Do I need legal advice?

This has nothing to do with babies but I thought one of you ladies might be able help me....

About 4 years ago I went to the UK and worked through recruitment agencies on short term contracts. With the job they find you accommodation. They knew I was travelling with DH so needed a double room. The place they found for us was single and we only found that out after we had driven the length of England to get there. We were told due to insurance DH could not stay there. Anyway we moved out the next day and found a flat.

3 years on, the accommodation people are emailing me saying they will take legal action unless I pay the outstanding bill of around $150! I told them to take it up with the agency as we couldnt stay there, but now they are threatening legal action to recover the money.

What should I do?

Thanks - Thats what I have been doing so far, and I dont know what they can do about considering Im back in NZ now.

I couldnt believe it when they first emailed me, its not a huge amount of money but I still dont think I should be the one to pay it back.

I cant see them coming all the way to NZ to serve you with papers...... I personally think they are just going for a bluff.

I had someone in Australia threaten me with legal action cos i mentioned the name of the company on a public forum and how crap they were and I knew the guy who sent the letter was only in his first year doing a law degree(and it wasnt his actual job at this firm) and wasnt the company lawyers etc, they were demanding retraction of what i said. I just ignored it (after speaking with a couple of people) and it was never pursued. I also thought if i wanted to rock the boat i couldve got in touch with the real legal team to make a complaint about the letter etc and he wouldve got into tones of trouble...
I had people to back my story, so even if they did pursue it what i said wasnt Liablise.

Anyway that doesnt help you at all.

I would ignore them, dont give them your address and if they already have it return all mail saying not at this address etc....they will soon give up, cos it would cost them a damn site more than $150 to pursue you, esp in another country.

I would send them an email stating that you didn't book it (say who did), that it didn't meet your requirements etc and that any further correspondence needs to be sent to the people that booked it. Also mention you have talked to your lawyer about it - no need to name names, but it often shuts them up a bit

Just thought I would add something to this as I am a lawyer and have worked in the UK.

If they want to "take legal action" they will raise a debt against you in Court. As the amount is so small this is basically free and just goes to the local county Court. They will have to serve you with papers but this can just be done by post to your last known address (ie the one you gave when you stayed there). So it's no trouble for them to do this if they want to.

Then you have the choice to either pay the debt within 14 days or it will go before a Judge. You would have the opportunity to either write a letter to the Court or have someone appear on your behalf. Technically you are probably liable for the debt I'm afraid - you would then recoup it from your employer at the time. However I would like to think that as you were not the person who booked the accommodation, it wasn't suitable, and the amount is so small, the Judge would at least split the debt or perhaps forgive it altogether.

Hopefully it won't come to that though!!

Good luck with whatever you decide and feel free to pm me if you need any more info.

P :)

ETA to correct a couple of typos and also to add that as someone else said, don't reply to any further e-mails and don't give them an up to date address. It will be obvious to the Judge that you don't live in the UK anymore and he might then decide that there was insufficient service of the papers on you which would end the whole thing.

Good luck again!

Edited by pumpkino

Sorry I forgot the most important part (baby brain!) - if they win in Court in the UK they can enforce the judgement here in NZ. However, to do this they would have to instruct a solicitor here in NZ who would have to register the judgement here, find you, serve you with papers and then make the apppopriate application to the Court. All this will def cost a lot more than the amount owing so I really can't imagine them doing THAT.

So worst case scenario you would have a judgment against you in the County Court. This will affect your UK credit rating but if you're not planning to go back then you may not care about that (or if it got to that point you could just pay the debt to avoid those consequences).

P :)