Help please!

Brassic

Hi there. I have a situation which I'm unsure about and was wondering if anyone could offer any advice?

My husband used to own a pub, and whilst there one of his energy providers was X. 4 months after he left the pub (left in June '03) X decided that he'd over paid them and sent the pub a cheque for the rebate, 800 quid. A few months later they decided they'd worked it out wrong, and actually it should have been 450, so tried to get the 350 back. After a long time (earlier this year) they managed to trace him (we do currently have a residential account with them) and told him that we owed them the 350 quid difference. Problem is, we never received the cheque, and they're claiming it has been paid in. Only person who could have paid it in was the new owner of the pub, and X won't give up any information on when or where it's been paid.

Two days ago, despite being in regular communications with X my husband received a phone call from Debt Collection Agency saying if he didn't pay the money there and then they would send the bailiffs around next morning, and we'd have to go to court next week. They scared him into paying, not good as we're brassic as it is through debts the business left us with, and struggling to keep our head above water.

I've written to them saying I need more information as I'd like to follow this up with the police as surely the person who cashed the cheque is in the wrong? And surely X shouldn't have been able to extort the money from us like that? We really need that money back, does anyone have any ideas? I'm going to go to the CAB tomorrow, but I don't have alot of faith in them tbh.

Many thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.

Cheers,
Brassic.

Savvy_Sue

Sorry, have only just seen this, suspect Vent board was not the best place for it, but anyway, hope you got some good advice from the CAB. X company should be able to confirm whose name the cheque was in: if it was the pub's name rather than yours then I don't see that they've got a case. If it was your name then new pub owners should not have been able to pay it in. But that's your starting point, I'd say.

Bossyboots

Agree with Sue.

Please let us have an update.

anniecave

One suggestion - are we absolutely sure your husband never did have the cheque? (if it was a while ago, its worth while going back through bank records or whatever just to make sure). I don't want to doubt your word, but it's the obvious.

If the cheque definately hasn't been cashed by your husband, you could try complaining to Energywatch - https://www.energywatch.org.uk - and ask for the same information - who the cheque was payable to - they should also be able to dig out the details of what address it was sent to. The energy company should only have sent a cheque payable to the same name as who paid the original money, but sometimes people don't check that properly. So unless your husband had a bank account in the pub name, then the cheque should only have been payable to your husband anyway. The other obvious thing is that if they knew your husband had left the pub, they shouldn't have been sending the cheque there. Also it's a bit rude sending a debt collection agency after your husband when he'd been in contact with them, so it's worth mentioning that in the energywatch letter too.

Let us know how you get on?