Phillips and Cohen DCA..

schoolrunmum

Hi, we have received 2 letters from the above DCA,referring to my deceased mother in laws British Gas account. She died in 2003, and all bills were paid. The accounts are still open,as we have been trying to sell her house, without any luck. We still get gas and elec bills,but as the property is empty they are zeroed by BG. Why on earth would the DCAs write to us almost 9 years later saying she owes money...when she doesn't?? What can I say to these leeches to leave us alone? They are writing to us at our address, as executors..can they put a charge or anything on our address?

National_Debtline

Hello there.

If there was a legitimate debt they could try and seek payment from the estate - although due to the age of the debt there is a 'limitation argument' (for most debts there is a 6 year period in which recovery action can be brought, anything over 6 years there is a legal defence - For further infomation on this please google The Limitation Act 1980)

They would not be able to hold you liable from a personal perspective.

As it seems that they are contacting you by accident you should write to them requesting a copy of their formal complaints procedure - briefly bulletpointing why you are keen to raise a complaint. This should hopefully get them to stop. If they continue to chase you may wish to lodge a complaint via your local Trading Standards team.

Best wishes,

National Debtline.

schoolrunmum

Thanks NDL..as I said there WAS NO DEBT , we paid anything outstanding from the estate...but BG keep sending us estimated bills....

schoolrunmum

Any more advice?

Anondebtadvisor

Have you sent them a copy of the death certificate schoolrunmum?

Might be worth a go x

Watertrollop

Hi
We have just received a similar letter from Phillips and Cohen regarding a British Gas 'debt' - both my parents died recently. There is no debt - we received a letter from British Gas only the other day which showed the account to be in credit.

The house will be sold soon.

This is clearly a bunch of nasties. So - am more than happy to report them to whomever is necessary...

I have two questions...

1. What about BG in all this? HAVE they passed details on to P&C or have they found out about my parents death from somewhere else?
If BG HAVE done something - I would like to complain about their actions in all this too.

2. I dont want to get involved with these people in any way, shape or form. Can I just report them? To whom do I report this?

thanks for any help
D

shedhead55

Watertrollop wrote: »

This is clearly a bunch of nasties. So - am more than happy to report them to whomever is necessary...

I have two questions...

1. What about BG in all this? HAVE they passed details on to P&C or have they found out about my parents death from somewhere else?
If BG HAVE done something - I would like to complain about their actions in all this too.

2. I dont want to get involved with these people in any way, shape or form. Can I just report them? To whom do I report this?

thanks for any help
D

Most DCA,s are a bunch of nasties and should be reported every time they put a foot wrong, which is often.

You should report them to the Office Of Fair Trading, they will not investigate individual complaints but will log the complaint and take action if they see a pattern. They indirectly have the power to revoke or impose conditions on the companies CC licence. It may be appropriate to complain about both BG and the DCA

The Financial Services Ombudsman will investigate disputes but you are required to complain in the first instance to the company concerned and give them 8 weeks to resolve the issue. They will not punish the company but if appropriate will issue a ruling to the company on the dispute in question.

The Credit Services Association is the debt collection industries internal watchdog, a complaint to them may result in a slapped wrist for the company concerned.

You should also complain to your local council's Trading Standards Dept, particularly regarding BG's apparent incompetence in this matter.


Office of Fair Trading
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London EC4Y 8JX

The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London E14 9SR

Credit Services Association
2 Esh Plaza
Sir Bobby Robson Way
Great Park
Newcastle Upon Tyne NE13 9BA

balletdancing

We our also being perused by Phillips Cohen for a debt they say our Mother ( who died 18 months ago ) owes from her estate but they will not give any details of the creditor. They say they bought the debt from a company called Compello, but we believe that Compello is part of Phillips Cohen. Does any one have firm information to confirm this ?

Vir2

These guys have started to hassle my sister in law - who is not an executor over a £36 "debt" from BT. The first letter we got was last week and my father in law has been dead over 18 months. As far as I can tell he had no BT account and BT have not sent us a bill. If they had we would have paid it.
So far I have
1). Asked them to stop hassling my sister-in-law and to deal with me as I am the executor - I suspect what they will do is hassle her even more now that they think that is our weak spot.
2) Asked them to prove the debt by providing a valid bill from BT.
I am going to wait until I see what happens next. If as I suspect their "proof" is spurious then I will post on BTs face book page and tweet about it. I will also copy the correspondence to the CEO of BT whose email address you can look up.
This feels to me like the "umbrella scam" where people would write to the relatives of the deceased saying they owed £40 for a pair of wellingtons or an umbrella (things everyone has). It was not enough to get excited about and most people paid. It was only when they tried it on a man who had died after 5 years in a coma that the fraudsters got caught out.
I will keep you posted.