Help! Demand From Moriarty law

WillJay

I need urgent help. I've received a demand for over £3000 today from Moriarty Law to my home address in London relating to a company called spark energy, who seem to be an energy supplier based in the Scottish borders. They are saying they have bought this debt off spark energy. Now, I've never even heard of this company spark energy before, and this is the first I've heard of them or the debt. I've no idea what the debt relates to. It can't be a bill relating to where I live, as I have always been with good energy.
I do own 2 rental properties in the north east and north west but am still struggling to see how that would work as I presume the tenants there get their own supplier, and I wouldn't be liable if the tenant didn't pay.
I am freaked out.
They are telling me to call them but I am really loathe to do that as then they will have my number.
Can anyone advise me what to do? I am worried that they will chase this or threaten court etc.
Thank you.

HampshireH

Assuming your tenants have set up their utilities is a mistake. There is every chance they havent. Have you checked? It stands to reason they would chase the homeowner if they don't have tenant details and the former tenant gave landlord details when they close their account.

Ask for copies of the bills so that you can see what it is for, when it is owed from, and who is actually liable. If your tenants then this should be easily resolved by providing tenant details as per the clause which should be in their tenancy agreements allowing you to do so (assuming the tenancy is a good one and you must check first). You must also check that their tenancy does state that they are responsible for utilities.

There are several posts about spark energy on the energy forum you may want to have a look there too.

sourcrates

Hi,

The first response to any demand for payment of a debt you don’t recognise, is to send the provit letter.

A debt collector must provide evidence of your liability for any debt they say you owe once asked to do so.

The account will be put “on hold” whilst this evidence is sort.

Template letter here :

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2607247

Do not call them, everything should be done in writing only.

WogewWabbit

I've just joined this forum as I spotted this thread. The exact same thing happened to me, I received a letter 2 days ago, stating that my Spark Energy debts were sold to Merligen Investments ltd, and my accounts are handled by Moriarty Law Ltd. The envelope contained two letters, one allegedly from Spark Energy, signed by hand as "Spark Energy", and the other letter from Merligen Investments Ltd, signed by hand as "Merligen Investments Ltd". (!!!!!!??!? Who signs an official letter by hand, and writes a company name instead of his/her own?)
I think this in itself makes these letters very suspicious, as hand-signing a letter with a company name is not any any way an official form of signing a letter. None of the letters mention any living person dealing with these letters.

I would be lying if I said I haven't heard of Spark Energy, as I did receive a letter demanding arrears in payments in May 2016. But apart from that letter (which I ignored, as I thought it was a fraud attempt) I never had any dealings with them ever, at least not with my knowledge.
Neither the letter in 2016, nor the one I've just received 2 days ago are mentioning any further details about the alleged debt, just an account number.
Among my emails going back to 2006 I don't have any correspondence with Spark Energy. Also I have all the proofs from all of my previous addresses, that I was holding energy accounts with other suppliers.
When I received the first letter from them in 2016, I decided to ignore it, as it arrived to my current address, for which I can prove that I've been paying energy bills to a different supplier. I had even contacted my supplier in this matter, and they confirmed that I still belonged to them, and there was no attempt to switch me over to other suppliers.
My worry about Spark Energy and the account number they provided is that considering the horror stories circulating the web about this company, I have reasons to think that they would take any attempt from me querying about the account number in question as a confirmation that the account exists, and they would switch me over without my consent.
What I find interesting is that neither now, nor in 2016 the letters mention any address or any date that would help identify when and where they supplied gas or electricity to me. The debt can't refer to my current address, that is for sure.
One thing I think is possible: I used to live in flat shares before 2010, and maybe someone at one of these places could have switched over to Spark, and now Spark is chasing me as the only person they can find who can be related to that particular address.

I still find it weird that an energy company would send out bill payment warnings without telling the recipient the dates in question, for which the bills are due. All they sent out was an account number, that's all. I am still thinking this is some sort of fraud attempt, either by Moriarty Law (which seems to be a small law firm registered in Ilford), or by Spark Energy itself.

Interesting addition is that I recently searched for debt consolidation solutions through MoneySupermarket.com, which in the end resulted in numerous credit searches on my credit profiles. (All my debts are accounted for and handled 100% correctly, I was just curious if I can find a cheaper solution.) In the end I decided not to progress with either of them. Every time I do searches through these brokers all sorts of illegal things follow, either I start receiving loads of payday loan ads by text which seem unstoppable, or I start receiving fraudulent emails. Also I own a company, that keeps receiving fake invoices almost every week from fraudsters. So this makes me extra suspicious when someone states I am owing them.

WogewWabbit

Now here are some interesting facts that I found about these companies:
companycheck dot co dot uk/company/08432710/MORIARTY-LAW-LIMITED/companies-house-data#directors-and-secretaries
companycheck dot co dot uk/company/07786814/MERLIGEN-INVESTMENTS-LIMITED/companies-house-data#directors-and-secretaries
Details on Simon Roy Jones:
companycheck dot co dot uk/director/904567455/MR-SIMON-ROY-JONES/companies[/url]

(Sorry I am not allowed to post links.)

Persons named Simon Jones and Roy Jones were directors of Moriarty Law until 2013.

A person named Simon Roy Jones is the current director of Merligen Investments Ltd, with a track record of owning many companies related to debt recovery, and also payday loans (see link above).
Same names, different director IDs in Companies House records? Is this just a coincidence? Or are they a family business of some sort?

WogewWabbit

Actually I am more and more inclined to contact the police fraud team about this.

sourcrates

Moriarty Law are as legitimate as a tame law firm can be, its not likely to be a scam, they are well known on these forums.

My 1st post above tells you how to deal with these people.

They very rarely outline what the debt is for in there demand letters, this is rife across the industry.

By sending the "provit" letter, they must send you proof of liability and evidence of what the debt is for, or drop the matter, it really is that simple.

Its a typical dance you have to go through with debt collectors.

WogewWabbit

And what are your thoughts on signing a letter by hand as "Merligen Investments ltd" or as "Spark Energy"? Is that a common practice for these letters too?

WogewWabbit

Also, shouldn't such letters be sent as "signed for"? I just received it thrown into my mailbox.

sourcrates

WogewWabbit wrote: »

And what are your thoughts on signing a letter by hand as "Merligen Investments ltd" or as "Spark Energy"? Is that a common practice for these letters too?

WogewWabbit wrote: »

Also, shouldn't such letters be sent as "signed for"? I just received it thrown into my mailbox.

I don't know anything about spark energy except that they are a utility's supplier.

Is Merligen Investments Ltd the debt collector or involved in some other way ?

Debt collection letters are sent out normal post usually, and with very scant information other than you owe x amount to so an so, pay up now.

WogewWabbit

Spark Energy is a utilities supplier indeed, but with track record of all sorts of fraudulent activities, like making it impossible for customers to leave them (fined by Ofgem in 2013), or conspiring with letting agencies to switch to them and not allowing tenants to move elsewhere in the contract. They are also present in the US, where there are records of class action lawsuits against them. It appears to me that their name comes up most in relation with customer complaints, fake bills, overcharging, etc...

Merligen Investments Ltd is a company that allegedly bought this debt off from Spark Energy.

If Spark Energy is the fraudster here, then they are also defrauding Merligen Investments Ltd.