I left spain 3 months ago and had an outstanding bill with a telephone company,not telefonica.The agent i rented from kept the 850.00 euros deposit to cover outstanding bills.She has obviously given this back to the LL who have not paid it as i am getting e.mails telling me they are passing it on to a collection agency.They are also phoning numbers on the phone bill to try and trace me.Can anyone give me advice on what to do and were i stand.Thanks.

Will you sould have payed your own bills , better get on two your agency ask why she hasnt pay off you bill and need to staRT PAYYING YOU BILL OFF YOUR SELF

JURDY

You could just write letters stating you`ve paid and evidence etc.

To chase an 800 Euro debt in another country would be expensive with no guarantee of outcome.

If you believe you don`t own it, don`t pay and fight your corner.

Spanish people don`t like owing money, debt collection in Spain is rare as most small debts pay up without a fight.

Most Spanish people I`ve dealt with don`t question authority, if a lawyer/debt firm informs them that they owe money they tend not to question it.

Which is why the men in costume called “El Cobrador Del Frac” get paid to follow the debt owner around, which doesn`t usually take long.

You can see them here.

http://www.eleconomista.es/espana/noticias/716315/08/08/El-cobrador-del-frac-acecha-a-los-morosos-espanoles.html

http://www.elcobradordelfrac.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXsoaqn0XI&feature=fvw

Its not a joke.

Write to the holder of your deposit, you may get a good response or they`ll blame you for damage and claim that the deposit paid for that.

You should never trust Spanish with cash, you should have sorted that out before leaving Spain, now I wouldn`t be supprised if you don`t get the deposit back and still have to pay the phone bill.

If that was me I`d either sue the holder of the rent/pay the bill or tell the phone company your in financial difficulties and can only pay 10 euros a month, they may give up on it and not chase the deposit.

The deposit has been given back to the apartment owner and the agent who looked after it has now left,so can not be contacted.
I know i should have sorted it out myself but thats not the point now.Can the compant trace me back in the UK.

In theory yes they can.

A European Debt Order (Possibly wrong name) can be placed on Experian and other Credit reference agencies lists which will affect your UK credit rating.

They upto the beginning of 2009 could not by law share credit info across borders, having said that the EU has ignored complaints from people who believed that Experian shared info between its offices based across the world.

Now I`m afraid due to movement of people between countries and not paying debts the law changed.

How far the company is prepared to chase you depends on a lot of factors, but if you are traced in say 8 yrs time, you could have accumulated a lot of interest and added extras.

You can read into here.

http://eu.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/judicial_cooperation_in_civil_matters/l16023_en.htm

A defendant’s address must be known with certainty for a European order for payment to be served. Service may also be effected on a defendant’s representative.

It can be expensive to issue, costs are then passed onto the person owing the debt, but you cannot get blood out of a stone and I have heard that anything under 3,000 Euros is unlikely to be chased.

So if your going to ignore it, don`t register on your electoral role, which will also affect your credit ability, don`t return to Spain, thanks to API the UK Govt now hold all passenger movements to and from the UK for a minimum of 10 yrs and share that info with other agencies.

So they could gain your address that way and then issue an order.

I doubt though for 800 Euros they would bother, but you never know, I guess a lot of Expats who have repo property will be most affected.

Why not just pay off the debt? How much was it for? Then sort out the deposit business. Why would you leave money behind with another person to pay a bill in your name????