Help with Npower + Past Due Credit please

lilbabyadam

Roughly 4 years ago my husband received a demand from Npower for money from a shared house he lived in years ago, where he had already settled the bill after leaving (it was in his name and all tennats paid their share to him and he paid the final bill). At the time he rung them, explained he had paid the bill upon leaving, they looked into it and it seemed that no new tenant or landlord had taken on the bills afterwards and despite closing his account Npower had decided he was the easiest person to chase for the money. They said they would no longer chase him as it was from after they lived their and we thought that was that. We moved house about 6 months later, having not heard from then since.
A year later (roughly 3 years ago), we received a demand from a debt company at our new address for the same bill (but increased in amount due to debt fees). Npower had not contact in between this time and we had mail forwarding and the landlord had our new address. He rung them, this time he sent evidence of the dates of his tenancy and bills etc via scanned in documents. Again, we thought all sorted and never heard from them again.
Now, three years later we have suddenly begun getting debt demands again, for the same bill, but now over £3500, from Past Due Credit. We have moved house since, but we remained in that house for a year after this was sorted, THEN we had mail-forwarding for 6 months, and the owner knows our new address and has not had any mail for us there. So no effort to contact us has been made by Npower and we have not hidden from them.
So now, 3 years after thinking we had sorted it, they are again chasing us. My husband rung NPower AGAIN, went through it all again, unfortunately we have lost the original paper work now (bearing in mind the bill is from over 7 years ago, the original dispute from 5 years ago and we've moved house twice in that time). Luckily he had a copy of some evidence he had scanned in and so they said to send that through, that they would call the debt company off, and would contact us by the end of last week to let us know what was happening. My husband asked for it all to be in writing and to send us a letter with details. They never wrote or rang (surprise surprise) and my husband was planning to ring them tomorrow to chase up. However, today we have now had ANOTHER letter from debt company (still Past Due Credit), suddenly nicer in tone without court threats, saying they have been authorised by Npower to settle the bill for £2675.76 instead of the £3344.70 full amount, if we pay by 15/05/2017. But they never rung us back and said they were calling the debt company off??? I am really fed up, and don't know what to do. Feel like they are just trying to coerce us into paying a debt that isn't ours by offering discounts etc. We don't even have any money, if we owed this I would sort out a way to pay them as I don't believe in not paying money owed, but we don't owe them and they have said twice before that we don't (never sent us anything in writing though!). But I am fed up of this keeping coming back every few years, please any advice what we can do? He is going to ring them tomorrow as he is on an early shift but need advise on what to say to make them actually stop trying to treat us like idiots? Thank you.

nPower

lilbabyadam wrote: »

Roughly 4 years ago my husband received a demand from Npower for money from a shared house he lived in years ago, where he had already settled the bill after leaving (it was in his name and all tennats paid their share to him and he paid the final bill). At the time he rung them, explained he had paid the bill upon leaving, they looked into it and it seemed that no new tenant or landlord had taken on the bills afterwards and despite closing his account Npower had decided he was the easiest person to chase for the money. They said they would no longer chase him as it was from after they lived their and we thought that was that. We moved house about 6 months later, having not heard from then since.
A year later (roughly 3 years ago), we received a demand from a debt company at our new address for the same bill (but increased in amount due to debt fees). Npower had not contact in between this time and we had mail forwarding and the landlord had our new address. He rung them, this time he sent evidence of the dates of his tenancy and bills etc via scanned in documents. Again, we thought all sorted and never heard from them again.
Now, three years later we have suddenly begun getting debt demands again, for the same bill, but now over £3500, from Past Due Credit. We have moved house since, but we remained in that house for a year after this was sorted, THEN we had mail-forwarding for 6 months, and the owner knows our new address and has not had any mail for us there. So no effort to contact us has been made by Npower and we have not hidden from them.
So now, 3 years after thinking we had sorted it, they are again chasing us. My husband rung NPower AGAIN, went through it all again, unfortunately we have lost the original paper work now (bearing in mind the bill is from over 7 years ago, the original dispute from 5 years ago and we've moved house twice in that time). Luckily he had a copy of some evidence he had scanned in and so they said to send that through, that they would call the debt company off, and would contact us by the end of last week to let us know what was happening. My husband asked for it all to be in writing and to send us a letter with details. They never wrote or rang (surprise surprise) and my husband was planning to ring them tomorrow to chase up. However, today we have now had ANOTHER letter from debt company (still Past Due Credit), suddenly nicer in tone without court threats, saying they have been authorised by Npower to settle the bill for £2675.76 instead of the £3344.70 full amount, if we pay by 15/05/2017. But they never rung us back and said they were calling the debt company off??? I am really fed up, and don't know what to do. Feel like they are just trying to coerce us into paying a debt that isn't ours by offering discounts etc. We don't even have any money, if we owed this I would sort out a way to pay them as I don't believe in not paying money owed, but we don't owe them and they have said twice before that we don't (never sent us anything in writing though!). But I am fed up of this keeping coming back every few years, please any advice what we can do? He is going to ring them tomorrow as he is on an early shift but need advise on what to say to make them actually stop trying to treat us like idiots? Thank you.

Hi lilbabyadam

Thanks for your post.

I'm disappointed to learn that your partner's experiencing issues with an old account.

If your husband can please get in touch with us using the account/address details on our profile page (putting MSE in the subject header) then we'll be happy to take a look into this for him. Providing he notified us that he moved out at the time there shouldn't be an issue but we'll need to double check. If we've billed the account more than 12 months after he notified us he moved out then he may also be eligible for reductions to the balance if it is genuine under the Energy UK Code of Practice.
Either way, we're happy to take a look at this for him.

Kind regards

Jess

lilbabyadam

Thank you I will show him this when he gets in from work and he will be in contact