Warning and advice about LCS Utility Investigation Civil Enforcement Debt Recoveries

AnnM69

My 8yr old, son whilst he was in school, received a text message from them asking him to phone them regarding his dept!!!!! How the hell did they get his mobile number, plus he doesn't have any credit in his PAYG mobile so he cannot phone/text anyone! He has his late dad's phone but the sim card is brand new payg one!!!! was going to write to them to complain and to delete my son's phone number, but reading these replies I think I'll ignore as he hasn't had anymore texts and I have not received any letters from them!:(:(:(:(:(:angry:

sourcrates

AnnM69 wrote: »

My 8yr old, son whilst he was in school, received a text message from them asking him to phone them regarding his dept!!!!! How the hell did they get his mobile number, plus he doesn't have any credit in his PAYG mobile so he cannot phone/text anyone! He has his late dad's phone but the sim card is brand new payg one!!!! was going to write to them to complain and to delete my son's phone number, but reading these replies I think I'll ignore as he hasn't had anymore texts and I have not received any letters from them!:(:(:(:(:(:angry:

Mobile numbers tend to be re-cycled sometimes.

It's possible your sons number once belonged to someone who owes someone, some money !!!!

AnnM69

sourcrates wrote: »

Mobile numbers tend to be re-cycled sometimes.

It's possible your sons number once belonged to someone who owes someone, some money !!!!

probably, thank god they didn't phone especially when hubby died! they would've had a mouthful lol!

fatbelly

AnnM69 wrote: »

probably, thank god they didn't phone especially when hubby died! they would've had a mouthful lol!

They've got the number - they might phone.

Can you block them?

AnnM69

they text my son's phone at beginning of the year, haven't heard from them since!

sourcrates

AnnM69 wrote: »

probably, thank god they didn't phone especially when hubby died! they would've had a mouthful lol!

Sorry for your loss !!

AnnM69

sourcrates wrote: »

Sorry for your loss !!

Thanks, even though hubby died in 2014 when son was 6, still not quite over it!

darkdingoo

I have also just received a letter from LCS about an outstanding payment between 30/06/2011 and 05/10/2016. Note that i was 17 at the time, in college and living at my parents address; the property in question is my parents.

They state I owe £3235.12... Thats a fair bit if it goes against my credit score. I have free time and am willing to sort it out and even willing to take it to court (knowing im in the clear) if it'll get me money out of it!

Any advice would be great. I've read through everything on here already but considering i've never been with any gas company as I haven't needed to be and have moved about 3 times between these dates. I makes me question how they've even got my details.

sourcrates

darkdingoo wrote: »

I have also just received a letter from LCS about an outstanding payment between 30/06/2011 and 05/10/2016. Note that i was 17 at the time, in college and living at my parents address; the property in question is my parents.

They state I owe £3235.12... Thats a fair bit if it goes against my credit score. I have free time and am willing to sort it out and even willing to take it to court (knowing im in the clear) if it'll get me money out of it!

Any advice would be great. I've read through everything on here already but considering i've never been with any gas company as I haven't needed to be and have moved about 3 times between these dates. I makes me question how they've even got my details.

Hi,

You need to challenge there claim by sending the provit letter :

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247

If you were 17, you may want to mention that fact.

NonnyMouse

I'd like to share a few facts and information about LCS that some may find useful when dealing with them. I do not work for LCS or the parent company.

By LCS I am talking about Leeds Consultancy Services, a trading style of their parent company.

LCS is in the financial sector and thus is regulated by all of the relevant bodies, their letters state this at the bottom in fine print - anyone who receives a letter from them should check this out, it contains some interesting information.

LCS will not take any legal action against you for debt collection purposes, all that they can do in most cases is send letters, try to telephone, text, or email you. If they fail to collect the debt in a certain period of time then the case will likely pass to another debt collection agency and so the process will start again.

If you receive an LCS letter it will be either because your address was the last known point of contact provided by the energy company to LCS for an owed amount, or because LCS have traced the amount using various tools at their disposal as far as they were able, which might include data from Companies House, electoral roll, and similar registries most or all of which are publicly available (some at a price).

What should you do? First thing is to always take meter readings, photograph the meters if you can as proof, and provide them to your energy company so that you have concrete evidence of start and end meter readings for the precise dates you started and ended living in a property, whether you were a tenant or the owner. Also keep any tenancy agreements for several years to use as proof. If you are a landlord then take the readings when a tenant moves in or out, again photographs are good evidence so long as they clearly show the readings.

You should not ignore a letter or phone call, you should get in touch by telephone and provide proof of where you were living during the dates specified on the letter, it may be that the energy company billing department made a mistake and it is your bill after all, or it may be someone else's; it will be down to you to prove that you were living somewhere else for part or all of the period if you intend to contest part or all of the debt.

You should beware though... there have been copycat LCS letters which may be physhing for your information, these are not sent by LCS. If you are in any doubt about the authenticity of an LCS letter (or any other debt collection request) then get in touch with the energy company referenced by it, confirm that the debt has been passed to LCS for collection.
LCS letters are normally sent in franked envelopes with a return address on the back, i.e. they won't be sent with a 2nd class stamp on. The paper LCS letters are printed on should normally be heavier than typical inkjet paper (which is usually 80gsm), look out for tell-tale signs such as poorly photocopied headers or envelope markings.

If you know that the debt is yours to pay then it's possible you could pay direct to the energy company (or other) instead of dealing with LCS, but you must inform LCS that this is what you are doing, they will need to confirm this with their client at which point LCS should halt their activities and pass the case back to the client.

As you can see, there's a lot to know about LCS and I'm sure other debt collection agencies. Since many new regulations have come into force in the financial sector over the past few years LCS has changed the way it operates, complaints about the company's operating tactics from a few years ago are probably mostly irrelevant now, they are so closely scrutinised by the regulators and clients (because the clients have to comply with the regulations too). Any complaints should be forwarded to LCS where they will be heard, recorded and dealt with.

I'm not particularly defending the actions of LCS nor condemning them, merely stating some facts which I hope will be helpful to people here.