Very late request for charge on PPI claim

LilyTwink

Hello - I don’t know if anyone can help here. 

My Mum, who is 83 (I’m her carer) applied for a PPI claim via a company called ClaimEazy a few years ago. She received a cheque in March 2018 for £1046.56 from Shop Direct Ltd with no cover letter, just a piece of paper stating “Your Compensation”. No letter was received with a breakdown so she thought that the claim company had taken their cut and cashed the cheque. 

Two years later, in the post today she received a letter saying “We are delighted to confirm Shop Direct Finance Company Limited has made and offer to settle the complaint” enclosing a copy of the letter from Shop Direct with a breakdown of the compensation (which she definitely didn’t receive) and a request within 14 days for £494.86. 

Obviously she had no idea about this and is quite upset - she hasn’t got the money now. 

Can they ask for this after two years?
No copy of the T & Cs to check (I will request one). 
Just wondered if anyone has had the same or if anyone knows if there is a cut-off where the company can claim their fee. 

Many thanks in advance. 

[Deleted User]

Yes, they can ask for it up to 6 years later.

If she can't afford it in one go, she'll need to agree a repayment plan and hope they are amenable.

[Deleted User]

LilyTwink said:

My Mum, who is 83 (I’m her carer) applied for a PPI claim via a company called ClaimEazy a few years ago. She received a cheque in March 2018 for £1046.56 from Shop Direct Ltd with no cover letter, just a piece of paper stating “Your Compensation”. No letter was received with a breakdown so she thought that the claim company had taken their cut and cashed the cheque. 

The Bank would not include any charges made by a Claim Company in any case. All the Bank does is issue the whole refund to the complainant. The Claim Company fees are the sole responsibility of the complainant to pay.  It's not enough that she assumed the bill was already paid I'm afraid. 

It's frankly amazing that the Claim Company have only billed your mother two years after her complaint was successful, but this  does give  her some leeway in offering to pay the bill in instalments if the redress has since been spent. If they refuse to accept such instalments you can approach the Ombudsman for help

Make no mistake, though, your Mother signed a legally-binding contract with this company and still owes this money. There is no point requesting any "terms and conditions" because the company can   chase this money and will do so all the way to court if necessary. I'm certain you wouldn't want your mother having a County Court Judgement against her...

LilyTwink

Yes, thanks - a two year delay is ridiculous. I’ve paid it for her, she’s not well so it’s not worth her worrying about it. It’s (obviously) a shame she went through them in the first place but hey ho. It’s done now. 

-taff

I would have ignored them personaly. Her credit is not likely to be aftected at her ag by a CCJ but I suppose for a quiet life it may have been worth it.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

She may be able to claim the tax deducted from the statutory interest/compensation element of the payout back from HMRC.

She would have to get a breakdown of the figures from Shop Direct Ltd first though.

[Deleted User]

-taff said:

I would have ignored them personally. Her credit is not likely to be affected at her age by a CCJ but I suppose for a quiet life it may have been worth it.

An elderly  person would probably worry unnecessarily about a court summons though, and  (even if they didn't attend) it would likely be very stressful. 

-taff

Moneyineptitude said:

-taff said:

I would have ignored them personally. Her credit is not likely to be affected at her age by a CCJ but I suppose for a quiet life it may have been worth it.

An elderly  person would probably worry unnecessarily about a court summons though, and  (even if they didn't attend) it would likely be very stressful. 

Which I pointed out in my origina post.....