My mum is worried by bill for £800
Q: My elderly mother was recently contacted by a debt collection company regarding an £800 phone and internet bill.
She did not know what this related to, but the company informs her it was from a contract taken out in 2009. My mother doesn’t remember this, but because she was worried she has agreed to pay them £20 per month.
I just want to make sure she’s not being taken advantage of. Is there a way of figuring out if this debt is due?
A: We would recommend getting more information from the creditor before agreeing to pay more to this debt.
Your mother can ask for a copy of the original contract, a statement showing how the balance has accrued and details of payments made.
This may help in ascertaining whether this debt is your mother’s and whether she owes what they are asking for.
If there has been an error made, or your mother has been the victim of identity theft, this can be reported and the balance challenged.
The other thing that comes to mind is that even if the contract was taken out by your mother and payments not made, the debt may be time barred under the Prescription and Limitations Act, 1993.
This legislation means that, if your mother did not “acknowledge” the debt (by writing to the creditor or making payments) for a five-year period, during which the creditor did not take action by getting a court decree, it may be that they can no longer legally enforce the debt.
The precise start date of the five- year time period can be complicated. In this case it might be regarded as starting from the date the creditor issued a default notice, possibly 2009 if no payments were ever made.
By asking for a breakdown of the account showing all payments made, it should be possible to work out if the debt is time barred.
We would be happy to help you with this so please contact us for further advice.
Q: I am self-employed and, though I got some help from the government for self-employed people at first, I started trading again last month.
At first I was busy with people who had been waiting for work to be done during lockdown, but now the work has significantly dried up and I have very little income. What can I do?
A: The Self Employment Income Support Scheme has reopened for applications (to cover the period from July 14).
Although you have been trading, this does not prevent you from applying to this scheme given that your earnings are affected by coronavirus. Applications should be processed, and payments made within six working days of applying. This is set to be the final payment from this scheme.
Depending on your circumstances, it may be that other assistance is available to you.
It would be worthwhile contacting our office or calling the Money Talks Team on 0800 085 7145 so that we can assess what other grants you might be able to access, or if you qualify for Universal Credit and Council Tax Reduction, and when you should apply.
Q: I have a shop in Paisley, and a customer left an item to be repaired with me last year.
I carried out the repair and tried to contact the customer on many occasions, but they haven’t responded at all.
Their item is just taking up space and I wonder what I can do with it?
A: Unless your contract with the customer says otherwise, it seems that it would be reasonable for you to report this item to the police as abandoned.
If it is not possible for you to deliver the item to your customer, the police have a responsibility to uplift abandoned goods and keep them for a period of two months.
After this time if the goods are not collected, the police can either sell the goods or return them to you. If the item is returned to you it becomes yours.
However, if your customer were to come back within a year of abandoning the item it should be returned to them.