BT chasing me for payments after I moved out of address.

flubdub

I recently recieved a letter from a debt collector stating that I owe them £529 on behalf of BT. I have contacted BT asking them to send me any details they hold on this debt (payments made / missed etc) and I recieved a reply from them today. It shows a list of all payments made by myself for the address I lived at. Then it shows that in March 2009, a payment for £416 was missed, hence this debt. I moved out of the said address in February 2009, and told them this at the time. I did not wish to transfer my BT line to my new house. This is the last I heard of it until I recieved this Debt collector letter, three years later.

What do I do about this? I can prove that I had a new residence in Feb 2009 by obtaining a letter from the lettings agent, but is this enough to stop them chasing me?

MoneyMagic01273

flubdub wrote: »

I recently recieved a letter from a debt collector stating that I owe them £516 on behalf of BT. I have contacted BT asking them to send me any details they hold on this debt (payments made / missed etc) and I recieved a reply from them today. It shows a list of all payments made by myself for the address I lived at. Then it shows that in March 2009, a payment for £480 was missed, hence this debt. I moved out of the said address in February 2009, and told them this at the time. I did not wish to transfer my BT line to my new house. This is the last I heard of it until I recieved this Debt collector letter, three years later.

What do I do about this? I can prove that I had a new residence in Feb 2009 by obtaining a letter from the lettings agent, but is this enough to stop them chasing me?

Well, making them go away might depend on whether you can prove you don't owe the money. So firstly, a question - you moved out in Feb and they (BT) sent a bill in March. However the £480 march bill would have related to the previous months up to end of feb (when you were living there) correct? Thats the way utility providers typically work. At the end of period of services they send you a bill. So services up to end of feb may be billed to you in march.

Or are you saying you believe they bill they claim they sent in March for £480 was nothing to do with you - not your telephone number account and wasn't related to the previous months when you were at the address? And prior to the march bill, what was the date of the bill/payment before that?

I don't think you can simply state the amount is not genuinely owed to a utility provider just because a bill was issued shortly after you left the property - and expect them to go away.

Yes, BT should probably have taken your new address details so any remaining bills could be sent there instead - but I'm interested in whether you dispute the amount itself, or you are just peeved its taken all this time to locate you?

At the end of the day, if the bill of £480 is valid - you may be able to complain to BT directly in writing and point out they should have sent any remaining bills to your new address and that you will pay the original bill amount of £480 but they must recall the debt file from the DCA and you will pay them direct.

flubdub

MoneyMagic01273 wrote: »

Well, making them go away might depend on whether you can prove you don't owe the money. So firstly, a question - you moved out in Feb and they (BT) sent a bill in March. However the £480 march bill would have related to the previous months up to end of feb (when you were living there) correct? Thats the way utility providers typically work. At the end of period of services they send you a bill. So services up to end of feb may be billed to you in march.

Or are you saying you believe they bill they claim they sent in March for £480 was nothing to do with you - not your telephone number account and wasn't related to the previous months when you were at the address? And prior to the march bill, what was the date of the bill/payment before that?

I don't think you can simply state the amount is not genuinely owed to a utility provider just because a bill was issued shortly after you left the property - and expect them to go away.

Yes, BT should probably have taken your new address details so any remaining bills could be sent there instead - but I'm interested in whether you dispute the amount itself, or you are just peeved its taken all this time to locate you?

At the end of the day, if the bill of £480 is valid - you may be able to complain to BT directly in writing and point out they should have sent any remaining bills to your new address and that you will pay the original bill amount of £480 but they must recall the debt file from the DCA and you will pay them direct.

Hi, thanks for replying.

My problem is im not sure the debt is mine at all. I moved out Feb / March. It wasnt long after my birthday which is mid January I would really like to know if a) they ignored me when I rang them up to terminate the phone line, and b) what exactly this £400 is for? We never used the phoneline, it was purely for broadband. The letter gives us a list of payments made by DD and they are all around £20 a month, so we definately were not using the phone constantly.
After I left, the house was empty for months, so no new occupant has run up the phone bill.

£105 of this is fees.

MoneyMagic01273

flubdub wrote: »

Hi, thanks for replying.

