Essex & Suffolk / James Alexander & Co.

andy2008

Here we go.

Financially v. tough, only income Income Based J.S.A, struggling with water payments.

Received bill in April for the whole year, no option of monthly installments. Wrote to Essex & Suffolk asking for payment plan, circumstances etc.

No Reply

Red Letter sent to me in May. I wrote back again, requesting the above.

No Reply. Proof of postage retained on both letters.

This week letter from Alexander James & Co, threatening legal action.

Have been making payments of £5.00 per week for the last six weeks, via Paypoint. This will be a regular payment.

Rang Essex & Suffolk Water, refused to talk to me as my account had been passed over to Debt Recovery.

Rang Consumer Council for Water. Very nice. Basically they contacted Essex & Suffolk Water, happy with the repayment plan. BUT they will not handle the account, all payments have to be made to the DCA.

Still paying my £5.00 per week via Paypoint, to Essex & Suffolk.

Do I have to pay via the DCA. These people are scum and I have done nothing wrong, except be ignored by Essex & Suffolk Water, with genuine grounds of hardship.

Just paranoid about a CCJ. Can anyone offer any advice?

Cardew

Welcome to the Forum.

Proof of posting or recorded delivery?

How much was that bill? and do you have arrears from the previous year(s)?

It seems highly unusual for a company to sent a case so quickly to a DCA, unless the company have had problems with you before??

I don't believe that a company are forced to offer a customer a monthly plan. Obviously they normally will, but can refuse if they have grounds for thinking that these payments will not be regular.

The fact that CC for Water would not intervene, and you talk about 'genuine grounds of hardship' adds weight to the theory above. i.e. the Company think you will not pay regularly.

Note: I said "think"!

palicia

You will have to contact the debt recovery to arrange a payment plan which must be paid in full before your next bill is due or that will be added to the debt.
The bill usually gets passed to debt when all previous reminders have been ignored.
They usually send a soft reminder then a hard reminder followed by a Hosker solicitors letter. If this is ignored then it gets passed to a debt recovery agency.
The best way to avoid this action in the future is to phone and speak to an adviser who will help you.

andy2008

James Alexander wrote to me again on the 3rd of August, requesting a satisfactory payment in ten days.

Due to a well timed bit of luck, was able to pay the full arrears [today], plus a extra pound to put my account in credit against this years bill.

James Alexander, rang me, basically having a go, because I paid the money, via paypoint, directly to Essex & Suffolk and not them. Then they said they will pursue for charges.

I pointed out that they gave me ten days to pay a satisfactory ammount, when I have paid the full amount in 9 days.

I flaty refused to pay any charges and they pointed out they will take me to court to recover charges.

Spoke to Essex & Suffolk, still won't talk to me about my account, even though my account is in credit!!!

Any advice what to do next?. There is no money owed, paid back within there timeframe. Can they take me to court for charges?.

v.Confused

Andy_Hamilton

Just out of curiosity, how much are they wanting in charges?
Does the letter state how much charges and who to make payments payable to etc?

loveangel

Hi andy
unless they have warned you that you would incur charges i personally would not pay them, however i would be surprised if they passed the matter to their solicitors without a warning that a failure to respond to previous demands would lead to extra costs.
I have however little or no experience of dealing with water companies and so i am not convinced that they did not write to you warning of costs however on teh other hand i have experience of lambeth council sending me a summons to a magistrates court on a friday and on the saturday recieving a envellope franked friday but with a letter dated 2 weeks prior notifying me that i had ten days to pay my council tax - that letter was sent out by a limited company wholly owned by Capita Plc - kind donors to the Labour Party who are incredibly talented at getting government contracts.
Anyways they lobbed on charges etc in the letter informing me of an invitation to the magistrates court, but i simply phoned up the legal department and pointed out that i would happily attend the magistrates court and show as evidence the enveloppe franked on friday that i recieved on saturday but with a letter dated 2 weeks before, but i explained that lambeth may wish to withdraw the case rather than face perjury charges.

bigpeterlg

hi andy

i will try and explain about alexander james, essex & suffolk water & northumbrian water.

alexander james or "aj" is actually the collection part of northumbrian water ltd/essex & suffolk water either based at durham for the litigation and pre-litgation and the collection section based in lowerstoft.
and it does advises this in the very small part of the bottom of aj's letters that essex and suffolk water is owned by northumbrian water and alexander james is a trading name of northumbrian water ltd.

without knowing the full circumstances of the account, it sounds like that you may have defaulted on the bill, the remained of the balance for the rest of the year has become due to the after the 2nd reminder/preclaim letter and this is what aj's are looking to recover.

aj's/e&sw/nwl doesn't charge fees on any of the domestic & commerical accounts apart from returned dd fees etc and enforcement/court costs.

the other possiblity is that you have already accrued enforcement fees of due a claim pack (last ones were issued in june) being issued for the full remaining balance so solicitors fees and court costs will have gone onto the account and possibly a ccj.

also essex & suffolk normal call centre staff will not be able to or be willing to discuss the account with you due to the collection flag on your account advising them only aj's/collection staff can discuss the account.

if all the debt on the account has been cleared off the account will automatically be flagged to come back to the normal call centre staff to deal with, however if you miss payment or fall into arrears the next year your account will go back straight to aj's.

all monies that are collected via plastic card whether issued by aj's or essex & suffolk water will be allocated to the account as long as you make payment on the corresponding plastic card with the account number on it.

as you are on jsa income based a possible way to pay if you are struggerling is water direct as you meet the critera of a qualifying benefit, and this will be mean it being taken direct from your benefit.

if you feel unhappy with the way it has been dealt with would suggest a possible way forward is write a letter of complaints asking for a review of the handerling over the account (1st stage complaint letter) via recorded delivery, possibly sending a copy to john cuthbert (the MD) or your local mp as well to see if they can get involved as well as this will help.