PITS was created by Roland and Leanne Gulvin, borne out of their own stormy life experiences both as individuals and together as a couple. They have a passion for coming alongside people to help in their time of need when they have nowhere else to turn. There is a plethora of free legal advice available and some invaluable resources but they have experienced first-hand how challenging it can be to know who to trust and how to apply the often generic advice given to your situation. And that’s why PITS was created.
They tell you some of their own story below but here’s a brief bit about them:
Leanne is a trained teacher, ex-researcher, self-proclaimed creative geek and very proud entrepreneur. Always having several projects on the go at once, she thrives on variety as well as change and loves solving problems but wants to understand all the nitty gritty details first. Roland is also a trained teacher and proud Geographist (Leanne’s word) but prior to starting PITS he spent over 20 years in a variety of roles in the NHS. He loves routine and operational management is what he does excellently, keeping PITS, Leanne and the laundry managed to perfection, all whilst singing along to his extensive collection of Rolling Stones albums. Above all of that though, Roland and Leanne are proud parents to their twin girls who, thankfully, have both inherited the family gene of wanting to help people, even if that’s just by making them smile.
Leanne
As a child I was on the shy, insecure side. Too worried what people would think about me to say what I really thought. By my late teens and early twenties, friends would joke about the stories I had to tell as I was often involved in some unusual drama or another, but still too concerned about doing the right thing to stand up for myself. Back then, I wouldn’t have even sent a meal back in a restaurant if it was uncooked! Then some of those things we keep harping on about happened – life storms – big ones, serious ones, scary ones and whilst I had wonderful support from family and friends, I had to learn to stand up for myself. So I know how difficult that can be, as twenty years later it doesn’t always feel easy or natural but it is so important. Being true to yourself and standing up for what’s good and just is becoming a rare commodity in this World but one of growing importance when life continues to get more and more complex and overwhelming.
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By the time I met Roland in my late twenties, I had learned how to say what I thought and somehow having him in my corner meant I felt even more able to stand up for myself. My other business is called Little Miss Particular, which probably tells you a bit about me and was a name partly inspired by a comment from the lady who dealt with the second and third re-making of my wedding ring because it wasn’t right: “you are very particular, Mrs Gulvin.” Yes I am! Fired up then, I spent my thirties regaling to my friends the latest thing I got free or reduced thanks to a firm but fair complaint. Shoes, sofas, even houses: if it’s not what was promised then I’m not accepting it and I wish more people did the same but I know first hand it can take a lot of time and effort to fight for what’s right and the reality is we don’t all have that.
Imperfect shoes may not be life storms but those were certainly present too. We planned our wedding alongside a funeral and began our married life battling an infuriating probate situation. Estate money meant solicitors could be used but ever the money-saver we did much of the work ourselves. A helpful experience when drawn upon ten years later, following the unexpected death of my brother and another complicated probate scenario, this time without the luxury of solicitors and with very limited free advice available for our particular situation. In the ten years in between those life changing events we’d fought housing issues with rental properties as well as our owned home, made complaints about faulty goods, been to small claims court on behalf of our old business (but lost – so we know how that feels too), complained about the care of our daughters in the neonatal unit and I got free shoes because they were missing some crystals.
Big storms and shoes; it all comes down to what’s right and fair and I’ve learned to fight for that, hard, when we can’t pay anyone to do it for us and when it requires a huge amount of time and commitment to make sense of the overwhelming knowledge source that is the internet. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve said to each other, “there must be something or someone who could help” but most of the time, there wasn’t. It’s fair to say then, that the idea for PITS had been brewing for a long time, even if we didn’t know it and then coupled with the fact that Roland and I really like each other and have wanted to work together for years… here we are!
It took a particular storm to prompt the question again, though, and this time want to deal with it ourselves but I’ll let Roland tell you about that bit…
Roland
Something I’ve learnt as I’ve got older is that, as people, we’re not all that different to one another; we all have the same fundamental needs and perform the same basic functions. During our lifetimes, we are all likely to share commonalities of life events like births, deaths and taxes(!) but where we do differ is our ability to respond to these events, either from an emotional, financial or even a self-confidence perspective. Unfortunately, life events don’t discriminate.
In my younger years I was always very timid, shy and I certainly wouldn’t have challenged any kind of authority figure, be that a teacher or superior at work. Fortunately, society is changing and we are seeing a shift towards individuals being able to challenge convention or institutions, leading to greater accountability when things don’t go as they should and informing learning for the future.
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We only have to look at the #MeToo movement, or the Post Office Horizon scandal to recognise that legitimate challenge is the right and positive thing, not just for the individual(s) involved but for the good of society at large. This has given me the confidence and ability to stand up for myself when my own circumstances haven’t gone as they should have. Often, though, these stories rely on the courage of one or two passionate individuals to stand up for what is right, to seek justice and disrupt the status quo. Easy, right? Well, not always… pursuing the truth can come at a cost, nearly always financial, more often than not an emotional cost and sometimes it can feel like a very lonely place to be.
As Leanne has said, 2024 brought our most recent life storm which prompted us to re-visit how we might be able to work together. In the July, I was forced to leave my job and my career in the NHS. Not only was this a massive decision for us to make, the circumstances which led to this decision meant that we had to take action in order to stand up for what was right but we had to do this ourselves. In order to pursue the truth and seek justice, we had to take the step of taking my former employer to Employment Tribunal: a journey that’s been slow, time consuming and, for the most part, a journey we’ve made alone. Because of our financial situation, we weren’t eligible for Legal Aid and we didn’t have anywhere near the amount of money in savings to pay for solicitors to help us. If only there had been another way to get the help we needed…
I’m delighted that PITS is here to help you when you need us most. Whether you need to fight that unfairly issued Penalty Charge Notice or find yourself dealing with a contentious probate issue, we want to come alongside you to make sure that you’re able to articulate yourself in the best way possible, know what options and next steps are available to you and ultimately support you to get a fair and just outcome for your particular life storm.
I’ve had a 20-year career in the NHS, working in mental health and acute Trusts in England across a variety of roles including research, governance & audit, as well as operational management. My skills are notably very different to Leanne’s but we compliment each other and work together as a great team as a result.
Thankfully, life isn’t all about the storms we weather along the way! I’m a very proud husband and father and Leanne and I put time and conscious effort into these relationships to get the best out of them. I like singing along to the Rolling Stones (usually while cooking) and I, too, have a thing about shoes and can sometimes be found indulging in some husbandry of my chukkas, Chelsea boots and wingtips.