The Letter that Cost me £1200 (this morning) Grrr!

powned

:mad: < need to post this smiley first of all...
Please Help! ...I opened a letter this morning informing me that I am to pay £1200 to a solicitor for a debt owed to my former employer within 7 days or i will face court proceedings. I initially thought it was a mistake but I remember being overpaid 4-5 years ago by around £700, i agreed with my employer to pay it off monthly from my wages (about £20 pm) and did so for the following year or so. Melissa Suffield

During this time i became ill and was unable to work, i continued to pay by debt from my sick pay. The company got heavy with me and started calling round to my house trying to pressure me back to work/or resign. I took the option to resign as I had no energy to battle with them.

In all honesty i had forgot about the small sum of money I was paying back and when my contract was terminated the payments obviously stopped getting docked from my wages.

Its about 3 years since I left the company and i have not heard a thing about the debt, no letters or phone calls, nothing. Until this morning that is, i have a stereotypically unpleasant solicitors letter with the demands i mentioned earlier for debt.

Im not trying to dodge my debt, but this iron fisted approach seems a tad unfair. I am on a very low income and have lots of debt, this will break me... im really crapping myself so would appreciate the wisdom of anyones experience or knowledge. I simply cannot pay that much money unless i take up crime as a new career. Either way it looks like im going to end up in court. :mad:

For the record the letter was sent to my old address (parents), i have the same initial as my dad so he opened it which was quite embarrassing.:o :rolleyes:

Thanks

adouglasmhor

1st thing to do write to them and ask for proof of the debt, this will buy you some time.

Tixy

Agree - write to ask for proof of the debt and a detailed schedule of the original amount and all repayments.

They are trying to frighten you by threatening court proceedings (and its obviously working) but it costs money to take someone to court and for the amount involved in unlikely providing you show willingness to repay.

Once you know the detail you could probably dispute any interest charged as 1) presumably it was their fault you were overpaid initially and 2) they haven't bothered chasing you for years -despite you being contactable throughtout (allbeit at your parent's address). They will probably agree to you repaying what you owe over a few months.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2 this is a template letter you could use as a starting point and adapt for your situation - not all of it will be relevant.

Takingcontrol_2

I don't know if this is the right advice, but what is standing out at me is the way you came about resigning!! They cannot legally badger you or harrass you like that! Sounds like constructive dismissal to me! Maybe get some legal advice now you are better....Perhaps your ex employers maybe willing to write the "debt" off if they are faced with a possible employment tribunal case from you! best of luck

snoopytweety

Although I think it is a very heavy handed way of dealing with the debt and I feel for you, I think I should point out - it may be worth contacting them and offering something per month, even if it is a small amount as it shows you aknowledge the debt as being something you will pay back.

Someone above mentioned asking them to provide proof that you owe the money, I think this would be fairly easy to do for many reasons. I write contracts of employment for a living and all our contracts have a small clause in saying that if you leave the company at any point , you agree to pay back any loan, or overpaid monies etc etc. They could then get their payroll records together and prove that for a period of time you had a salary deduction each month to go towards this debt, thus showing you agreed you should be paying this sum back! If you signed your contract then you would have aknowledged the bit saying you would pay monies owed back. If this wasn't anywhere in your contract it may very well have been in the company handbook!!!

Sorry!

Tixy

Snoop

The reason for asking for proof is to buy time as the solics letter gave 7days and to establish how the debt has gone from £700 less a years repayments to suddenly being £1200.

They do need to agree a repayment plan with the employer but it makes sense to make sure they agree on the balance before they start repaying.

adouglasmhor

Tixy wrote: »

Snoop

The reason for asking for proof is to buy time as the solics letter gave 7days and to establish how the debt has gone from £700 less a years repayments to suddenly being £1200.

They do need to agree a repayment plan with the employer but it makes sense to make sure they agree on the balance before they start repaying.

Or else it could be said the OP has accepted the extra £500 plus is an acknowledged debt.

snoopytweety

Sorry - I agree you need to get proof, I was just saying that they would probably find this quite easy to do. I agree also, get a balance and understand it before starting to pay back again! Sorry if I wasn't clear!

pepe2008

Get proof first. They cant charge Interest without a Court Order or an agreement .
If they choose to wait that long then any Solicitors expenses are down to them leaving it so long and if there was nothing in your Contract about you being liable for the expense of recovering any overpayments or loans made whilst an Employee then they can spin!

powned

Thanks for the replies so far guys, means a lot to me

They are charging me interest of £230 (interest is %8 and as of jan 09 accrues at a daily rate of £0.12 which would = £48 for the previous year) and £225 for 1 solicitors letter, the rest is a debt of £530. (i paid 200 off) The sums dont even add up! Comes out at just over 1k by my calculations.

They claim my employer sent a letter in July 2009, which i did not receive, in fairness they may have sent it but a lot of our post goes missing. I just checked the dates on the letter and the Invoice date for the debt is August 2004! Does it become statute barred after 6 years? I wonder if thats why they are chasing it up now?

They are billing me interest backdated to of 30 days after the invoice date 08/2004 even tho i paid off the debt for the following year.

This solicitors seem to wiff of cowboy, the sums appear wrong, The letter seems like a template and there was no signature required for it either.

Would it be best to let the debt become statute barred in a few months? would that offer me more protection? i really dont want to end up in court!

Cheers all

adouglasmhor

It could also have been an extra £70 a month for 10 months instead of one overpayment.