Warning and advice about LCS Utility Investigation Civil Enforcement Debt Recoveries

Julesfax · 28 July 2012 at 5:12PM

I have moved into a family owned house 3 months ago. The previous tenant was my brother-in-law who lived here for 5 years. When he moved Britsh Gas told him he owed £120 on gas but when he rang to question this they advised he owed £0.92 and they would write this off for him. Since this time we have received 4 letters from British Gas at the property for him saying he still owes money ranging from £120 to £650!! We have both called to try and resolve this and we thought the matter was over until we received a letter from LCS asking for my name and date I moved in, my brother-in-laws name and forwarding address and the landlord details. I work for the fraud dept of the largest bank in UK and was not happy with this letter or the unprofessional website they have. I called them to advise when I moved in but would not give any information of myself or anyone involved in the house and we would take it up with British Gas. Today myself and my brother in law have called British gas who have advised us that he didnt owe money and could see the £0.92 he did owe was written off!!! They called LCS who advised they could speak to British Gas about the matter!!!?? BUt when given the reference number British Gas did confirm THEY had sent this debt to LCS but couldnt tell us why!! My brother-in-law is expecting his first child in September and is looking to get a mortgage. This whole headache is the fault of British Gas and nothing to do with him, yet his name is most probably on a blacklist which will effect is mortgage application. British Gas have promised to sort this and we have the name of an advisor who will be calling him back when they have sorted it (if this happens!!). Is this not completely against Data Protection, FSA guidelines and everything else I know a company must adhere to as they have made an innocent person into a credit risk!!???

critch34 · 13 August 2012 at 6:10PM

Hi

I dont know if anyone else is still having problems with this company. I have received a letter today from them addressed to FAO The Occupier/Landlord.

The letter is asking for information from myself and my landlord which I am not going to provide.

Is anyone else being harrassed by this company, or has any tips on what I should do should they come knocking?

xtina901 · 24 September 2012 at 11:56PM

i have been paying lcs for a debt that i was unsure i owed so much on threw Scottish power the made it up to around 700 pound and i started paying 100 pound a month off but after coming out of work i decided i couldn't afford so much and told them i could only pay 30n a month and they demanded a means of income form from me and i refused and never sent one and they never asked again just asked me to set up a new agreement and now they are telling me i have just over 400 left to pay off but if a pay 60% of that in one go they will wipe the rest on the debt and i thought that sounded good so i have got the money to one side to pay it but then have thought that sounds a bit dodgy who would let you pay half your debt and forget the rest?! am i being nieve paying them are they ripping me off?

karaokedido · 6 October 2012 at 9:36AM

Hi all

I have today received a letter from this company.:eek: I'm really glad that I checked them out on the internet which pointed me in the direction of this site. :T After reading what other members have posted... I think I shall ignore it. Other possibility is to hand it to the estate agents who manage the property as I am renting, only moved in a month ago.

So shall I give it to estate agents?

Thanks

Miss_skint_3 · 11 October 2012 at 11:04AM

Hello all

I had a letter sent to my parents house about an extortionate southern electric bill that my housemate and I had run up in a previous flat. My housemate's parents were receiving the same. As they were contacting our parents, this scared us into acting fast and both made payment of £300 each. The 'bill' is still outstanding a further £600. I contacted lcsdr and they now have said the bill has been sent back to southern electric?

I'm totally confused by this whole thing? How can a debt be thrown around like this? Have we been conned or is this a ligit thing?

EKsushi · 17 October 2012 at 3:43PM

Hi everyone,

I just received a letter from LCS for a debt regarding BT. I quote below:

"Dear Sir / Madam,

Please contact LCS regarding British Telecom on ********** quoting the reference number in the subject field. Alternatively reply to this email with your telephone number and the best time to call.

Many thanks
LCS"

I was lucky enough to find this wonderful thread before taking any further action. I see that most of the people posting here do not have a debt unpaid. Well, in my case, I had a dispute with BT, which is still left unsolved. I would like to get your opinion on this matter since I am not sure of what to do. So briefly, here's the case:

On October 2011 I signed a 18month contract with BT for broadband internet and phone (they couldn’t offer me a less-months contract). On May 2012 I moved from the house I was renting and went to stay to the university campus I was studying to at that time. So they required me to pay the cancellation fee which was calculated according to the months left and summed up to about 300 pounds!

I read that according to their Terms and Conditions, they can move my service to my new address, and IF they are unable to do so, I am not obliged to pay the cancellation fees.
I asked my uni if it was possible to move my line on campus, and they told me they no, because they use their own internal network. So, practically, BT is unable to move my service to my new address for a reason I am not responsible for.

I told that to a BT customer service person on the phone and he agreed that I am right. A few days later however, another person called me from BT to remind me to pay my debt, and I repeated the same reasons for not paying, but he didn't accept them! So, I (foolishly!) asked help from the student union solicitors, which proved to be completely useless. They delayed the whole procedure of writing a letter of complaint to the company for 2 months and then they told that BT still does not agree with these reasons.

Since the time to leave the uni (and UK) was close, I left things as they were, hoping that there is no chance of them getting into the bother of chasing me to my home country for this debt. As expected, they sold my debt to LCS and now I received my first letter from them.

As many of you advise here, it is better not to reply to them or give them any information. Since I am not staying in the UK, they can’t reach me through phone cause I’ve changed number recently, and the only way to learn my home country address is through the bank I was paying BT when I was living in that house, but I don’t know if they have the right to do so. I have emptied that bank account to avoid having the money extracted without my permission.

So, in a nutshell, I am thinking of doing nothing at all, and even if they start calling me, refuse to give any info or talk about this matter with them. Will this method result in anything worse if I follow it?

Thanks,
Helen

tipsybub · 12 November 2012 at 6:40PM

Argh!! LCS Debt Recovery aka Con Artists!!

My boyfriend received a letter today chasing him for a debt from British Gas for a property he's never even stepped foot in.

Cue a long irate phone call to them where they constantly request proof that he wasn't living there to his reply "you prove that a was living their" gained the response "we've done searches showing you lived there but we can't tell you who we've search with!"

They are going to 'look into it'

[Deleted User] · 12 November 2012 at 8:01PM

The only thing I've had from LCS, is a card, addressed to the previous tenant, declaring their intention "to call at your address" at some point over a period of about a week.

Good luck to them because, judging from the amount of mail I get for him, no company, Council etc. knows his address.

Anyway, they didn't call while I was in, and no "We Called" message was posted through the letterbox.

As this happened around 18 months ago, I'm thinking I've probably heard the last of LCS.

[Deleted User] · 12 November 2012 at 8:02PM

tipsybub wrote: »

where they constantly request proof that he wasn't living there

How do you prove you haven't lived at an address :huh:

fatbelly · 12 November 2012 at 8:51PM

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

How do you prove you haven't lived at an address :huh:

It's almost as difficult as proving you don't owe money against an account you never had!

Warning and advice about LCS Utility Investigation Civil Enforcement Debt Recoveries

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