I am in rented accommodation. My neighbours in the close have bought. They have started to pick on my family. I have been to housing and police to no avail. I have photographic proof of what they do and asked housing to move me because I feel someone is going to get hurt before anything is done.

You should keep on at the council as your rights are being infringed. You also can seek a court interdict, a decree by the sheriff demanding the neighbours stop acting in this way. If they fail to obey they can be had up at court and fined or imprisoned. But sounds as if the local authority should be considering anti-social proceedings against them.

I am single, no children, one brother and two nieces daughters of a deceased sister. Do I need to make a will?

The estate will be divided if you make no will: half to brother, a quarter to each niece. However, one of them will need to seek appointment as executor by a court writ, then take out a special insurance policy at substantial cost and then get Confirmation (Probate). By making a will you can make it much easier for your relatives to wind up your estate. Indeed you can change the shares everyone gets only if you make a will.

I took over part tenancy of a friend’s house. I claimed council tax benefits. In 2012 my friend moved in and I informed the council. For four years the Council didn’t produce a proper Council Tax bill - for the full amount for both of us disregarding my benefits completely. Last year an inspector called to check me. We are informed my friend (owner) is solely responsible for council tax for the past four years and that the council have now reduced my status from that of a tenant to that of a lodger.

Converting the relationship to landlord and lodger is probably right. council tax is payable by the owner alone but he can charge you a reasonable portion of it – he can’t get single person’s discount though. But their delay and lack of action seems totally unreasonable, and you should certainly complain to your local councillor and to the head of the finance department at the local authority.

My father passed away in November and I only found out in December, due to family problems. I don’t know of any will, and I am told my mother has been transferring assets into her name including a £14,000 DLA back payment. Is there any way I can prove that my mother emptied my father’s accounts?

Even if not mentioned in a will or if there is no will, you as a child of the deceased have a legal rights claim. You are entitled to know what was in the estate, and if you think money was transferred without your father’s consent before he died, you can sue your mother as your father’s executor for a reckoning of what money there should be However, you’d need to prove that your father could not have willingly handed over the cash himself, and that may be very difficult.