Ugh. What are my rights here? (Quite urgent)

HouseBuyer77

What does your contract say about the rental payment?

If it explicitly states go cardless is the way it is paid then you simply need to produce evidence that you have paid go cardless as specified, thus you have fulfilled your part of the contract. It your landlord's problem if the payment processor they have explicitly required you to use (and correctly paid money to) has failed to get their money to them.

I'd getting written confirmation from your bank that money was sent via direct debit to go cardless. Ask go cardless where the money has gone.

You could also try recalling the direct debit (talk to your bank about this).

aneary

Send all your paperwork to them. State that you are prepared to go to the meeting but as you have paid (proof in paperwork) all your rent up to date you will be invoicing them for your time and any travel costs.

Ask them to check with their accounts department in case their is an admin error.

If you are communicating via phone stop only letter (email acceptable).

Isolt

marliepanda wrote: »

Being a month in arrears with a rubbish payment history would not be enough for eviction if you’re on a fixed term anyway. Your immaculate payment history simply gives you a half decent ‘why would I skip out on this one’ reason, but many tenants who pay well do get into arrears.

Don’t focus on your payment history. Focus on showing them that this one has been paid as normal and unless they can show you some evidence of them not recieving it (their accounts from that day and a week or so after) I’d just cease contact.

Well they've asked me to meet up with them in person later this week. I'm not sure what they think can be achieved in person that can't be achieved over the phone or in email.

Isolt

I'm surprised they are taking this approach. But maybe they have to to screen out chancers and idiots who simply don't want to pay rent. They should be able to tell the difference between a genuine tenant and a chancer though, surely

G_M

Areyou communicating by phone? Text? Email? Don'.

Letters only

As suggested above send another letter to the rental company with a copy to Gocontactless, referring to the previous letter, and re-enclosing all the paper evidence of payment.

State that

* as explained and shown, your rent is up to date
* ask to see copies of their bank statements showing no payment from you on/around the relevant date
* you do not see what can be added by a meeting
* but you'll be happy to meet with them provided they pay your (uneccessary) costs (time & travel)
* alternatively, offer to meet them at your flat at a time to suit you

If you do meet them
a) have a friend/ supporter/ witness - don't go alone
b) take all the paperwork with you again

00ec25

your dispute is with Go Cardless and you have a perfectly normal claim under the Direct Debit guarantee so why have you waited so long to get to this stage??????

Go Cardless is a well established payment processing company who process hundreds of thousands of payments to thousands of companies every year, me included.
- You gave Go Cardless your banking details when you signed up with GC (presumably in response to being sent a link by the "rental company")
- GC processes the DD on the date requested by the rental company and then notifes the rental company of the names of all "customers" where the payment has either been successful or unsuccessful
- the rental company has no knowledge of your bank details and is not involved in processing the payment. That is after all the whole point of them having to use GC in the first place as the ability to operate DD in the UK is very heavily regulated by the banks and is restricted to only approved entities.

• your bank says the payment left your account
  
• GC say the payment never arrived with them and this DD this "failed"

SO YOU CLAIM UNDER THE DD GUARANTEE - you have a banking dispute, not a rental dispute

Isolt

00ec25 wrote: »

your dispute is with Go Cardless and you have a perfectly normal claim under the Direct Debit guarantee so why have you waited so long to get to this stage??????

Go Cardless is a well established payment processing company who process hundreds of thousands of payments to thousands of companies every year, me included.
- You gave Go Cardless your banking details when you signed up with GC (presumably in response to being sent a link by the "rental company")
- GC processes the DD on the date requested by the rental company and then notifes the rental company of the names of all "customers" where the payment has either been successful or unsuccessful
- the rental company has no knowledge of your bank details and is not involved in processing the payment. That is after all the whole point of them having to use GC in the first place as the ability to operate DD in the UK is very heavily regulated by the banks and is restricted to only approved entities.

• your bank says the payment left your account
  
• GC say the payment never arrived with them and this DD this "failed"

SO YOU CLAIM UNDER THE DD GUARANTEE - you have a banking dispute, not a rental dispute

Initially, somebody at my bank looked into me claiming under the DD guarantee. However, once he went away and spoke to his supervisor, he returned to say that since the DD payment had cleared my account and been sent to Go Cardless, just as all the other payments have, there was nothing they can dispute. He explained that the Direct Debit Indemnity only applies when there is a dispute over the amount being charged or the date it's being charged. As far as my bank are concerned Go Cardless received my funds just fine and are lying!

FBaby

they sent it to their "finance team" who are said to have forwarded it to Go Cardless. Many weeks later Go Cardless came back and said that my payment definitely wasn't received. Do I have any documentary proof from Go Cardless to confirm my money wasn't received by them? No, not at all. Presumably Go Cardless process hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of payments every week. Maybe they've misplaced the payment?

So why are they backing them rather than you? I wouldn't have waited for them to suggest meeting, I would have insisted immediately to meet with them if they consider that evidence that the money has left my account and shows it's gone to the debitor is not enough to prove payment.

I'm surprised you wouldn't have done more yourself since ultimately, from your perspective, they are stealing your money.

00ec25

Isolt wrote: »

since the DD payment had cleared my account and been sent to Go Cardless, just as all the other payments have, there was nothing they can dispute. ...... As far as my bank are concerned Go Cardless received my funds just fine and are lying!

so your dispute is with GC

if your bank says the money was transmitted from it to the account details GC used to run the DD then the money is with GC. It cannot be anywhere else.

if the rental company says they never got it because GC told them your DD had failed, then it is up to GC to prove that it failed because your rental company cannot see anything at all to do with the money other than what GC give them - a list of names of those whose payments were received and names of those who failed. It would appear therefore that your details have somehow become disconnected from the money that GC holds and GC cannot tie the 2 together so listed you as a "failure". You need to ask GC about their "unreconciled receipts"

Have you opened a formal dispute with GC?

https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115005331405-Complaints-Procedure

AdrianC

If t'were me, I'd already be in there in person, with my bank on speakerphone, confirming out loud to the agent that the payment definitely left, definitely went to GoCardless, and definitely has not been returned.

You might prefer your bank to do that in writing, however...