Please Help!!!!

$17mma

My husband previously worked as a manager at a business and left due for various reasons.

Recently we have found out that the company has since fallen into financial crisis. It appears that they have not kept up with payments.

Here is the dilema, as manager at the time my husband sigend for items and products needed for the company. Now the debt collectors are chasing him to pay the debt!!!! :eek:

Although he was and is not the business owner he was the manager and signed for the goods at the time.

Can the debt collection agency legal pursue him for payment even though the goods were received and signed for on behalf of the company??

Please help we are being threatened with bailiffs!!

We have contacted the owner of the company and they have written to the debt collection agency clearly stating that the debt is theirs and that my husband was only an employee, however they still continue to pursue us even though the owner has made numerous payments and made an offer of regular payments to them.

Please tell me where we stand...

MBF_2

So long as were talking about a company here and not a partnership where your husband was a partner the debts owed are by the company and not the employees irrespective that your husband signed for them.

I would advise you to independent legal advise though as I don't know all the facts of your case and a solicitor who knows all the facts would be in a btter position to advise you fully

$17mma

Thanks

I thought the same but needed it confirmed. We have sought legal advise but they have given us little comfort. Such a long winded process and in the mean time the horrible letters keep arriving.

SCRILLALESS

Please forgive my boldness as a newbie but I am a HR person (and all being well will complete my masters in HRM in 2009, and then go on to earn more money to pay off my debts:o ) anyway.

If you were issued with a well written job description and contract T&C's of your employment it will state what financial responsibilities you have in respect of signing for goods etc on behalf of the company. It was part of your job role to do this and therefore you were doing so in the remit and confines of your duty as a manager.

It is the finance departments responsiblity to ensure invoices are paid on behalf of the company not yours, you only accepted delivery and confirmed the goods arrived in good condition. The orders were made on behalf of the company.

In my company I can order goods however a limit is set as to the amount I can spend. Larger orders need to be authourised by the head of the department. However if you work in a Supermarket does this make the warehouse manager responsible for all the stock he signs for. I think not.

I would quote the consumer credit act section 20 (someone correct me if I am wrong:eek: ) on harrassment etc.

Hope this helps as it cover a few areas.

Quasar

Debt collectors will harass you and your husband because their job is to collect the money.

I was in the same position a few years ago when a company I worked for did not pay a certain well known courier for deliveries, and since I ordered the deliveries I was chased for payment when the company went bust.

Since I was working from home, my address and phone number where know to the couriers. When I got a call demanding payment I was outraged. I said they should go through the proper channels and become creditors to the company in question, which they were, and if they persisted in harassing an ordinary employes, I would get a newspaper to take an interest in this big corporate courier pushing around little me.

Never heard a peep from them again.