My neighbour’s dog barks so loudly all day I can’t work. Can I use law to fight back? DEAN DUNHAM replies

My neighbor leaves his dog at home for hours when he goes out. He barks loudly all the time, which is incredibly annoying; especially when I’m trying to work.

A few weeks ago I told him it was bothering me and he said he would try to train the dog to bark less, but clearly that wasn’t working. How can I stop this?

Anonymous.

Few things test your patience more than your neighbor’s barking dog, and it’s even worse when you’re trying to work from home.

You did the right thing by talking to your neighbor because a friendly chat will often solve the problem.

Disputes with neighbors rarely end well and can also cause problems when it comes to selling your property.

Such disputes are important information for you. to have to explain to a buyer and may well delay them.

In this regard, you should approach your neighbor once more before taking the matter further. Make it clear that the situation is no longer tenable for you and must be addressed urgently.

If the barking continues you will need to invoke the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Accordingly, constant barking can be classified as a legal nuisance, that is, it is officially considered noise pollution.

Your next step will be to contact your local council’s environmental health team to report the issue. He or she will probably ask you to keep a diary of when and for how long the dog barks, and may install noise monitoring equipment.

If the council decides the noise is excessive, it may issue your neighbor an abatement notice. This is a legal order telling your neighbor to stop the noise or face a fine.

Alternatively, if you wish to avoid going the formal route at this stage, you can ask your local council if they can facilitate community mediation.

Here, a trained mediator is appointed to liaise with both parties to find an amicable solution to the problem.

The disastrous journey left me high and dry

I went on a cruise recently and it was terrible. I have complained to industry body ABTA and they are investigating whether I should receive compensation.

But before I went on this trip, I had already paid a £1,300 deposit for a future cruise with the same company departing in six months.

After my terrible experience, I don’t want to travel with this company again, but it says my deposit is non-refundable. Can I get my money back?

AH, South Yorkshire.

The general situation is that once a deposit has been paid and the terms and conditions state that it is non-refundable, the merchant (here the cruise line) may refuse a refund if you cancel.

However, there are three potential exceptions to this. The first is if the non-refundable period is unfair, unclear, or not communicated to you before the deposit is paid.

If this is the case, both the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which deal with consumer contracts formed online, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 state that the deposit must be refunded on the basis that the requirement to make it non-refundable is deemed unfair.

Another situation where you may receive a refund is if you cancel before an event occurs and the investor suffers no real loss. In your case it may be because they can resell your room to someone else.

Here, even if the deposit is defined as non-refundable, the investor is only entitled to retain an amount that reflects his actual loss.

Finally, if any misrepresentation is made (for example, if the holiday you thought you deposited for is not as described), your money may be refunded.

So if ABTA finds that your original cruise was below the standard reasonably expected, you may have a strong argument that you now know from previous experience that the standard of the cruise will not be as described. This may entitle you to a refund of your £1,300 deposit.

My advice would be to include this in any claim for compensation related to the original trip.