They Expected A Routine Dispute Over An Unpaid Balance, Yet The Numbers Revealed The Alleged Debtor Was Really The One Who Was Owed
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Persistent billing departments sometimes create expensive problems by refusing to accept that their records are wrong.
A housing association revived a supposed £300 debt nearly two years after the former tenant had already disputed the balance.
Instead of paying, they recalculated the entire account and discovered the association had actually collected £200 too much.
The collection threat officially backfired.
Housing association wants me to pay my late aunties debt? No, pay me the money I overpaid instead.
Before I lived in my current place, I was living with my Auntie, she was the main tenant who sorted the bills and I would pay her a lump sum each month as board payments.
In early 2021 she passed away unexpectedly, naturally I didn’t want to continue living in this place, bad memories and bearing the responsibility for an entire place alone wasn’t feasible for me financially at the time.
After speaking with the housing association, I was informed the only way to end the tenancy would be by getting the tenancy agreement moved over into my name, before terminating the tenancy when I was ready to move out.
There was a problem, but OP took care of it.
What I didn’t know at this point was that my auntie was in arrears on the rent payments, when it came to the point of leaving the tenancy, I had money in savings and just settled up the rent entirely (paying ~£500 of my aunties arrears on top of the rent I personally owed from living there alone)
I then stayed at the place for a few more weeks before closing the tenancy.
In hindsight I probably should’ve queried the payment but at that point I just wanted rid of the place.
Time to do some math.
After moving into my new place, I was getting pestered by the housing association who said I still owed ~£300 on the previous house, there was a lot of back and forth, before I then asked for a copy of the rent statement.
It was around this time that I was speaking to people about this money I supposedly owed, I was informed that I ‘probably’ shouldn’t be liable for my aunties debt as I didn’t receive the estate and was not the next of kin, however there was also an argument to be made that I was liable for the debt as technically my name was on the agreement and I became the main tenant.
With this information in mind, I looked at the rent statement, worked out how much money I owed from the first week after my auntie had passed, and deducted it from my total rent payments made after that point.
It turned out I had paid ~£200 extra (assuming I wasn’t liable for the debt)
Sometimes it’s easier just to let things go.
I presented all my working out in a thorough email and sent it over.
I didn’t hear anything back from them after that conveniently and assumed it was all over.
I decided not to pursue this as I was sick of being pestered by them and I wasn’t 100% sure if I was or wasn’t liable for this money.
It wasn’t over.
Fast forward nearly 2 years, I receive a letter last month just before Christmas stating that I still owed this ~£300 and that it would be sent to debt collectors if nothing was done.
At this point I was ticked off.
I spoke to someone who was able to tell me for sure that I am not liable for the debt in this particular situation, so I sent a firmly written email detailing how I don’t owe this money but in fact they owed me, provided all the evidence and threatened small claims if the situation wasn’t rectified soon.
OP finally talked to the right person.
It took weeks of me pestering them via phone calls and emails for me to be get in contact with a lovely woman who apologised on behalf of the company on how I was treated.
She then got the ball rolling and eventually my ~£200 refund cleared the other day.
This was a particularly satisfying end because if they would’ve just left it I wouldn’t have chased it up and they would be £200 better off, what a shame!
That worked out well; although, it took long enough!
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Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.
You can’t always believe what the HOA says.
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This is good to know!
After confirming their late aunt’s arrears weren’t legally theirs, this former tenant documented the overpayment and threatened small claims if the account wasn’t corrected.
Weeks of calls and emails produced an apology and £200 refund the company would’ve kept if it hadn’t resurrected its bogus demand.
They went hunting for £300 and mailed back £200 instead.
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