Is Nightfox safe for debt collection?

Diana262

Hi,

I paid money for a new conservatory and work is completed but I found that the walls are leaking and when I checked with the company, they are ignoring me. Is it safe to use Nightfox debt collection team to recover the money? They said they can help us with this. The charge is 395£ plus vat for 120 days and 15% of the recovered money.

soolin

Diana262 said:

Hi,

I paid money for a new conservatory and work is completed but I found that the walls are leaking and when I checked with the company, they are ignoring me. Is it safe to use Nightfox debt collection team to recover the money? They said they can help us with this. The charge is 395£ plus vat for 120 days and 15% of the recovered money.

Have you gone through the courts already? If so then ask the courts as they probably have a list of registered companies or court bailiffs you can use.

If you haven’t exhausted all the complaint options  and court options then definitely don’t just approach any company claiming to get debts returned, you can’t just send in the heavies without some sort of legal backing , for a start you need an agreed debt to collect. 

mr_stripey

It sounds like you might be getting a few steps ahead of yourself. So paying a debt collection agency to chase money is just throwing more money away. The company will just ignore it, as they have been ignoring you.

Unless it is backed up by a court then I doubt it will work.

sheramber

see another thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6460780/debt-collectors-collected-the-wrong-amount-of-debt-and-are-withholding-400

Okell

Debt collectors have no legal rights to recover anything.  The only person with any legal rights is you.  If the company who has installed the conservatory are ignoring you, they will certainly ignore any debt collectors.

As others have said, if you can't get anywhere with the company you will need to sue them.  Once you've won a court judgment, if the company doesn't cough up, you can use high court enforcement officers (bailiffs) to enforce the judgment.  They will charge a fee too, but you can recover that from the company.

(Unfortunately, if the installation company has no money or has "disappeared", you'll get nothing anyway.  Was it a reputable company?  Sole trader or limited company or what?)

mr_stripey

To reiterate - don't do this.

Unless there is a court judgment then this company will simply take your £ 475 or so and write a couple of letters which will likely be ignored. They will then have fulfilled their obligations to you.

Diana262

They said they will do face to face debt collection , disturb the debtors heavily and guaranteed to recover my money and said they are alternatives to court. Is that true? 

mr_stripey

Diana262 said:

They said they will do face to face debt collection , disturb the debtors heavily and guaranteed to recover my money and said they are alternatives to court. Is that true? 

To help us understand, and for people to offer the correct advice some background and context would be useful.

You say the builders have left you with a leaky conservatory - but that doesn't automatically make it a "debt".

So what is the sequence of events that has lead to this point?

Diana262

mr_stripey said:

Diana262 said:

They said they will do face to face debt collection , disturb the debtors heavily and guaranteed to recover my money and said they are alternatives to court. Is that true? 

To help us understand, and for people to offer the correct advice some background and context would be useful.

You say the builders have left you with a leaky conservatory - but that doesn't automatically make it a "debt".

So what is the sequence of events that has lead to this point?

The conservatory walls have dampness and when we complained they said the work is complete and complained about us to trading officer. He contacted us and we gave him the proof and he said he will ask the company to contact us to fix the issue but they never contacted us. Meanwhile we were sending letters and emails as per CAB advice but no response from this company. Last letter before court action was sent and informed the trading officer who said it’s a civil dispute and he can’t help further. Finally from this forum I understood that even if we goto court, I need an independent expert witness report which would cost £700-£800 and still if we win the case also if the company proves that  they are not having the money to repay us we would still lose court fees, bailiffs and expert witness fees. Came across Nightfox who is claiming as an alternative to court and saying they will appear at all places where these company owners are attending and make their life miserable and make them pay our money back. Police don’t bother as it’s a civil case even if they complain and Nightfox will take measures which are legal. 

So we thought y not spend £479 and get atleast some money back from the company.They said they will try for 120 days and guaranteed that they will recover

Jonboy_1984

At this stage it appears there is an argument, not a debt. 

You need to go to court (or an arbitrator if the company agrees) to get a judgement and get the argument legally settled and converted into a debt. 

To do this you will likely need an expert report to support your case. Does you home insurance include legal cover?

Diana262

Again court process is pretty lengthy and costly. Nightfox is clearly saying y goto the court when they can help us.
Its incomplete work and CAB said we are entitled to full refund upto 100% in this case but going to court is waste of money .We contacted few others builders and they said they can fix this issue for few thousands so we are sending g Nightfox to collect that amount to fix this issue. We can’t waste anymore on this as court fees is around 500£ , expert witness £700 plus vat and no guarantee that we will win , incase we win also again money to employee bailiffs who are govt people and company will still ignore them.
Even if Nightfox recover some part of money we are happy.