Buchanan Clark and Wells

lila77

After splitting with my husband and selling our house, I have moved with my children in to rented accomodation.
The gas and electric in the previous property were in my name, but my husband was due to clear them.

Several months later i received a letter from BCW saying I owed £516 to Eon for gas from the previous address, which my husband hadn't paid.

I immediately rang them ( which I now know was stupid) and offered to pay an amount I could afford. I emailed over a copy of my budget and I received a letter saying that Eon had accepted the offer and I set up a standing order.

I have today, 2 months on received a letter threatening legal action for the non payment of the debt saying I owe £506 which is minus the £10 I have paid!

What sort of a low life company is this??
I have a copy of there acceptance letter and will tomorrow be writing to them. but I wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience and could offer any advice?

lila77

Sorry to bump this one up but I also wanted to know if anyone could give me any advice as to whether they are able to take action against me eventhough I am paying and have a letter accepting my payment.

They are threatening sending someone to my house and have also said if it goes to court they will be able to force an attachment of earnings? is this true.

I really don't need the stress of this right now, and thought having an acceptance letter and paying would be enough?

In anticipation of your answers?

fermi

They can in theory take legal action.

However, it's unlikely it would do them much good, so it's usually an idle threat.

If it did go to the court then you would have a chance to ask the court to set payments at a monthly level you could afford.

It is ONLY if you fail to pay what the court order that they could look at an attachment of earning order.

Even then, you would have plenty of opportunity to stop that happening, for example by applying to the court to have payments changed again.

In other words, while it is possible in theory, in practice is is extremely unlikely to be possible in practice.

BCW will however deliberately over play the possibility as a tactic to scare you.

How exactly have they worded that?

If they have implied that they will be able to do that if they get a CCJ, then they have broken several guidelines/rules and need to be reported.

lila77

no reading the letter again it does state if there is continuing non payment they can/may make and attachment of earnings.

The thing is I am paying, but I am not in a position to pay the full amount, and just don't understand why they are now taking this tac after accepting my offer - it's madness!!

fermi

It's just standard debt collector bully tactics.

They want as much money as they can as quickly as possible, and don't really care whether someone can realistically pay that or not.

The key thing for you is to not be intimidated, and keep paying what you can, and NO MORE than you reasonably can, regardless of what silly threats they may issue.

That way, in the unlikely case that it did go to the court, then you would be able to show the court that you had acted reasonably at all times, whereas BCW did not.

Also have a read through this info.

----> OFT Debt Collection & letter Guidance - READ IF YOU ARE BEING HASSLED UNFAIRLY

If BCW breach those guidelines, then please report them to the OFT and trading standards.

lila77

Thanks for that. I have had a quick read through and my well be able to report them for threatening to make a doorstep visit even though I have made an offer to pay which has been accepted - I will let you know how I get on

sunshineband

I had to deal with BCW with an energy supplier. They overcharged us on a bill so I queried it and instead of them dealing with it they passed it to the DCA. Just stand your ground with them as they are a nasty little bunch. Good Luck

fermi

lila77 wrote: »

Thanks for that. I have had a quick read through and my well be able to report them for threatening to make a doorstep visit even though I have made an offer to pay which has been accepted - I will let you know how I get on

That is normally only unfair if the debt is disputed or deadlocked, and the DCA are ignoring your attempts to resolve that?

lila77

Well letter is written and ready to send recorded plus I have emailed it to them as an attachment - I'll keep you posted and thanks for the replies

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi lila77,

I'm sorry about the situation you have found yourself in.

I know you had moved out of the property, but can you check if the final bill is actually correct, was the account closed to actual meter readings and the correct date?

have you seen a copy of the final bill?

It does sound like the debt has been passed away from E.ON now altogether and the other posters have already given you info on how to deal with this.

If you need any more info from E.ON, just let me know.

Helena

lila77

Well I received a reply today from BCW an apology in fact!! They said that there had been an adnin error and that of course my agreement was still in place!!
Don't let these bully boys get to you!!!