I work from home and my mother-in-law, who is 93, lives with us. As it would be especially disastrous if our power was cut off, I pay my energy bills immediately.

Our trouble with npower started in early September, when I received a bill for £66.84. I paid this on September 25. I then received a letter demanding payment of £54.30. I did not understand after I had already paid one bill, but I paid it anyway. On October 2, I phoned npower to clarify matters and was told that I was £66.84 in credit.

I then received a statutory demand that unless I pay £54.30 immediately, my supply would be cut off, so today I have paid a further £54.30 by credit card.

To make things worse, npower tells me I cannot change supplier until next September.

How do I get this sorted out?

Michael Hall, Letchworth

It may appall you to hear that you are a dream customer for the likes of npower. There is a lot of money to be made out of people who shirk confrontation and pay up for a quick resolution. While this approach might make you less stressed, it also makes you poorer. According to npower, it mistakenly sent you a bill for a debt that you had already paid and explained this when you called up, but because you were so worried you had been misinformed and might, as the letter stated, be cut off, you paid it anyway.

Your mistrust of the information given to you on the phone is telling and understandable. Call-centre staff hardly have a reputation for getting it right, after all, and letters seem more official.

Npower said the money could be paid back into your account but, at the time, you would not provide the company with your bank details. It no longer sends refunds by cheque, apparently, even for those customers who conscientiously object to giving out their bank details.

After Troubleshooter called, Npower agreed to make an exception in your case and to send you a refund by cheque, but this could take up to 14 days.

My daughter and her fiancé took out a five-year fixed-rate mortgage with Leeds Building Society about two months ago, shortly before they married.

On their return from honeymoon, my daughter’s relationship suddenly ended and her husband left. He no longer contributes to the mortgage and she is unable to sustain payments.

Her only sensible move is to redeem the mortgage. We met a Leeds Building Society manager, who said we would have to pay a £5,000 redemption penalty (5 per cent of the loan) as well as a £199 redemption fee. This is just weeks after they paid about £1,000 to arrange the mortgage.

If she sells in the current climate, she may be unable to realise the purchase price. Such a loss, combined with a penalty of £5,000, would be extremely distressing for someone also dealing with the emotional trauma of a broken marriage.

Can you persuade Leeds Building Society to show some discretion and lessen the fee?

Alan Fraser, Manchester

Your daughter’s mortgage is worth only £140,000, but at this rate Leeds is set to make about £6,200 in fees alone, never mind the interest at 5 per cent.

After Troubleshooter called, a branch manager visited you and your daughter at her home and offered to reduce the fee to £3,000, which he claimed is the “actual cost” of redeeming the mortgage and an effective admission (if the Financial Services Authority is reading this, it should take note) that the fees charged for redeeming home loans are excessive.

The decision will save your daughter £2,000. Relatives have agreed to pay off the mortgage in its entirety, so your daughter will have only the fee to pay. When the market has recovered sufficiently she can pay back the family members.

However, make sure the mortgage is transferred to your daughter’s name rather than joint names before it is redeemed, otherwise the husband could return and demand “his half” of the property.

I have a buy-to-let property, which was being let and managed by Tower Property Services (TPS) in Romford. My tenants paid their deposit of £1,236 to TPS, which held the money, insuring it in the government-approved scheme MyDeposits.co.uk. At no time did I have any control over this money.

Last year the company went into liquidation and the liquidators informed me that, according to their investigations, most of the deposit monies held by TPS had been spent to pay for company business. This meant I had to pay the tenants their deposit. I am extremely upset as I thought the deposit was protected.

I have been a victim of a crime and would like to know if I can claim back the money.

Marnie Evans, London

There is a lot of confusion among landlords over this. The Deposit Protection Service (depositprotection.com) is the only government-approved scheme physically to hold on to a deposit that is registered with it, which means it is safeguarded even if a company goes into liquidation. The two other government-approved schemes, Tenancy Deposit Solutions (mydeposits.co.uk) and the Dispute Service (thedisputeservice.co.uk) will always carry a risk if the letting agent goes bust.

Readers to the rescue

“I have just moved into a rented flat with my boyfriend of three years. We need a way to divide the cost of food and household items as we rarely go to the supermarket together. We also want to split utility bills. Should we open a joint account, even though we are a long way from even thinking about getting married? Any ideas?”

Kate Norman

Try running a cash kitty, with both of you contributing identical amounts at agreed intervals. Dip into it whenever household bills arise. Sharing a bank account would be more trouble than it is worth: closing such an account if you split up would create extra admin, charges and emotional discomfort. And before it is closed, the remaining balance is left open to vengeful abuse by either party.

F. Harvey

£25 voucher winner

If you get a joint account, choose a “basic bank account” that does not allow you to go overdrawn. Save separately, so you know what is yours. Borrow separately, including credit cards, too, as each is fully liable for any joint debts even if the other vanishes and borrows more.

John Chambers

Keep a basic list of what you each spend on a shared expenses spreadsheet, with a column for each person showing where money was spent and the amount. Then every so often total up each column, add them together and divide by two to see what your half share should have been. The person who is short then repays the difference to the other to square up. This avoids using a joint bank account, which may not be suitable for you at the moment. Keep the receipts, should scrutiny be required.

Patrick De Ridder

My girlfriend and I do this: 40 per cent of each of our monthly net salaries goes into a joint account and all bills, rent and grocery shopping come from this. It means that one of us pays a little more than the other, but heck, it’s a partnership. We pay in slightly more and use the rest for meals out, towards holidays, etc. The rest of our salaries we treat as personal money to spend or save as each of us fancies.

Simon Edwards

My partner and I pay an equal amount of our Tesco store card bill by direct debit every month for petrol and grocery shopping. I also have a credit card with my partner as additional cardholder. At the end of each month we split the bill 50/50.

Brian Ming

Can you help? E-mail troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk with your answer to the following problem for the chance to win a £25 bonusbond.com multi-store voucher.

I recently bought an Apple iPhone, but didn’t realise until it was too late that you can buy only the tailored O2 insurance up to 28 days after the date you acquire your phone. I now don’t have any protection. Is it still worth me shelling out for insurance? I’m worried that I won’t be able to get suitable cover on a non-O2 policy. Where should I look?

Markus Johansson

On the bright side

Graham Orr, of Witham, Essex writes: “When my carbon monoxide detector developed a fault recently I was impressed to see that the Kidde customer support line was an 0800 number. I was even more impressed when I phoned and the response was: ‘We’ll send you a new one sir.’

“No need to return the old unit or provide proof of purchase, just a new alarm delivered to my door within 48 hours.

“I’m also in the market for a new fire extinguisher. Guess which make I will go for?”