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Hello there,
I work as a Support worker for vulnerable tenants. A tenant who I have recently started supporting again has told me about a fine for £85 which he received by the Magistrates court for a motoring offence.
He tells me that he agreed with the Magistrates Court to pay the debt in installments, but apparently he fell behind with these payments, and his right to pay in installments was withdrawn. The court then told him that the remaining £50 would have to be paid in full to the court.
It appears then that by the time he got the money together to pay the remaining balance, the court then told him that they had passed the remaining balance to Philips Debt collection agency, and he would need to telephone them. He subsequently tried, and even solicited help from his local CAB. Neither he nor they were ever able to get through to Philips on the phone. He showed me a letter which he received from Philips (which he claims was the first letter he received from them), which states that he owes them £125. No explanation was made as to why the debt had increased, and no breakdown was provided. As this letter was apparently the first from Philips, no prior warning had been given either.
I subsequently tried calling them myself. On the third occasion I got through, but their automated voice told me that the waiting time for an operator was 19 minutes. I was unable to stick around for that long (and my client obviously needed to be with me at the time), so I suggested to him that I would get him to sign an authorisation statement, and would email this to Philips together with an email requesting an explanation. All I got back was a copy of a statement that now claims that he owes £325. Yet again, there is no explanation, and no breakdown.
My questions are, can Philips legally hike up the charges without giving prior warning (e.g "if you do not pay this within the next 14 days, an extra X amount will be added to your bill"), and can they get away with not specifying where these extra charges have come from?
I am looking at the possibility of going with him to a CAB or a Legal Aid solicitor, as I do not wish to give him unqualified advice, but in the meantime I'm just wondering whether he would be better off just making arrangements to pay the ever increasing balance asap, or to stick to his guns and only agree to pay the £50 until they can justify where the charges come from and whether or not doing this with no prior warning is legal. They quote a warning that bailiffs could come to his house and confiscate his assets so I don't want him to procrastinate if it would get him into further trouble. I have also read the point about paying Magistrates fines asap. It's just that bearing in mind how difficult Philips make it for people to contact them, I sense something of a scam going on.
Many thanks for your time,
Alex.
I work as a Support worker for vulnerable tenants. A tenant who I have recently started supporting again has told me about a fine for £85 which he received by the Magistrates court for a motoring offence.
He tells me that he agreed with the Magistrates Court to pay the debt in installments, but apparently he fell behind with these payments, and his right to pay in installments was withdrawn. The court then told him that the remaining £50 would have to be paid in full to the court.
It appears then that by the time he got the money together to pay the remaining balance, the court then told him that they had passed the remaining balance to Philips Debt collection agency, and he would need to telephone them. He subsequently tried, and even solicited help from his local CAB. Neither he nor they were ever able to get through to Philips on the phone. He showed me a letter which he received from Philips (which he claims was the first letter he received from them), which states that he owes them £125. No explanation was made as to why the debt had increased, and no breakdown was provided. As this letter was apparently the first from Philips, no prior warning had been given either.
I subsequently tried calling them myself. On the third occasion I got through, but their automated voice told me that the waiting time for an operator was 19 minutes. I was unable to stick around for that long (and my client obviously needed to be with me at the time), so I suggested to him that I would get him to sign an authorisation statement, and would email this to Philips together with an email requesting an explanation. All I got back was a copy of a statement that now claims that he owes £325. Yet again, there is no explanation, and no breakdown.
My questions are, can Philips legally hike up the charges without giving prior warning (e.g "if you do not pay this within the next 14 days, an extra X amount will be added to your bill"), and can they get away with not specifying where these extra charges have come from?
I am looking at the possibility of going with him to a CAB or a Legal Aid solicitor, as I do not wish to give him unqualified advice, but in the meantime I'm just wondering whether he would be better off just making arrangements to pay the ever increasing balance asap, or to stick to his guns and only agree to pay the £50 until they can justify where the charges come from and whether or not doing this with no prior warning is legal. They quote a warning that bailiffs could come to his house and confiscate his assets so I don't want him to procrastinate if it would get him into further trouble. I have also read the point about paying Magistrates fines asap. It's just that bearing in mind how difficult Philips make it for people to contact them, I sense something of a scam going on.
Many thanks for your time,
Alex.
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