COUPLE SENT A BILL FOR JUST 1.

Byline: Andrew Hirst ,

An elderly couple couldn't believe their eyes when they got letters demanding they pay a 1p bill!

The demands came from the company looking after their rented Huddersfield home and warned of further action.

But now the couple are to get a pounds 100 "apology" - after The Examiner intervened on their behalf.

Cyril and Doreen Jones pay a yearly ground rent of pounds 1.15 to London company Estates And Management Ltd.

The mix-up is thought to have occurred when Mr Jones sent the postal order in February this year. It was for pounds 1.14 even though it stated pounds 1.15 on his stub.

After the Paddock couple alerted the Examiner that they had received two letters demanding 1p we examined other paperwork they had kept stretching back two years.

It revealed that they had been pounds 18.10 in credit to Estates And Management in February 2004 after 84-year-old Mr Jones paid several years in advance.

He said: "I wanted to get in front with the payments so if anything happened to me, Doreen would not have had to worry about the ground rent."

But the couple received a demand for a pounds 20 administration fee the following year along with ground rent payment demand. They paid both.

The fee was because the company claimed the couple had failed to pay the ground rent on time, missing the fact that they'd paid several years' worth up front.

At that time Estates And Management was using another company to deal with its mailing. This had led to problems.

On a statement Mr and Mrs Jones received in February this year the details of payments stretched back to only to March 2004 - and the pounds 18.10 in-credit figure had vanished.

Having looked at the case and the evidence highlighted by The Examiner, Estates And Management are to give Mr and Mrs Jones pounds 100 as a gesture of goodwill. They have also credited their ground rent account for the next 10 years.

Estates And Management has urged anyone with queries about their account to contact them. They say the system of dealing with any problems has been upgraded.

Operations manager Tabitha Sandles said: "We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused to Mr and Mrs Jones.

"In 2004 we experienced some issues with an outsourced mailing house.

"We have subsequently invested some pounds 200,000 to take our mailings in-house, install a new telephone and information technology system and increase our customer services team.

"We also took the decision not to charge an administration fee for arrears letters at the beginning of 2006."

The couple are delighted with the way things have turned out.

Mr Jones said: "We are very happy and believe the company has been very fair in the way it has resolved things. It was quite a concern getting the correspondence for the sake of 1p.

"We never did know what happened to the money that we were in credit with."

The controversial pounds 20 administration fees levied at that time breached legislation because invoices had not been sent out first.

Mr Jones served in Burma and India for five years during the Second World War in special forces along with the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment.

He then worked as a cutter at the former Thomas Canby Dyers and Finishers mill in Lockwood before spending 16 years as an engineer at Brook Motors.

Mrs Jones, 80, was a textile weaver for 30 years.

* The contact details for Estate And Management are by phone on 0208 349 1919; website at www.e-m.uk.com or by letter to Estates And Management, Euro House, 131-133 Ballards Lane, London, N3 1GR.