British Gas and Bailiffs and tears and tantrums !

Daddyo

Hi all,

Tears and tantrums this morning !!

My girlfriend has been invoiced for gas usage after she moved out of her old house. Didnt get round to addressing it and they sent matters to their collections dept.

We rang up and sorted the account - we even got a refund of £11 !!!!

Imagine our amazement this morning when we have a letter to my girlfriend "the defendent" !!!! Saying that if its not paid by next Weds the bailiffs will be round !!!!

She is ringing the court and British gas at dinner time.

Anyone got any advice on what else to do ??

We live in my mom and dads house and so all electrical equipment is theirs - so advice on the bailiffs issue please, and also on the credit file.

Will this court action show even though it was a b*lls up by BG ???? If so, whats our action pls ?

Best wishes, a stressed out Daddyo !!

rog2

Did you receive a CCJ? If you never received a summons e.g. it was sent to previous address and never forwarded, you should speak to the court.
If, as you say, the outstanding bill has been paid, then you should have nothing to worry about.
A bailiff can only call as the result of a CCJ, and anyway, unless he/she has a warrant of entry, they can not enter your house except by peacefull entry. If they do turn up, do NOT let them in.

file_wizzard

Just to clarify a couple of points

In the OP’s case just phone BG and explain, the letters have obv crossed in the post.

With regards to a utility’s debt the debt itself could be enforced via a CCJ, but it is exceptionally unlikely, however a utility company can apply for an entry warrant to disconnect services at any time (with reasonable grounds), and not just in relation to a debt.

The statement R.e entry to property is partially correct, if, and only if CCJ has been awarded, an execution warrant can be issued and a bailiff can enter a property by invitation ( this can be an open door or window so watch out!)

However, and this is important from mid 2005 if a magistrates order has been made then a court bailiff may now use “reasonable force” to gain entry to a private property in the execution of his duty’s.

Annie_Fanny

Also a case of lessons learnt I think. DO get around to addressing things. When moving send them a letter to let them know and keep copies of ALL correspondence!!

A similar thing happened to me with Scottish Power. They passed our 'debt' onto the nasties Buchanan Clark & Wells. I queried this directly with Scottish Power - they were chasing us for a 'debt' from nearly 2 yeas ago. I had to supply them with evidence that I wasn't living in the address at the time the utility was used. It ended up that they owed us a refund of over £200! No word of a lie! I was glad that they brought in the debt collectors when they gave us the refund. At no point had Scottish Power contacted us to say that they owed us money. Funny that.

Do keep ALL correspondence so that these scumbags can't take up precious moments of our lives!

RAH!

Rant over!