Had demands for debts that aren't yours? Template letter to send

thefool

Just got home last night to find a letter addressed to:

Ms Occupier
FLT2
Ground Floor Left
Etc
Etc

From a company called LCS Civil Enforcement with a formal demand for payment on some debt owed to Scottish Power. They even had a cheek to say that the debt included a late payment charge !

Anyway, there are no details as to the period the debt is for, what the utility used was (gas, electric), a reference to the original bill (I assume an original bill was sent because of the ficticious late payment charge) or any other details that you might expect from a standard bill or other request for payment.

Not only did they not get my name right, see above, but they even got the gender wrong !!

I'm planning to send them a standard template letter disputing their debt claim and to let them know I'm contacting Scottish Power directly to find out what is going on.

Anyone got any further advice on what to do ?

dunavfiddler

I had quite a few letters addressed to a previous owner or tenant.
I always thought it was not legal to open someone elses mail, so I returned them to sender.
When I got one addressed C/O the address I found a threatening one from the police saying they could come at anytime to break down the door "at my expense"...so a visit to the local police station seemed in order, as did a morning off work.
"Don't Worry Sir, We don't come round to break down your door"

...

Well, in that case that's alright then !!!! I'm very glad to hear we haven't yet become a police state, despite the signs..

The local court was just round the corner so I popped in and the Clerk took note of my tenancy agreement and passport and put it on the database.
All I then need to do is refer anybody to the local court.

So now I just ignore letters- put them back in the post and don't worry.
Don't let these people spoil your life !! Why should they?

Incidently, trying to contact the Central Records Office is a useless thing to do, they lost my "Proof of Occupier" three times even when I faxed them the third time....

But it's another Government Department, isn't it?

Phoenixx73

Thanks for the info! I also have a ficticious debt with Littlewoods finance Co that CapQuest are chasing me for. They have asked me to send to them in writing that I have never held an account with Littlewoods so I think I will just send them the template Martin has given.

Any advice you can give though as to what i should do if they persist in contacting me? and should I send the letter registered post (to avoid them claiming they have never recieved it?)

tnarg

I'm also had a letter from LCS. I think it they got the right person as I have lived at the address they mentioned but only for some of the time they clam. I talked to the people that lived there after me as I know them well and they say that every thing was payed off but but LCS are still after me for money. What should I do?

talk to the energy company about this? Or send a letter back saying I did not live there on the time they are saying? I found very bad things about LCS on the Internet so I do not really want to deal with this company. Can I just go direct to the energy company involved?

chelmsford_2

Hi all,

I've got a slightly different situation where-by my brothers manager at work is having letters addressed to my parents house. This is happening without their permission and they have asked him several times to have this changed but they had more though this week. They are final demands for payment of council tax and overpaid housing benfit (£600) in relation to a property he previously lived in.
They have called to say that he doesn't live there and has never lived there but i'm obviously worried that if they don't accept that the address could be blacklisted or baliffs could be sent round.
Is there a way to disassociate a name with an address? I assume there must be but i can't find any information on it. Would sending one of the template letters suffice do you think?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

golddustmedia

Unlike commercial companies/debt collectors, councils and the benefits agency are pretty good at acting on information received.

I think in this case your best course of action is to telephone the council regarding the unpaid council tax and in addition to pointing out that person has never lived there pass on the information of where he CAN be found.

After all, if you want them to stop chasing the debt at your parents house, the ideal scenario is to tell them where they SHOULD be chasing the debt (as unlike the topic of this thread, you actually know who's debt it is).

Shirley_Whirley

Not the same sort of debt as previous but I sold a house last year :T which completed in November. We had the final statement from our solicitor with the remaining monies. In December we received an invoice from our solicitor for over £300. After asking them I was told it was for the cost of renewing the consumer board - the buyers had instigated an electrical report where it was advised that the board should be updated - fair enough but we were not approached to pay for it. My solicitor wrote to me recently to say the the buyers solicitors are insistant that I pay - my solicitor (and this is what really gets up my nose:mad: ) has advised that I pay the bill and then sue our buyers to get the money back. Nobody has provided evidence of my agreeing to funding the electrical work. I have written today to say that unless our buyers solicitors can provide me with written evidence I will assume that there is no debt.
Surely my solicitors advice cannot be right??

whispony

Hi I have now had 2 letters from 2 different companies regarding a £34 outstanding bill to 3 mobile phones. I did have a mobile phone with 3 and they even have the correct tel. number however I am not due them anything.
I have only recently changed that number after having it ported to both O2 and Orange I could not have ported a number if I had an outstanding debt. Has anyone else had a similar bogus bill and what did you do?

checkmate

I too received out of the blue a letter from this company demanding £160 plus their fee, on behalf of Orange, whose services I had dispensed with a couple of years before. When I contacted them, while waiting for Orange to respond, they told me if I didn't pay, I would be taken to court and would be liable for all the expenses and they reminded me their lawyers were both much more expensive and much more effective than any I might have. I felt I had to pay with those threats and fortunately, Orange, after many weeks, emails (which they never answered) and letters, finally admitted their mistake, that I had reapplied to them as an ISP but they had not managed to provide a service in time and I was justified in cancelling the contract. They simply hadn't contacted their accounts who were dunning me for subscription and a cancellation fee. They did pay me back what I had sent BC&W, though my suggestion of compensation was ignored. If you don't keep up the pressure on companies now, it can be very expensive.

Impet_Limpet

I received a letter this morning addressed to a Mrs female person with the surname of my boyfriend not me. We've been in the house for 9 months. I do know of this person, she was married way back to my b/f brother but they divorced years ago.

"To be opened by addresse only" so we can't open it because no such addresse lives or ever lived here.

The cheap envelope did the letter no favours though

Its from welcott chasing a RBS debt of £700, they got the address from experian as a possible forwarding address. Apparently we shared a previous address (not true)

If it isn't their debt to contact them on an 0870 number.

So now what? We regulary send back "not known at this address" from the previous occupants but we are concerned about that a previous poster put about then ending up with no post at all even that which was addressed to them!

I refuse to call 0870 (it could indicate we have opened the letter and that's illegal) as I imagine I'll probably be put on hold, my time is valuable to me!

I have an experian membership and there is nothing untoward on there.

Any advice?