Advantis Credit and United Utilities

Astuteboy

Yesterday I received a letter from Advantis Credit regarding an unpaid debt. The letter contained no details of the debt so I called them to find out what it was and it's a for a United Utilities water bill from about 2 and a half years ago.

I've read a few similar threads on this forum today, but my situation differs slightly in the fact that I've already paid this debt to a different debt collection agency over 1 year ago!

I left the flat the bill relates to in September 2006. I left a forwarding address for UU with my final meter readings, but it seems they mislaid this. I was contacted by Westcot Credit Services in October 2007 - they explained that it's not uncommon for utility companies to lose forwarding addresses. Once I realised what the bill was for, I paid Wescot in full straight away. I remained at the address Wescot had for me for another 11 months and didn't hear anything else from them.

Now, I'm being contacted by Advantis who are trying to collect the same bill for the same time period more than a year after I paid it!

Now I'm worried; the bill is not huge but I really don't think I should have to pay the same bill twice.

I am sending a recorded letter to UU today, complete with proof of my payment to Wescot (which fortunately I still have) however what if UU say they never received the money from Wescot? Where do I stand legally?

I would have thought that as I can prove payment to Wescot then UU would need to take it up with them, but like I say I've no idea if I'm still legally responsible if Wescot have withheld the money for some reason or it's got lost somewhere between the two parties.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

bluewire

if you have proof of payment (well done) then you will have nothing to worry about.

UU will take the matter up with Wescot to claim the money from them.

Astuteboy

Just a quick follow up for anyone who ever has a similar situation:

Having sent proof that I had already paid to another debt agency, I received a response from UU today who were actually very apologetic and confirmed that no further action will be taken. They also stated that they have contacted Advantis to stop their pursuit of the debt immediately.

Another interesting quote from the letter was:

"It may be helpful if I explain that we are currently investigating archived debt as part of the company's debt recovery policy"

which confirms what other people have said on here about UU going after previously uncollected debts (or debts they thought were uncollected!).

pug_in_a_bed

Sorry to raise an old thread but I'm looking into a similar situation for a friend. She had a letter from Advantis, and on calling them was todl she owes £700 to United Utilites. However, this relates to a property she last lived in in 2001. Am I right that as this is over 6 years, then no action can be taken?

Should we be writnng back and stating this?

Any help appreciated

bluewire

As far as I am aware they would need to prove that they have been trying to contact your friend over this period.

DVardysShadow

Astuteboy wrote: »

... Another interesting quote from the letter was:

"It may be helpful if I explain that we are currently investigating archived debt as part of the company's debt recovery policy"

which confirms what other people have said on here about UU going after previously uncollected debts (or debts they thought were uncollected!).

I imagine they could sell the debts several times over and raise more money. All they would have to do is apologise once in a while if someone got chased for a debt a second time. Shows the value of keeping proof of payment.

Nah! I'm letting my imagination run wild.