UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, my son lived in Oxford three years ago, when he left they agreed to give him the deposit back ( he has an email proving this) but today he received a letter from a debt collection agency saying that on behalf of his then letting agency, they are wanting money off him. Is this right? surely not?

Doesn't sound right, but it could have been a cock up by the agent or something that the landlord did themselves. I'd suggest your friend simply says there's no debt that he's aware of (and I'd check his credit record to make sure there's not a ccj he doesn't know about).

First make sure this is not a scam

The latest in scam from India is to allege debts with fake debt collector letters, sometimes using the names of real debt companies from a supplier you might have had. They often include energy from former addresses or water bill.

Mostly they get their data from hacks, you can check you have not been hacked by visiting https://haveibeenpwned.com/ when I used that site I found Amazon, eBay and some other big names had been hacked and my data taken.  The worst data leak is that of TalkTalk (the one where they got huge ICO fine), enough data was kept to credibly spin a scam.  Some of these were used to hack email accounts which may tell them details of old suppliers.

If the debt is bona fide, It is a common stunt to create claims for damages when renting to students, they often get served at the property they lived in and a CCJ is given because the claim goes undefended. The is a form on GOV website to set aside the CCJ.

Your son can do a Subject Access Request to Registry Trust or pay £6 for a quick search for that address to find out if there is a CCJ

https://www.trustonline.org.uk/

Debt collectors are just barking dogs without a CCJ, either ignore them or tell them the debt is disputed or ask for proof of the debt.  The MSE site lists templates for Prove it letters, it is important to word it so it does not admit the debt.

It is always a good idea to do a Subject Access Request to the Debt company if they are bona fide company.