Pt Chevalier Video Ezy closed down in December last year. Its Great North Rd building is currently vacant.

A former Video Ezy customer didn't know he had late fees until a debt collector tracked him down.

Michael Stansfield was a customer at Pt Chevalier Video Ezy which closed in December last year.

The accountant says he thought something wasn't right when he received a letter asking him to pay late fees on two DVDs he'd incurred at the store before it closed down.

SUPPLIED Michael Stansfield received a letter from debt collecting agency Ecollect which asked him to pay late fees on two DVDs.

The original late fee amount was $11 but another $7.50 was added for administration costs.

The letter also warned that a minimum of $22.50 would be added if the amount wasn't paid within 14 days.

"It didn't smell right from the onset because I didn't think it was legit or anything," Stansfield says.

Stansfield says he was also confused when he read that: "A video store is not required to notify you of an outstanding debt and is required by law to pursue debts for up to six years".

"But this is the first notification we've ever got," he says.

"If Video Ezy had written to everyone telling them they were closing and were collecting overdue fees then that would have been fine."

Read more:

*Late fees shock

*Video Ezy NZ franchisor in liquidation

The national franchisor for the Video Ezy brand, Video Ezy International (NZ), went into voluntary liquidation in April 2015.

The company's business and franchise manager Stuart Howard declined to comment, saying his position has changed since the company went into liquidation.

In 2013 Mt Eden resident Ewa Dulinska received a similar letter from a debt collection agency after Video Ezy on Dominion Rd shut.

At the time Howard said the late fees were legitimate but the debt collector shouldn't be involved.

"We have reinforced to the company that they should not be collecting for a store that has terminated," he said.

A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokeswoman says the video store should in principle inform its customers before a debt collector is involved.

She says it is a breach of the Fair Trading Act if a store demands collection of fees and late payments "when there is no contractual entitlement to make such demands".