Questions about service debt & my rights.

whelpton

So, a company that will remain nameless for the moment has recently contacted me demanding £404 for webhosting services. Fair enough.

The only issue is that, over 7 months ago this company referred me and my colleague to a debt recovery company and has not invoiced or made any reference to our account still being active after that point.

Only recently they have decided to tell us that the account is still active and that they have been charging us month after month with no attempt to contact us to inform us that either the account is still open or that the payments had failed. (They have both email and telephone details available to them)

I am very interested to know if this is legal to do and what would be the best way to contest this. I have not contacted the company to discuss the situation so as not to dig a hole in any way.

Thank you to anyone who has advice to give.

paddedjohn

Have you made any attempt to close the account?

whelpton

After the account was sent to debt recovery I imagined it would have been closed automatically, so no, during the past seven months I have made no attempt to close the account as I did not realise it still existed.

YoYoY

Are the hosting company still providing the webhosting services?

What did your contact with them say about your right to cancel?

How come you did not notice that your payments were not being debited from your bank or credit card account?

The company has up to 6 years (5 in Scotland) to enforce any debt.

whelpton

YoYoY wrote: »

How come you did not notice that your payments were not being debited from your bank or credit card account?

Because the company already sent our account to debt recovery, at which point we believed that was the end of the story.

With no invoices being sent or contact to prove otherwise, why would we believe the account was still active and ongoing?

Also, our account was sent to DR due to non payment after two months. At which point I would never have imagined that 7 months later and technically 9 months of non payment at all that the account would be active still.

YoYoY

whelpton wrote: »

Because the company already sent our account to debt recovery, at which point we believed that was the end of the story.

With no invoices being sent or contact to prove otherwise, why would we believe the account was still active and ongoing?

Also, our account was sent to DR due to non payment after two months. At which point I would never have imagined that 7 months later and technically 9 months of non payment at all that the account would be active still.

If the account was sent to a debt collector, then the account was already in debt.
That is how I'm wondering you didn't notice the payments hadn't been debited from your account.

If you enter into a contractual agreement (e.g. 12 months) for someone to provide a service, the contract doesn't end with you owing nothing just because you didn't pay a previous amount due.
So I ask again, what did it say in your contract regarding your right to cancel?

whelpton

There was no contractual agreement with the account.

YoYoY

whelpton wrote: »

There was no contractual agreement with the account.

Of course there was!

You ordered webhosting services which the supplier agreed to supply. Therefore a contract existed.

whelpton

No binding contract defining a set period of time in which we had to stay with the company.

YoYoY

whelpton wrote: »

No binding contract defining a set period of time in which we had to stay with the company.

Yeah right. :cool:

Nevertheless, you don't appear to have ever given any notice to end the contract.
So what does it say in the terms regarding how you should end the service if you no longer want it.

whelpton

That really isnt the point.

With most service providers even if a contractual period has not ended, that period is passed onto the debt collection agency.

What I am interested to know is:

A: Does a company have a right to continue charging after a debt collection referral has taken place.

And

B: Is there a legal requirement to advise us that payments are being charged to an account, for example through an invoice every month. Which was standard on the account.

If 6 months ago we would have gotten an invoice then we would not be in this situation right now.