MIL Collections adding massive collections fees.

HurlyBurly

I sold my house a few years ago, the circumstances around it were...confusing, to put it lightly, and in the mess a fee to my estate agent (Ben Rose) went unpaid.  Three and a bit years later I'm informed that I need to pay this fee, however instead of emailing me, or calling me (they had my details) they sent it through a debt collection agency (MIL) who decided to more than double the original debt with their 'collection fees'.

After some back and forth it was established that I am indeed liable for the original fee (£2175, I believe) and I could afford it and so I paid it (though it nearly zero'd out my savings), but MIL have been insistent on their ludicrus £2700+ fee.

With the help of a debt charity MIL has said that their client won't accept less than £1500 ontop of the original debt.

I've seen a few threads on here talking about how MIL is some powerless 3rd wheel, would it be worth getting the people helping me to contact Ben Rose directly to try and get rid of this leech's fee?

sourcrates

I presume the debt charity is Stepchange or Payplan ?
I doubt there involvement will have much effect to be honest with you.

This is what companies are allowed to charge for the collection of commercial debts -

Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery: Claim debt recovery costs on late payments - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

So the amount you would be legally required to pay for collection of your debt would be in the region of £100.
But they can also charge you statutory interest at a rate of 8%.

The £2700 fee they have invoiced you for, does sound excessive.

On most debts they cannot charge fees for debt collection, unless the original agreement allows them to do so, did you sign a contract/agreement for this debt ?

Ultimately the only way they can force payment from you is to take you to court, win their claim, then if you still didn`t pay, further enforce their rights using a bailiff.

The reason they are willing to instantly wipe £1200 off the bill is because excessive fee`s are mostly unenforceable in court.

If you want to make a complaint about them charging excessive fee`s, the complaints handlers details are as follows -

Complain to the firm

Alan Davis
MIL Collections Ltd

Palace Building
Quay Street
Truro
Cornwall
TR1 2HE
UNITED KINGDOM