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Utility Warehouse Demanding Money
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I am having a nightmare dealing with the Utility Warehouse at the moment, without wanting to sound overly dramatic, and would probably feel slightly better by ranting about it on here if thats OK.
I own a property 200 miles from where I live.
On 27th Feb this year my tenant moved out and was checked out by my then Letting Agent. The following day I asked a family member to go into the address and check it over and take photos of the meter readings which they emailed over to me.
They said there was a "Dear Occupier" letter from UW there which demanded nearly £1,000 based on a massively overestimated bill. I called them that day and gave them an Actual reading (they knew I was the landlord/owner). I told them the property would be empty for a while whilst I tried to sell it, and they said they would address their estimation system. They accepted this reading as actual and said they would recalculate their bill next month (why they can't do it instantly I'm not sure) and that everything would be sorted next month.
Well, it wasn't, and they have since been calculating bills on estimated amounts. In June (after receiving another huge bill for £100s of pounds for energy I had not used) I spoke with one of the Customer Reps and we went through what the actual usage of energy was from the least tenant moving out to another done moving in (Total Electricity was 46 units and Gas was 1 Unit). I did not receive a bill in July (believe me I was looking out for it), they obviously say they have sent it but I never received it. I received nothing else right up to today when I received a 7 day demanding Debt Letter from a company called Utility Debt Collection, with threats of legal action, court etc etc.
I called them, and to say I was livid was not an understatement. They stated today (and neglected to tell me on all the other occasions I spoke with them) that they received a written meter reading from the Letting Agents following the tenants move out (which I was not aware of), which they received after I had already given them an actual reading. The Letting Agency had read the meter incorrectly and stated a check out figure below what the reading actually was. According to them, this letter apparently overruled my actual meter reading and they also disregarded my offer to send them the physical photograph of the meter taken the day after.
They are insisting I owe them this money and will not remove the debt saying its a 3rd party issue.
I have contacted the previous Letting Agent who messed up in the 1st place and asked them to send a corrective letter (and attached my meter photograph to prove they had misread the meter), which they agreed to do.
The tones of their letters and demands are outrageous and there is seemingly no redress or application of common sense when their billing system is challenged. They are a company I hope never have to deal with again - but sadly will have to until this is sorted. And I still have a Debt Collectors Letter on my doorstep for money I don't owe.
Should I pay this or would that be a sense of admitting ownership of a debt ? If they are threatening legal action, would the fact that I have picture evidence of meter readings be considered by their legal department ?
Many thanks for reading my rant :mad:
Liz
I own a property 200 miles from where I live.
On 27th Feb this year my tenant moved out and was checked out by my then Letting Agent. The following day I asked a family member to go into the address and check it over and take photos of the meter readings which they emailed over to me.
They said there was a "Dear Occupier" letter from UW there which demanded nearly £1,000 based on a massively overestimated bill. I called them that day and gave them an Actual reading (they knew I was the landlord/owner). I told them the property would be empty for a while whilst I tried to sell it, and they said they would address their estimation system. They accepted this reading as actual and said they would recalculate their bill next month (why they can't do it instantly I'm not sure) and that everything would be sorted next month.
Well, it wasn't, and they have since been calculating bills on estimated amounts. In June (after receiving another huge bill for £100s of pounds for energy I had not used) I spoke with one of the Customer Reps and we went through what the actual usage of energy was from the least tenant moving out to another done moving in (Total Electricity was 46 units and Gas was 1 Unit). I did not receive a bill in July (believe me I was looking out for it), they obviously say they have sent it but I never received it. I received nothing else right up to today when I received a 7 day demanding Debt Letter from a company called Utility Debt Collection, with threats of legal action, court etc etc.
I called them, and to say I was livid was not an understatement. They stated today (and neglected to tell me on all the other occasions I spoke with them) that they received a written meter reading from the Letting Agents following the tenants move out (which I was not aware of), which they received after I had already given them an actual reading. The Letting Agency had read the meter incorrectly and stated a check out figure below what the reading actually was. According to them, this letter apparently overruled my actual meter reading and they also disregarded my offer to send them the physical photograph of the meter taken the day after.
They are insisting I owe them this money and will not remove the debt saying its a 3rd party issue.
I have contacted the previous Letting Agent who messed up in the 1st place and asked them to send a corrective letter (and attached my meter photograph to prove they had misread the meter), which they agreed to do.
The tones of their letters and demands are outrageous and there is seemingly no redress or application of common sense when their billing system is challenged. They are a company I hope never have to deal with again - but sadly will have to until this is sorted. And I still have a Debt Collectors Letter on my doorstep for money I don't owe.
Should I pay this or would that be a sense of admitting ownership of a debt ? If they are threatening legal action, would the fact that I have picture evidence of meter readings be considered by their legal department ?
Many thanks for reading my rant :mad:
Liz
0
Comments
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I am having a nightmare dealing with posters creating new threads about Utility Warehouse at the moment
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2473547
I suggest you contact the BG and ask for this new thread to be merged with the existing one.0 -
OK, sorry.. is there a way of moving it there ? Or shall I just remove and re-post
Whats "the BG".. ?0 -
OK, sorry.. is there a way of moving it there ? Or shall I just remove and re-post
Posting the same note more than once is a violation of term 9.2.10
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/terms-conditions
That's why I suggested contacting the BG to request them to merge this thread.
Perhaps you should now contact the FT to ask to have this thread removed completely, before someone else reports it
But who cares???
FT = ForumTeam0
This discussion has been closed.
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