dealing with debt collection agency

lauzt1987

Looking for a bit of advice. Yesterday I received a letter from a debt collection agency stating that I owed £360 to E-on. This was for my last flat, which I moved out of in December!

The day I moved out my flat, I phoned the energy company, gave final meter readings and asked them if we owed anything and could I just pay it there and then on the phone (we has been paying a direct debit to them each month.) I was told that they weren't able to do that but if we did owe anything, they would send us out a bill. I gave them my letting agent's address and told them to send any bills there. I also had my post redirected for 3 months, and picked up mail again in around May time.

I never heard anything from E-on - no bills turned up and nothing, as far as i'm aware was sent to our letting agent (we received deposit back for flat and I didn't think they would give you this until you paid outstanding bills.) So I assumed that we must not owe them anything.

Now this letter has turned up and i'mnot really sure what to do. I phoned the debt collection agency and told them that what happened and said I wasn't willing to pay this until I had it all itemised and was sure I owed this money. They have told me to phone E-on and I plan on doing so.

I have taken a large paycut at work and therefore don't have this money to pay. Do debt collection agencies let you pay in instalments etc? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

FTW

Don't phone the collection agency - everything in writing, because they'll tell you things on the phone that they wouldn't dare put into writing.

Which agency is this, anyway?

DarkConvict

The deposit for the flat is just for any damage caused to the flat.

Utility bills are a priority so need to be paid on equal footing to fines/rent/mortgage/tax.

£360 is alot to owe, did you not sign up to their online account to check the balance?

From the 2 bedroomed flat (no gas, only electric) I was in, £360 is about 6 months of usage.
I would ignore the debt collection agency and try and deal direct with EON. There is a company representative on this forum that may spot this post and be able to help.

Be sure that you are only charged for usage up until the day you left and for that final meter reading. If you were in a short term let its possibles bills were estimated and when you left the actual reading was quite high due to been under estimated. For me it was the other way round as the tenant had left the heating on for 22 hours a day so my bills go over estimated.

You should be able to pay in installments, but try and get EON to take it back claiming you never recieved a bill and if anything was owing a DD was still in place to pay it anyway.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi lauzt1987,

We can certainly investigate this for you, and I would definitely recommend dealing with us rather than the DCA at this stage. Whilst any investigation is being carried out you can ignore the DCA contact and if required we can put a stopper on this.

There could be a range of reasons that what sounds like the final bill being delayed or not received. We may have been chasing this amount for a while (I’d expect so if a DCA is involved) but only just managed to trace the new address. This can happen if we don’t have a record of the forwarding address when you move out.

Anyway I’d be speculating this issue so I don’t want to make to many assumptions here, if you’d like me to investigate this for you, email me on the email address in my profile, I’d be happy to help.

Brian

spursfan14

The guys are right. Always put all correspondence in writing, sent recorded delivery and keep a copy for your records. If you have to speak to them on the phone, record all the calls! Then you will always have proof of what is discussed.

Which debt collection agency are you dealing with?

You can get postal addresses of all the debt collection agencies on login.debt-line.org.uk/1stCredit At the bottom of the page there is a huge list of all the debt collection agencies.

Best of luck!!

DarkConvict

If not familiar with the forum, the EON email address mentioned was - WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com

E.ON_Company_Representative

That's the correct address, thanks DarkConvict,

I'm not allowed to post it on the forum myself, unless given permission.

Brian

DarkConvict

That is fair enough Brian, the polices as there for users protection. The Vodafone representatives seem to get past that hurdle by posting a link to either a dedicated web form, or a web form, where by if you enter in the subject as a code word WRT35 then it will be directed to their team.

DVardysShadow

lauzt1987 wrote: »

The day I moved out my flat, I phoned the energy company, gave final meter readings and asked them if we owed anything and could I just pay it there and then on the phone (we has been paying a direct debit to them each month.) I was told that they weren't able to do that but if we did owe anything, they would send us out a bill. I gave them my letting agent's address and told them to send any bills there. I also had my post redirected for 3 months, and picked up mail again in around May time.

I never heard anything from E-on - no bills turned up and nothing, as far as i'm aware was sent to our letting agent (we received deposit back for flat and I didn't think they would give you this until you paid outstanding bills.) So I assumed that we must not owe them anything.

So did you actually check with your letting agent? Or are you just assuming????

It would be most unusual to give the utility your letting agents address AFAICS. You should have played fair with eon and given them your new address.