IRESA- Deloitte debt letter

conradlbourne

I was a former customer of IRESA. I left long before they went bust. Before I moved I had to bring my account into balance which was a challenge given the bad IRESA customer service.

I had long since forgotten about them except today I received a letter from the administrators Deloittes with a demand for £256.00 informing me that was the amount I owed IRESA. I have been with my new provider for over nine months and have not had any bills or contact from IRESA and now have this demand. I don't have any IRESA bills (all done online) but as I have said II wasn't able to switch until my account was brought into balance.

I haven't responded to the debt collection agency Deloittes have appointed yet. Any advice/guidance? Anyone else had one of these letters?

Thanks in advance.

brewerdave

I left Iresa with a small credit balance when they went bust in July - just checked and I can still log in to the Iresa accounts pages, and see my balance,bills,meter readings etc. If you can remember your log in credentials this should be your first port of call:)

Sidspin

I too have received a letter stating that I owe money for an outstanding balance of £253.98 . This figure matches exactly the refund I received from iresa when I left them back in april 2018, as I`d built up that much in credit on my account. I`m not sure how they can ask for this refunded money to be returned to them as I`d been overcharged each month and built up a credit so the money is rightfully mine and refunded to me when I swapped providers.

conradlbourne

So I too can also login and have just seen the balance showing this debt.I had never seen this bill before or knew that it existed?

I notice that it says on the bill that the meter was 'deemed read' for a 5 month period leading upto March 2018. The previous period says 'routine read' which I suppose was the actual reading. I don't understand this as before I left I remember updating the readings so they could generate a balance for me to pay so I could leave.

Any advice of options?

[Deleted User]

@Conradlb...
Does the deemed reading match the opening reading of the supplier you moved to in March?

saveme2019

I've had one to. Switched suppliers before they went bust but they kept billing. Spent over 6 unsuccessful months trying to sort it, then they went bust before account could be corrected and final bills issued. They want nearly £300 - mostly for bills after i'd switched ?? Spoken to the debt agency and my initial thoughts are that they are going to be a nightmare to deal with. I've been on my IRESA online account and worked out I owe them around £50. Bit of irony here, but I work for the debt collection team of one of the big six suppliers. So I spent an hour getting all the information and putting it on email to one of the agency staff I spoke to on phone. No reply after two days and when I rang them she is apparently off for unknown period and no-one can access her work. Was just advised to wait until she returns but I was advised no debt collection action will take place at present.
I'd suggest, if you can access your old accounts then check them carefully, put any discrepancies you fine in email if possible - I would not recommend phoning them. Think this is going to be a long slog but no-one should have to pay anything IRESA are not due and it is down to the agency to prove to you the money is owed and what for.

aduffell

I've had one too! I'm get to be notified of a final bill for my account 12 months after I left them, so as far as I am aware this cannot be charged under the back billing regulations. They should have provided a final bill within 6 weeks of me leaving, but this letter - which states a balance, with no break down is the first I have been informed of this amount.

I have sent a formal complaint to Deloitte.

matelodave

The best advice is to try and download all the old bills and statements that you can and hope that you've kept your own records of meter readings and DD payments and put your evidence together.

It really is worthwhile, checking your bills monthly, try to get them corrected (by e-mail if neccessary) and SAVING it all as PDFs so that you have your own evidence.

Energy companies dying an unnatural death seems to be the shape of things, so keeping your own records for the statutary six years would be a really good idea.

You dont have to print it all out, just save the PDFs. but havig your own records makes it so much easier to challenge if or when it all goes wrong.

molerat

You can print out the complete list of transactions from the Iresa site, handy to compare.

brewerdave

I would download everything you can from the Iresa site asap; Once the administrators realise that "debtors" can see their actual transactions, I suspect that they will disable access to the database!!

M0ney

I have just looked a my inbox, looks like I left them at the end of March, here's hoping they leave me alone, I got a refund because I had a credit balance.