Anyone heard of Leeds Consultancy Services?

angrybarry

Anyone had any dealings with Leeds Consultancy Services, a debt collection agency for Scottish Power?

A brief intro:

My GF and I bought and moved into a flat on 12 May 2006 and immediately transferred all bills to our new address including Scottish Power. All the bills from our previous rented flat were paid, on time by DD and were all in my name. Also the final bill in the rented flat was paid to the day we moved out including giving meter readings etc to Scottish Power.

A few weeks ago (24th Sept 2008) my GF!? received a letter from Leeds Consultancy Services debt collection representing Scottish Power asking for £500+ as payment for a period well AFTER we had moved to our current address.

We sent a reply letter stating that she do not reside at the (rented) flat address during the dates listed and to direct any further queiries to the Landlord.

Now this morning (Sat 4th Oct 2008) she received a card in the post stating that Leeds Consultancy Services would be arriving on our doorstep in the coming weeks?

This is incredbily distressing as we've never once missed a payment to Scottish Power at either addresses and clearly the next tenant(s) in our previous rented flat have not paid the electricity bill.

• How did they get my GF's name, given that all bills were in my name?
• Do I answer the door to them?
• What proof do I need to make this debt collection agency go away?
• Does this appear on my GF's credit rating?

Any help at all would be most apprecaited.

Many Thanks
Barry

Premier_2

Don't worry about it.

First of all, if your g/f was never on the bill she has never owed any money to SP.
You can answer the door to them if you want, whether you do or not is up to you. The caller will have no right of entry (presuming they don't have a CCJ already against your g/f)
You don't need any proof - the collector needs to prove your g/f owes or rather owed SP money. If she was never on the bill, she doesn't.
Again, presuming there is no CCJ against your g.f (which would appear on her credit file) then it shouldn't affect her credit profile. If she doesn't owe anyone any money, it can't affect her.

I would suggest she contacts the debt collection in the meantime, preferably by recorded delivery, stating that she has no idea what the money is owed for and that she denies owing SP any money at all as she has never been a customer of theirs if she want's to avoid a caller at the door.

angrybarry

Thanks for the info, we've since contacted the Leeds Consultancy, who were extremely rude and unhelpful, basically demanding money, despite the incorrect information.

Also contacted Scottish Power, who stated that several agencies have been used to track down my girlfriend and that a brief check of their systems showed that she has never been a customer and were unsure as to how her details got passed to a tracing agency.

Will follow everything up on Monday but talk about unnecessary stress, thanks for the help.