Water bill after 7 years??

claire1977_2

Hi all
Sorry if this is in the wrong place but wasnt sure where to post.
The problem I have is that I have just recieved a letter from westcot creditors asking me to pay a water bill from my last property ( i moved out 7 yrs ago) for over £800, as far as I was aware we had paid off the water bills before we moved and the last one was nowhere near this high. I have been slowly sorting all my debts ( thanks for all you help even if it wasnt directly for me) and I have not come acccross even one letter regarding this and I have kept nearly all letters for years. Just wanted a bit of advice on what I should do as they are threatening court and I have no possible way of paying this even if somehow I did owe it??
Thanks
Claire

RAS

Hi a debt on which there is no CCJ is statute barred if a period odf six years exists since the date of the last payment or written acknowledgement. This means that even if they start court action, you only required defence is "this is staute barred". Will be back with a letter.

GeorgeUK

They updated the legislation for utility bills in the last few years.
If it was the company's error then they could reclaim back only 2 years. This was changed in 2007 to one year. I'll try to look out the link i saw for this.

http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/en/content/cms/Energy_Help___Advice/Your_energy_question/Your_energy_question.aspx

claire1977_2

RAS wrote: »

Hi a debt on which there is no CCJ is statute barred if a period odf six years exists since the date of the last payment or written acknowledgement. This means that even if they start court action, you only required defence is "this is staute barred". Will be back with a letter.

Thankyou so much for your quick and helpful response, sorry to sound dopey but should I ring them and tell them this or should I just leave it and wait for them to take the next step.
Thanks again Claire

RAS

Based on george's comments it looks like this debt may have been unenforceable long ago.

the basic rules with debt collection agencies is that you do not phone them. They will just try to bully you into make a payment there and then and leave many people in tears, so just do not give them a chance.

Write back to Westcot and state the advice in the post from GeorgeUk and see where this goes. It is quite possible that you are not even the person who owes the money, knowing DCAs.