Eon - Lowell - Old bill chasing

marinerhuw

When I got the initial letter saying Lowell had bought the debt, I rang them for more info and requested all information they have to be sent to me.

I have received the information from them which is the final bill issued by EON in November 2016.

The forwarding address I gave to EON is my parents house. They have told me no letters from EON ever arrived. I have since moved a further two times. The letter I received from Lowell regarding the supposed debt was the first I had heard of it.

KeithStewart

marinerhuw, did you resolve this? and if so how?

I moved into my current rented property in June 2018. The property had gas and electric supplied by Eon with both electric and gas pre-pay meters. W Barnes letting agency who rent the property phoned Eon on the day I received the keys with me present, to explain that I had just moved in so they could clear the debt on the pre-pay meters (£186.04) which was because the property was vacant for 18 months prior to me moving in - which was done.

I did not want to use Eon nor pre-pay meters so I changed to Utilita with a direct debit 12 month contract - this took approximately 1 month to complete and I have never used Eon since.

In November 2018 I received a letter from Eon demanding I pay £168.04 from June until July 2018 (This is not the case, this is from before I moved in). I phoned Eon and explained what has happened and the lady on the phone put me on hold whilst she talked to a supervisor. She then said that I owe nothing and I will not hear from them again.

June 2019 I received another letter demanding £164.04 payment. This time I written a letter in of complaint. 1 week later I got a letter back with the title "Revised final prepayment statement) with a £168.04 CR adjustment on the account and £0.00 owed".

I have heard nothing since then until this week I received a letter from Lowell demanding payment of the same amount!

I feel like my complaints are going nowhere and they are not listening to anything.

I will be looking to buy my first house Spring 2021 and currently have an excellent credit record.

It's causing undue stress and anxiety and I am fed up of not being listened to. If this tarnishes my credit record it could potentially cost me £thousands more with a not-so-good mortgage rate. How can I stop them harassing me? could I get any bad credit record reversed after wrongly accused? could I sue them for wrongly tarnishing my credit record?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

marinerhuw wrote: »

Hi,

Recently received a letter from Lowell stating they had bought an outstanding debt from Eon for an old property I used to live in.

The outstanding debt is from March 2015. The account was closed with Eon on 24th March 2015 when I moved out of the property, and a final bill was paid in April.

Lowell have stated another final bill from Eon was generated in November 2016 (20 months after I had moved out...!) and sent to my forwarding address. I never received this bill.

How do I go about disputing this debt? Does the 12 month backbilling principle apply here and if so, do I complain to Eon or Lowell?

marinerhuw wrote: »

Thanks. I will start a complaint with both then.

The letter states they have bought the debt. Does this make a difference?

I thought Ofgems backbilling principle started in 2007? Was it not compulsory until more recently?

marinerhuw wrote: »

When I got the initial letter saying Lowell had bought the debt, I rang them for more info and requested all information they have to be sent to me.

I have received the information from them which is the final bill issued by EON in November 2016.

The forwarding address I gave to EON is my parents house. They have told me no letters from EON ever arrived. I have since moved a further two times. The letter I received from Lowell regarding the supposed debt was the first I had heard of it.

Hello marinerhuw and welcome to the Forums.

Now we've sold the debt to Lowells, please speak to them about your concerns. Once debts are sold, accounts are partially deactivated and advisors are unable to make any adjustments or alterations as the debt is no longer ours. Lowells can refer back to a specialist team here if needed who can check out and act on any new information.

Debts are only sold after accounts have gone through an extensive debt collection process including many attempts to contact the account holder to sort out payment.

Sorry I'm unable to give any further help with this marinerhuw.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

KeithStewart wrote: »

marinerhuw, did you resolve this? and if so how?

I moved into my current rented property in June 2018. The property had gas and electric supplied by Eon with both electric and gas pre-pay meters. W Barnes letting agency who rent the property phoned Eon on the day I received the keys with me present, to explain that I had just moved in so they could clear the debt on the pre-pay meters (£186.04) which was because the property was vacant for 18 months prior to me moving in - which was done.

I did not want to use Eon nor pre-pay meters so I changed to Utilita with a direct debit 12 month contract - this took approximately 1 month to complete and I have never used Eon since.

In November 2018 I received a letter from Eon demanding I pay £168.04 from June until July 2018 (This is not the case, this is from before I moved in). I phoned Eon and explained what has happened and the lady on the phone put me on hold whilst she talked to a supervisor. She then said that I owe nothing and I will not hear from them again.

June 2019 I received another letter demanding £164.04 payment. This time I written a letter in of complaint. 1 week later I got a letter back with the title "Revised final prepayment statement) with a £168.04 CR adjustment on the account and £0.00 owed".

I have heard nothing since then until this week I received a letter from Lowell demanding payment of the same amount!

I feel like my complaints are going nowhere and they are not listening to anything.

I will be looking to buy my first house Spring 2021 and currently have an excellent credit record.

It's causing undue stress and anxiety and I am fed up of not being listened to. If this tarnishes my credit record it could potentially cost me £thousands more with a not-so-good mortgage rate. How can I stop them harassing me? could I get any bad credit record reversed after wrongly accused? could I sue them for wrongly tarnishing my credit record?

