Complaint regarding Default Date

welly_59

Could you offer some advise on my situation please?

I moved into a property in December 2010, and the Water bill was put into my name. I left this property at some point during 2014, at which point i had made no payments towards the water or been in contact with the water company. I've made good the debt now, ive actually cleared all my debts!

My question is regards to the default date. The company placed the default in January 2016. They then applied for and won a CCJ by default in August 2016.

I've raised a complaint as i believe the default should have been dated between March-July 2011. That is correct i assume? The water company state that they have dated the default in 2016 as they didnt start reporting to CRA's until that point in time. I have told them what they do is irelevant, the actual date of issue should be correct

In regards to the CCJ, I have asked that they agree to have it set aside, as if they had placed the default on the correct date then it would have been statute barred.

Im confident on my first point, how do you feel the second point (CCJ set aside) will be? I've already paid any monies i owe to them

BoGoF

Even if the default date were March 2011, what makes you say it would be statute barred in August 2016?

stevenhp1987

welly_59 wrote: »

Could you offer some advise on my situation please?

I moved into a property in December 2010, and the Water bill was put into my name. I left this property at some point during 2014, at which point i had made no payments towards the water or been in contact with the water company. I've made good the debt now, ive actually cleared all my debts!

My question is regards to the default date. The company placed the default in January 2016. They then applied for and won a CCJ by default in August 2016.

I've raised a complaint as i believe the default should have been dated between March-July 2011. That is correct i assume?

In regards to the CCJ, I have asked that they agree to have it set aside, as if they had placed the default on the correct date then it would have been statute barred.

Im confident on my first point, how do you feel the second point (CCJ set aside) will be? I've already paid any monies i owe to them

Placing a default almost 6 years without paying is wrong in my opinion, but not unheard of. There are many success stories of people getting these back-dated.

Are you in Scotland? Rest of the UK has 6 years to wait for it to be statute barred (of which, this would not have gone 6 years). In Scotland it is only 5 years. It had not gone 6 years from December 2010 to August 2016, so would not be statute barred in England/Wales/N.Ireland, but potentially so in Scotland...

However, you owed money from 2014 (when you were using the water) + 5/6 years has not elapsed; I've no idea if the statute barred starts from 6 years of the account opening, or 6 years from the last use of the water supply (2014).

If you believed it was statue-barred, why did you pay anything off towards it in the first place?

welly_59

ah bad maths by me. Yes 2011 to 2016 is 5 years so statute barred it is not.

I'll just try and get the default date moved to 2011 so that it will no longer be on my credit record.

I paid the debt because it was mine

[Deleted User]

How was it paid? Monthly or annually?

welly_59

it would have been quarterly bill as on a water meter

[Deleted User]

So defaults are normally issued under XX number of missed payments.

So from 2014 (date?) til 2016 is around 8 or so missed quarterly payments - which would be about eight for the default to be applied?

When exactly did you stop paying the bill?

welly_59

I never made a payment on that account as stated in my original post. Moved in and account opened in December 2010

[Deleted User]

Wow I’m surprised they left your supply running for 4 years of non-payment

welly_59

Not really surprising seeing as water companies are not allowed to cut off your supply if they know someone is in the property

[Deleted User]

Fair enough.

Also since the water bill doesn’t form part of a credit agreement I don’t now whether applying defaults etc. after specified times also applies