Warning and advice about LCS Utility Investigation Civil Enforcement Debt Recoveries

TonySimon1979

I cant believe after doing a search on LCS that i can find posts 6-7 years old and it seems nothing has changed..
It seems i am in the same kind of situation as most people.

British Gas trying to bill me for a previous tenant and even refusing payment for what i DO owe them..twice!!

Its quite straight forward...1st December i moved in, Jan 13th i gave them the final reading.
Not so simple when it comes to British Gas..
I tried to pay what i owed them on two separate occasions to which they refused because there was an outstanding balance and they couldn't tell me how much was owed?!...(even though they passed the debt on)
Each time i spoke to them i explained the situation and gave the solution.
Send me two bills 1 before December 1st and 1 bill for after, i will pay what i owe and i will pass the outstanding bill to the estate agent..after the 5th phone call chasing it up i am assured the bill/s will be sent out.
Two weeks go by ...a letter from LCS stating i owe £200+ ..at this point British Gas couldn't tell me how much i owed.
I emailed LCS and told them the account was in dispute and i wouldn't deal with them as the money was owed to British Gas and not to them any further correspondence would be seen as harassment.

Cutting the story short, weeks of phone calls and assurances the bill is split i pay what i owe and the outstanding bill is passed to the estate agents....but the threats don't stop from LCS.

So after a "72 hour notice?!" stating more fluff and threats i gave in and rang LCS and had a not so polite conversation with one of the managers telling him i welcome the prospect of going to court and i would be seeking damages but first i would like to make an official complaint or if he prefer we could discuss the matter in person.
Usually i wouldn't bother with bottom feeders but this parasite got on my nerves.

I'm told i can't log an official complaint over the phone i have to write a letter to Stephen Oyston.. quick search... works for
1st Locate UK Ltd
1st Floor West Wing,
Town Centre House,
The Merrion Centre,
Woodhouse Lane,
Leeds, LS2 8LY
...same company and not even an hour away from me

Owner : Darren Guest [EMAIL="darrenguest@1stlocateleeds.co.uk"]darrenguest@1stlocateleeds.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Director : Dominic Connolly
CEO : Andy Barclay
Customer Care Manager/Team Manager : Stephen Oyston

well that's as far as we go for today but lets see what develops from here....i do know i won't be backing down.

Badgi

I just received the most vague email from these guys,

"Dear Sir / Madam,

Please contact LCS regarding EDF Energy on 0*44 5*3 9*11 quoting the reference number 56***89 in the subject field. Alternatively reply to this email with your telephone number and the best time to call.


Many thanks
LCS " (have edited out info with "*" as I'm not certain on the rules about posting certain info).

Needless to say, I will not be phoning them, I do not owe money to anyone. Absolutely ridiculous!

hohum

A few years ago I worked in accounts payable for a housing association type of organisation.

We would get a lot of letters from utility companies and debt collectors. Just to echo everyone in saying that these threats are not to be taken seriously. It's often bad data, or in social housing a lot of bad tenant handovers that caused a big mess. I found in the end that talking to suppliers was more useful than the debt collectors. I also experienced suppliers overestimating on empty properties and when the correct read was given it spun the bill round the clock and a bill was issued for a million pounds! As I told the guy who talk my call, you're lucky it's me who doesn't take this seriously rather than a vulnerable tenant. Companies trying to insist that landlords are executors of people's estates (err ...no), British gas assigning a debt to the housing association of a completely unrelated property because they owned a building in the same postcode (!).

My favourite though was talking to people like LCs. When you are a temp in an organisation that often did not have liability for the bills, their tactics became more ludicrous. I had a couple insist that they would be taking it to court. As the named individual On the debt was a) a public organisation and b) incorrectly spelt and addressed, I always encouraged them to pursue this. I'd love to see them try to put the case for £80 owed by a non existent entity. they didn't seem to get that these threats don't have the same power they do on private individuals.

On the plus side, it does mean that I am quite wise to what tactics companies like this will use. And how much their data not worth the paper it's written on!

Eta: the address quoted in the post for a debt collection agency is interestingly the same building as occupied by a large part of the council that deals with social departments. Interesting.

