The 'ghost' occupant of your mother's house was a real person and the letters you received were about insurance for his Land Rover Defender. According to the statement of fact supplied to the insurer, he not only lives at your mother's house - he owns it.

Hastings Pier has had a long, colourful history since it was opened to the public on a wet and windy August Bank Holiday Monday in 1872. In the 145 years since, the pier has burned down twice, acted as a landing site for refugees during the Second World War, and hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.

Eaton Square, pictured, in London's exclusive area of Belgravia has been unveiled as the most expensive street in England and Wales, with an average price of £16,944,000. The square has been home to famous faces such as prime minister Margaret Thatcher, top right, and James Bond actors Sean Connery, bottom right. Outside of London, the most expensive streets include Panorama Road, in the Sandbanks area of Poole, with an average price of £4,618,000 and Crick Road, in Central North Oxford, at £4,049,000.

This is the first time Jaguar has plonked a four-cylinder engine into one of its sports cars. And not just any sports car - the glorious F-Type that until now has only boasted V6 and V8 soundtracks. That does mean its lighter, more nimble and cheaper. So the big question that needs answering is: when it comes to cylinders, is less really more? Rob Hull spent a week with the new 2.0-litre model to find out.

It has been a year since Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK's biggest online stockbroker, dipped a toe into fund management with the launch of its maiden in-house fund investing in UK companies. The product, called the HL Select UK Growth Shares, is a culmination of the DIY platform's favourite shares and ETFs for investment growth over the long term (five years plus).

Throughout history gold has been seen as the ultimate prize. We explore why this is, how it can be bought and what could happen to the value of gold in the New Year. We also look at whether Bitcoin is a good substitute - or if it's actually silver losing buyers to Bitcoin. Adrian Ash at BullionVault has the answers on the Big Money Questions show.

The stock market is riding high at the moment, so are there still profits to be made from cheap shares? Special situations fund manager and value investor Alex Wright believes that there is still value to be found, particularly among UK-facing companies beaten up by the market over Brexit fears. He explains why.

Should you buy into a bubble? That's a question I have asked myself all year, as we've watched the bitcoin one blown. And even now, with bitcoin up 1,600% since the start of the year, I do wonder about buying some. The reason being that I suspect we aren't at the top of the classic bubble chart yet.

A few months ago, the This is Money team and successful entrepreneur and angel investor Andy Yates, launched the Great British Entrepreneur Challenge. We have been overwhelmed by the response and are now proud to announce the short list. These are the finalists that were invited to our offices to meet Andy and members of the This is Money team.

Arrest warrants have been issued by the Zimbabwean authorities for two former bosses of a London-listed mining company over an alleged fraud that has triggered a global manhunt. Yat Hoi Ning and Yim Kwan, the former chief executive and former finance director respectively of ASA Resource Group, have been missing for several months.

Sudbury in Suffolk has been branded the top property hotspot of 2017, having seen asking prices jump over 13 per cent to £265,291. t led the way on house prices of newly-listed homes, according to property listing site Rightmove. Sowerby Bridge, in West Yorkshire, took second place, with sellers now asking 12.5 per cent more for a home in the area than a year ago.

Typical contents insurance policies won't pay out if you make a claim on damage caused while you were letting your home out short-term but now you can get cover for as little as £1.50 a day.

It's the million-pound question: how much is enough when it comes to saving for retirement?
According to official figures, four in ten of us are underestimating what we need to set aside. Half of the 12 million workers 'under-saving' earn at least £34,500 a year, so what can you do to fix this? We explain.

I have written twice to Yorkshire-General Life Assurance about an old pension, but both times, the letter has been returned with a note saying: 'Not known at this address'. The sum is hardly a fortune - but the firm appears determined not to pay out.

A local authority has been accused of stealing Christmas from hundreds of people on a housing estate by hitting them with bills of more than £2,000 each to fix external water pipes. Only two weeks before the big day, invoices were sent to 556 households. Residents have been given just 28 days to pay a total of more than £1 million to repair and replace pipes running under their homes, and many fear they will not be able afford festive treats as a result.

Households could see bills rise by as much as £418 a year, if they do not shop around for a new, competitive rate, according to Energyhelpline. The price increases will come just as household budgets are strained by the end of the festive period and when most are using more energy than usual to keep warm during the coldest winter months.

Britons are being warned over a cookware scam that has started to emerge again ten years after This is Money first alerted readers about it. John, a retired banker from West Yorkshire, was approached on his driveway by an unscrupulous smartly dressed salesman who duped him after asking for directions - and he has been left £300 out of pocket.

Some 35.3 per cent of homes on sale had their asking price reduced in November, said Zoopla, with the average discount rising to £25,562. And reflecting the struggling property market in London and the South East, the biggest reductions were found there, with commuter belt towns of Camberley, Kingston-upon-Thames, Watford and Mitcham, taking four of the top five spots for discounts.

I am self-employed and have two separate private pensions predicted to be worth £130k and £80k by 2022. I plan to retire when I am 62 years old. I would like to know whether I can take 25% drawdown on the first pot when I am 62 and delay the drawdown of the same amount of the second pot until I am 65.

To clear the average national household debt of £13,000 at 6% interest with a monthly repayment of £100 will take around 17 years. There are, however, plenty of simple ways to make significant savings on your regular spending that could clear your debt - or boost your savings - in less than a year. This is Money's top 50 - updated - money-saving tips may appear light-hearted but are deadly serious.

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and changes to charges have left many investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.

The amount you can save into a pension ultimately depends on what you can afford - but the longer you leave it the more you will need to save. We tend to put ambitious targets on our hoped-for income in retirement and then underestimate how much we will need to set aside to achieve that. So how much should you save?

All nine Bank of England policymakers voted to leave interest rates unchanged in December as they said inflation should start easing back next year. The Bank also said that different economic indicators suggested growth was likely to have slowed down as they year ends.

Compare your pay to the national average and see whether your employer treated you to a pay rise in line with the the rest of your profession. Farmers, care and air travel assistants were big winners on the pay scales in 2016. Travel agents, careers advisers and probation officers lost out.