Scottish Power: Outstanding Bill 18 months late!

tedblight

Dear Mr

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

I have made a note of information you have provided.

I can confirm from our records that the account is closed with us from 1 January 2014. However, the payment which was made on 13 Feburary 2014 was returned from your bank. This is the reason, there is an outstanding amount of £37.27 existing on your account.

Please make the payment of this amount at the earliest to avoid payment reminders.




Morning,

I've just spoken to my bank who have confirmed that no attempt was made in February 2014 to take funds from my account. They also said that would have shown up on my bank statement as a direct debit coming out; and if failed; going straight back in again.
Also you would have wrote to me at the time and several times thereafter demanding payment. Which you have not done until yesterday, over 12 months later.

Once again I refer you too

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=5220

I hope this get resolved.

Thanks

Cardew

However, the payment which was made on 13 Feburary 2014 was returned from your bank. This is the reason, there is an outstanding amount of £37.27 existing on your account.

Strange terminology!

Are they implying their(SP) direct debit demand for £37.27 from your bank was refused for lack of funds in your account??

Aquamania

tedblight wrote: »

Dear Mr

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

I have made a note of information you have provided.

I can confirm from our records that the account is closed with us from 1 January 2014. However, the payment which was made on 13 Feburary 2014 was returned from your bank. This is the reason, there is an outstanding amount of £37.27 existing on your account.

Please make the payment of this amount at the earliest to avoid payment reminders.




Morning,

I've just spoken to my bank who have confirmed that no attempt was made in February 2014 to take funds from my account. They also said that would have shown up on my bank statement as a direct debit coming out; and if failed; going straight back in again.
Also you would have wrote to me at the time and several times thereafter demanding payment. Which you have not done until yesterday, over 12 months later.

Once again I refer you too

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=5220

I hope this get resolved.

Thanks

What I would say is that in my experience most bank staff have no real idea how the DD scheme actually works.

It may be a supplier error, but the fact the supplier claims that your payment was returned by the bank would suggest to me that they have evidence to support such allegation (via one of the DD systems).

I think this resolve around actual evidence available. If the supplier attempted to collect money via DD they will be able to produce evidence of this, and if payment was refused by the paying bank, they would have this on record too.

As I understand it from the links above, the 12 month back billing rule for energy does not mean a supplier must keep demanding payment at least every 12 months, but rather that a demand must be produced within 12 months of consumption. Thereafter, the statue of limitations act is the only effective time limit, and that is 6 years from first demand or last acknowledgement of debt (5 years in Scotland).

tedblight

I kind of agree with you, the banks don't really know how the Direct Debit systems work. I've checked on my online statement and the funds were available. My guess is I probably (but can't remember) cancelled my Direct Debit when I changed supplier at the time.
But it still begs the question, why wait this long to contact me for the first time?

Aquamania

tedblight wrote: »

I kind of agree with you, the banks don't really know how the Direct Debit systems work. I've checked on my online statement and the funds were available. My guess is I probably (but can't remember) cancelled my Direct Debit when I changed supplier at the time.
But it still begs the question, why wait this long to contact me for the first time?

Your bank should be able to look at the history of the DD mandate, tell you when it was cancelled and by what means. i.e who
But you may need to be persistent to find someone at the bank with the knowledge to be able to do this.

Creditors have up to 6 years (5 in Scotland) to chase debts. What is the date on the final bill?

From the image you provide earlier, it would suggest the final bill was produced on or before 25-Feb-2015, which is within 12 months of your switching date, March 2014. I think you are going to have to pay up, sorry.