My problem is im not sure the debt is mine at all. I moved out Feb / March. It wasnt long after my birthday which is mid January I would really like to know if a) they ignored me when I rang them up to terminate the phone line, and b) what exactly this £400 is for? We never used the phoneline, it was purely for broadband. The letter gives us a list of payments made by DD and they are all around £20 a month, so we definately were not using the phone constantly.
After I left, the house was empty for months, so no new occupant has run up the phone bill.

£105 of this is fees.

OK, so your OP was misleading. This statement suggests that the March DD was collected fine by DD.

The final invoice they are saying that was not paid is Q005 - 14/06! In which case, I agree with you that the bill may not be correct and its possible they have not closed your account correctly when you moved out and have carried on billing you. It also seems to have jumped massively for that 3 months between march and june, so I'm wondering if someone new moved in and carried on using the phone....

You should definately obtain a copy of the new tenancy agreement showing the the date you moved out of that address and into your new address and send this to the DCA and BT's collections department.

Request that the account be re-called to BT and closed, unless they (BT) can demonstrated with a detailed bill/breakdown that you owed anything as of the day you moved out. Any services provided after the date you moved should be removed.

MoneyMagic01273

By the way - I would be prepared for an argument with BT around whether you called them or not to notify them you were moving out.

Stand your ground though. They cannot prove you didn't phone them up - any more than they can prove someone in their call centre didn't mishandle your call and neglect to cancel your services correctly. In a scenario where its just your word against thiers I expect they will cancel it off. But you will need the tenancy agreement as proof.

flubdub

MoneyMagic01273 wrote: »

OK, so your OP was misleading. This statement suggests that the March DD was collected fine by DD.

The final invoice they are saying that was not paid is Q005 - 14/06! In which case, I agree with you that the bill may not be correct and its possible they have not closed your account correctly when you moved out and have carried on billing you. It also seems to have jumped massively for that 3 months between march and june, so I'm wondering if someone new moved in and carried on using the phone....

You should definately obtain a copy of the new tenancy agreement showing the the date you moved out of that address and into your new address and send this to the DCA and BT's collections department.

Request that the account be re-called to BT and closed, unless they (BT) can demonstrated with a detailed bill/breakdown that you owed anything as of the day you moved out. Any services provided after the date you moved should be removed.

Argh, apologies, Ive got my months messed up

The house was definately empty. We had a mortgage on that house and it wasnt sold for a few months.

Should I SAR them? AND the dca?

immoral_angeluk

Did you cancel it AND pay your final bill when you moved out? Is this debt your final bill for the remainder of the contract term or something?

MoneyMagic01273

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Did you cancel it AND pay your final bill when you moved out? Is this debt your final bill for the remainder of the contract term or something?

Good point - the OP may come unstuck if this turns out to be termination charges for a fixed minimum term contract (which could also account for the jump in the final invoice amount)

immoral_angeluk

MoneyMagic01273 wrote: »

Good point - the OP may come unstuck if this turns out to be termination charges for a fixed minimum term contract (which could also account for the jump in the final invoice amount)

It seems the mostly likely scenario, especially if they posted the final bill to the old address and the OP didn't have redirection set up so didn't get it until now when the DCA traced him..

flubdub

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Did you cancel it AND pay your final bill when you moved out? Is this debt your final bill for the remainder of the contract term or something?

Honestly, I have no idea. If it was a 12 month contract, that started in Oct 2008, would the remainder from March '09 - Oct '09 be around £400?

immoral_angeluk

flubdub wrote: »

Honestly, I have no idea. If it was a 12 month contract, that started in Oct 2008, would the remainder from March '09 - Oct '09 be around £400?

It depends on how much your monthly charges were, plus any cancellation fees, vat and what not..
You're best off writing to BT and asking for a breakdown of the charges and that should give you an idea of whether it's correct or not. If you cancel in the middle of a contract your final bill will be the remainder of the contract term + charges.

So say if you paid £50pm standard charges and had 6 months left of your contract, your final bill would be at the very least £300 plus a cancellation fee and VAT if applicable.

Does that make sense?