Advice needed about proving we don't owe

poppydop

Hi all

My husband has been getting letters from a variety of debt collecting agencies with regards a virgin media debt he apparantley owes. He rang them and they gave a previous address he lived at where he had an NTL account. He Called Virgin who have taken onver them and they said it was from 2007 - Sept and Oct. He last lived at the address in 2004 and we actually bought a house 200 miles away in 2007. He tried explaining this to the person at Virgin and was told that it was possible he also had an account 200 miles south. He tried to argue this but they were having none of it.

How do we possibly prove that he didn't live there in 2007? As far as Virgin are concerned he could have a dozen NTL bills going to a dozen addresses. We feel blackmailed into paying the money as we are now being threatened by bailifs.

How do we possibly prove that the amount owing is not ours?

Please help!!

GeorgeUK

Who is threatening you with bailiffs?
A bailiff is appointed by the court. If this has not been to court then there will be no bailiffs involved. If anyone else comes to the door looking to collect money for the debt, they will have as much legal right to enter your home as teh paperboy - none.

If it has gone to court and a bailiff comes knoking, do not let them in the house and make sure all windows and doors are locked.

You should not need to prove that a debt is not owed. It is up to them to prove that the debt is owed. I would suggest sending the "prove it" letter from the templates thread and possibly also the letter to request that they do not phone you any more.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=963087

I would get your husband to check his credit file (free at experian if you cancel within 30 days) to make sure that this is not on his credit file if it is not his account.

If it is, contact the credit reference agency and request that a note be put on your file stating that this account may not be yours. It may be a case of identity theft so you should possibly also speak to nationaldebtline or citizens advice to see how you should deal with this too.

poppydop

A debt collection agency called Credit Security Limited are threatening us with a debt collector calling and CCJ. They are contacting us re Wescot Credit Services - Virgin Media. I am not sure whether I write to Virgin Media or Wescot or Credit Security Ltd. I might do all three?

RobertoMoir

I'd write too all three. I'd start by saying it is not for you to prove you don't owe this money but for them to prove that you do. You can prove when you moved via things like council tax and utility bills, I assume. Not that you have to, yet, but my point is that you could demonstrate that you did leave those houses when you say you did. You did cancel your VM/NTL account for the house you did use to live in, didn't you? Do you have proof of this?

George's advice that your husband should check his credit files is a good idea. I would wonder if he may have been the victim of identity theft,and VM the victim of fraud.

If a debt collector calls, tell them to get off your property and phone the police to report a trespasser if they don't leave. Debt collectors have no powers or rights to harass you for a debt.

poppydop

What happened was my husband moved from swindon to london and cancelled his ntl in swindon and got a new ntl account in london. Ntl owed him money from swindon as they kept taking out of his account after he had moved. They agreed to pay back money owed but hubbie never recieved it. He didn't bother persuing it. That was in 2004/2005. We moved in 2005 to cambridgeshire and cancelled ntl in london and didn't have it in cambs because they couldn't provide it. We then moved again in 2007 to where we are now. We have not had an ntl account since london in 2005 but virgin are saying that this account is for swindon in 2007. Very odd isn't it?

Also a bit worrying.

RobertoMoir

Well that narrows it down to incredible incompetence on the part of NTL/VM, or the fraud/identity theft thing I mentioned.

Knowing VM, the first explanation is probably the correct one, but I'd check both avenues if it were me.

poppydop

Thanks so much for all your help and advice! I feel loads better now. Was really worried about it!