Default for address I've never lived at now "satisfied" not removed

jadekelly90!

Hello, back in March I checked my credit score for the first time in about 18 months and to my horror it had plummeted considerably. I checked my credit report to find a British Gas account had appeared for an address I've never lived at. The account ran from July 2011 until mid 2015 and was horridly managed, very few payments made on time, constantly in arrears of 3 - 6 months and in arrears for nearly a year until it finally defaulted.

I called British Gas to get this rectified, which took a very, very long time (at first they tried to tell me there was nothing they could do). When they finally agreed, they told me the changes would take place at the end of April, although it seemed to take about a month longer than that. However, the changes they have made have not deleted this account from my credit file, but have merely marked it as "satisfied." Obviously this is not good enough, as it is not my debt and should have no place on my file at all.

Before I phone British Gas back about this, I would like to equip myself with some information, such as what they should have done to rectify this, what they should have reported to the credit agencies, whether there is anyone else I should be contacting also/instead, and anything else or any advice that could be at all useful in this situation.

Also I feel that I should quickly explain that this is not fraud as such. The address that the debt is for is a top floor flat in a building where I used to live in the first floor flat. The letting agents, who managed the whole building, used a switching service company that automatically switched customers if they found a better deal elsewhere on the market. A couple of months before I moved out of the flat I started to get letters from British Gas with my name on but for the wrong flat (as they came into the communal hallway). I wasn't even a British Gas customer, I was with Eon (and my bank statements show that I paid £50 per month for gas and electricity to Eon for the entire 18 months I lived in the flat). At the time I called British Gas and was under the impression things had been rectified, and also notified the letting agents of what had happened, who said they believed it was because of this switching company. It's maybe also worth noting that I don't believe the addresses were all registered correctly, as during my time living there I was constantly having to manually enter the first floor flat address, as it didn't show up as connected to the postcode - I also notified the letting agents of this but I don't think they ever did anything about it.

Anyway, any help, advice or information would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hello jadekelly90! and welcome to the Forums. Just a quick thought about your account with us. I could be wrong but thought I'd flag it up. Certainly sounds as though there could've been a mix up with the addresses. This tends to happen more with new builds or conversions. Was this the case here?

Whilst you were at the flat did you ever check the serial number on the meter itself? If you did, was it the same as the one we were billing to? If it was, then all seems well with our side. Also, did you take regular meter readings and were these used on our bills? Again, if the readings match those you took, then all looks okay. If not, this could be a crossed meter. This is where meter details become mixed up with other properties. Depending on the size of the development, this can sometimes take quite a time to sort out.

As we're no longer your supplier, there's little we can do but there are BG reps on the Energy Boards who actively help customers. Could be worth flagging this up to them.

I could, of course, be totally off track with my theory and sorry If I am barking up the wrong tree. Hope it gives you a bit of steer though.

Malc

eddddy

It terms of phoning british gas, if I were you, I would keep what you say very simple and straightforward...

- You were not a BG customer at that time, you were an Eon customer
- You have never lived at the address they are quoting
- You require them to remove those account details from your credit record

Then answer any questions they ask you.

I wouldn't launch into details about the switching company, managing agent etc (unless they ask you), as it's likely to create confusion - and it may not be the cause of the problem anyway.

GingerBob_3

A basic question, similar to other current threads - how did BG get your name?

eddddy

GingerBob wrote: »

A basic question, similar to other current threads - how did BG get your name?

It sounds like the OP's Landlord/Agent uses a Utility Management Company, that informs Utility Companies of Tenants names and moving in/out dates etc.

So either the Agent or the Utility Management company messed up, and matched the wrong tenant to the wrong address.


(If you're interested, you can see what Utility Management Cos do : http://www.hallmarkcorporate.com/letting-agents/ This is just for info, I don't know that company, so I'm definitely not recommending them.)