diff --git a/src/briar/api/models/private_chat.py b/src/briar/api/models/private_chat.py
index 40caa46e80687decb37309b23bc73e65d03a912c..09e42af0c625adb89a7b3d8518a297f9e3518be1 100644
--- a/src/briar/api/models/private_chat.py
+++ b/src/briar/api/models/private_chat.py
@@ -19,12 +19,12 @@ class PrivateChat(Model):
     _on_message_received_callback = None
 
     def __init__(self, api, contact_id):
-        self._api = api
-        self._initialize_headers()
+        super().__init__(api)
         self._contact_id = contact_id
 
     def get(self):
-        url = urljoin(BASE_HTTP_URL, self.API_ENDPOINT + "/%d" % self._contact_id)
+        url = urljoin(BASE_HTTP_URL,
+                      self.API_ENDPOINT + "/%d" % self._contact_id)
         request = _get(url, headers=self._headers)
         return request.json()
 
@@ -37,5 +37,6 @@ class PrivateChat(Model):
         self._on_message_received_callback(event['data'])
 
     def send(self, message):
-        url = urljoin(BASE_HTTP_URL, self.API_ENDPOINT + "/%i" % self._contact_id)
+        url = urljoin(BASE_HTTP_URL,
+                      self.API_ENDPOINT + "/%i" % self._contact_id)
         _post(url, headers=self._headers, json={"text": message})
diff --git a/tests/briar/api/models/test_private_chat.py b/tests/briar/api/models/test_private_chat.py
index fafe1184d3d7cee4d1785a01ff40c8080afc43da..60222f5ac3155a0c0225b447857ff09ea565075c 100644
--- a/tests/briar/api/models/test_private_chat.py
+++ b/tests/briar/api/models/test_private_chat.py
@@ -16,23 +16,23 @@ TEST_TEXT = "Hello World"
 
 @requests_mock.Mocker(kw="requests_mock")
 def test_get_empty(api, request_headers, requests_mock):
-    private_chat = PrivateChat(api)
+    private_chat = PrivateChat(api, TEST_CONTACT_ID)
     url = BASE_HTTP_URL % TEST_CONTACT_ID
     response = []
 
     requests_mock.register_uri("GET", url, request_headers=request_headers,
                                text=json.dumps(response))
-    assert private_chat.get(TEST_CONTACT_ID) == response
+    assert private_chat.get() == response
 
 
 @requests_mock.Mocker(kw="requests_mock")
 def test_send_message(api, request_headers, requests_mock):
-    private_chat = PrivateChat(api)
+    private_chat = PrivateChat(api, TEST_CONTACT_ID)
     url = BASE_HTTP_URL % TEST_CONTACT_ID
 
     requests_mock.register_uri("POST", url, request_headers=request_headers,
                                additional_matcher=match_request_send_message)
-    private_chat.send(TEST_CONTACT_ID, TEST_TEXT)
+    private_chat.send(TEST_TEXT)
 
 
 def match_request_send_message(request):