Southern Water Default

watson93

Today I applied for a lease car which was refused due to "payment history". No idea what it was on about as my Credit Karma report I use monthly is between fair and good. The company said to check Experian if I had an issue with this. Registered, 30 day free trial and I see a poor score of 633 with a default dated October 2017 from Southern Water at an address where I used to live (£150 default).

The issue is, this was a military property and I do not even have a contract with a water company. It comes out of my wage under something called 'CILOCT' which is a reduced council tax and water rate. You don't even find out what company provide the water to the property! 

I did not receive a single letter or phone call regarding this. I moved out to my next posting location in October 2018 and have had nothing here. How the hell would they have it against my name? Is this because I was registered on the electoral roll at that property?

I have raised a dispute through Experian tonight, and tomorrow morning I will be ringing Southern Water immediately explaining this. No idea how I can prove it.

Do you think I have a leg to stand on? If it is removed, is it instant or does it take a long time to improve my score? Literally zero experience of this and can't believe it has been on my report for almost three years without me knowing!

[Deleted User]

If they remove the default, it will be as if it was never there, although your score will likely remain low, but that's ok.

TheStoozeFather

That sucks and sorry to hear you've had issues. I would have personally contacted the water company before raising a dispute just in case having an open dispute affects other credit decisions (it may not, I'm not sure).

However, it sounds like explaining the situation to Southern Water is your best bet! I would think/hope that they see sense. Don't give up at the first attempt, it may be that the first line of defence in the call center doesn't have the necessary authority to overturn a default which may mean going through complaints.