Warning and advice about LCS Utility Investigation Civil Enforcement Debt Recoveries

frameyboy

I have received an Offer of Settlement - Without Prejudice letter yesterday that is dated 11/09/2014 from LCS stating that I owe them £70.05 for outstanding debt with Scottish Hydro.


I'm not sure how they managed to find my address as the current flat I am in is a key meter so I have never phoned to register.


The letter states that they have previously written to me but the balance remains unpaid. This is the first letter I have received.


There is no indication on the letter of the dates this debt relates to or the address.


I want to phone them to find this information out but then this thread recommends not contacting them in any circumstances.


I have a rough idea about where this debt has come from even though it was all fully paid off. In my previous address, I had problems changing the supplier from Scottish Hydro to British Gas due to the fact there was an outstanding balance on the Scottish Hydro account. I contacted them and paid the outstanding balance and then the service transferred over no problem.


I kept my home phone number when I moved house and got repeated robotic calls from Scottish Hydro asking if I was the occupier and to press yes.


One time I did actually press yes and got through to a human. They don't me for security details, they needed to confirm my name and address. I told them for security reasons, I don't just hand that information out over the phone when some random robot calls me. This went back and forth for about 15 minutes until the guy eventually said he would send me a letter. Obviously the letter was never received because unaware to them, I had moved house.


So why would they still be chasing me for money that I do not owe them? And how the hell did they get my address?

MyNameIsOliverQueen

This bunch of clowns kept on pestering me when I owed them or EDF Energy nothing. I warned them over the phone when I picked up one of the calls that further contact from them means that they accept to pay me £1000 per instance. After 3 more calls & several letters, I invoiced them for £10,000 giving them 7 days to pay. They didn't pay, so I instructed my solicitor to issue a court claim against them for the £10,000.

A couple of days after my solicitor sending them the letter, I got a phone call from my solicitor informing me that they will no longer contact me at all.

No further contact was received from them until today!!! They are still chasing the £15.43 "debt" that I do not owe, and I am posting here as this thread showed up on a search for an unknown number that I missed a call from earlier.

I am now waiting to send them 30 envelopes, each containing the lyrics (4 times) from the Bros song "I Owe You Nothing", that will be making their way to the Freepost LCS Investigations address. Each letter or call from them, will resort in another 50 copies sent to the Freepost address.

I cannot wait for a doorstep collector from them to turn up, as they will not like the reception :mad::mad:

spidereyes

I recently purchased a property that had been vacant for some time, upon moving in there was a lot of correspondence threatning action for non payment from British Gas, despite the previous owner closing their account etc.

A few weeks ago I received a generic "to the occupier" letter from LCS asking for information which I ignored.

Today Ive received a letter from LCS addressed to me by name advising "an investigation" reveals that I am responsible for a 4 month period when the property was totally unoccupied and owned by the previous owner. They claim I owe them £131 for the period (even if Standing Charge is applied it wouldn't come close) so to be honest I fail to see how anything is owed.

Ive already made a complaint to British Gas because they assured me they would sort it out with the debt companies and instead have clearly passed them my details!

Ive emailed LCS because I do not want them having my phone number and told them I will be taking matters further if I hear from them again

VickyBroxbourne

I received letters from them recently. First one was "to the occupier", the next one was to my maiden name, which I have not used for years, except that it is still the name I have on the statutory professional register that I need to be on for work. They clearly cast their net far and wide.

I have emailed them essentially telling them it's not my debt and to bog off. I will report what happens later.

Tiger890

Hello every one, thank you all for posting, I learnt a lot from you guys. Today I have received the 1st same letter from LCS, no idea what I debt for? the bill was 20 months ago for £28 unpaid bill, can you believe? 20 months ago? I can't even remember what I had for breakfast! The property I never live there a day, its not fair ask me to pay. I don't know how can they sent letter like that without responsibility. I know it was a very fishing letter, but I did not know what to do, now I will ignored them and not contact them at all. Thanks for all your help! will see, I will keep you all posted. Take care!

em6

How exciting! Today I received my very own LCS letter. For a gas supply between May and August of this year. The letter says that the Legal Owner (that's me) has "moved from" the supply address to the address above (same address) and is therefore responsible for £101.18. But seeing as the same tenants have been in the property since September 2013, I have absolutely no clue what they think they are playing at. There is no debt, I'm sure of it, and I think it's a scam. I'll keep you posted as to what happens.

p17fld

Got one of the aforementioned letters through the post today, simply address to 'The Legal Owner' . I can only surmise that it is from the previous owners, I purchased the property on Nov 2013.

I will not be paying the demanded sum, but wanted to know if this can effect the house or it's owners in a negative way at all?:money:

retepetsir

p17fld wrote: »

Got one of the aforementioned letters through the post today, simply address to 'The Legal Owner' . I can only surmise that it is from the previous owners, I purchased the property on Nov 2013.

I will not be paying the demanded sum, but wanted to know if this can effect the house or it's owners in a negative way at all?:money:

No, you'll be fine. We had the same issue and received letters for months.

lonestaruk

Hi,

I'm a landlord and recently had one of these hit me. To be fair there was a bill owing as the previous tenants had forgotten to close off their account. However having provided them with sufficient information (as agreed with said tenants) to sort things out they continued to send letters to the current tenants. I've now invoiced LCS for a reasonable amount for my time and costs for doing their job for them and have told them I will pursue them through the small claims court if they fail to pay. I advise others to do the same, but you'll have to follow through with the threat, as hitting them where it hurts is probably the only mechanism that will successfully change their behavior in the future.

greensalad

I thought it might be nice to see a positive update in here.

I have since moved from the property LCS were contacting me for, but my phonecalls have also ceased despite me not changing my number. Simply by sending them a bill for costs related to contact.

I sent them a letter some time ago saying that the bill for all unsolicited calls was £20 and for all letters £50. I then sent them a bill for £120 after they contacted me by phone a number of times.

Not heard a peep since.