Debt Recovery Charges/fees

Julez1605

Hi

My apologies in advance if this has not been posted in the right forum, and also the length of this initial post.

I have an outstanding nursery debt from a previous childcare provider which I am actively paying on a monthly basis, not much but I am paying what I can afford. The debt was passed to a company called BFL Solutions who I have been dealing with.

The original Debt was for £1180
Fees added - £395
Total due was - £1575

I have asked on numerous occasions for a breakdown of the charges, I was advised there fees are 8% plus bank base rate. A person from their legal team advised me that the debt was outstanding since 2012 and that is why the fees were so high, but I have an email from the nursery advising the debt was sent over in 2015. All correspondence has been via email and I have several emails with conflicting information from different people.

I have asked a few times for clarification and have got nowhere with a response other than it was in the original contract which I have requested but never received.

I missed a payment in December (I had just given birth to my daughter and she was in special care directly after birth for a few weeks), from this they placed a £50 late payment fee on top of what I owed. They advised they sent a letter which I requested a copy of since not receiving it and asked again for clarification of the charges, nothing was received back.

I have never received a late payment prior to this date either and there was a time of around 3 months where I didn't make any payments to them, whilst I was asking them continuously for clarification on the fees, payments I had made and the original amount from the nursery.

2 weeks ago they have submitted a claim through the courts and have since issued me with a CCJ, Unfortunately the initial paperwork was only received last week in a clear royal mail bag with "delivered to wrong address" wrote on the envelope so I am out of time to contest it. I have since filled out an N245 form with the amount I can pay which is nothing more then what I have been paying all this time.

From this though they have hit me with another £180 charges which are court costs (excluding the original £70 court costs) - I have asked for a breakdown to which they have advised "that is there charges"

The fees added in total amount to £625 - Is there anything I can do regarding getting them to provide a breakdown in their fees or prove the fees added are justifiable.

I have googled but can not find anything at all, I have spoke to Consumer Direct and they are unable to help and suggested I call the national debt helpline which I will, I have also spoke with the CSA who advised that they would investigate a complaint but can not enforce action.

I was wondering if anyone here could offer any advice please, I am in no way refusing to pay it, and the small amount I am paying is literally all I can afford at this moment in time,

Many thanks in advance

waamo

If the court paperwork went to the wrong address you can apply to have the judgement set aside. This will allow you the opportunity to defend against the claim.

The fee for a set aside is £255 however you may be entitled to financial assistance with this.

DoaM

8% plus bank base rate sounds more like interest on the debt rather than fees.

Note: interest accrues from when the debt became payable, not from when the claimant raised the claim. That said, any such interest should have been part of the claimed amount - they can't double-recover.

DoaM

BTW - they didn't submit a claim 2 weeks ago and have secured a CCJ already ... it doesn't work like that. If a claim was raised then the papers are deemed "served" 2 working days after posting. The 14 day clock to acknowledge service then starts (which would give you a further 14+ days to file a defence).

If you don't do the AoS within 14 days (or don't respond to the claim) then the claimant can file for a default judgment. The judgment would give you (e.g.) 28 days to pay it before the CCJ was registered.

So your timeline seems a bit off.

Julez1605

Apologies for the confusion, the date on the paperwork shows the 1st (nothing was received prior to this date), it was received by me on the 21st with the original letter opened and a note on the front of the envelope advising delivered to wrong address all encased in a royal mail bag. It was filled out and responded to 22nd, on the 24th I received a letter regarding the CCJ.

DoaM

So you've got a pending CCJ. Your options are:

1) Pay the judgment to avoid the CCJ being registered (and trashing your credit record for 6 years)
2) Apply for a set-aside of the judgment (costs £255 but you may be eligible for assistance with costs, or could be done for only £100 if the claimant agrees to a set-aside with consent).

Or perhaps it's a mix of both.

Court papers being sent to the wrong address is a slam-dunk win for getting a set-aside.

Julez1605

Thank you for your response and for your advice, it's very much appreciated.

Would you know if there is anything anywhere which says a debt collection agency has to provide a breakdown of charges or anything?

KeithP

Julez1605 wrote: »

I guess I was wondering if there was anything I can regarding the charges added by the debt collection company.

With a County Court Judgment against you, the amount you owe is the amount on that Judgment. That is all there is to it really.

The only way to dispute that amount now is to seek a set aside and then defend the claim - as Waamo says.

Boohoo

DoaM wrote: »

So you've got a pending CCJ. Your options are:

1) Pay the judgment to avoid the CCJ being registered (and trashing your credit record for 6 years)
2) Apply for a set-aside of the judgment (costs £255 but you may be eligible for assistance with costs, or could be done for only £100 if the claimant agrees to a set-aside with consent).

Or perhaps it's a mix of both.

Court papers being sent to the wrong address is a slam-dunk win for getting a set-aside.

I may have missed something here about the "wrong address".


The OP says the claim form was sent to the wrong address and then passed onto them by the Royal Mail.


Did the firm that got the CCJ send the claim form to an old address for the OP or did the claim form get addressed to the OP's current address but the Royal Mail postie put it in somebody elses address/letter box and that person opened it and then put it back into the post sytem and then it was passed to the OP's address?


Long winded i know but the OP will we hope come back and clear this up.

DoaM

A fair comment ... but as long as the OP holds on to that evidence then they can still prove that the papers weren't served, so a set-aside should be a formality.

Julez1605

The letter unfortunately was delivered to another address, then returned to Royal Mail who re-delivered it to me, ��