[b]help please: Buchanan clark & wells[/b]

daviesites

Dear All,

This is my first time on such a thread, however, I am facing a situation with BCW and would really appreciate advice regarding my position/obligations to them.

The matter surrounds an outstanding bill to Scottish Power (SP) from our house at University (dating back over 2 years), however, the amount of the debt is disproportionate to the situation.

SO FAR, I have received 3 letters from them:

1ST LETTER (End of Aug '13): 'FINAL NOTICE'

It says that they have been instructed by SP to recover this overdue account + an admin charge of 21%.

Should I fail to respond positively to this communication, they will instruct a Doorstep Collection Agent to visit and admin fee increase to 30%.

2ND LETTER: (Mid Sept '13): 'FINAL NOTICE'

It says that as I failed to reply to their previous correspondence (because I don't live at the address these letters have been sent to), they are going to recommend to SP to commence legal proceedings against me with payment of interest/costs in addition to principal sum.

3RD LETTER: (Mid Oct '13): 'NOTICE OF IMPENDING FURTHER ACTION'

It says they now intend to recommend to our client to consider the possibility of further action on my account.

They list the options available to SP as:
1. Application to Court to obtain a County Court judgment/Decree
2. If a decree was granted and it remained unpaid, the court could enforce further action such as Attachment of Earnings/Earnings Arrestment
3. Refer your account to third party agents to attend your property to interview you to discuss realistic repayment terms.

And that I can still prevent the above action by contacting them immediately.

SINCE THEN:

I called them a couple of days ago and told them that I am not the correct individual who they should be contacting as instead it should be my housemate. My housemate called them today and they said that if we pay the full amount today, they will give us a 25% discount on the total owed......

HOWEVER, what would those who are experienced in such scenarios recommend? We are only students and I really don't want to be dealing with BCW but of course, I don't want to let this get to Court...

PLEASE HELP AND PROVIDE ME WITH ADVICE

Many Thanks (and sorry for the lengthy post)

sleepygirl126

ring them up....offer them a payment plan, have your incomings and outgoings ready....they are still at the stage that they want you to start paying the bill off....speak to them every time....they will almost always try and help

Sazzie23

Add in that you have only just received the letters as they were sent to a previous address. Difficult to work out who is liable in these cases but if you and housemate both used the fuel running up the bill then presumably you both should pay.

SP won't know you are still a student unless you tell them, and might think you are now earning, so my advice would be to contact them and make a start on paying it back together.

fatbelly

If you ignore the admin fees that BCW have made up and probably have no contractual basis anyway, do you agree that you are liable for the amount they state?

If not, you need to state this (in writing) and request a breakdown of the figures.

It's normal practice to deal with the agency that a creditor has appointed but in this case with BCW making empty threats and fictitious charges, I would be inclined to deal direct with SP, always in writing of course.

If you chose to ignore these letters, the most likely scenario is that the account would get passed back to SP, after BCW have run through their suite of threatograms, and then it would be given to another [STRIKE]scumbag [/STRIKE]organisation to do the same.

daviesites

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies.

We don't dispute that we were of course using gas and electric but a figure of £200 a month is ludicrous and that is something we dispute.

So from now, should I ignore BCW and just contact Scottish Power?

If so, should I only do it by letter (is email enough) or can I call them?

Thanks

Sinhanada

I know that Scottish Power are rather good at this type of thing. They consistently overcharge, especially in student households. You need to write to BCW and raise a dispute over the total money owed. You need a breakdown of the charges from SP - over what period and more importantly if these are estimated or actual metre reading figures.

Once they have returned with their correct figures, you can then work out a payment plan