Call to action? Delayed post.

[Hopefulmama21]

Please could I have some advice?

Today in the post we received a letter from our estate management company about the payment being overdue, and call to action to pay within 7 days (the letter was dated 1st June).

We also received a solicitors letter, a call to action I believe, which states we are now liable for the original amount plus paying the clients legal fees of around £600. This letter was dated 11th June, sent the 12th and had a 7 day call to action.

Where do we stand with settling this, we missed the original 7 day deadline as our postal service is severely delayed and I fear we've now also missed the solicitors deadline too, are we really liable to pay those fees if the circumstances on delay were out of our control?

I know we should have paid it sooner originally, but we've been struggling and it fell to the bottom of the priority list and now I'm really scared of legal action and a bill of twice the amount that we can't pay.

@mumsnet please can you edit the title to "letter before action"

My first question might be 'did you know that the payment to the estate management company was due?' If you have had the invoice or knew it was due on a particular date then I doubt that you have much to complain about.

I would certainly be on the phone to everyone this morning to say you only got the letters today

I would also look at the term of business of the Estate Management Company carefully - how long do they give you to pay and what happens when they dont.

It might be worth talking to Trading Standards about the timescales as well as making a complaint to Royal Mail, I would also check the address used against your 'official' one in case there are any errors.

BUT in law there is 'deemed service' by First Class post