Help for daughter in debt with Uni.

lancashiregirl

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, I did consider the student board so apologies again if it's wrong. I just wondered if anyone has any advice on this.

My daughter got a letter from a collections agency this week requesting £1127 on behalf of Leeds Met and threatening legal action within 14 days unless it was paid. We didn't know what it was for as we thought we had paid everything due in March last year.

We contacted the finance dept who say it's for unpaid accomodation fees because she left her accomodation early. However the last contact we have had from them was an email on 2/2/11 stating that "We have reviewed your university account and not your accomodation fees and £1127 is now due". We paid £2555 to Student Loan Company on 7/3/11, mistakenly it seems now, we thought part of this payment was the £1127.
It's all very confusing.

I don't think we can dispute the fact that the money is owed but we were under the impression that it was paid off as we've had no contact from them in almost a year.

I have emailed Leeds Met and asked them by what means they have tried to contact my daughter about the matter as I feel it's very unfair that we've spent the last year thinking the debt was cleared because of the email saying it wasn't for accomodation fees and the fact there has been no contact.

Neither she or I can afford to clear the amount in one payment, does anyone know if a court would be more lenient given the circumstances?

Sorry if that's a bit rambly. Any advice would be much appreciated.

kaylz39

lancashiregirl wrote: »

However the last contact we have had from them was an email on 2/2/11 stating that "We have reviewed your university account and not your accomodation fees and £1127 is now due". We paid £2555 to Student Loan Company on 7/3/11, mistakenly it seems now, we thought part of this payment was the £1127.
It's all very confusing.

Was this letter sent to you on the 2nd of Feb not warning you of the £1127 you owed them? You say the letter read "We have reviewed your university account and your accomodation fees and £1127 is now due".

I don't want you to think I'm being patronising but are you aware that the student loan company are not affiliated with Leeds Uni or any other Uni? I would assume the amounts you have been paying to the SLC have been to re-pay loans which your daughter received whilst studying. That money should have been used for Uni related fee's such as accommodation, books & fee's each year.

I would contact the Uni and explain you cant pay the £1127 so could you set a payment plan up. I would stress you want to set this up direct with them and not via a debt agency as they will charge you for further admin at extortionate rates.

lancashiregirl

No Kaylz, the email said exactly word for word "We have reviewed your university account and not your accomodation fees and £1127 is now due". We took this to mean that the money was not for accomodation fees but now the uni are saying that it is for accomodation fees.

Of course I don't think you are being patronising, we thought at the time that part of the payment we made to SLC would be passed on to the uni. We realise now that is not the case but still think it's strange that the uni send an email saying it's NOT for accomodation fees, don't contact us for a whole year, pass on to a collections agency and threaten court action.