Advantis will not leave me alone

dcems

Several weeks ago I received a letter stating I owe Thames Water £154 from an address I left in 2007. I sent a standard prove it letter because they asked me to prove where I was living during the disputed period and all advice I have received is saying to me its not for me to prove anything.
So anyway they emailed me this in Feb(this is the 4th email ive has from them):


As you have requested proof of the balance owed from our offices, we can confirm that we have raised a query with our client on your behalf in order to obtain a copy of the bill for the account. In the meantime, although we appreciate that you may not wish to provide our offices with proof of your residency to show where you were resident during the billing period in question, please be advised that upon receipt of such supporting documentation, Advantis will be able to assist you further in resolving this matter with our client.

In the meantime, all further action on the account has been placed on hold whilst you wait to receive a copy of the bill. Please be advised that we will be in contact with you further as soon as this documentation has been issued to you.'

I have since been waiting for this bill from Advantis which funnily enough has yet to materialise. However I received a letter from them this morning saying they have heard from Thames Water and they want me to ring them on some priority helpline.


I have no intention of ringing them.


I really want to bury this as Im finding it stressful. Is there anything further I can do?
Thanks

fermi

Perhaps either ignore until they write with the evidence, or reply telling them that you will not be phoning as you are only prepared to deal with them in writing.

FireWyrm

Normally, it is suggested you simply ignore a DCA until they come up with some credible proof of liability, but in this case, it's a pretty straight forward question...were you living at the address during the period the bill applies to? If you were not, then a letter to that effect should suffice. I can understand that they require proof of your assertion that you were not living there during that period since anyone can deny not living somewhere in the hopes of evading a perfectly legitimate request for payment. What harm is there in providing such evidence as they require if you genuinely do not owe the money?

I think you might be making things unnecessarily difficult on yourself for no gain. If they have given you the dates when you are alleged to have lived at the address, then I see no reason not to robustly defend yourself.

dcems

Its for a specific 6 month period. I don't have any old documents going back that far anyway-the only thing I could get would be a copy of my council tax bill.


My water bill was transferred from that address to the address that I moved to subsequently so really its not rocket science for thames water to realise that I was living somewhere else during the period in question.

FireWyrm

dcems wrote: »

Its for a specific 6 month period. I don't have any old documents going back that far anyway-the only thing I could get would be a copy of my council tax bill.

Then provide that if it shows a completely different address. You are not liable. You will have been seen to have co-operated and no one can ask any more of you. You can then write a stiff letter to the DCA telling them to back off.

dcems wrote: »

My water bill was transferred from that address to the address that I moved to subsequently so really its not rocket science for thames water to realise that I was living somewhere else during the period in question.

Perhaps, but that presupposes that they have a system that allows such cross referencing and that someone takes the time to actually look. Being obstinate with a DCA for no reason gets you nothing but hassle. Is there any way to speak to Thames water and get them to 'work it out' for themselves, thereby removing the DCA from the question?

matttye

Write to them saying you will not be speaking to them by phone for any reason whatsoever nor is it your responsibility to provide them with proof of where you have or haven't lived. They are the ones claiming you owe them some money so it is down to them to prove the alleged debt.

Finish the letter by saying that any more correspondence from them that ignores your wishes will be deemed harassment and complaints will be passed onto the appropriate parties.