Utilities Company Incorrectly put 2 defaults on my credit file.

Mortimer24

Hi there,


I'm new to this forum so just wanted to firstly say 'hi' and hopefully get some advice on a problem that I've been dealing with. I will try to be brief!


2 years ago, I rented my house out whilst I moved abroad and my letting agency liaised with my utilities company to advise when new tenants came and left and when the house reverted back to my responsibility. Unfortunately the utilities company failed to read a letter properly and subsequently during a 6 month period when the house was empty and back under my responsibility they were sending bills to the empty house instead of to my lettings agents.


As a result, this led to a debt on my account for both gas and electric accounts, which the first I heard about was a threatening letter from a debt collection agency sent to me at my foreign address suggesting bailiffs were on their way.


I investigated this immediately and paid the outstanding balance within days of receiving this letter and was assured by both the debt collection agency and my utilities company that no black mark would be put on my credit file as this was totally not my fault and I had settled the debt as soon as I possibly could.


However, I recently applied for a mortgage for a new house now I'm back in the UK and was happily under the illusion that my credit file was clean and up-to-date and so incurred survey costs, solicitors bills etc for my dream home only to be told by my mortgage advisor at the 11th hour that she couldn't get anyone to give me a mortgage due to two defaults on my credit file.


I have now spent 6 full weeks trying to get this situation cleared up with the utilities company with approximately 25-30 hours on the phone to them/sending emails etc. After all this effort and good support from Experian (whom I have now had to join) I am happy to report my credit file is now clear again (today) although I have lost the house I was trying to buy in the meantime due to their incredibly slow and difficult behaviour.


I am now seeking compensation but have been asked by the utilities company what more do I expect? They originally offered my 30.00 credited to my account (clearly I won't be staying with them for future) and this is completely inadequate given the situation.


Any ideas on how I can quantify this please and what help I can get to support this claim?