Final Demand for a bill, that I dispute... please help

psychoduck

Hi,

I had Scottish Power electric and Gas for a long time. My electric bill was always fine, both were on pre-payment metre and I rarely used emergency.

My gas was also fine, until one day it just stopped working. I topped up £20, it beeped, and the screen died. I still seemingly had gas in my house, but no way of knowing how much. I immediately contacted SP and asked for an engineer. I suffer with anxiety, so did not use the phone, and instead wrote an email.

Despite a promise of a reply in 48 hours. I got nothing. For the next 8 months, I sent emails weekly, and letters through the post and not once did I get a reply (later on, they would admit to seeing these emails) during this time, I was terrified of using gas. I have a wife and child with asthma, who both are recommended to make sure the house does not drop below 15 degrees. As it was during christmas 2014, I had no choice but to buy an electric heater. I put another 20 on my gas card, not sure if it would be accepted by the broken metre, I put it in. No beeps. But hopefully it still worked.

We carried on being careful. Gas was mainly used for hot water for baths. Washing up was done in a sink of kettle boiled water. I knew the gas I paid for would run out soon, even if the extra 20 was accepted.

Eventually after 8 months, and to our surprise this gas not running out (after 3 months we figured we must still have SOME supply, so we started to use water as normal, but still did not turn on any heating and stuck to electric heaters), we got an email from scottish power asking to call them, despite em explaining my anxiety issue.

But I managed to struggle through doing it. Maybe because I was so annoyed at this point it helped me fight through, I dont know, but I shakenly managed to do the call. I explained the situation. They admitted they got the emails and dont know why they were ignored, especially given that we had a child in the house. They sent someone out the next week to replace the metre, and our balance was set to zero.

The following month, our bills went up, and then we got a bill for outstanding debt. £323 that was used in the 8 months we had a broken metre.

I disputed this, and they said they would add it as a % charge every time we topped up. I told them I wanted proof we owed it and used that gas, given we'd been so careful to use nothing.

I never received proof, but every time I topped up £20, £1 was taken for the bill (5%). A couple of months later, we switched companies... we were beyond annoyed with SP, and they were about to price hike. So off we went to OVO, who have been great.

But in August, we got a letter from LCS, on behalf of SP, who demanded £359 (£46 for costs). I explained to them, that I dispute the bill, and I have no proof they legally have the right to claim it and asked for them to send proof that they own this 'debt'

I got nothing. 2 months later, I got a phone call, demanding the money again, and asking for an income and expenditure form. I sent one, just so it was with them when I get confirmation of the debt owed, which I explained in a covering letter. I would pay £1 to whatever debt could be proven to be mine.

I got no reply.

At the end of february (2016), I got another letter from LCS. Final Demand, pay all the money now, or we take you to court.

Where do I stand here? what do I do? I still have no proof they own the bill, I have no proof I should pay that much... In fact, I'm inclined to believe I should owe nothing, given that I begged and pleading for them to fix a metre so I could heat my house properly and they ignored me.

I've sent income and expenditure forms, they know I cant afford the amount they're asking for.

Please help? despite making the call to SP helping me get past a bit of anxiety, this situation has now got my burying my head again, and I'm terrified of what the next call or letter will be demanding.

Thanks for any help.

Ectophile

Every time LCS contacts you, tell them that you dispute the bill and they must refer the matter back to Scottish Power. That's all you need to say to them.

Raise a formal complaint with Scottish Power. If you're writing a letter, make it clear that it's a formal complaint. Don't bother with email. Make sure they know it's a complaint, not just an inquiry. That forces them to go through their published complaints procedure.

If Scottish Power can't resolve the complaint, or if they just fail to respond adequately after 8 weeks, then complain to the Energy Ombudsman https://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy-complaint.html

Unfortunately, the whole thing is a slow, tedious, and bureaucratic process.

Cardew

It seems you got a bill from SP saying you owed £323; which doesn't seem unreasonable for 8 months gas.


You appear to be disputing the bill on the grounds that SP should have fixed the meter. Also you don't accept that LCS are the appointed Debt Collection Agency for SP.


By all means go ahead with your complaint, but I suggest that the sole issue should be SP's failure to fix the meter.


P.S. Was the debt still on the meter when you moved to OVO?

footyguy

psychoduck wrote: »

Hi,

I had Scottish Power electric and Gas for a long time. My electric bill was always fine, both were on pre-payment metre and I rarely used emergency.

My gas was also fine, until one day it just stopped working. I topped up £20, it beeped, and the screen died. I still seemingly had gas in my house, but no way of knowing how much. I immediately contacted SP and asked for an engineer. I suffer with anxiety, so did not use the phone, and instead wrote an email.

Despite a promise of a reply in 48 hours. I got nothing. For the next 8 months, I sent emails weekly, and letters through the post and not once did I get a reply (later on, they would admit to seeing these emails) during this time, I was terrified of using gas. I have a wife and child with asthma, who both are recommended to make sure the house does not drop below 15 degrees. As it was during christmas 2014, I had no choice but to buy an electric heater. I put another 20 on my gas card, not sure if it would be accepted by the broken metre, I put it in. No beeps. But hopefully it still worked.

We carried on being careful. Gas was mainly used for hot water for baths. Washing up was done in a sink of kettle boiled water. I knew the gas I paid for would run out soon, even if the extra 20 was accepted.

Eventually after 8 months, and to our surprise this gas not running out (after 3 months we figured we must still have SOME supply, so we started to use water as normal, but still did not turn on any heating and stuck to electric heaters), we got an email from scottish power asking to call them, despite em explaining my anxiety issue.

But I managed to struggle through doing it. Maybe because I was so annoyed at this point it helped me fight through, I dont know, but I shakenly managed to do the call. I explained the situation. They admitted they got the emails and dont know why they were ignored, especially given that we had a child in the house. They sent someone out the next week to replace the metre, and our balance was set to zero.

