Do you want to know "What's on" in Newquay and surrounding areas?
Basic Business Directory Listing (Name, Address, Tel) is totally FREE!!!!!contact here!
Community Networking is now live, this is a major step forward designed to maximise community interaction by enabling local Clubs, Societies and Organisations to post their own current news updates directly onto this AboutMyAreaTR7 local community website.
Debate and discussion is healthy: to reignite the spirit, energy and passion of the community, it's really about caring what happens locally.
Remember one of the greatest strengths of AboutMyAreaTR7 is community content - and that's where you can assist us in keeping the local community better informed with current relevant news
The idea of Community Networking is to generate varied content further expand and strengthen links into the local community. We are actively looking for Sub-Editors who will regularly up-date content on the AboutMyAreaTR7 website to keep the local population informed with everything that is going on in their area.
Problem-solving charity Citizens Advice is warning people to be wary of adverts and cold calls promising cut-price wills that turns out to be anything but.
The words of caution come during Scams Awareness Month, run by the Office of Fair Trading to alert people to common scams costing the British public a total of £3.5 billion a year.
Citizens Advice Bureaux are reporting increasing numbers of people who have been conned into parting with many hundreds of pounds by bogus will writers cashing in on people's desire to make sure their financial affairs are settled according to their wishes after they die.
Some so-called will writers are advertising wills for around £24 in local papers and cold calling people by phone just to get a foot in the door so they can go in with a hard sell. Once through the front door, the true cost begins to add up to hundreds of pounds and people are often required to pay up there and then.
Once they have parted with their money, they may never receive the will they have been promised. Those that do may find it's hardly worth the paper it's written on and far from giving peace of mind, the experience may lead to sleepless nights.
Often the bogus will-writers exploit the elderly and people on low incomes who can't afford to use a solicitor and have little experience of legal documents.
Cases seen recently by Citizens Advice Bureaux include the following:
A CAB in Lincolnshire reported a will writing scam. Unsolicited phone calls resulted in a home visit where payment of £498 was made to a firm that the clients have not been able to contact since the visit.
CAB clients from Devon felt conned having paid £429 for wills to replace those made 20 years earlier. They were persuaded to set up a trust they later found they did not need, and to make new wills which were promised in 28 days. The wills have never materialised and their requests for a refund have been ignored. The clients told the bureau they cannot face going to court.
CAB clients in Lincolnshire and receiving benefits responded to an advertisement offering wills for £23.50. The representative came to their home and charged them £705, which included storage. The clients feel they were taken for a ride and the as they still have the original will they seem to have paid for a service they have not been given.
Elderly CAB clients from Nottinghamshire responded to an offer of will writing for £20 plus VAT and, as they live in a rural area with no transport, opted for a home visit. Their joint assets are under £200,000 but the bill for the range of services they were sold came to £1,052.80. The salesman stayed a long time and left no documents and the couple only discovered what they had bought when the paperwork came in the post. The bureau commented that as they already had wills these could have been amended very cheaply to meet their requirements instead and that will writers should be regulated.
Citizens Advice consumer affairs policy officer Susan Marks said:
"Making a will is an important way of ensuring loved ones are protected and your wishes are carried out when you die. It can also make it much easier for those you leave behind to sort out your affairs after your death. Will-writing services can be a useful alternative to solicitors - but will writing firms are not regulated by the Law Society so there are few safeguards if things go wrong, so you need to be satisfied that the service provided is up to scratch and meets your needs.
"Citizens Advice Bureaux around the country are seeing people who have been conned into parting with their cash by people advertising will-writing on the cheap. They have responded to clever marketing only to find the costs mount up and they may never get the will they are promised - or if they do, it may not properly express their wishes, or may not even be legally valid.
"We would advise people to explore all the options. Check with a few local solicitors to find out how much they charge. You may have access to legal advice through an addition to an insurance policy which might cover the costs of a solicitor preparing or checking a will. If you are a member of a trade union you may find that the union offers a free wills service to members.
"Finally, if you feel you have been conned, report the firm concerned to your local Trading Standards through Consumer Direct and get advice."
If you would be interested in reporting on Newquay News or Sports events like Football matches or would like to publicise a local event then why not send us an email. This website can only grow with the participation of you, the local communities, it will be as big and interesting as you make it. If you are feeling like you could contribute in a more hands on way then why not check out Community Networking
Enhanced Business Listing (Name, Address, Tel and link to website) from as little as £100.00 pa contact here!
Our vision here at AboutMyAreaTR7, is to pack our pages full of up to date information regarding Newquay and surrounding villages, including an easy to use business directory with recommended tradesmen and businesses and we are also including trade profiles so that you can put a face to names of the people that you are potentially going to call, making it so simple and easy to use it will be the first place you will think of using
What is "Hours 4 Ours" all about?
August 2007 saw the launch of the biggest community improvement initiative in recent years, it is not a political movement, it is not driven by individual cause group, it is an all-embracing initiative designed to deliver improvement at grass-roots level within local communities across the UK
With over 300 postcode areas covered across the UK by AboutMyArea, every franchisee will be actively encouraged to identify local community projects in need of assistance - this could be anything from picking up litter in the park, clearing chewing gum in the High Street, cutting grass on unadopted pieces of public ground, re-felting the scout hut, painting the local Old People's home, etc - many of these projects will have failed to receive lottery funding, and could be beyond the means of local councils.
On a local level, local companies can sponsor/support a project by donating staff time to help out, or transport and materials to use on the project. Whilst our intent is to generate 1 million hours of local community help, we are confident that this will be the first of many millions of on-going Hours 4 Ours campaigns, and we will be seeking a number of national partners for future initiatives.
Do you have a Website? If not, why not ask about our SmartSites contact here!
Like taking Photo's? Why not send them in and we will endeavour to show as many as we can
Basic Business Directory Listing (Name, Address, Tel) is totally FREE!!!!! Contact Here
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