In August 2016 we hired a vehicle through Atlas Choice for our two-week holiday in Italy. Everything went smoothly until, months after we had hired the car, Autovia, the Italian car hire company that provided the vehicle, tried to take a second payment of €403. It turns out that Atlas had gone into administration without paying Autovia.

Luckily, I noticed the transaction when it was a “pending transaction” and contacted Barclaycard, which stopped it, and we cancelled the credit card.

In August this year we received a letter from Autovia demanding payment and claiming we are liable. It threatens legal action and the requirement to pay its legal fees if we don’t pay within 15 days. But we have already paid for the service. What would you do? NH, by email

This is in some ways a similar case to the one above. It’s not your fault Atlas Choice collapsed, but the car provider Autovia is trying to recoup its losses – in this case without a credit card to debit.

I would be inclined to write back and tell it to take the issue up with Atlas’s administrators and see what happens. If a judgment is awarded you will need to go back to Barclaycard, which you used to make the original booking. I would not worry about the threat of legal fees.

Guardian Money’s go-to barrister, Richard Colbey, says it is unlikely an English court would order legal fees in the unlikely event of you being sued successfully. This is a small claim and legal fees are not awarded unless someone has behaved unreasonably, he says.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number