Does a guarantor transfer when a debt is sold?

sourcrates

Breeches to contracts can only be enforced by a court, not on the say so of a debt collector.

What they have sent you is their invoice, in the hope you will pay it, its much the same as a private parking fine, they can only be enforced if they take you to court and win.

saajan_12

misterbarlow said:

So i paid the debt only last week and told them I owe them nothing for their fees as I have no contract with them,  only the original landlord.

The DCA have replied today with a screenshot from the original contract which states
"if the tenant beaches the agreement or fails to fulfil any obligations,  the tenant shall pay any costs incurred by the l/l in remedying or enforcing the breach."
 
They say the costs incurred are what they are charging the L/L to chase the debt, and therefore we are responsible for them as per that original contract.

Is the original contract an AST, or some other form of uni accommodation?

There will be some cost payable, even if that's just the interest on the rent between the due date and when you paid it. Beyond that before it gets to court, fees are generally unrecoverable for ASTs, but if its a different type of contract that may or may not apply. If they've filed to a court already then that fee may be payable. 

misterbarlow

Yes its an AST.
It mentions interest will be payable daily on late rent at BBR+3% from the date it is due to the date it is paid, which i've worked out to be around £50-60 but that might have been included in the original balance, they have never given me a breakdown of anything, just an email with, rent owed, charges incurred, total.

They have not filed anything, but just implied that they will if I do not pay em.

So if I call their bluff and hold, assume I then just wait for a letter before action, are they ever sent by DCA just as an extra attempt to persuade but they never go further or is it an inevitabilty at that point? 
If it goes to court and we lose, how much extra in court fees will it cost me for £291, and if I lose and then agree to pay, do I then also still get a CCJ???

ManyWays

if I lose and then agree to pay, do I then also still get a CCJ???
Yes but If you pay a CCJ within a month it is deleted from your credit record.

misterbarlow

They say the original contract says we are liable for any charges if we fail any obligations of the contract.
My daughter has sent me the screenshots of her communication with them.

She told them in May she was struggling to pay the balance, and they told her to setup a payment plan, or they would contact her guarantor (me) and make them pay.
She offered a plan of a monthly payment which they accepted.

She contacted them again a week or so later to say her situation was worse than she thought and she would be unable to pay them anything until she got her student loan in Sept.
They did not reply or chase her again, so she took this as acceptance, and was waiting until Sept to pay them. 

I was first contacted by the DCA in august, some 80 days later.
They made no effort to contact me between when she told them she could not pay in May and when I had the DCA email in August, despite claiming they would to my daughter. 

So I am going down mitigation of losses route now.
They did not contact me at all, so they failed to mitigate their losses and did not take all reasonable steps to prevent them from incurring any further losses.
They basically did nothing for 3 months, sat on the debt, then gave it straight to the DCA.

If they had made any effort to contact me they could have avoided the DCA fees, they have failed to mitigate their losses, and that is why I am not liable for them!!

sourcrates

This is an old DCA trick, seen it many times before, most behave themselves when chasing consumer credit act debts, because those agreements do not allow for collection charges to be added.

With other types of debt, this can vary, however, collection charges/fee`s must be proportionate to their actual costs, otherwise they risk falling fowl of unfair charges in consumer contracts laws.

In this case, its ludicrous, charging you nearly £300 for essentially sending you a letter.

I would love to see them attempt to justify that charge in court, but of course they know they wouldn`t have a leg to stand on, so will take it to the brink, then crawl back under the stone they came from under.

misterbarlow

I have asked them 3 times now to send me an itemised invoice detailing precisely how the charges are made up and what they represent. They have just ignored me!

sourcrates

misterbarlow said:

I have asked them 3 times now to send me an itemised invoice detailing precisely how the charges are made up and what they represent. They have just ignored me!

Yes they will do, as they cannot justly such a charge, so would never proceed to enter that into writing, as it would give you ammunition to use against them in court.

This must all be starting to make sense to you now surely?