I’m looking someone who can help relating to Reeds Rains, a property management company based in Halifax, yorkshire that I used up until October last year and who now appear to have sent me a claims letter demanding £633.90

I realise this is a relatively small sum but i'd like to see if i have any options and not panic and just pay.

I left because when i signed with them the contract stated 4 inspections a year, i asked them not to do 4 inspections per year, 1 a year was enough as they're my existing tenants, i've had them a while they'd been great and i trusted them to look after my house.

Roll forward 2 years i find out from my tenant that she'd been having to take time off work for 4 inspections every year and was being harassed by reed rains if she didn't reply when they were wanting to arrange them. She doesn't earn a huge amount so taking time off work was difficult and she worked at a hospital so having to sort out cover on shifts. Understandably she was frustrated and got in touch with me

They also issued my tenant with a new AST and charged them a fee (which i hadn't realised) so on the 2nd year of being with them, i told reed rains i'd pay the fee for my tenant, count many many emails later from me to them to several people telling them over and over again that i was paying it, they were still harassing my tenants to pay the fee so again, my tenants is left frustrated and upset

Responding to their emails and trying clear up their confusion was taking up so much time (and becoming stressful and frustrating for me too), I gave reeds rains 3 months notice (by email and i got a response back from them) and i thought that was that

A week ago i found a brown envelope through my letterbox, i was a county claims letter

All it says is i owe them £633.90 for a 'withdrawal fee' which i know nothing about, i can't find the contract i signed as remember scanning it and emailing it back to them but i can't find the hard copy

Prior to this i don't think i've had any communication (I did have block their emails as kept sending me marketing information (gdpr?)

Has anyone been through anything like this or offer any advise at all?

Hi and Welcome to CAG

I have moved your thread to the appropriate forum....General Legal Issues...please continue to post here to your thread.

Name added to thread title

Regards

Andy

Did you have any notice or letter from them saying they were going to take you to court? is this a business to business claim?

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do-**UPDATED-2018**(1-Viewing)-nbsp

Please read and complete

No, just a business to business, i'm just became an accidental landlord when i had to move for work. i should have realised they were unprofessional when instead of a contract for me to sign they sent me someone's rent receipt! i had to email them a couple of times sort this out

Name of the Claimant ? Reeds Rains

Date of issue – top right hand corner of the claim form – this in order to establish the time line you need to adhere to.

Date of issue XX + 19 days ( 5 day for service + 14 days to acknowledge) = XX + 14 days to submit defence = XX (33 days in total) -

From the letter (the letter was titled Claim Form and is from the county court business centre)

A claim was issued against you on 21/01/2019

Your acknowledgment of service was submitted on 31/01/2019 at 17:30:20

Your acknowledgment of service was received on 01/02/2019 at 08:02:43 (i did this bit online)

Particulars of Claim

What is the claim for – the reason they have issued the claim? Please type out their particulars of claim in full (verbatim) less any identifiable data and round the amounts up/down.

It says ' NON PAYMEN OF WITHDRAWAL FEE. The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the Count Courts Act 1984 at the rate if 8% per year from 08/10/2018 to 18/01/2019 on £561.60 and also interest of the same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of £0.12 (Reeds was a property management company i used, they take a percentage of rent as payment for their services, however i don't know what they mean by withdrawal fee, i did give them 3 months notice)

Have you received prior notice of a claim being issued pursuant to paragraph 3 of the PAPDC (Pre Action Protocol) ? Umm, they told me they would take me to court if i didn't pay the equivalent of a months rent on my property (is this the withdrawal fee? if so, amount owed is nearly twice as much). i don't think i've had any correspondence but i did have to put a block on their emails as i kept getting marketing emails from them

What is the total value of the claim? 633.90 (573.90 + 60 for court fee)

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after April 2007 ? i signed a contract with Reed Rains around march 2016

Why did you cease payments? I gave Reeds Rains 3 months notice (July) and asked my tenant to pay her rent directly to me in Oct

What was the date of your last payment? Oct

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? I gave 3 months notice via email, i got a response back asking why i didn't want to use their services so they def received my msg

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Thankyou for the response btw, here's hoping i can get some advise/help