Debt from company transferred to employee

Miss_Chilli

Hi all Moneysaving Experts

If anybody can offer any guidance it would be appreciated.

My sister in the course of her employment was empowered by her boss to order some goods from a supplier. The invoice wasn’t paid and the debt has now transferred to my sister and is against her home.

I spoke to the company and was informed that the credit agreement was “my sisters name” T/A “the company”. My sister is sure that this was not on the credit agreement when she signed, nor was the details of her home address.

As this was a company debt, she has passed all the correspondence to her boss and asked him to deal with it, but he hasn’t. Apparently he also has the customer copy of the credit agreement, which could prove whether the credit agreement was added to after my sister signed for it.

My worry is that if my sisters boss know that the debt would transfer to him if he produces this copy of the agreement, he may conveniently loose it.

Does anybody know the legal stand on this if the customer copy of the agreement cannot be located or that my sister wasn't aware of what she was actually signing?

The company in question is not a limited company, and is apparently in debt and has a few health and safety requirements outstanding.

I am going to call the consumer credit agency tomorrow and potentially ACAS because it is a employment issue as well as a debt against my sisters home.

The issue is that this has been going on since the end of May and my sister feels that she has been dealing with it by speaking to her boss. My opinion is that wouldn’t stand up in a court as the debt is against her and therefore it is her responsibility to deal with the supplier/court order.

Any ideas?

Cheers

ps the court the debt is with is in South Wales and we live in the North West, so she would be unable to go and defend herself without incurring lots of additional costs

Blacksheep1979

If a court case is against an individual the individual can request for it to be heard at their local court - I'd definitely attend no matter what as otherwise it's almost automatic to find against the missing party and the company bringing the case will also need the credit agreement.

vikingaero

A long time ago, I worked for a company with a dodgy boss. I arranged breakdown cover for the company cars using RAC Business Fleet. I left not long after finding out what my boss was like. My boss never paid the RAC and he told them that I had arranged it and he supplied them with my home address. Eventually I received a court summons from the RAC. I turned up at Court and stated my side of the story. The Judge ruled that the summons be re-served on my ex-boss.

Tozer

Is it a limited company that she works for? If so, there cannot be any issue of a company debt incurring personal liability for her.

Miss_Chilli

Tozer wrote: »

Is it a limited company that she works for? If so, there cannot be any issue of a company debt incurring personal liability for her.

Thanks Tozer, but it's not a limited company. I checked on companies house.

Cheers

myrnahaz

If the goods were delivered to the company's address then the odds are stacked in her favour. She ordered the goods as 'Miss Chilli's Sister' of 'XYZcompany' and had them delivered to the business address, so the boss would have a hard time proving they were your sister's.

The problem seems to be that your sister opened the account.

If the customer copy of the agreement is lost, how will the supplier prosecute? He'd have no proof. On the other hand, if there IS a copy available, then the supplier MUST allow your sister to have a copy prior to the court case, so that's another positive note. This also holds true for any other document the supplier intends to use. It might be worth speaking to a solicitor.

I hope she's already resigned.

Miss_Chilli

myrnahaz wrote: »

If the goods were delivered to the company's address then the odds are stacked in her favour. She ordered the goods as 'Miss Chilli's Sister' of 'XYZcompany' and had them delivered to the business address, so the boss would have a hard time proving they were your sister's.

The problem seems to be that your sister opened the account.

If the customer copy of the agreement is lost, how will the supplier prosecute? He'd have no proof. On the other hand, if there IS a copy available, then the supplier MUST allow your sister to have a copy prior to the court case, so that's another positive note. This also holds true for any other document the supplier intends to use. It might be worth speaking to a solicitor.

I hope she's already resigned.

Hi myrnahaz

The company have provided a version of the agreement, but my sister doesn't know or can't find the customer copy that was given to her at signing. If the customer copy is lost, you mention that how will the supplier prosecute. They are acting on the information they have. The issue will be proving if my sisters name trading as company xyz was added after my sister signed for things.

I've told her that her boss is leaving her in the poo by not dealing with this, so she should have no loyalties to him. I think she's getting the idea!

Thanks for all your responses, very much appreciated :T