Being chased for not paying a few invoices, threatened with collection agency. Advice needed.

[espanol]

DH and I used a cleaning company for about 18 months, terminating in May 2012.

They have just sent a letter saying that we owe them for 3 invoices, a total of about £400, with details of those invoices and an account showing what we owe. They have said that will allow 7 days for a response before passing to a collection agency.

It is possible we owe them this money, but equally possible they have lost it or misallocated it. Their invoicing system was messy and they changed their bank accounts a few times and they were bad at responding if I had a query and/or if I had not made a payment, but I was also never quite on top of it because their invoices would be a different amount each month so couldn't be paid by standing order and required me to set up an electronic payment separately each month which is something that is not my strong point. Basically we were both guilty of being a bit crap.

As I don't trust their invoicing any more than I trust me, I need to obtain details of all payments from my bank before I just write them a cheque. As I bank online I only have access to 12 months of statements and the invoices in question are prior to this so I need to obtain these from the bank which need to be posted, may take time.

I have just phoned the cleaning company - no answer so left a voicemail to the effect that I have received their letter, am obtaining payment details from their bank and will be in contact to let them know if I agree with the oustanding invoices in which case I will pay or if I have proof that I have paid, and trust that this means they will not call in collection agency yet as I have responded within 7 days.

I was considering putting this in writing through their door as well.

Is this enough to stop them calling in a collection agency? Or by response do they mean 'if you have not paid up in 7 days then we're calling in the evil debt collectors'. I am more than happy to pay them if I owe them this money, but I am not just going to write a cheque to avoid debt collection without checking with my bank. Can they legally call in debt collectors within 7 days even if I have responded? Am I better off just settling the debt they say I have rather than waiting to check it all out?

Thanks!

Hi firstly I would contact them to ask for a detailed "statement" of your account with them, state that you need a full transaction history i.e. all Invoices and payments.

Also put in writing to them that unless they supply this you are unable to re-concile your accounts.

I think as long as you keep in touch with them and let them know that you are looking into it ( i.e. obtaining bank statements) they should give you a bit of time hopefully and halt the debt collector.

Good luck and hope it gets sorted quickly.

Thank you. Just sorted it this morning. They gave me details like you suggested. As suspected we were both a bit crap! They said we owed 3 invoices, going through it with my bank I found that we paid one of them but owe 2.

So just waiting for final payments to go through and statements but looks like its been amicably resolved rather than debt collectors being involved thankfully!

Good, glad it got sorted for you.