I am 80. I like to walk at the weekend. I bought a pair of branded walking shoes on March 14 2016. Over time they developed holes in both insteps. I took them back recently to the shop but the assistant said I had left it too long, i.e. over a year. I feel this is unfair as I only used them for light walking and not every day. They cost £57.

I fear you will struggle to get anywhere. You would need to prove that the shoes were faulty at purchase and that it was not your use of them that wore them out. We only have your word for the amount of use you gave them, and while I don’t doubt what you say, you would need to prove it to a court. For anyone buying goods of any sort, keep receipts and monitor the use of them in the first few weeks as that’s the time to identify a fault before it gets too old.

I have bought a house where the dividing wall between the neighbour’s house and mine is all on my land, but it appears the neighbour got permission 20 years ago from my predecessor as owner to build the wall. Who owns it?

Unless something has been written into the title deeds giving the neighbour rights over the wall, not only do you own it 100%, but you can decide whether to retain it or knock it down (subject to any planning permission issues or anything else in your title deeds that might prevent it).

We paid more than £5,000 for a new kitchen supplied and fitted by a local company. Six months later there are still some substantial bits of work incomplete. When I call them I get fobbed off or made promises that are not kept. Can I sue? I paid the full cost but I am not getting service.

NEVER pay a tradesman in full before a job is complete. Now get a written report on the shortcomings of the job from a surveyor and use this as your evidence of breach of contract when you sue the company. Also report them to the local trading standards office.

I bought a second hand car with a month’s warranty. The car has had an intermittent fault in the brakes but the dealer has done nothing to repair it and now says my month is up. A mechanic I spoke to says he must have known about the fault when he sold me the car.

The laws gives any car purchase from a dealer a warranty that the car is fit for driving, and is not limited to a month. If he knew about the defect, he has misrepresented the car’s quality. You told of the defect before the end of the contract warranty period, so you are within the time limit for that anyway. So overall, you are once, twice, three times entitled to your money back without question.