It seems so but I am no expert at reading leases, so it they wanted to charge £10K I would have to roll over and just pay.then ? The word reasonable must come into this somewhere. Where is the protection for the tenant. Also my son does not have his signature on the Lease. Is this of any relevance?

Everything was written back in my son's name, there is no mention of me in the documents. I am just dealing with it for him in his name.... not very well though!! My son just gave the court's authority to speak to me when I call them with a query. thank you Thanks I will remember next time... thought I would get in trouble for doing that!! Have accepted that CCJ on file but will put notes on file and it will also be paid off within the next week. Should I persue with the Courts though that they sent out the wrong Judgment/Two judges have looked at this case and got different answers from both as well. Staff at Court said it did not seem correct that's why they put it back in front of a judge One said that the defendants's part admission was accepted by the claimant .. .. but they still refused to take payment from me! Thank you

Ok thank you I did read those notes and I have done previously as well because I found them independently but could not understand them. Do I have a leg to stand on in complaining to the Court then. I may have to just pay the whole sum requested by the Claimant though and hope to get some of it back through other means, or the sale may fall through. They have me up against a wall really, and they knew this all along, but I am not one to give in without a fight even though its cost me in the end. I do really appreciate your help, not been able to get advice anywhere on this. Just to clarify... when you say failed to respond to the claim... do you mean when you received the papers from the court... that's when I filed a defence part admission and acknowledgement of service all within the time limits ? I did not fill in the Claimants initial form's as I was not disputing the debt only their costs. Thank you

I am sorry Andy I am still not understanding. The form I received back from the Court said Judgement (In default) .... so its the correct procedure then?

I did ask the Court not to register the CCJ.... they said it was between me and the claimant and up to me to sort it out with them. They would not accept payment of the judgment so I could not. You would think that if a Court has ordered something they would back you up on carrying out their instructions or what is the point of the whole damn process!!

I am sorry, how do I do that please?

Thank you for your replies. I do agree, it seems that something has gone wrong here. Its holding up the sale of the property as the Claimant has issued a Section 146 on the Building Society (never received by us), I have sent all explanations to the building society and supporting documentation that I tried to pay the Judgment but it was not accepted. The Claimant (Landlord) to be honest know nothing of this as they are no longer represented by the Managing agent who instructed the Debt Collection Agency. The original debt is less than £400, just a four months service charge. The Notice with the Building Society is for £2300.00 so that's £1900 of costs all because I disputed the amount of their initial letter fee. If the Court has handed my case wrong, will I have any comeback on this? Also what chances do I have if I pay up just to get completion of the flat sale, of winning back some money from the Debt Collectors and their so called lawyers. Ive heard something about a First Tier Tribunal?

sorry I am not being very clear, its holding up the sale of my son's property. Does any one know that if he lands up paying these people their excessive charges can he go through the process of First Tier Tribunal to ask them if they find the costs reasonable?

HI This is still on going, the court have reiterated that the judgement is correct and that they should accept the payment. They wont and have now written to my building society. Well they have not they have instructed an Indemnity Legal co to do it. Now it looks like this Management Co instructed debt collectors, debt collectors passed on to their legal department now passed on to a company I have never even heard of! Also I might add the original management company who instructed the debt collectors have been sacked by the Claimant. I am so confused by this and cannot find any advice anywhere, I seem to be going around in circles. Still do not understand why a judgement in default was sent out when I filed a part admission, acknowledgement of service and a defence all within the time frame. Has any one on here had dealings with a First Tier Tribunal as I might go down that route. In the meantime this is holding up the sale of my property!! Any advice gratefully received

Thank you so much on your clarification of this. This is exactly what I thought. I have informed the court yesterday, and although everyone there is very helpful things are very slow, and you never speak to the same person twice. I will be calling them again this morning and I will post the outcome on here, so it may help others in my situation. The debt is his and I am dealing with it for him. My son does not live at the property so we have his post redirected to here through the Royal Mail re-direction service Yes I agree with you it does not seem right.

