Water Debt letter

alwaysskint96

Yesterday I received a letter from debt collecters saying that I owed Northumberland water £350. This is news to me- Ive never even heard of them and I pay my water bill by monthly DD which is up to date. What can i do about this?

DJ1UK

Contact them and ask what it is for. Might me a system error as I believe most water companies are sending out their yearly bills around now.

Has your direct debit always been taken out the bank - none missing?

DJ

alwaysskint96

Thing is it is Anglian waterthat is my supplier

Gem_

Call Northumberland water and ask them if you owe them anything according to their system. Dont call the debt agency until you have done this as they will just tell you to pay up.

I have heard one thing that debt collection agencies do if they have 'lost' the person that owes them money is to send a letter to loads of people with the same name! They figure that they might get the right person or that someone will be daft enough just to pay the bill without really checking it is actually their debt. If you have never been a customer of this company then this could be what is happening?

Good Luck and let us know what the water company say

Gem

Pere_Ubu

I would copy in the Consumer Council for Water. See https://www.ccwater.org.uk I recently involved these with a problem I had with Southern Water (still ongoing) they are monitoring the situation. Also Southern Water operate a Guaranteed Standards Scheme which means they aim to respond to customers' written complaints within 10 working days if they don't I am eligable for £25 compensation. So far I have £50 (2 missed letters!). See if your water authority operate the same scheme. It could be a nice little money earner!!

tee_pee_2

alwaysskint96 wrote:

Yesterday I received a letter from debt collecters saying that I owed Northumberland water £350. This is news to me- Ive never even heard of them and I pay my water bill by monthly DD which is up to date. What can i do about this?

Hi

don't panic I may be able to help as this has just happened to me, with United Utilites and I got a letter today explaining they have brought in a new computer system, which is cancelling DD on your behalf and then stopping letters going out as a reminder, so the co refers you to debt agancy as a bad payer and you don't have a clue what is happening!!

I followed DJ1UK advise and rang water co then wrote to them and they srted it out with a £25 credit on my account, but you have to follow their complaints procedure, when you ring them they will give you teh address to contact.

Word of waring once you are with teh debt agency your ac cannot go back to water co for 28 days. so you can't set up a DD immediately I had to pay bal manually.

HTH