A professional bill sent 4 years after work was done and paid for

[kenwood]

We had a survey and valuation done by a respectable surveyors firm. We paid for it upfront, I think around £3,600 which is no small amount! 

 

Last week I received an email from a partner in that firm attaching a "pro forma" bill to be paid. I have not been able to open it as it is password protected. It went into my junk folder, I'm wondering if it is even genuine or possibly their account has been hacked. 

 

Is it even lawful for a firm to hold on to my information this long? Also why wasn't the partner's supposed fees incorporated into the main valuation?  Apart from a sales pitch over the phone before allowing them to do the valuation I cannot say that the partner actually did any work that merits a bill.  

 

I'm a bit of a coward in dealing with it, I'm half thinking if I ignore it maybe he will just give up. 

 

However, I really don't know what to do.

Edited December 14, 2021 by dx100uk
formatting

[dx100uk]

well if it's real they have 6yrs, but, you could well be right it could be a the result of a hacking event and not 'real'.

 

the clue to this might well be the email address it came from.

 

can you type that out for us?

 

 

[kenwood]

matthew@devarga.co.uk

 

This is the message, actually there's no sign off

 

Attached is your past due invoice which requires urgent payment. Kindly pay this invoice to avoid issues Thanks 

 

The other thing I noticed was when trying to send it to one of my neighbours, it kept bouncing back so maybe her account recognised it as spam/phishing 

Edited December 14, 2021 by kenwood
Tidying up

[dx100uk]

i would print the email and attach it to a Letter sent by royal mail, simply stating this was paid xx yrs ago during the property purchase process, please recheck your records.

 

that way if it is a hack or whatever ,  someone else will check things over.

 

 

[Jobo03]

 One thing about the email that jumps out us 'kindly pay' 

 

 Much like spam/phishing emails I've received from people who's first language doesn't appear to be English 

[kenwood]

I called them today and apparently the partner was hacked! So there's the answer and I'm sorry to have bothered people. Please feel free to delete the post if appropriate.

[honeybee13]

Hi, that's good to know for you. Thank you for the update.

 

For what it's worth, I think this thread is worth keeping because other people can be affected by similar issues.

 

HB

[stu007]

Hi 

 

Hold on a sec they have admitted they were hacked so what you now need to know which is very relevant in this day and age is if those hackers have obtained any of your data.

 

This is a Data Protection Breach as they obtained your email address and what other Data and have they reported this Data Protection Breach to the Information Commissioners Office.

 

Report a breach

ICO.ORG.UK

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Under the Data Protection Act, although there is no legal obligation on data controllers to report breaches of security, many choose to do so and we...

 

 

Data protection: Make a complaint - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

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The Data Protection Act (DPA) controls how personal information can be used and your rights to ask for information about yourself