BCW - Southern Electric

hummy

Hi All,

I wonder if someone can help me and let me know the direction i need to go.

We received a letter last week from Buchanan Clark & Wells saying that we owed some where like £550 for an upaid souther electric bill from sometime back in 2001-2009.

This seemed very weird to me, so i sent off one of the standard letters from this site doing a subject access request i think it was.

I have received a letter today from the same company saying that they are disappointed that my account has still not been settled and they would "without prejudice" like to offer me to settle the account for £400 pounds or so.

Clearly something is not right here. Just wanting advice on the next action to take and how to proceed. I have no intention of paying it.

dogshome

As you say, clearly something isn't right
Utilities use Debt collection agencies in two ways,
1) They will use them to try to collect debts that have accumulated over the recent past
2) When there is a very old debt that they have failed to collect, they 'Sell' the debt to the Collection Agency at a discounted price, say 25p in the pound, then the Agency pursues the debt for the best price it can get

From the instant £150 reduction in the demand, it's likely that the Agency has bought the debt
However, the statute of limitations stops them pursueing any debt that is more than 6 years old, so they can't chase you for anything earlier than January 2005

jalexa

hummy wrote: »

We received a letter last week

This seemed very weird to me, so i sent off one of the standard letters from this site doing a subject access request i think it was.

I have received a letter today...

I hope you used recorded delivery for the SAR. You need to ignore the BCW "follow-up" letter and do your own "follow-up" letter (by recorded delivery) pointing out you have made a SAR which you require to be fulfilled.

If you have a spare £10 I would do one with Southern Electric also.

macman

hummy wrote: »

Hi All,

I wonder if someone can help me and let me know the direction i need to go.

We received a letter last week from Buchanan Clark & Wells saying that we owed some where like £550 for an upaid souther electric bill from sometime back in 2001-2009.

This seemed very weird to me, so i sent off one of the standard letters from this site doing a subject access request i think it was.

I have received a letter today from the same company saying that they are disappointed that my account has still not been settled and they would "without prejudice" like to offer me to settle the account for £400 pounds or so.

Clearly something is not right here. Just wanting advice on the next action to take and how to proceed. I have no intention of paying it.

So do you actually have an unpaid bill with SE from the period in question?
It can't be 2001-2009. Anything prior to 2006 is now out of time.

hummy

well if i had an outstanding bill with Southern electric from that far back and it was not paid souther electric surely would have cut off my supply at the time till the bill was paid.

I'm slighlty unsure how to respond to this letter now.

jalexa

hummy wrote: »

well if i had an outstanding bill with Southern electric from that far back and it was not paid souther electric surely would have cut off my supply

I'm slighlty unsure how to respond to this letter now.

Forget the "surely" and concentrate on testing the BCW evidence. You need to follow-up on your initial SAR letter to verify it has been received.

As a matter of interest, were you a Southern Electric customer over the period? Did you move?

hummy

I was a southern electric customer and have not moved. We've been in our house for over 20 years.
Can someone send me the link to the follow up to the SAR Letter please.

jalexa

hummy wrote: »

Can someone send me the link to the follow up to the SAR Letter please.

Sorry, a week is too soon to require formal "follow-up". What I meant was you need to be able to demonstrate that BCW received the letter.

So "contact" them and find out. By phone if you are confident or by recorded delivery letter. It would suffice to reject the "offer" and any other discussion pending the fulfillment of the SAR sent on such and such a date.

Go to the Information Commissioner's website to find out more about SAR timeframes.

macman

hummy wrote: »

well if i had an outstanding bill with Southern electric from that far back and it was not paid souther electric surely would have cut off my supply at the time till the bill was paid.

I'm slighlty unsure how to respond to this letter now.

This doesn't answer my question.

hummy

I don't believe i have any unpaid bills with southern electric.

jalexa

hummy wrote: »

I don't believe i have any unpaid bills with southern electric.

As I suggested earlier make a SAR request of Southern Electric requiring provision of all held information, specifically copies of bills.