Hi thanks again for your help. The Claim form was sent to my son's address but we have his post redirected by Royal Mail to us. After filling in the forms etc and returning them ( I have electronic receipts for them) it seemed to take along time. In the meantime PDC were emailing me to say they have not received anything from the Court etc, I assured them that I had replied to the Court. I rang the Court when I at last received the Judgement for Claimant (in default) and asked them how it had come to this without any explanation. The judgement says I had not replied to the Claim form, but when I spoke with the Court they say I clearly had!! They do seem a bit confused. Today I received an email from them after calling them and writing in again saying "upon checking our case management system it appears the Claimant rejected your part admission offer and this was then referred to a Deputy District Judge for directions. The DDJ them ordered that Judgment be entered as requested by the Claimant. The judgement for claimant says I must pay the claimant the total of £833.20 by today. PDC Law refused this payment from me today saying it had gone up to £2k plus. I informed the Court of this and they were shocked that PDC had refused it. Thank you

Hi Thanks again. I am still confused, I was not sent a court date at any time, it just went in front of the judge. The Court is in Salford and I live far away from there. So does PDC not have to accept the Courts Judgement but I do? I filled in all the forms and sent them back to the court within the time period which they acknowledged. I also defended each part of the Particulars of Claim with an exhibit of evidence of trying to pay and their refusal. Of course I agree that PDC can add charges but surely they have to be reasonable? Thank you

Good evening. Thank you for your reply. I was never invited to a hearing it just went in front of the judge, who ordered me to pay the said amount which I have tried to do. I have never had an issue with paying the service charge just the unfair charges of PDC. The original Managing Agent who instructed PDC have now been sacked for issues that could not be resolved. I have no argument at all with the Claimant who have now instructed new Managing Agents whom I have a good relationship with. If the Property Management Debt company had accepted my offer of payment in the beginning the Claimant would have their money in full, and surely this is the objective of a Debt Collector to collect the debt, and charge "a reasonable amount for sending out one letter". I will look at the Lease, but surely somewhere there is a limit on what a company can charge for an initial letter, and also is it not their duty to take reasonable steps to recover the debt for their client by accepting payment from me?. sorry I am having trouble finding my way around the site

I have also had this problem with PDC. https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?490588-Pdc-claimform-part-admitted-got-judgement-wont-except-payment-without-addes-fees-now-issued-a-Section-146

Hi all, I am new to this forum so please forgive any mistakes. I am having an awful experience with the above companies. It all started with a service charge debt.. not very old..was due in December 2017 in advance for months Jan/Feb/March/April. Hands up.. I can never afford to pay in advance but have always paid by the end quarter month. In April 2018 received a letter from Property Debt Collection for the service charge (which obviously had no quibble with) but they had added excessive fees. £250 for the Managing Agent to instruct them and £350.00 for their initial letter to me (which contained land registry entries which imo a bit premature at this stage). I offered to pay the Managing agents the service charge and they flatly refused to deal with me saying I could now only deal with Property Debt Collection. I tried to pay Property Debt Collection the service charge debt, plus £250 for the Managing agents fee (ok.. it was late so that's my fine), but only a reasonable fee for their letter of initially £10 which I increased to £50.00. They flatly refused this saying they do not take part payments. I offered them this on more than one occasion and also went back to the managing agents... no joy To cut a very long story a bit shorter, it was passed to PDC Law (obviously related) who have taken me to the County Count Money Claims. It has gone through the process and it seems that the Judge has entered that I pay them £833.20. This is a lot more than I expected to pay as I sent the court a part admission and defence and acknowledgement of service etc within the timescales. I also sent him all evidence of me trying to pay and the various parties refusing payment. So today at the last final hour I gave in and as the Judge instructed rang PDC to pay them the money of £833.20 as on the Judgement for Claiment . I was in total shock when they refused to take this payment from me. They said they had issued a Section 146 Notice, on the 5th October, which I have not received (I run a business from home and every piece of post is logged in), they also said they had sent one to the Building Society. I said sobeit but this is what the Judge has ordered. I literally begged them to take the money as I said it was the last day for payment and the CCJ could then not be lifted in the usual way apparently. It appeared they were blackmailing with this as they said it would be if I paid them a sum of £2308.15 !! I have informed the Court about their refusal who said this was unusual and asked me to send this in to them in writing. I so worried about this. .. I have been dealing with this for my son and it appears that I have go him into a whole lot of trouble. Can any help please??