Can Scottish Power put a credit default on my credit report for a disputed debt?

scoon

HI there. Wondering if anyone can provide me with some assistance and help me to understand my legal position. I am being chased by Scottish Power for over £1100 for what they claim is due for unpaid electricity and gas bills. I utterly dispute this. I had a direct debit in place in which they collected over £120 a month from me for dual fuel. I live in a 3 bed terraced house and we have a number of energy saving measures such as a modern fully condensing combi boiler installed in 2012, draft proofing, insulation etc as well as led light bulbs throughout and all appliances are a or a+ rated.

My complaint is a long running one. It was me who first contacted them in Nov 2014 to say I was concerned something on my account was wrong after noticing they were reporting my gas usage at zero, and my electric at £120 per month. This was only evident to me some time into the contract as they had actually been writing to me to say everything was in order and there was no need to change my direct debit amount - this had put me in a false sense of security and I didn't think I needed to scrutinise my bills as a result.

They came back to me and asked for a picture of my gas meter, so they could ascertain if there might be a fault with it. I sent one. I received a letter to say my complaint was being dealt with and they would be back in touch. I didn't receive any bills but on the android app, the cost of gas consumption had gone from zero to report £7.5k in 12 months! Surely it would be impossible for someone to use this much gas with one Worcester Bosch cdi 42 even if they had it on max 24 hours a day!?

I had got pretty frustrated with the lack service, it was taking them ages to come back to me and every time I tried to contact them for an update I was not getting anywhere but spending hours on the phone or sending emails that went unanswered, so I decided to switch to First Utility.

In April 2015, a short while after this switch, I was trying to use my debit card and it was declined. I checked my bank statement and to my horror, Scottish Power had taken over £3800 from my account with any warning or notice. I rang my bank. They reversed the direct debit, thankfully, although I was still left without access to any funds for over 24 hours as a result.

I telephoned in to Scottish Power and demanded to be put through to a manager. They basically said they did have some issues with their systems which had created problems with my billing but they were now certain I owed them the £3800+ amount they were claiming was due. However they said if I made an immediate payment within 24 hours, they would reduce this to around £1100. I said I was not happy to be pressured into making a decision like this and asked for the offer to be put in writing. I was told if I did not accept that offer there and then over the phone, it was withdrawn. With reluctance, I said I was unable to accept it because I did not believe I owed them any money at all.

I then had a written letter turn up a few weeks later which basically said I had rejected an offer of around £500 to seek resolution to this dispute - I hadn't as I had never been offered this amount. It said they now believed they were due the £1100 amount (the amount which had initially been put to me as an offer). This was in May and I have 6 months to go to the Ombudsman which provides me until around November.

When I now log in to 'my account', I see there are about 7 bills all issued around 1st April 2015 - they vary, some say I am £1200 in credit, some say I am £3800 in debit. The last one says I am £1100 in debit - the amount they are now claiming is due. Certainly these bills were not showing up under my account when I looked around April - they have been added afterwards, as has a load of messages under the 'my messages' section which seem to have been added afterwards to try and show Scottish Power were actively on top of this dispute trying to resolve the issues and keeping me regularly updated, when infact they left me for over 6 months with no response.

Last month when I was on holiday I was rang 15 times in 1 week. I kept saying I was on holiday and in no position to deal with this and asked they stopped harassing me. Only when I installed an app on my phone to record my calls and then informed the operative I was recording the call did they actually stop harassing me.

This morning I had an email which says if I do not pay the £1100 immediately, they will record a credit default on my credit report. Is this allowable if the debt is disputed? They also say they may "add collection charges to your account".

I'm actually perfectly happy for them to take me to court where I can present all the evidence I have to demonstrate the incompetence I have been subjected to and they can present whatever evidence they have which proves I owe them what appears to be a totally arbitrary figure - certainly they have not produced anything to me to demonstrate I owe them this money, just countless bills all with different amounts on. I am not happy to simply roll over and pay an amount of money which seems to be plucked from outer space without any rhyme or reason. When I telephoned them today, they confirmed they would not seek a court judgement but they would just put the credit default marker on my credit report, which is obviously going to cause me some serious issues. Is this true, can they do this?

Should I pay the amount and then instigate legal proceedings against them? Any advice would be greatly received, thanks in advance.

BobQ

Have you asked then to calibrate the meters or change them?

Is the meter ticking over when all appliances are switched off?

Have you changed your meter in the past few years from an imperial to a metric one but the company has not recorded it on their system?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3hjH7Ptrt9tHDG618NQwC3Z/reading-meters

DUTR

Within 2 yrs the meters should be read independantly, the meter readings should show that one account is in arrears and one well in credit and the deficit between the two should be small.
However going up the david and goliath route is not always wise, the companies find it easier and cost effective to sell your debt to the credit collection companies.
So get onto to SP CS , drop all the unecessary drama around the boiler n that, and stick with the facts , I'm sure it will get resolved quickly enough.
PS I'm more than content with SP as a customer .

scoon

Thanks for your input guys. BobQ, I asked for them to check my meter, that's when they responded to say send them a picture of it, which I did, and then 6 months went by without them doing anything else (they kept saying they'd be back in touch and then nothing). Now I'm not with them any more, they say there's nothing they can do to check my meter. so I've asked First Utility for assistance with this.

The meter was changed in '08 to a metric one, but the serial number on the bills matches the label.

DUTR, several chaps attended during our time with Scottish Power to read the meters. They were given access. This is another reason why I didn't ever think to check the detail of my bills as I just presumed they were right based on the readings that they had done and the ones I had done and supplied too.

Where we are now is SP CS refuse to look at it or enter into any more correspondence with me.Its as if they think there's no problem with the service they have provided. However, when I look at 'my account' I have several bills which all contradict one another and all I have to go on is their word that the last one they generated is correct. Its impossible to ascertain where these figures have come from as they have issued 8 bills in 2 weeks all with completely different numbers on. They refer to "adjustments" which are either credits or debits but no explanation as to how they have worked them out. Any layman will struggle to comprehend what these bills are trying to show.

Congrats for being content with SP as a customer, I guess you're one of those lucky ones where they haven't made an almighty balls up. My beef with them is that they've clearly made a huge error here and yet have done nothing to try and resolve it for me, I've not even had an apology.

The other fact worth mentioning, Wales and west utility attended on a daily basis approx a year ago to conduct gas checks as they said there was a gas leak in the street. They dug up our front path and the road outside and relaid pipes. They then came back around 4 months later and did the same thing again - apparently someone keeps reporting being able to smell gas in the street. Presumably though a leak before our meter would not affect our reported usage?

fermi

If they believe the default is genuine they could. It's in their online T&Cs at least.

https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/legal/terms-and-conditions/use-of-personal-data

If they did and you dispute it then you would have to go to whatever ombudsman looks at complaints for water companies and report the issue to the ICO.

fruitisbad

When we'd moved in to our house the previous tennent had been giving incorrect readins making it look as if we'd used a years worth of electric in one month.

We called and they were quite reasonable. I gave examples showing how much we do use every month to show that using what they claimed in that first month was physically important.

Often the collection letters are just automated and fired off on set dates. Try ringing if you haven't already and ask them to monitor your usage over a set period. You might have a bti more to back up any dispute with then.