36but says there are plenty of properties with significant delays.
35:40Like this block of flats.
35:42So originally this building has probably been within our work stack for just shy of a year.
35:48And there's been a last minute hitch.
35:51The actual building itself has been sold to a new owner.
35:54And so we're actually struggling with contact with them at the moment.
35:57They're unresponsive.
35:58The previous owner had finally granted permission for the tenants to get full fibre after a year of negotiations.
36:06But the managing agent has changed just before installation.
36:10So it's back to the drawing board.
36:14But today there is one site that has finally got the green light after 112 days.
36:20We're here in Altrincham where we've had the successful go ahead to upgrade their network to full fibre optics.
36:29Specialist engineer Phil Idden is looking after the installation.
36:33So this is a complex building and we can upgrade it fully within three days.
36:40So here we have a typical plant room that we find in a multi dwelling unit.
36:45And in this one my good colleague is just completing the final set of splicers to upgrade this building.
36:53We've got our old copper network that has served us very well up until this point.
36:59But this is fresh cable.
37:02And that will upgrade the network so that it is capable of ultra fast speeds.
37:08This is all completed.
37:09So jobs are good then.
37:12Back in Lewisham, Sarah has been without fast and reliable broadband for five months.
37:18But, fingers crossed, is due her own visit from Openreach soon.
37:23That's because after three months waiting, the freeholder has finally granted permission.
37:29I was like, whoa, is this real? Am I dreaming?
37:32So I'm glad it's hopefully over soon.
37:36While Sarah is happy with the progress update, she thinks changes are needed so that tenants aren't held back by
37:43an unresponsive freeholder.
37:45Since, as it stands, there are no rules compelling them to engage in the process.
37:50I think it needs to be easier for tenants to gain access to basic services in situations like this.
37:58They shouldn't have to be dependent on a freeholder in order to get something as simple as internet access.
38:07When we put the details of Sarah's case to Openreach, it told us her situation illustrates how upgrading customers can
38:15be painfully slow.
38:16As gaining permission to complete the work can depend on legal processes, landowner consent, negotiations, and sometimes complex ownership arrangements.
38:26And explained that it's a manual, administrative process as much as a physical engineering one.
38:33When we spoke to the freeholder, it blamed a lack of communication from Openreach as the main cause of the
38:40delays, while highlighting that its obligations and responsibilities under the terms of the lease are very limited, and that, in
38:48this case, it had acted very reasonably and put a huge amount of time into resolving the situation.
38:58Well, I'm joined now by tech expert David McClellan to unravel what on earth has been happening with fiber in
39:04the UK.
39:05But firstly, I want to share this update from Sarah.
39:08Hi, this is a quick update to say that I have the internet now.
39:12I have to relearn what it's like to have the internet at home, but I am glad this chapter is
39:17over.
39:19Whoa, I'm not surprised. That is one happy lady. One of the things we saw in that film was Openreach,
39:25who are obviously very keen for full fiber to be delivered around the country, but they are facing issues, aren't
39:32they?
39:32Yeah, so Openreach is one of the companies, the largest of the companies, charged with bringing this full fiber or
39:37gigabit broadband to our homes.
39:39But actually getting that full fiber into our homes is proving really, really difficult and fraught with red tape because
39:46of landlords, of landowners, freehold owners of blocks of flats and things like that.
39:52Now, there was a piece of legislation called the Renters' Rights Act, and that gained royal assent late in 2025.
39:59Now, at one point, it looked as though that would mean that landlords, that owners of properties would need to
40:06respond within a much shorter timeframe that would speed up this whole process.
40:11Unfortunately, that was pulled out of the Act just before it gained royal assent. But the good news is that
40:18the government launched a consultation late in 2025 to not only include people who are tenants, but also include people
40:25who live in these high-rise blocks of flats to make sure that their voices are heard.
40:31So, I've got a good idea. We are going to do a quick speed test. When I say we, I'm
40:36going to be asking the questions and you're going to be doing the answers.
40:38OK, OK.
40:39Your starter for one. What is full fiber?
40:42OK, so full fiber broadband is the fastest type of broadband we can get into our homes where that super
40:47-fast fiber cable comes right into our homes, doesn't stop in the cabinet by the side of the road.
40:51Why might I want full fiber?
40:53Full fiber is super-fast, doesn't slow down at busy times, it's far more reliable, and importantly, it's future-proof.
40:59There's a lot of scope for growth in there.
41:02Is my existing broadband going away?
41:04Copper lines are gradually being phased out and replaced by full fiber, but there are no national plans to rip
41:11and replace the old copper quite yet.
41:13What will having fiber broadband mean I can do that I couldn't before?
41:16Well, things like working from home more reliably, watching television, live-stream videos, even at busy times without buffering, better
41:24video calls.
41:24Basically, you'll be able to do all of the things that you want to do without the kind of spinny
41:29wheels that you can get sometimes.
41:31What does it look like outside my home and inside my home?
41:34Really good question.
41:35So, essentially, a new line going over the telegraph pole to the outside of your house or underground to a
41:40little junction box on the outside of the house going into your house into another box into your broadband router.
41:45So, very similar to what you've already got.
41:47Do I have to have fiber?
41:48No.
41:49If you're moving into a new build home, then you might have no choice.
41:52But, generally speaking, you won't have to.
41:55But, for all the reasons above, you might actually want to have it.
41:59Quickfire is over.
42:03Well, David McClelland, at the end of that round, you have scored maximum points and we look forward to seeing
42:08you in the next round.
42:09Thank you, Julia.
42:12If you've got a problem and you think our team might be able to help, there are lots of ways
42:17you can get in touch.
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42:29We're also on Facebook.
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42:48to return them.
42:52Well, that's just about it for today.
42:54But if you've missed anything that we've talked about, from how to spot and cancel subscription payments to how you
43:00can check the type of ground that your home is actually built on,
43:03then you can always catch up this programme and many others on BBC iPlayer.
43:08There's also loads of advice on all sorts of other subjects on our website, bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain.
43:15For today, though, thank you so much for joining us.
43:17And from everyone on the team, it's time to say goodbye.
43:20Bye-bye.
43:20Bye-bye.
43:21Bye-bye.
43:23Bye.
43:46Bye-bye.
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