ScottishPower: Outstanding Amount ?

TDUK

I recently got a credit report after having problems trying to secure a loan despite having *to my acknowledgement* no outstanding debts or poor credit history.. so I was very surprised to find apparently I'm outstanding £792 to ScottishPower on an old address dating back at least 6yrs ago. Now I have had no news of this until now, and having came across it myself, so found it very strange yet it gave reason for my issue in securing credit.

Since contacting them to pay the amount back, I had since realised that no such amount would have been outstanding on that account.. as they were informed I had left the property at the time I moved out, and that I was also paying direct debt every single month at no fixed rate (i.e. I was paying for what I used each month) as I can confirm on my bank statements.

Sure enough I got a call back asking to set up a payment plan, despite them admitting they don't have my details to date as my old account was "archived". I thought this was really rude to ask for money without even knowing who I was. So I had asked for written statements and details of when the account was closed etc to be sent to me as evidence of the outstanding amount. He couldn't give me this information, and I'm being left to went on him to get back to me.

I know for a fact at this amount is not owed by myself.. but can my non-fixed monthly debits be proof of my payments and usesage?
Plus, do they have the right to charge me if they cannot provide evidence of their claims?

I lived a 1bedroom property by myself.. at the time I was a full time student so 5days a week I was barely home. My boiler was an economy 7 with storage heaters, so nothing expensive. Yet my monthly bills were over the norm.. thus if anything, I would of been expecting money 'from' them.

As they are acting rather strangely on the subject, I reckon I'll be contacting trading standard on the matter, but would be good to hear anyone with a similar situation ?

DragonQ

If it's not your debt then why are you paying it? You could surely get your credit report corrected instead - if Scottish Power can't prove you owe them this money then how can they contest it?

dogshome

Hmmm - There are two things on this problem.

You have done the right thing in asking SP for paperwork that supports their claim - If they cannot provide it then it's up to you to insist they clear your Credit Records.

The other thing is that with the alleged debt going back over six years it's out of time for them to pursue it anyway - However you don't want SP to just give up and go away as this won't clear your Credit File, so keep on at them for the paperwork and only invoke the '6 year' rule if they provide proof positive of the debt

Atidi

TDUK wrote: »

I recently got a credit report after having problems trying to secure a loan despite having *to my acknowledgement* no outstanding debts or poor credit history.. so I was very surprised to find apparently I'm outstanding £792 to ScottishPower on an old address dating back at least 6yrs ago. Now I have had no news of this until now, and having came across it myself, so found it very strange yet it gave reason for my issue in securing credit.

Since contacting them to pay the amount back, I had since realised that no such amount would have been outstanding on that account.. as they were informed I had left the property at the time I moved out, and that I was also paying direct debt every single month at no fixed rate (i.e. I was paying for what I used each month) as I can confirm on my bank statements.

Sure enough I got a call back asking to set up a payment plan, despite them admitting they don't have my details to date as my old account was "archived". I thought this was really rude to ask for money without even knowing who I was. So I had asked for written statements and details of when the account was closed etc to be sent to me as evidence of the outstanding amount. He couldn't give me this information, and I'm being left to went on him to get back to me.

I know for a fact at this amount is not owed by myself.. but can my non-fixed monthly debits be proof of my payments and usesage?
Plus, do they have the right to charge me if they cannot provide evidence of their claims?

I lived a 1bedroom property by myself.. at the time I was a full time student so 5days a week I was barely home. My boiler was an economy 7 with storage heaters, so nothing expensive. Yet my monthly bills were over the norm.. thus if anything, I would of been expecting money 'from' them.

As they are acting rather strangely on the subject, I reckon I'll be contacting trading standard on the matter, but would be good to hear anyone with a similar situation ?

When the tenancy afreement ended, did you take the meter reading and call this into the supplier, requesting a final bill? Did you receive that final bill and pay it?

If not, have you a copy of the outgoing inventory/statement of condition signed by the LL/agent that confirms the outgoing meter reading?

If not, what proof do you have that your tenancy agreement ended 6 years ago on the date you now claim, and what the meter reading was on that date?

If you have bank records showing the monthly payments, this is good evidence of what payments you have made, but I'm not sure how you think this could help you prove what consumption was recorded by the meter. You have to pay for all the consumption recorded by the meter.

TDUK

Atidi wrote: »

When the tenancy afreement ended, did you take the meter reading and call this into the supplier, requesting a final bill? Did you receive that final bill and pay it?

If not, have you a copy of the outgoing inventory/statement of condition signed by the LL/agent that confirms the outgoing meter reading?

If not, what proof do you have that your tenancy agreement ended 6 years ago on the date you now claim, and what the meter reading was on that date?

If you have bank records showing the monthly payments, this is good evidence of what payments you have made, but I'm not sure how you think this could help you prove what consumption was recorded by the meter. You have to pay for all the consumption recorded by the meter.

It was a long time ago, but I my mother can confirm that they were contacted and meter readings were given, plus it does state on the credit report 'gone-away' so they were made aware of this.. plus the direct debit was also cancelled at that time, and I know for a fact that it wasn't cancelled via the bank, but via SP themselves (as in, I never cancelled any payments to them when closing the account).

I have yet to even provide my current details to them for them to send on such information in regards to the outstanding amount, as the chap on the phone keeps telling me he'll get back to me (doubt I'll ever get said proof from them), but I recall no such letters at the time of ending said account. And despite being on a low income at the time of living at the above property, I ALWAYS paid my bills to them regardless of the amount. It was mentioned that possibly someone had being using the account after I left, but I have had the same contact information for years, yet noone from SP had ever called me in regards.

justanotherguy_3

You need to show that you were not resident at the time of the bills.

Also, they will have access to the archive for legal reasons and could pull back the data to show what happened. You just need to get them to do so and ask for their supervisor or complaints team to do so.

The 6 year rule on credit reference agencies is that the record is ceased after 6 years, so it will just go away, eventually. Any company reporting on credit files must stop 6 years after the event finishes.

Scottish_Power

Hi I am one of the ScottishPower company reps on this forum. If you email contact details to [EMAIL="Social@scottishpower.com"]Social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] & I'll have a look. Regards
Gerry

TDUK

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi I am one of the ScottishPower company reps on this forum. If you email contact details to [EMAIL="Social@scottishpower.com"]Social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] & I'll have a look. Regards
Gerry

Hi, I had already emailed ScottishPower with my number complete with full details of my account etc.. and had been contacted twice now, both times being told I'd be called back despite trying to give my address when requesting for the written statements, but being ignored by the caller. To note, no one had ever responded back to me via email, only via telephone, and though I was told the matter would be passed over to someone who deals with 'archive' accounts in regards for me to discuss the situation, I still got the same guy who "only deals with pre-payments and emails" contacting me only to then spring the whole 'lets get you to pay this while you're trying to dispute' act.

keiran

I had to do a double take when I saw the words "Scottish Power" and "outstanding" in the same sentence....

Scottish_Power

TDUK sorry to hear that, please send to us at [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and we will help you. Thanks David