Urgent help needed

A question about : Urgent help needed

My daughter has paid Ј450 and Ј297.55 to a woman in Ipswich for accommodation in Salzburg as part of her Uni. abroad learning German.

This woman is apparently moving to Salzburg and has another student staying with her.

My daughter said that she had changed her mind and did not want to stay at this place as she was asked to pay 2 months extra rent in advance by a lawyer, who, when we checked did not work for the company that he said he did and they had never heard of him.

The woman said she would refund her and has not yet even returned the payment.
The woman has now blocked my daughter on facebook and all we have is a bank account name and number, a Copy of her passport and an e mail address.

The Bank, Lloyds, were not interested when she spoke to them and said that they would investigate it. The following working day she received a letter saying there is nothing wrong with the account.

What can I do to get this money back? My daughter is due to fly out to Salzburg on Saturday and does not have enough money for a deposit at Uni Halls as that costs Ј800

Can anyone help with this dilemma??

Thanks

Nick

Best answers:

• Take her to court? The bank won't get involved because they would have carried out your daughter's instructions accurately. There are supposed to be changes coming in to force banks to become more involved in recovering payments, but this won't help you yet.
  This woman has breached the contract, changing the terms after your daughter sent her the required deposit. However, it appears that she's the sort of person happy for a 'fake lawyer' to send letters on her behalf (or do it herself) and it will probably take more than a strongly worded letter to get a response.
  In the meantime, could your daughter contact the Uni to explain the situation and pay the deposit over a period of 3 or 4 months? I don't know how flexible they are likely to be but I don't know what else is available.
• Are you sure that the "lawyer" was actually working for/with the landlady? He might have been a con artist working for himself, picking up bits of information that your daughter revealed on Facebook.
  Anyway, you need to refer what information you have or can deduce about this woman, and particularly see if the other student has any more details. Do you have her address in Ipswich? Without her residential address it would be very difficult to begin court proceedings against her... while her bank will certainly know her address, getting them to reveal this is likely to take a court order. Alternatively, you could contact the police (Action Fraud) and ask them to treat this as a criminal matter.
  The immediate problem of finding somewhere to live and the money to pay for it: your daughter should use the university's student support services, starting with the Welfare Officer. The hardship fund may well be able to make loans to cover this kind of emergency.