Recieved default notice, but bills were being sent to wrong address...

REDG

Hi,
I am hoping someone might be able to tell me where I stand, or give me some useful/impressive wording/terminology to use in my complaint to give it some gravitas!

I moved out of my (I own it) flat last year to move (temporarily) overseas. I have rented out the flat to tenants who pass on any post etc to me when either I come back for a visit, or my partner comes out to visit me. I believed (wrongly as it turns out) that I had settled all bills etc prior to leaving the country. It appears that I unfortunately had overlooked a bill for Southern Water, which remained outstanding. I do not dispute this, and have, since finding out about it, paid it.

What I am angry and frustrated about, is that I only found out about this outstanding amount and the default and debt notices by chance. Southern Water had been sending all correspondence relating to this outstanding amount to the wrong address. It was only when one of these notices was delivered by the postman to the 'wrong' (but actually correct!) address that my tenant was able to pass it on to me. I immediately contacted Southern Water, established that the bill was outstanding and, rather embarrassed, paid up (although I was pretty annoyed about not having been told about the outstanding amount either by phone, email OR letter - all of which they have details of on their system!!). I then did some investigating and knocking on doors and was able to recover 3 letters from debt collection agencies - all of which were also addressed to the wrong place. It's only because these letters are relatively recent that the occupiers of this property still had them to hand over to me. I have NO idea how many letters have gone missing - I don't feel that these guys were under any obligation to keep post that was addressed to someone they didn't know or to pass it on - they didn't know my name or what address the letters SHOULD have been going to!!

BUT Southern Water won't accept that this issue would never have reached a stage of debt collectors, or litigation or default, had they sent the correspondence to the correct address and so I have ended up with a negative credit score which they have refused to alter - NOT happy!! The address on my account was always correct when I lived in the property - all my bills came to the correct place, so how have they messed up on this one?

What is the position on this - are they at fault? Should they correct my credit score? Who do I go to to challenge them on this (after exhausting the complaints department!?)

Thanks!! (Sorry it's a bit long!)

Tixy

Hi

Do you know at what point the address was incorrectly changed?
Has the account always had the wrong address or did SW change it at some point? Do you still have some old letters from them to the correct address?

Might be worth a subject access request under the data protection act to see if you can see at what point it was changed.

If the address was changed by them in error before the outstanding bill was ever sent to you then I would certainly continue your complaint. Have you formally complained to them yet?

bengal-stripe

REDG wrote: »

Southern Water had been sending all correspondence relating to this outstanding amount to the wrong address.

Is that the actual address Southern Water supplies the service to, or is it a random address you have actually no connection with?

REDG

Hi, thanks for questions!

Is that the actual address Southern Water supplies the service to, or is it a random address you have actually no connection with?

- No, it's not the address that Southern Water supplies the service to. It's another flat within the building, which has its own separate entrance. The letters themselves refer to the correct property and account - but are addressed incorrectly and so were delivered elsewhere.

Do you know at what point the address was incorrectly changed?
Has the account always had the wrong address or did SW change it at some point? Do you still have some old letters from them to the correct address?

- No, I have no idea at what point they changed the address. It was always correct when I was living there and somewhere (in storage - I'm living overseas now) I do have letters from them - I moved out August last year and tenants moved in and they have successfully set up their own account with SW, so presumably it may have happened at that point? But I don't know that, I am guessing!

Deebbee

We have account with southern water, around July we've received letter telling us about our closing bill and direct debit had been cancelled. In the same time we've got another letter to our house addressed to some unknown woman. We have to open the letter and we found out that this woman told southern water that she moved to our house and she basically now the one who pay the bill at our house. We've called southern water about this. They told us it's purely their mistake and they said they will fix the problem. Later we've got a letter from them telling us that the direct debit is back on, but the thing that we are not happy about it's gone up by £6.82 per month. I know they calculate it based on annual bill, but what I'm fuming about is this problem shouldn't happened in the first place if it's not because their incompetency. Is it worth for me to complain or just let Southern Water throw me more bill each month from now on?

Tixy

Deebbee wrote: »

Is it worth for me to complain or just let Southern Water throw me more bill each month from now on?

Have they explained why the bill has increased? was there some months between the original DD being cancelled and the new one set up where no payment was made? Is the increase just to account for this?

Deebbee

Tixy wrote: »

Have they explained why the bill has increased? was there some months between the original DD being cancelled and the new one set up where no payment was made? Is the increase just to account for this?

Yes there was a month gap from the time they cancelled our direct debit until they set up a new direct debit mandate. So because of that we have to pay £6.82 more each month. I know it's not much but it's principal to me. If they were not making the mistake in the first place We are still paying the same old amount each month. This such a mistake is really avoidable one to be perfectly honest. To me personally they should take responsibilities by waving that 1 month free of our account. Surely to give this to us not going to make any different for A big company like Southern Water who makes tons of money.

Tiddlywinks

You need to start your own thread... this direct debit issue is not relevant to the original question.

Besides, what's the problem? You missed a payment (albeit because they cancelled it) for a service you use... You still have to pay for that service so you either pay the missed payment in full or over the rest of the year by the increased DD.

REDG

Grateful if someone could help with my original problem!! I am planning on sending complaint letter anyway but just having some confirmation/another opinion that I'm right would be reassuring!!