Hello KeithStewart and welcome to the Forums.

As above in my reply to marinerhuw, please speak to Lowells as we've now sold the debt to them. Let them have a copy of the letter where we've told you there is nothing to pay. If needed, Lowells can refer to a specialist team here. Now the debt is no longer ours, there's very little our advisors can do.

Sorry I'm unable to give any further help with this KeithStewart.

Malc

renegadefm

My partner had a simular problem recently. She had a text from Lowell asking her to ring them which we both thought it was a scam because we dont know how Lowell got her number. So I googled what Lowell was and I was shocked to see its a debt recovery team.

So we rang them, and they are after a debt from 6 years ago which was with 02 phone company, which my partner said was settled in full, but had a debt of £600 from Lowell, so naturally disputed this and told Lowell it was all settled in full 6 years ago, but Lowell was not believing it. So shes now forced to pay it in installments of £5 a month. But how could she have contested this?

onlyfoolsandparking

So no help at all from "official E.on rep" with their "nothing to do with us anymore" attitude and just ONE of many reasons why i wouldnt use E.on even if their tariff was free!!!!!

onlyfoolsandparking

renegadefm wrote: »

My partner had a simular problem recently. She had a text from Lowell asking her to ring them which we both thought it was a scam because we dont know how Lowell got her number. So I googled what Lowell was and I was shocked to see its a debt recovery team.

So we rang them, and they are after a debt from 6 years ago which was with 02 phone company, which my partner said was settled in full, but had a debt of £600 from Lowell, so naturally disputed this and told Lowell it was all settled in full 6 years ago, but Lowell was not believing it. So shes now forced to pay it in installments of £5 a month. But how could she have contested this?[/QUOTE]

By asking them to PROVE the alleged debt??

KeithStewart

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc said:

KeithStewart wrote: »

marinerhuw, did you resolve this? and if so how?

I moved into my current rented property in June 2018. The property had gas and electric supplied by Eon with both electric and gas pre-pay meters. W Barnes letting agency who rent the property phoned Eon on the day I received the keys with me present, to explain that I had just moved in so they could clear the debt on the pre-pay meters (£186.04) which was because the property was vacant for 18 months prior to me moving in - which was done.

I did not want to use Eon nor pre-pay meters so I changed to Utilita with a direct debit 12 month contract - this took approximately 1 month to complete and I have never used Eon since.

In November 2018 I received a letter from Eon demanding I pay £168.04 from June until July 2018 (This is not the case, this is from before I moved in). I phoned Eon and explained what has happened and the lady on the phone put me on hold whilst she talked to a supervisor. She then said that I owe nothing and I will not hear from them again.

June 2019 I received another letter demanding £164.04 payment. This time I written a letter in of complaint. 1 week later I got a letter back with the title "Revised final prepayment statement) with a £168.04 CR adjustment on the account and £0.00 owed".

I have heard nothing since then until this week I received a letter from Lowell demanding payment of the same amount!

I feel like my complaints are going nowhere and they are not listening to anything.

I will be looking to buy my first house Spring 2021 and currently have an excellent credit record.

It's causing undue stress and anxiety and I am fed up of not being listened to. If this tarnishes my credit record it could potentially cost me £thousands more with a not-so-good mortgage rate. How can I stop them harassing me? could I get any bad credit record reversed after wrongly accused? could I sue them for wrongly tarnishing my credit record?

Hello KeithStewart and welcome to the Forums.

As above in my reply to marinerhuw, please speak to Lowells as we've now sold the debt to them. Let them have a copy of the letter where we've told you there is nothing to pay. If needed, Lowells can refer to a specialist team here. Now the debt is no longer ours, there's very little our advisors can do.

Sorry I'm unable to give any further help with this KeithStewart.

Malc

This doesn't help at all. I am being harrased by both E.ON and by Lowell for this and it's not even my debt? I've already spent money for recorded delivery letters to both of you to try and clear my name for something which should not even happen. E.ON sold the debt to Lowell many weeks after they already sent me a letter telling me I owe nothing? How incompetent can a company be? Now I'm expected to spend more and more of my time and money contacting a third party because E.ON don't know their a**e from their elbow?

I am not impressed one bit. 

onlyfoolsandparking

So don't do anything, appreciate and agree with your comment regarding no help at all from "official E.on rep" but I would hardly call it harassment receiving a few debt crawler letters. The only real action you need to take is if Lowells OR E.on issue CCCF, then there are strict rules on what you have to do to avoid "default CCJ" apart from that unlikely turn of events, just keep filing the letters. 

Streaky_Bacon

Just complain as I previously stated.

EON may feel that they have washed their hands of the matter but you can still take them to the ombudsman. Your complaint would be that they have incorrectly billed you and then sold that "debt" to a third party. At worst you should get a confirmation that the bill was unenforceable, which will be useful against Lowell. At best they may be forced to take action to resolve the issue with the Lowell.

You can also take Lowell to the financial ombudsman, or they can start proceedings if they wish, and you have a strong defence.

Just send the complaints off and they try to forget about it for now. One step at a time.

Make sure to send a Subject Access Request to both of them also. You want to get as much evidence as early as possible.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-do-i-make-a-subject-access-request

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