County court struck out, but EoN now hassling payment

farmergerry

I have posted this also on utilities, but thought I might get more advice here.
I had various issues with my bills for my business, and EoN refused to look into them; I eventually ended up with a bill over £20,000, although I calculated that after corrections for the faulty meter etc the bill would be less than £4000.
THey then sued me in the County Court, but after over two years the claim was struck out, as they eventually missed a case management conference, and then did not file the appropriate documents.
THey are now sending emails and letters demanding payment of the full amount - even though I am now unemployed, been turfed out of my previous address (by family, who tore up a business tenancy) and suffering severe depression.
I thought that when I had finally got the court case (one of the causes of my depression) over that I could move on - I would rather that they had won and made me bk than this situation which I can only see stretching even further in to the future and hindering any hope of my recovering.
How should I respond to them, considering I do not have anything to offer them.
TIA

Culex

Eon tried the same trick on me, claiming that I'd used over £20,000 of gas. From the diameter of the supply pipe, this would have been barely possible even if I had been running a brass foundry - "Ye canna change the laws of physics!".

It turned out that they had been reading a meter calibrated in metric as if it had been calibrated in Imperial. When they realised that, the bill dropped to 10% of what they'd demanded - it included previous years, when the DD payment to Powergen had been insufficient.

Then the meter stopped working and I asked them for a replacement, which they did not supply; instead, they sent me ludicrous and improbable (or impossible) estimated bills and 'phoned me when I did not pay up. My response was to say that I had not used the volume of gas claimed, that I could not possibly have used the volume of gas claimed and that, as the meter was not displaying any units at all - it had a digital, LCD display - I had previously requested a replacement.

A week or two later, the meter was replaced and, three or four weeks after that, I received another estimated bill, for some £2000! Not only had I not used that volume of gas, I had not used any gas at all, as the central heating had packed up!

They graciously deigned to cancel that bill, too.

farmergerry

Had a letter from them today, posted at the begining of the month to the old address (but been forwarded) saying that if I did not pay them, they would hand the account over to a third party debt collector.

I can't afford to pay them anything (only just manage to keep afloat now, and will be unemployed end of next week), so think my options are
1 - ignore them, and hope it goes away
2 - remind them that they spent two years suing me, even having a barrister at one hearing, and they did not suceed; if they pursue it they will end up with more costs than they can recover; and refer the matter to the ombudsman for their handling of the accounts.

My view is to go for 2, but would welcome advice

(CAB said they couldn't help or advise as it is a business debt, allbeit the business no longer exists )

TIA