Being chased for a debt we didn't know about - HELP!

purplerain_3

Hi Everyone,

I hope nobody minds me posting here. I'm not sure it's quite the right topic for this board, but I need some help and don't know where to turn.

Last September, my girlfriend booked a holiday cottage via an online company for a week away in March. She paid the £25 deposit and the company sent her all the details through via email, along with instructions to pay the outstanding amount of £240 by the end of January.

However, in December, she was unfortunately made redundant, and without an income, we decided she should move in with myself to save money. So she left her rented accommodation in January, didn't leave a forwarding address, just went back a couple of times to pick up any erroneous mail.

In February, she managed to get another job, and we decided that since she was only just starting it, we wouldn't and go to this holiday cottage we had put a deposit down on in March, and were quite happy to lose this deposit. She believes she sent them an email before the balance was due to tell them this, but we don't know if it was just a note on their website to tell them this, as we can't find this email now

We then thought nothing else of it, until one of the people that she was living with managed to contact her yesterday to say that they just had the bailiffs round to collect the £240 owing to this company, for a debt which should of been paid to the County Court on 17th November!!

I'm guessing that this company have been sending her mail via post requesting this money from March onwards, but since she moved out in the January, we were blissfully unaware of it.

What really annoys me is that, up until this point, all correspondence had been done through their website or email. They also had her phone number. We even have booking confirmation emails with her phone number on the top of them. But nobody has tried to contact her apart from I'm assuming by mail to an address she no longer lives at.

I can't believe such a small matter has snowballed into such a mammoth issue, where if the company in question had just made reasonable steps to contact her, we could of argued it with them and if necessary paid the £240 begrudgingly.

She's very worried and we've had no sleep all night. I was just wondering if anybody can advise where we stand, where do we go next and have we got a valid argument for not paying this debt, as I don't want to think how much it's going to be now the bailiffs are involved.

Many thanks

Chris Kay

Tixy

Hi Chris - not sure what to advise so bumping this to the top for others to read.

fatbelly

I'm surprised it's only £240. With solicitors costs and court fee I would have expected it to come to more than that.

The ccj can be set aside, as long as there is a defence with a reasonable prospect of success.

Factsheet | How to set aside a judgment in the County Court

However, quite where you stand in relation to the outstanding balance on the holiday I wouldn't like to say. We normally deal with consumer credit act stuff on this board and this is a 'consumer' issue.

Maybe Consumer Direct is the place to go for advice.

Treacle1983

when you paid the deposit did you also take out insurance of any kind - most holiday places offer it at a minimal cost - if you did then had to cancel due to redundancy you could get out of paying and perhaps even get your deposit back - look into it.

even if the money is owed - if this is the first time they have contacted you to ask for it, then tell them to be more patient. Make a repayment offer on what you can afford.

I would also be tempted to find out if the accomodation was taken up by anyone else when you didn't turn up - if they had other people in your place then what has it cost them?

Kay_Peel

The problem stems from the failure to communicate properly with the holiday company. Your girl-friend believes that she may or may not have sent them an email, but can't find a copy of it, and in any case she admits that she may just have left a note on their website - whatever that means. I would hazard a guess that the email was not sent and there was no communication - and your girlfriend can't prove otherwise.

I think it's disingenuous of you to say that the holiday company should have done more to contact your OH. If I had cancelled a holiday and hadn't received some sort of confirmation that nothing was due, I would have been onto the holiday company like a shot - for the simple reason that I would need to be assured that they had received my email during the notice period.

I would ring the holiday company and tell them what you have told us. Explain that it was a case of stupid carelessness rather than evasion.

I don't hold out much hope for you, though.

unhappy_with_ecar

The holiday company has gone about this claim quite properly. If you never gave them details of your new address they have corresponded with you at the last known address and as such all papers are deemed to have been served properly. It would not be reasonable for them to expect to know you had moved.

The previous post is quite right in being able to apply to set aside the judgement (which costs about £50), which would bring the claim back to the starting point and allow you to defend it. However as stated you would have to be able to demonstrate to the court that you had a reasonable prospect of success in defending it. Simply stating that you knew nothing about the claim is not sufficient grounds.
I would imagine your only real prospect of successfully defending the claim would be on the grounds of either
a)the holiday company not having suffered any financial loss, if indeed they did manage to let it. or;
b)the terms and conditions of your booking made no reference to you being liable to the full amount if you didn't actually complete the booking.

If neither of those apply then you have a few options
1) ignore it, its up to the claimant to find out where you live and to provide that information to the bailiff. Ultimately they may well give up and write it off to experience. There will be a CCJ registered and it will remain showing as not satisified and that will affect your credit rating.
2) Ring the bailliff and pay the outstanding debt and then make sure you have a letter from the claimant or bailliff showing that the claim has been settled so that your credit file may be updated. Don't worry too much about the costs, court bailliff costs for an amount like this is limited (about £40), the actual court costs of the claim are also limited, so in total this debt is probably around £300 including any interest.
3) Make an application to the court (N245 form, you can get this from HM Courts website), pay the fee (about £35) and you can then request time to pay from the court, allowing you to pay this debt off at an amount you can afford.
4) Write to the claimant, explaining the circumstances and make them an offer to settle the claim. Again make sure you get a letter from them confirming that the claim has been satisfied so that you can send it to the court and get your credit file updated.

DarkConvict

Thats good advice, unhappy with ecar