Hi all,
I’m a 17 year old (D.O.B 24/2/94) A-Level student in England, UK. I’m told that I owe £69.02 to the delivery firm DHL for a shipment I received from China in March 2011.
HM Revenue and Customs opened it up and requested the stated fee for doing so; DHL paid them on my behalf without informing me. About a month or two later, DHL sent me letters saying that I owed them money for paying off this customs fee which I had no idea was even possible to incur at the time. They said they wouldn’t deliver shipments to my address again until I had paid the fee, I ignored the next 3 or 4 letters over the coming months because I couldn’t afford to repay them and wasn’t planning on using them again.
Fast forward to now (about half a year after the last letter from DHL) and I receive a letter in the post from ‘control account plc’ who are some money collection agency. They said I am legally liable for the charges and matters would be passed ‘for further action’ if I do not respond in the next 7 days.
Here’s a link to a scan of the letter:
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4157/controlaccountletter.jpg
They don’t know I’m 17 and I’m worried that something bad will happen now. I thought that you can’t be legally bound to repay a debt if your under 18 in England, UK. My Dad says that even if I can’t then they’ll see him as responsible for this and send a Bailiff (which I think sounds mad and can’t be true).
Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
Will.
Your dad is right. They will take goods from YOU to pay this debt – and trust me, that laptop you are using you think is worth about £400 will be around £20 to the Baliffs.
ohhhh and the debt will go against YOUR name too – so when you want a mortgage, to rent a property, get a credit card, etc etc …………… it will show up.
Borrow the money from your dad and make arrangements to pay him back. Never ignore debt in the hopes it will just go away. You used their service, you owe them money. Pay it to them.
You received services, someone (either you or your legal guardian) has to pay them back.
You did yourself no favours by ignoring the letters.Now you are stuck.Pay up and learn from the experience.p.s.A bailiff cannot just come and break into your dads home,they would have to get a distress warrant from the court and I doubt if they would go to that trouble.
Never ignore letters when you owe money…
Settle the debt (and pay your dad back later!).
hey man this is what you do ring them first go to saynoto0870 and find their free number
explain your situation then send letter in writing!!! WRITING and send it signed for to keep as proof
in the letter tell them you don’t have £70 but you will be happy to pay them £1 a month for 70 months!
they have to legally accept this offer or they can’t come to your house if they try do anything go to citizen bureau they will fight your case and get you out of it also report them to financial ombusdan or w/e for harrashment if any…
Well, if you don’t pay what you owe — and yes, you do owe it — it will show up against you anytime you want to get a loan, to buy a car, to buy a house, to attend university, etc. Being under age 18 does not give you a free ride for now or a free pass for future financial dealings. Pay it!