Cheque offered as full and final settlement - 3 weeks+ timeline

[cfq1718]

Hello all,

I handed back a lease car in March and was given a £390 bill for damages by the assessor that collected the car, which I disputed on the tablet thingy he had with him.

A few weeks later I received an invoice for £390 from VW Financial Services. I wrote a letter back saying that I agreed with £110 of the damage charges (pretty obvious accidental damage) but disputed £280.

I enclosed a cheque for £110 for the undisputed damages and in my letter I stated that the cheque was being offered as full and final settlement. I sent the letter first class on 15 April and the cheque was paid on 26 April.

On 11 May I received a template letter dated 9 May saying I owed £280. Is this enforceable now that they accepted my cheque as full and final settlement? The total timeframe between my initial letter and their second letter demanding a further £280 is 24 days. Between paying the cheque and the second letter it's 14 days.

[atticus]

There is case law that what you have tried doesn't work. You have part paid the alleged debt.

[JK2054]

Hello,

Enforceable is arguably the wrong word.

You have paid them the part of the debt that you accept to owing.

You haven't paid the rest. They can still chase you for the rest, but they would need to go through the proper legal processes to do so.

Unless you agreed to it being a full and final settlement (i.e they agreed to it being full and final) then it would not count.

Your next process would be to wait for further letters, particularly a LOC or LBA

I hope this helps!

[cfq1718]

Thank you both. I think I will just pay as I don't want to have to argue it in court. Would the next letter be likely to apply further charges / interest or do they need to send me one more asking for the £280 only?

[PallasAthena]

Unless the contract allows them add interest/charges, or unless they bring court proceedings, I doubt they can add those. But if you have decided you will pay and not fight it I would just send the cheque for the £280 balance now and get it over and done with. No point stringing it out unless you haven't actually got the cash to pay it at this moment.