Being taken to small claims late bill payment

Cardew

romik wrote: »

I already received a form from county court, solicitors fee 50 and court fee 15 plus bill amount obviously.

That sounds like the Water Company have already passed the bill to a Debt Collection Agency(DCA) who are using usual tactics to obtain payment.

Are you sure it is from a Court, or a letter made to look like formal Court correspondence?

timbo58

It does sound like water as electricity/gas may well have been cut off by this point: AFAIAA water cannot be cut off?

spacey2012

cardew wrote: »

that sounds like the water company have already passed the bill to a debt collection agency(dca) who are using usual tactics to obtain payment.

Are you sure it is from a court, or a letter made to look like formal court correspondence?

good point !

romik

Yes it's from Northampton county court. I will just have to pay it, not much I can do about it. Nevermind, we will use rain water to flush and genetally use less tap water and get money back that way. Thanks for your posts.

macman

But why did you think that you wouldn't have to pay it until you got a summons? Had you settled it earlier, you would not have incurred the court and legal fees.

romik

macman wrote: »

But why did you think that you wouldn't have to pay it until you got a summons? Had you settled it earlier, you would not have incurred the court and legal fees.

It's called cashflow problems, you know the ones that send businesses into liquidation. I wish I could pay on time. And I didn't think I could find a way of not paying, I was simply trying to establish why they took matter to court that quick DUH!

Cardew

This just doesn't sound plausible.

You say earlier that you are about 2 months behind on bills; and matters wouldn't have progressed that far in that timescale.

If nothing else, you would have been informed, by the Court, that the matter was being put before the Court. They don't just issue a judgement without you being given a chance to defend yourself.

The normal procedure is bill, then reminders from water company, then matter passed to DCA who send threatening letters, and very rarely does it go to Court. They don't go to court often because if you have financial problems they will order you to pay back at 50pence a week or something equally stupid.

You are absolutely certain that it is a genuine Court letter? Who was the plaintiff - the water company or a DCA.

macman

We can't really answer that question, since you didn't at any point say on what date the bill was issued. The bill became due once it was issued.
Nor did you at any point indicate that it was a business account.
We are not psychic.

romik

Cardew wrote: »

This just doesn't sound plausible.

You say earlier that you are about 2 months behind on bills; and matters wouldn't have progressed that far in that timescale.

If nothing else, you would have been informed, by the Court, that the matter was being put before the Court. They don't just issue a judgement without you being given a chance to defend yourself.

The normal procedure is bill, then reminders from water company, then matter passed to DCA who send threatening letters, and very rarely does it go to Court. They don't go to court often because if you have financial problems they will order you to pay back at 50pence a week or something equally stupid.

You are absolutely certain that it is a genuine Court letter? Who was the plaintiff - the water company or a DCA.

It's an official small claims letter from Northampton county court, asking me whether I agree to amount claimed, partially agree or dispute it. As far as I understand it if I agree to amount owed I still have to pay solicitor fee 50, court fee and bill 15. I have to go online to do this. Water charges up to October 2012 (quarterly bill). I probably had a red letter from the water company prior to this, but it was not referred to a DCA for sure.

romik

macman wrote: »

We can't really answer that question, since you didn't at any point say on what date the bill was issued. The bill became due once it was issued.
Nor did you at any point indicate that it was a business account.
We are not psychic.

It's not a business account, I pointed out that I have a cash flow issue, just like a business may have one, same goes for an individual. Cashflow=insufficient liquidity. Bill for a quarterly usage up to October 2012.