MMU sent me a bill after 4yrs!

mangadarkogirl

Hi everyone, so the other day I recieved a payment demand letter from Manchester Met University.

I had to drop out towards the end of my second year, as my LEA dropped funding, saying they wanted to fund plumber, trades courses instead.

So this letter is saying I owe that year's tuition fees. It was four years ago and this is the first I've heard, they are threatening to send in the bailiffs.

Now there are 3 things that I need to address.
1* I've made an offer to pay, £10 a week, this has been rejected. They want £40 by the end of August and £305 by the end of Sept.
2* They think I still live at my parents, the last thing I want is baliffs takin their stuff...would that happen in reality?
And 3* does anyone know how I should contest the charge?

I haven't been sent an invoice, the letter states accommodation or tution fees.
I lived at home and travelled in 3 hours there, and back a day. There was lots of days where I would travel that far for lectures, only to find they were canceled due to the tutor having to pick up kids, etc.

So they are asking me to pay for lectures I did not receive. I even had a meeting with the course leader, as I realised I was paying for the course, and so I wanted the education they said they would provide.

I have an appointment with the CAB tomorrow.

Thanks in advance for any replies/help.

sdt1986

I got one for £3220 the other dayas well, they must be record hunting. Mines for unpaid accomodation fees. I just ignored it. I cant physically contemplate paying anything else off right now.

Shame you responded doesnt the debt dissapear after 6 years where there has been no contact?

mangadarkogirl

I've heard something like that yeah? I want to get a morgage at some point though, and I don't want a black spot. Also worried about them sending bailiffs to my parents.

I am prepared to go to court, as the debt is £345, and it would cost them more to take me to court.

Also there was quite a hefty number of lectures cancelled last minute. Sometimes I would go to the course offices to find out why and they would be shut up....which wasn't suppose to happen. I spoke to student services, and apparently they have taken some people to court, who told them they wouldn't pay. And they've sent out hundreds of error letter to people who applied to the uni and didn't go there!

The whole experience there was awful, if I remember rightly it was costing me more to commute than it was worth. Just don't know who would win in court.

milliemonster

Firstly, I would ask them to provide a full statement of what the amount owed is for before you acknowledge the debt (although it seems you already have?)

Once you have this information, if you acknowledge the debt, you can then make an offer of payment but this has to be what you can realistically afford, ie, don't just offer £10 a month if you could afford to pay more as if it went to court, the courts would want to scrutinise your SOA to see what you could afford to pay back.

They would not be able to take your parents belongings in respect of your debt so do not worry about this, although if the bailiffs do turn up, it is imperative you or your parents do not let them in the house, they have no right and if you do this, this then gives them permission to come back at a later date to remove belongings

As for the edcuation service you received, did you make a record of the lectures/dates you turned up but there was no tutoring?, do you have any recorded evidence of the meeting you held with your course leader? you would need this to dispute the amount for course fees you would be prepared to pay back?

Speak to the CAB and see what they say

milliemonster

One other thing though, you have said you are prepared for this to go to court but conversely do not want your credit file to be affected as you want to get a mortgage? have you checked your credit report recently? as it may already have been noted on there if this debt has not been paid.

Also I would imagine that if they did go down the court route that a default may already be applied to your credit file prior to court proceedings anyway which is going to affect your credit options regarding a mortgage.

For a debt of £345 it's a lot to risk, I would personally pay it and then sue them for not providing the service you paid for

mangadarkogirl

Thanks, when I spoke to credit control on Friday, I asked them for an invoice. They said I would need to speak to my LEA and they do not have those details, which I thought was very odd.

I said I can pay back £10 a week if I DO owe it, but I want an invoice. The guy said, ''That's not acceptable I'm afraid, we need it back by sept 31st, or we will start litigation''.

The whole thing seems like a scare tactic. I have a personal loan, overdraft and am going back to Uni this Sept, to do nursing...so I really can't afford anymore than that. I have a record of the meeting, I went with another student I'm still in touch with. I don't however have a record of the lectures canceled. i might have done four years ago, but I haven't though about it since I left.

milliemonster

In that case I would let them start 'litigation', during that phase 'someone' will have to provide you with the details of the debt, what it relates to and how much is owed before you acknowledge it and pay what is owed.

If they call you again, I would just tell them you are not prepared to pay anything towards a debt you do not acknowledge and they have to send you written confirmation of the amounts owed and what it relates to, if the LEA have those details then it is not your responsibility to chase this up, but theirs, so tell them to get this info from the LEA and send it to you then. I would also ask them to only deal with you in writing from now on so that you have a record just in case it does end up in court at some stage.

dansylvester

Hi, I recieved the same letter this morning, but only for £26 thank goodness. They must be short on cash this year!

Spoken to the uni and am going to dispute mine, as they say its for telephone charges while living on campus, although as far as I know I never used the phone service on campus, as I had a mobile...?

MrsTinks

Send them a recorded letter regarding this alledged debt. Make clear that you would like a break down of the charges before you can determine if indeed they are correct and relate to yourself. Until then you will not be able to confirm that the debt is yours.
And you want to thank them for reminding you about the matter as during your course you were left out of pocket on several occassions due to their neglect and therefor you would appreciate them sending you a record of all the classes relating to your course which were cancelled or did not take place so that you can send them an invoice for the travel to campus. If this is not forthcomign you will have no choice but to start litigation...

(Am I evil? )

mangadarkogirl

Thanks MrsTine, really good advice. I was going to call them this morning, as my Dad rang them the same day whilst I was in the shower (mine at home was broke). He spoke to the main credit controller, and she said she would send me a letter with a form on how to pay, and said i could pay £40 per month for 4months then I would have to pay the rest altogether. It's now over a week and no letter has arrived.

I don't think they will give up, but surely the offer of contact and then none recieved doesn't look good on their side?

gemmacantan1

I found this quite interesting. My husband had a similar thing a few years ago when he received a letter from a debt managment agency claiming he owed them all of £50, they quoted an account number and everything but after investigating he never had such an account. He called the company who were really pushy saying that they were acting on behalf of their client and they would call back. It was over £50! It was stupid, as they were taking him to court and everything but we'd never received any letter chasing money before. Eventually I got involved and wrote them a letter stating could they prove what the debt was in regard to. The company wrote to him and said that they would investigate and be in touch, while this was going on we were still getting threatening letters and then eventually we got a letter stating that they would need to talk to the client and would be in touch. We've heard nothing since and it was a year ago. I have no idea what went on, but think there might have been some confusion.

With regard to your problem. I was told that as long as I paid a payment to my creditors then they couldn't take me to court, unfortunately they have every right to change the rules and one did, taking me to court for £850 and would accept no offer of payment because it was such a low amount it was just hanging on their records. I had to borrow the money from a family member to pay it off. It was an extremely stressful time!

Best of luck sorting your payments out.