5+ year old npower debt - but it's incorrect

crimson88 wrote: »

Hi,

long time lurker, first time poster here.

In March, I received a letter from 'Past Due Credit Solutions' (PDCS) asking for £489.40 (original balance £349.57) for an npower electric bill. It didn't list the dates or anything. I called them and the advisor put in a request through npower for documentation.

In April, I received another letter and a bill from 6 November 2012 titled 'final bill' from npower. for £349.57. They didn't include anything else, just a single bill page.

In response, I sent a 'prove it' letter to both npower and PDCS, dated late april (I have the receipt as I sent it confirmed delivery etc). A couple days ago I got a letter from npower that said an advisor was given my complaint. Today I received this letter, here's the relevant bits:
'I have fully investigated your account and can see that you are liable for the balance, and as you have not supplied a valid reason for why you dispute the balance the collections process will continue. One the 25th of October 2011 you contacted us to advise us that you moved in Flat 1, XXX. One the 23rd of October 2012 we were advised by the new tenant that you had left the country and they had been in the property since the 20th September 2012.

During this period there were no payments made on the account despite numerous bills and reminder letters being sent to the address.

When you left the property as you did not provide us with a forwarding address the final bill and the following collection letters were sent to the supply address and because no contact was made the debt was eventually sent to an external Debt Collections Agency who located your current address.

In order to set up any payment plans you will now have to contact the Debt Collection Agency directly.

If we do not here from you within 14 days of the date on this letter, your complaint will be considered to be resolved and closed.'

Okay, so the problems:
-Firstly, I am not a UK citizen. I moved into that flat to attend a graduate program. It was not, in fact, a flat but a room in a run-down house in the outskirts of Sheffield. Every room (which was only a bedroom, no water etc in it) had its own electricity and gas meter. I lived there from October to June for my program. I paid bills using paypoint as I was living mostly on cash. I never had a lease, and paid my landlady in cash. She has since died. I never filed with council tax as I was both a student and the landlady simply asked for an exemption from the university, which I gave directly to her. As I'm not a citizen, I was never on the voter registry etc.
-The bill does say that there was an actual meter reading given 1 June 2012. I remember giving meter readings before I made payments, and I must have given that one before I requested a final bill. I did not receive a final bill before I left the UK, and can definitely believe I'd owe something like £20 for that. Being electricity only, this is literally only for my laptop being plugged in and a single lamp in my room. There was nothing else that even had a plug.
-I was out of the country until July 2013, mostly teaching in Asia, and have lived continuously in the UK since then, with proper flats and with my name on bills (all up to date of course!) etc. So I also don't quite understand why it would have been so hard to find me.
-They have not sent me any other bills or proof of contract.
-I think what may have happened is that since there were 5 of us with the same address, but with different meters, my payments were not recorded correctly, and/or I've received the debt from one of my housemates. I do know that at least one of the housemates was not paying his electricity bill, as someone came round about that when I still lived there, so can believe that I could be confused with his bill.

So, the matters at hand:
1) Should I reply to the latest letter from npower notifying them I am making a complaint to the financial ombudsman? (which is what I assume from reading the forum I should do)
2) I haven't received anything yet from PDCS. Should I wait to hear from them? I sent the 'prove it' letter to them also. They had previously given me a deadline of May 13 and said that they were not allowed to put a 'hold' on an account for more than 2 months. But I'm thinking that would be illegal, seeing as they haven't given me any real documentation?
3) What can I do to show I don't owe this? I've made a payment a couple of days late here and there over the years, but never actually defaulted on anything, so this is way out of the norm for me.
4) How far am I away from being threatened with a CCJ? I'm eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain in about 2 years, and a CCJ could keep me from being able to stay in the country, so I'm a little bit scared.
5) How long until this is statute-barred? Is that why they are pursuing this now?

Thanks very much for your help on this matter!