Badgi

Update:

Today I received a letter from LCS stating that I owe EDF £634.22 for a property that I have not lived in for 2 years. I know for a fact that I paid all my dues when vacating the property and I certainly did not owe £634.22 at any point when living there. Cretins......

I've contacted EDF, who seemed to be quite helpful and they will be investigating the issue.

Laura_Marie_2

Hello

I received a letter on Friday from LCS claiming that I am the "person responsible for the consumption of this supply (dual fuel)".

I moved from the address which they have stated on the letter almost 8 months ago and the house which I lived in was a house share,so we split the bills equally. Before I moved out of the house, I made sure that everything was paid and the bill we received before I moved even stated that we were in credit. Also, the bills were not in my name, so why do I have to pay this debt?

I don't know what to do as I don't have the money to pay this and they said that if I don't pay it soon, that they would take legal action. I've tried getting in contact with my old housemates, but have had no response yet. I've phoned E-on (the energy provider) and they said that I should talk to my previous estate agents, which I did. They then said they couldn't disclose information about the bills, as the tenants are responsible for them.

I feel like I'm going in circles-Please help!

fatbelly

Colourful excuses?

Adamasa wrote: »

Today I received a letter that had both the name of the person that the previous letter was for and my own name on it. I opened the letter to find that it was from LCS claiming that both I and the person who I had never heard of owed British Gas £786.53 for electricity, they claimed that this debt was owed from the 3/5/12 to the 26/12/12 for the property that I am currently living in and that action was due to be taken against me in the next 7 days as I had not disputed this claim, despite this being the first I had heard from them.

What immediately struck me was firstly I had no idea who this person was that I apparently 'shared a debt' with. Secondly that I had only moved in on the 3rd August of that year on an entirely new contract with my friends. Thirdly that my electricity is supplied by EDF and had been by the previous tenants as when I moved in they simply changed my name over on to the bill. And fourthly that almost £800 seems a hell of a lot of money for electricity for under 7 months.

This was quite a few things to strike me all at once but I recovered from the shock of the utter stupidity of the letter and thought that a simple phone call would be all that was needed to straighten out the utter idiocy of the letter....more fool me!

TonySimon1979 wrote: »

I cant believe after doing a search on LCS that i can find posts 6-7 years old and it seems nothing has changed..
It seems i am in the same kind of situation as most people.

British Gas trying to bill me for a previous tenant and even refusing payment for what i DO owe them..twice!!

Laura_Marie wrote: »

I received a letter on Friday from LCS claiming that I am the "person responsible for the consumption of this supply (dual fuel)". Before I moved out of the house, I made sure that everything was paid and the bill we received before I moved even stated that we were in credit.

ValHaller

Indeed. But the point you seem to be missing is that when someone messes up on a utility bill, either knowingly or unknowingly, the Debt Collectors as often as not seem to thrash about and land the bill on anyone who has a connection with the property - no matter how tenuous - rather than sort it out with the responsible person.

While perhaps not knowing how it works on the part of an individual is forgiveable, on the part of a debt collector there is usually no excuse whatsoever.

BakerBoy

I've been getting letters from LCS for about six months, claiming I owe just under £100 for electricity supply to a commercial property I took on last year. The period for which they claim I owe is the first two weeks of my tenancy. If you get one of these letters and you believe it is in error just throw it away.

I have it in writing from my chosen supplier that thier supply began on the day my tenancy started.

If LCS were to persist with this nonsense and visit you I suggest you ask them for proof that you had a contract with the supplier in question and the meter number for the property.

Clowns.

ghostmadlittlemiss

I must be the only person in the country who these people wrote to who isn't getting chased for a debt that isn't theirs. I think this might be because I actually gave them the landlord's details (don't have the previous tenant's forwarding address) instead of ignoring them. Seriously, just give them the details they ask for and they'll leave you alone. It's not rocket science.
Kayleigh

[Deleted User]

ghostmadlittlemiss wrote: »

I must be the only person in the country who these people wrote to who isn't getting chased for a debt that isn't theirs.

I'm not being chased for a debt.

I received a single card, months ago, addressed to a previous tenant, saying they were going to visit a week or two later.

Haven't seen or heard from them since.