DEAN DUNHAM: Dry cleaner shrank my jumper – then went bust. How do I get a refund?

I took the jumper to the dry cleaners in Sunderland in March but when I got it back it had shrunk.

I have applied for a refund from the company, but now I have found that it has gone bankrupt.

JB, via email.

Dean Dunham answers: The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that services such as dry cleaning must be provided with reasonable care and skill. Otherwise, the consumer is entitled to a refund; typically again a service provided free of charge, a refund or compensation for damages.

Here you would be entitled to compensation because your jumper is ruined. This does not refer to the amount it cost to purchase the sweater, but instead to the value of the sweater in used condition.

By the way, you sometimes see signs in dry cleaners that say, for example, “we do not take responsibility for items left with us”.

This is never binding and therefore does not act as a protection for the consumer’s claim.

So the law is clearly on your side and you have the right to compensation and compensation.

However, since the company has gone bankrupt, it adds a significant problem because you have no one to complain to.

This leaves you with two possible options. If you paid with a bank or credit card, file a chargeback request and ask your bank for your money back on the basis that Kuivapesula has violated the Consumer Protection Act and cannot now remedy the situation.

Or find out who the company’s liquidator or liquidator is and make a claim against them – you probably won’t get any money, but it’s always worth a try.

Can bailiffs break down my door because of someone else’s debt?

I have broken the law by opening a letter delivered to my address in the name of someone who does not live on the property.

I’m glad I opened it as it said that if I didn’t pay the £1,185 the bailiff could come to my property “by force” to take possession of my stuff.

I called the agency and was told that I had to prove who I was by sending a copy of my utility bill.

I especially do not want my information from supervisory authorities. Where do I stand? And what rights do I have if they break down my door?

BC, by email.

Dean Dunham answers: According to the Postal Services Act of 2000, opening someone else’s mail is illegal.

The law states: “A person commits an offense if, with intent to act to the detriment of the person and without reasonable cause, he opens a postal package which he knows or reasonably suspects has been misdelivered.”

So you may not have broken the law if you suspected the letter was from an enforcement agency, as this would have given you “reasonable excuse” to investigate and protect your own interests.

If you didn’t have a reasonable reason to open the letter, it would be an offense punishable by a fine and up to two years in prison.

That’s why I always recommend that you put letters you receive on someone else’s behalf back in a mailbox marked “not known from this address, return to sender”.

According to the law, the enforcement authority cannot seize goods from a home that is not the debtor’s property.

You need to contact the enforcement authorities to inform them that the debtor does not live at your address and you need documents to prove it, such as a lease agreement, utility bills and a passport or driver’s license.

• Write to Dean Dunham, Money Mail, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB or email d.dunham@dailymail.co.uk. The Daily Mail cannot take legal responsibility for the answers given.