Help Ending an agreement with Purplebricks without paying fees

Busbyfiona

Signed up with PB and it’s been a catalogue of mistakes and problems from the start. They refused to let me cancel without paying however offer a fee reduction of £250. Ongoing issues and I’ve had enough and just want to get rid. Was going to to go down the small claims court route but this seems to be about monies owed.

someone said that the fee debt is sold on to a finance company and I’m wondering if the small claims court would enable me to claim the money off purple bricks to pay the finance company

I would appreciate any advice. I have screenshots and videos of all the mistakes, ignored messages etc.

GDB2222

Busbyfiona said:

Signed up with PB and it’s been a catalogue of mistakes and problems from the start. They refused to let me cancel without paying however offer a fee reduction of £250. Ongoing issues and I’ve had enough and just want to get rid. Was going to to go down the small claims court route but this seems to be about monies owed.

someone said that the fee debt is sold on to a finance company and I’m wondering if the small claims court would enable me to claim the money off purple bricks to pay the finance company

I would appreciate any advice. I have screenshots and videos of all the mistakes, ignored messages etc.

They may well sell your debt on, but the finance company has only exactly the same claim against you that PB has. In other words, it is PB's claim against you that gets sold on.

I assume you agreed to pay something like £1300? I would write them a letter stating what was wrong with the service. It needs to be in writing, and email should be okay too. State that the service was so poor that it was not worth anything, but offer to pay them say £500 in full settlement. 

PB can then:

1. accept your offer
2. counter offer
3. take you to court, and you would defend the action
4. sell their claim to a finance company, who can do 1-3

A claim of £1300 is marginal for court proceedings, as they can't get most of their costs back, but they may feel that they don't want to be seen as a soft touch. Equally, you may quail at the mere thought of going to court, in which case you need to settle.
 

TheJP

Busbyfiona said:

Signed up with PB and it’s been a catalogue of mistakes and problems from the start. They refused to let me cancel without paying however offer a fee reduction of £250. Ongoing issues and I’ve had enough and just want to get rid. Was going to to go down the small claims court route but this seems to be about monies owed.

someone said that the fee debt is sold on to a finance company and I’m wondering if the small claims court would enable me to claim the money off purple bricks to pay the finance company

I would appreciate any advice. I have screenshots and videos of all the mistakes, ignored messages etc.

What does your contract state?

eddddy

Busbyfiona said:

Was going to to go down the small claims court route but this seems to be about monies owed.

someone said that the fee debt is sold on to a finance company and I’m wondering if the small claims court would enable me to claim the money off purple bricks to pay the finance company

It would be PB that would potentially make a claim against you in the small claims court - not the other way round.

PB would tell the court why they believe you owe the money, and then you would defend the claim (i.e. tell the court why you believe you don't owe the money to PB), and the court would make a decision.

But you would have to present a legal argument for why you shouldn't pay - i.e. it would typically have to be because of misrepresentation and/or breach of contract and/or negligence.

GDB2222

"I have screenshots and videos of all the mistakes, ignored messages etc."

I agree with Ed. I assumed that the mistakes were serious matters that strike at the heart of PB's ability to carry out their side of the contract? If it is simply annoyingly poor customer service, then the £250 reduction is actually rather generous. 

There's a consumer board here, and you may want to post more there, but you'll need to flesh this out with more detail.