anglian water water missed dd now got legal action

zilm17

Hi,

On the 1st Dec 12 we missed a direct debit to anglian water, which had been running fine for about two years, we didn't realise until january that we had missed a payment. We received a bill dated the 20th Dec 12 from them for £528 after christmas, we then got a letter dated 8th Jan from them saying they are starting legal actions at a cost of £125. I've spoken to them and they say that the only way of stopping this is to pay everything in full which we can't afford to do. It all seems very quick and without alot of notice and great cost, they wont allow us to set up a direct debit and just say we have to go to court, any ideas? Thanks

HappyMJ

They seem to be going for CCJ's much quicker now than they used to.

If you don't want a CCJ and nobody really does then arrange to pay it off before the court date.

If you don't pay it and they do go to court then you can arrange to pay court ordered amounts which will be much less than you are currently paying....but then you will have a CCJ on your credit record for the next 6 years.

spacey2012

Whos fault is it the DD was missed ?

mart.vader

I assume that you don't pay £528 per month ? That's the yearly amount, Right ?

Read this : http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/household/your-account/problems-paying/

"If you’re finding it hard, call us as soon as possible on our helpline 0800 169 3630 and we will work with you to come up with a payment plan."

Ask them what they have done to "work with you to come up with a payments plan " ? (Apart from starting a court claim !)

Seems very odd that they won't just let you pay the one month outstanding.

My advice is, phone them and speak to a "manager" Tell him/her that it's a bit extreme to demand the whole year for one missed payment.

If this doesn't work, then put the matter in writing and ask for the court process to be halted, and the charges removed from your account.

macman

If a payment is missed then the full amount for the year can be demanded. Which is why the important issue here is why the DD failed. If it's a bank error, the OP is still liable, but can seek compensation from the bank.

mart.vader

This is from Anglian Water's code of practice (Section 4):


" What happens if you don’t pay:
If you don’t pay your bill and don’t contact us, or if you do not keep to an agreement with us to pay, we will take the following steps to recover the debt:

Step 1
We will send you a written notice giving at least another seven days to pay.

Step 2
One of our Customer Services representatives will attempt to contact you, either by phone, by letter or in person to discuss the reason for non-payment and try to arrange full or partial settlement. Customers who are in receipt of Income Support, Income related job-seekers allowance, Pension Credit or Income-related Employment and Support Allowance and have defaulted on a payment arrangement) can apply to have payments taken directly out of their benefits – payment by this method will suspend further debt recovery action.

Step 3
If you still don’t pay, or contact us and reach an agreement to pay, we will ask the County Court to order you to pay. This means that a County Court claim will be issued against you and if successful, will result in the legal costs being added to your account."


I don't see that AW have "tried to arrange full or partial settlement". They have just gone straight to the legal action.

I don't see that the OP is at Step 3 yet. Unless AW have decided to miss out Steps 1 & 2.

crrussell

the answer to macman's question would shed a lot of light on the issue as £528 of a remaining balance upto 31/03/2013 appears very high. It looks like the dd payment plan was set with an arrears at the begining and then the payment plan has been broken so the account was sent straight back to the last stage of collections process when the plan was set in the first place. More back ground info is needed by the op for anyone to try and help

kaya64

I can't understand this because my friend is unemployed and has over £1000 in arrears and pays £20 a month by installments, he is often late paying that sometimes and only gets a reminder that if he doesn't pay then the installment plan will be cancelled.

They sent him a payment book where he can pay at paypoint or online .

macman

It depends on the supplier. An repayment plan can be agreed, but they're not obliged to offer one if there are arrears. The full amount is due on receipt of the annual bill.
If he misses a payment then they are at liberty to cancel the plan without notice.

financialstress

They are awful... I had a problem with a property back in 2007 where the "bill" was £600 a quarter!! It was a 2 bedroom Flat, I checked for leaks as it was just crazy. I moved out of the rental believing all bills were up to date... back in December last year they had a Debt collector chasing me for £595 dating back to 2007 (TOCATO), they couldn't provide me proof etc. but as I didn't want to have negative impact on credit file... I paid it with 10% discount from TOCATO (the debt collection people).

Today i've come home to a letter from another debt collection agency for £59.50 (the discount I recieved) and they are going to take legal action.

It's just a joke... i've paid it as I don;t want the headache. After going through some financial problems I am trying to rebuild my credit file - but over 5 years old Debt should be put to bed!!