EDF Wrongful debt recovery again

lesandsusie

We are receiving bills from EDF for the 3 months before we moved to our house which was November 2018. The bills are to the Owner/Occupier and we have now received a threatening Debt Recovery letter from a company called Themis Recoveries - please bear in mind this is for just £26.80. When we first moved here these letters kept coming but we discussed it with EDF and they stopped. Also, although we wanted to have our account with Bulb from the start, we had to have a brief period with EDF in order for the supplier move to take place. We paid for this period in full - think it was a couple of weeks. The questions are:
1. Are we liable for the bill prior to moving in?
2. Can a black mark be put against our property even if it's not our debt?
3. Why are EDF chasing this again now when they had not chased for almost 2 years?
4. How do we proceed?
5. Are there any other MSE forum contributors experiencing anything similar?

Any help or advice will be much appreciated.
NB. The reason this has occurred is that we purchased our house from a Park Home company and the previous owners had part exchanged with the Park Home company who therefore took possession briefly and naturally did not inform the utility companies!!

Neil_Jones

Did you inform Eon you had moved in when you did, open a new account and give them some meter readings?  Note:  Discussing with Eon about "these letters" is not the same as telling them you've moved in.

bradders1983

There is no such thing as black marks against properties.

dogshome

WRITE a letter headed Complaint and post it by Royal mail.at a Post Office, getting FREE certificate of posting

List the history of this problem, pointing out that 'Harassment' is actionable in law

One of the few things that's good about EDF, is that they have aFreepost address for Complaints:

Customer Service Team

EDF Energy

FREEPOST RRYZ - BGYG - JCXR

334 Outland Road

Plymouth    PL3 5TU

mac.d

Neil_Jones said:

Did you inform Eon you had moved in when you did, open a new account and give them some meter readings?  Note:  Discussing with Eon about "these letters" is not the same as telling them you've moved in.

The OP did say "Also, although we wanted to have our account with Bulb from the start, we had to have a brief period with EDF in order for the supplier move to take place. We paid for this period in full - think it was a couple of weeks. " Which suggests they did register with the supplier before switching to Bulb.

The question on whether you are liable for the bill before you moved in depends on when you got the keys and took ownership of the house. If you got the keys in October but didn't move in until November, you are still liable for the bill from October. If you didn't take a meter reading as soon as you got the keys and only provided it later, the opening reading may be estimated.

However, it sounds very likely that it's Park Home that are liable for the money that's owed. So you should dispute it straight away as already suggested by sending a complaint to EDF. If you can provide proof of when you got the keys for the house, and the meter readings, and tell them Park Homes were the owners during the time the bill is for, send all that to them and hopefully they'll stop hounding you.

lesandsusie

Thank you Dogshome and Mac.d. I agree, looks like we have to write and complain but I don't see why we should have to. The fact they have written to "Owner/Occupier" shows they are just chancing their arm hoping we'll be intimidated into paying. It's not our problem but they have made it ours, causing us grief and the need to spend effort we do not wish to expend on them.