Utility scam.. Help?

Harley26

I won't name the utility company in question as I currently have an ongoing dispute and would rather they weren't alerted to this particular issue before I can get advice!!

I lived in a shared house 2 years ago, during this time we received no contact from the supplier, 2 years on, I receive an email saying that £2000 would be debited from my account. I rang my bank who said this was likely a scam, and blocked all suspicious transactions. However, it turned out that this was in fact our supplier for the previous address and after several confusing emails whereby the bill frequently changed depending on the mood of the company, I finally established what the bill was for and when. I later found out that several other tenants had also received the same £2000 bill - they only split it into a shared bill when confronted.

I should add that this is a management company, and so when (after 6 months without a bill) my housemate rang a utility company to find out who was supplying our energy we were given an obscure company with no contact details, NOT the management company. We therefore had no way to find out who was supplying the energy until we received some kind of correspondence.

I believed that as I had received no contact from the supplier for over a year, I would be protected by the back billing code, but after relaying this to the company twice (they ignored the first mention), they finally came back with a host of reasons why this did not apply, in particular a letter which was supposedly sent to us. However, this letter was dated prior to our contract beginning, and although the headed address was correct, the letter content referenced an address in another city! The letter was not on any sort of headed or branded paper, and I'm fairly sure that they have altered a different letter in order to 'prove' that I owe this money. This is not the first time I have caught them lying, I have emails and phone transcripts in which they contradict themselves and backtrack on earlier statements. They also admitted to signing a contract on my behalf, and later cancelling it 'when they realised I hadn't signed it'.

What are my legal standings on this matter? Surely this company cannot send out faked letters and sign contracts on my behalf?!
HELP!

halibut2209

if you owe them any money, then pay them.

If you don't, tell them the debt is denied and wait to see if they take you to court. You can then present the judge with the evidence

LeedsStudent13

if i were you i'd play hardball, it seems to me that the utility company have shot themselves in the foot. if they truly have no conclusive evidence of any correspondence sent to you combined with them changing "evidence" and their totals being sloppy. they don't have much of a case. Refuse the debt with a well formatted letter outlining the reasons and i doubt they'll push it further. I'm currently studying law at University so i hope this helped