Disputing college fees... Help/advice sought please

paseodj

Hi, first of all I am new to this forum but have been reading through the forums for a long time.

I need help on the following matter:

I attended a college course for a very short time a few years ago, after a couple of months of the course, I decided it wasn't for me and left.

a few years later and I recieve a letter from the courts saying I owed the college X amount of money. I received no prior letters indicating I owed any amount as they were sent to my grandparents address ( I used this address as I was going through the process of moving house at the same time as applying for the course so didn't want to miss any letters) and after a short while I told my grandparents to ignore any letters for me as they were all just junk after a year or so. but when they saw the court name on the envelope they let me know about this letter.

as soon as I realised what the letter was about I contacted the colleges solicitor and told them that I didn't know anything about the so called owed money and asked for any signed credit agreement that I had signed and informed them that I would like to make an appeal against the charges. All I received from them was an "attendance Report" that showed the days I attended, nothing was signed by myself on this report and I wasn't denying that I had attended. so again I asked them for any signed contract that showed that I owed this money, nothing was sent to me and they informed me that the so called attendance report showed I owed the money..... in actual fact it just listed the times and dates I had attended the course, nothing else. by this time I recieved a letter from the high courts office who had increased the amount and ordered me to pay, so I had no other option than to set up a payment plan to start paying it off to keep the bailiffs away!

any way I have now been paying this for the last year as I don't want the burden of this hanging over me, but would like any advice or info if I could:
1. appeal against the decision
2. get my money back that I have payed so far if I am wrongfully accused!
3.who do i contact and what to do If I disagree with the decision
4. any other help or advice

I am now a "mature" student at uni (no I wasn't in london during the protests and I know how to use a fire extinguisher properly) and would like to get this issue sorted!

thanks in advance for any help or advice

Tom

Clarie_2

Hi,
As far as I understand it, you are agreeing you owe the money because a) you actually attended the course and b) you have started paying back the money.
If you disagree with the amount you are paying then you need to check with the college fees of the course etc. But as far as I can see you are responsible for the money and therefore need to pay it back.

Hope this helps,

Clarie

Tixy

It would be very unlikely there would be a credit agreement for a college course.

If you started the course and left part way through then you would usually still be liable for the full course cost. I think you will have little choice but to continue to pay as it sounds like you owe the money.

However if you did want to take things further the first thing to do would probably to get a copy of the CCJ and find out the details of how much was claimed etc and the particulars of the judgement. But I doubt you will be able to get the judgement set aside.

You could also probably do a subject access request to the college to see all the info they hold on you. That will probably show all the letters they sent to your grandparents house etc.

paseodj

just to clarify, it was for a course that I wasn't paying for in the first place, it was a level 3 qualification and I was never informed of any course fee's from start to finish until I recieve this letter, surely if I owed the money then there should have been something stating that I paid for the course in the first place?

Tixy

You need to get a copy of the judgement and see on what basis they charged you.

When you left did you just stop attending or did you officially inform the college you were leaving?

paseodj

I let the college know that I was leaving. I think I can remember having thhis convo with them last year but they couldn't find any evidence of it though

Clarie_2

Hmm, if you go to their website/ syllabus does it say what the course fee is? Whilst some are free, this is very unusual and often they are aimed at those on benefits etc, when they ask to see evidence of this.
Was it work related (i.e. you thought your employers were paying?) I'm not sure why you thought the course was free?

PNPSUKNET

If you left part way through, any clauses which may say you are then deemed to be liable.

Tixy

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

If you left part way through, any clauses which may say you are then deemed to be liable.

I've seen similar to this in the past. Basically you get a free place but if you leave you have to pay what the full cost would have been for that year (presumably because someone else could have had your free place).

PNPSUKNET

why shouldnt you.