How to respond to solicitor's letter demanding payment?

Op

If it is a telecoms company get onto Comreg. Outline the facts of the case and the dates that you wrote to them querying the bill. Once Comreg gets involved they must respond to you within 10 days and deal with your query properly with a response that deals with your query. If not they are in very serious trouble.

Usually if the debt is small they will just write it off as it is not worth their time going through it back and forth with you. I was in a similar position and just got nowhere with the complaints dept who just seemed to want to ignore anything that I said and proceed against me with a debt collector for I debt I simply did not owe.

Good luck with it.

Regards

Capnhand
 
constant emails from landlords solicitor demanding answers

My Aunt is facing eviction, after living in her apartment for 22 year the landlord wants to increase the rent from 142/mo to 800/mo- 142 she agrees is very little, but the place is in a very bad state. The landlords solicitor is emailing me at least three times a day demanding to know if she is going to vacate or pay the new rent. I have appealed to the PRTB arbitration service, they have yet to get back to me, and i have placed my Aunt on Dublin CC housing list, despite being sympathetic they have no housing to offer right now.

I think the landlord's solicitor is trying to get me to answer his endless emails so he can use my answers in some way. I have tried to be vague and ambiguous, but can he demand answers when we are still tying to find a solution for my Aunt. Specifically he wants to know when my Aunt will vacate, or does she accept that she will have to pay 800 from now on?
I am out of my depth here and would appreciate some advice.
 
Went though this with 3. Kept getting phone calls from India and Debt collectors in Manchester. Reckoned I owed 50 euro , I didn't. Anyway answered every phone call and kept copies of all email correspondence. Finally received demand letter from AB Wolfe I think. Emailed solicitor involved and attached all email correspondence received and told him I would love to go to court and was instructing my solicitor to counter sue for harassment etc. He emailed back, told me he had reverted to his clients and would correspond in due course. 2 weeks later received email correspondence saying his clients had decided not to pursue the matter and as far as they were concerned the matter was closed.Tough it out if you don't owe the money, if you do well you know what the right thing to do is.
 
jom booth said:
My Aunt is facing eviction, after living in her apartment for 22 year the landlord wants to increase the rent from 142/mo to 800/mo- 142 she agrees is very little, but the place is in a very bad state. The landlords solicitor is emailing me at least three times a day demanding to know if she is going to vacate or pay the new rent. I have appealed to the PRTB arbitration service, they have yet to get back to me, and i have placed my Aunt on Dublin CC housing list, despite being sympathetic they have no housing to offer right now.

I think the landlord's solicitor is trying to get me to answer his endless emails so he can use my answers in some way. I have tried to be vague and ambiguous, but can he demand answers when we are still tying to find a solution for my Aunt. Specifically he wants to know when my Aunt will vacate, or does she accept that she will have to pay 800 from now on?
I am out of my depth here and would appreciate some advice.
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I wouldn't like to be a LL trying to evict someone who's in a place 22yrs. I would track all correspondence especially the frequency of it. Because when you get to the PRTB it would be useful to demonstrate the pressure being applied. Is it a reasonable rent for the area?

I think I'd try to establish what is the going rate for similar apartments in the same area.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/rent_increases.html?tab=

Under Section 19 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (pdf) landlords cannot charge more than the open market rate for the apartment or house. (See 'Rates' for more information on the open market rate). You should note that the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act only apply to mainstream private rented housing - local authority tenants are covered by different laws. You can find out more about local authority tenancies here and about your landlord’s rights and obligations here. Your landlord cannot review the rent more than once a year unless the accommodation has changed substantially. This might, for example, constitute a complete refurbishment or another major change. You can ask your landlord to review the rent if:

You think it is more than the current market rate for the property or
You want a new review and more than a year has passed.
Your landlord has the right to review the rent annually. However your landlord must give you at least 28 days notice (in writing) before increasing the rent. If there is any dispute about the amount of rent or about arrears of rent, either side can refer the dispute to the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). You must contact the PRTB before the date the new rent comes into effect or within 28 days of getting the notice, whichever is later. Read more about the PRTB and dispute resolution here.
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The law (Section 19 of the Private Residential Tenancies Act 2004) defines the open market rate as "the rent which a willing tenant not already in occupation would give and a willing landlord would take for the dwelling". One of the PRTB’s functions is to monitor and research trends to find out what this market rate is in relation to cases taken to the PRTB.
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@keepon - the Telco may have Sue, Grabbit & Runne (Solicitors) on retention and this may be conveyer belt stuff. I would note @vanilla comment and not be inclined to ignore as whats being indicated is if they get instructions and you have no defence they will get judgment.
 
Actually the telcos sometimes only have a solicitors letterhead on retention.

There is a certain solicitor that allows certain companies to issue "legal letters" in their name without them ever seeing a file.
 
Again, how do you propose sending said postcard? By post or in person?
 
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