Anglain Water are taking my husband to court.....HELP!

crazydaisy79

Hello im pretty new to this so please bear with me.

My husband had worked for Anglain Water for 3 years. Last year he went on annual leave for 2 weeks and when he was due to return he fell ill. I called into his work to explain this on his behalf and they were fine with this. We thought he would recover sooner but didnt so again i called into his work to explain this. Again , no problems. I told them that upon his return he would bring in a sick note to cover himself.

It came to his payday and nothing went into his account. I called them to find out why and they said that they had fired him because he didnt not call into the office himself and this is against company rules. There was no warning , no letters , no calls. I argued with his boss but it got me no where.

This was over a year ago now and we have since had a letter off them stating that he was overpaid on his annual leave and they want £431 back. We are going through a hard time with money at the minuite so we wrote them a letter explaining this , along with an expenditure form and offered them £10 a month.

We got another letter stating that as we are refusing to pay they will take us to court. There was no reference to the previous letter we had wrote , they hadnt even acknowledged it. So again we wrote back to them saying that we take it they are not going to accept our payments that we have offered. Next thing we get a court summoms through. In the paper work are all the points as to why they are taking us to court. One of them reads that we are refusing to pay and there no mention of our correspondence at all.

Now as its going to court we will incur court and solicitors costs. I just cant believe that they are being so arrogant in wanting it all back in one go!

I dont know what to do and am hoping that someone can give me some advice.

thanks

themull1

you need to see a solicitor.

missworks2jobs

oooh i dont know hun, I think you def need some advice from ACAS or a solicitor (or someone who works in HR and knows what they're on about). But I was sure you can't just fire someone when they're off sick - you have to invite them in for an interview and at least give them 2 written warnings and a chance to appeal (most letters like this have to be sent recorded signed for so they can prove you received them as well). Sorry I'm not much help but that doesn't sound right.

DGJsaver

You might want to post this in the employment board , and maybe the DFW board as well.....

epsilondraconis

When you wrote to the company, did you send the letters recorded delivery?

SarEl

Technically the company are right - he could be dismissed for breach of the procedures, and even if there was a case for unfair dismissal at the time - there isn't now because it is too late. On that basis, the current claim is legally valid. The circumstances as to how the debt arose are not relevant - he didn't challenge the dismissal and show it was unfair, so it stands.

The company are being utterly ridiculous in taking it to court because the court will not give them anything more than a reasonable repayment - but obviously it is their right to do this and it will incur additional costs for you. Are you sure that they are actually taking you to court and not just saying they will - have they issued court papers? If not, I would suggest that you send in all your evidence again and make it clear that you cannot afford to pay and you are making an offer of all you can afford. These bullying tactics aren't unusual.

crazydaisy79

Thanks for the replies. I know we dont have any grounds for unfair dismissal , this was not something we wanted to peruse thats why we just left it. I only included that in my post so to give people a clear picture on the history.
Yes we have court papers. My husband has to to fill out another court expenditure form , even though we have already done this with Anglian Water and sent it to them. We are now offering £15 a month but obviously have all the extra costs of court and solicitor fees now added. It just seems so unfair as all that will happen is that they will get their £15 a month but at further costs to us.
No unfortunately these letters were not sent recorded as we honestly didnt believe that we would need to or that it would get this far. I guess the only thing we can do now is wait for the court to rule that £15 a month is acceptable , what im angry at is the extra costs. I feel like they are doing this to just pi@s us off as they are a multi million pound company and its no sh@t off their back.
Unfair is not the word.

maureen_04

As far as I am aware a Court will no refuse any reasonable amount. As you have filled in a budget form it will hopefully be obvious of what you can afford.
Do not leave yourself financially short in order to offer extra, this may get you in arrears with other debts so consequently your problems will increase.
You should have stuck to the £10 pm. Please send any further documentation, even to the Court by Recorded Delivery. If you wrote these letters on a PC did you keep a copy? You can offer these to the Court as evidence of your attempts to sort this out before it went to Court.
I would do as others have said and get some free legal advice from CAB or similar. Also government run debt agencies can supply you with draft letters and advice.

Good luck. :kisses3:

UnderPressure

Before you fill anymore paperwork in I would take everything you have and also a copy of your husbands contract if you still have it to a solicitor, and employment one, have a look at some of the bigger firms near you most of them will offer an initial 1 hour free consultation and then let them advise you,

It is ridiculous the way they have treated your husband, If it were me I would be thinking along the lines of defending the claim and trying to beat them at their own game, the only way you are going to find the legal info you need though is by seeing a solicitor, surely this should have been sorted out before his P45 was issued, and overpayment after that you would think is down to the company so tough luck.......................................

As said I am not a legal beagle lol get the yellow pages out and find a free solicitor consultation locally dont roll over and accept liability until you are sure there is nothing else you can do.

Also you can ring the national debtline, have a look on Google for their number with anything legal they will then move you onto something called community legal team or something similar, they are basically law experts and offer free advice and can even represent you in court I think you have to be claiming some sort of benefit ti be eligible though the National Debtline will be able to give you more information.

Chin up, dont roll over and accept this just because they are a huge company there is still a human being somewhere making the decisions it is simply a game from here that you "may" be able to win go and find out

Let us know how you get on, all the best

shikoku

You need to Subject Access Request the employer for all the information they hold on your husband, particularly you require a breakdown of how they reached the sum they allege he owes them.

If and when they take him to court you must defend making this a disclosure request if they have not already complied. Strongly suggest you post you original post on a few debt forums for detailed advice.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?167-Debt-Collection-Industry

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

At the end of the day if he is proven liable then he can apply for a variation order so the court can order the claimant to accept only what he can afford. In the circumstances you describe I suggest £1.00 a month.