The following month, our bills went up, and then we got a bill for outstanding debt. £323 that was used in the 8 months we had a broken metre.

I disputed this, and they said they would add it as a % charge every time we topped up. I told them I wanted proof we owed it and used that gas, given we'd been so careful to use nothing.

I never received proof, but every time I topped up £20, £1 was taken for the bill (5%). A couple of months later, we switched companies... we were beyond annoyed with SP, and they were about to price hike. So off we went to OVO, who have been great.

But in August, we got a letter from LCS, on behalf of SP, who demanded £359 (£46 for costs). I explained to them, that I dispute the bill, and I have no proof they legally have the right to claim it and asked for them to send proof that they own this 'debt'

I got nothing. 2 months later, I got a phone call, demanding the money again, and asking for an income and expenditure form. I sent one, just so it was with them when I get confirmation of the debt owed, which I explained in a covering letter. I would pay £1 to whatever debt could be proven to be mine.

I got no reply.

At the end of february (2016), I got another letter from LCS. Final Demand, pay all the money now, or we take you to court.

Where do I stand here? what do I do? I still have no proof they own the bill, I have no proof I should pay that much... In fact, I'm inclined to believe I should owe nothing, given that I begged and pleading for them to fix a metre so I could heat my house properly and they ignored me.

I've sent income and expenditure forms, they know I cant afford the amount they're asking for.

Please help? despite making the call to SP helping me get past a bit of anxiety, this situation has now got my burying my head again, and I'm terrified of what the next call or letter will be demanding.

Thanks for any help.

Oh dear, what a pickle you appear to have gotten yourself into.

Without getting into the rights or wrongs of the bill itself, as I understand it, you were sent a bill about 12-15 months ago (not sure of the exact date)

But you disputed the bill. That means you would have raised a formal complaint with the supplier.

The supplier, as per their complaint procedure, would have up to 8 weeks (lets call that 2 months for simplicity) to resolve your dispute.
After which time you could have asked the ombudsman to assist you.

Unfortunately, it would appear you didn't take this course of action but ignored matters. I'm sorry to say that it now sounds to me like you've lost such opportunity as the ombudsman will only accept complaints withinh 9 months of the original complaint being made to the supplier.

So where do you stand now, you ask.
Well your options are either to pay the bill - which you probably don't want to based on the story you have told.
Or the other option is to take LCS up on their option of taking you to court over the debt. Then you can explain everything to the judge.

Note: Unfortunately, debts don't just disappear because you cant afford them.
If you decide you do accept the debt and want to pay it (or if the judge decides that for you), then why not pop your details onto the Debt Free Wannabe board and get some advice there
(What they do is very similar to what a judge would do anyway, so even if you do go down that route, at least to be forwarned and all that )

Edit: I should have also warned you that if you do decide to allow this matter to go to court, a significant amount of more costs will be added. If the judge doesn't awrd in your favour, then you'll almost certainly be expected to pay theses too.
You normally have 28 days to settle a court order in full - failure to do so will result in a CCJ against you (and the complainant may take further action against you if you either haven't agreed a payment plan or kept to one that was agreed - that may incur you in yet more costs). So do try to settle matters out of court if possible.

psychoduck

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I did dispute the bill with Scottish Power at the time. As soon as I got the bill, I disputed. For weeks after, when they told me how they came to their conclusion (it was a rate based on average use... as I said, I barely used it due to being worried) I disputed it again, and complained about the procedure for them fixing the meter taking the better part of a year.

I was told it would be in dispute, but the bill would be passed on to a collections department for me to take it up with them.

That was why I never did any more disputing at that point. I was waiting for the contact from this department, as I believed it was going to get sorted through them, or at least proven to be a lower amount as it was on avaerage a charge of £1.34 a day, I know from previous bills I was only using £1.50 (roughly) when I had heating on, and hot water was constantly in use. We never used hot water for a good portion of time (except baths), hell we even stopped using the gas stoves and stuck to the electric oven and heated soups, sauces etc in the microwave.

As soon as LCS contacted me, I informed them I was told it was in dispute, as far as I understood it was.

Now, from what I gather from footyguys post, I'm out of time for a complaint... which is a bit of a kick in the teeth, as I never tried to ignore the bill, or ignore a complaint, I just contacted them on the phone in my last communication with them, and mistakenly believed that I had started the procedure.

If I am indeed too late, and my only option is to pay this debt (as I dont want to go to court and have more debt added to it for costs), then should I lodge a complaint with Scottish Power about the service, the undue stress and anxiety it caused, and the questionable final bill as a separate matter? and if they agree, after they've looked into the complaint, that they were in the wrong can they cancel the debt? or is it LCS's hands now, and SP have no control?

psychoduck

Just a quick update. I sent Scottish Power a formal complaint.

I got a reply yesterday, stating that they are aware of the issue with my account, and that it is already being investigated now and they will have a resolution within 10 days, or if it takes longer they will still contact me within 10 days to let me know they're doing their best to resolve it.

They gave me a reference code: 80****9201

This number looked familiar, I thought it was my account number. Turns out it's not. So I searched it through my emails.

I found an email, dated at the end of August last year, about when I first contacted Scottish Power about the poor service, before they passed it to LCS. In said email, it was the one where they admitted to received my requests for help, they also stated they would be in touch within 10 days... and gave me the reference code: 80****9201

So, when they contacted me by phone to pass it to their collections department, before actually passing it to an outside company, and I thought it was a follow up to my complaint (stupidly), it turns out it wasn't. As my case is still being looked at, and was seemingly lost in the shuffle.

Now just to wait 10 days and see if they reply this time, or if I have to email them again to get information.