Estimated Bills & Final Payments

bobby98007

I have just moved out of a rented house which i occupied for 2 and a half years.

Every quarter i would get a bill and would pay it straight away, and before the last payment was due i was in credit with the utility company, happy days.

Then when i moved out i get a £400 bill for my bill, turns out all my other bills were estimated and this was the amount left to pay.

The utility company are insisting that i pay this off in £90 monthly installments and not any lower, even though i simply cannot afford this, i have offered to pay them at £20 a month (i cant afford any more).

They claim that the £20 a month is not enough and if i dont agree to this they are going to pass it on to a debt company.

Is all this legal? I thought that as long as i am willing to pay some of it off then they cant pass it on to a debt company?

PLEASE HELP!

Cheers, Bobby

ALIBOBSY

Have you done an offer in writing or is this just the stuff spouted by the call centre staff.
I would put your offer in writing to them and ask for a final response to this offer. If they still refuse you could complain to the ombudsman. If they do pass it on you may find a debt collector more inclined to accept a lower monthly payment as they know if they tried to take it to court the judge would only allow what you could afford and probably have a go at them for bringing it to court when an offer has been made.

When dealing with debt and payment arrangements the CAB and other advice groups always advise doing the negotiations in writing not over the phone.

good luck
ali x

bobby98007

No everything has been done over the phone so far.

Thanks for that, it will give me some time at least to try and get things sorted, thanks for the tip

spiro

You have to remember that once you have left an energy supplier they have no income coming from you and are not interested in anything but getting their money as quick as possible. That is why they are increasingly selling blocks of debt to Debt Collections Companies as they are specialists in that area and the suppliers can concentrate on supplying energy to people who pay.