Advice please

andyyy71

I fell behind with utility bills with Scottish Power, as a result, they fitted smart meters for both gas and electricity supply. Each meter is set to recover £15 per month.
My query is as follows, Scottish Power have sent me numerous letters since they installed the meters, each letter clearly states, multiple times, that there is nothing owed. I contacted Scottish Power to discuss this and was told that the accounts had been switched from credit accounts to PAYG accounts, therefore the money is no longer owed on the credit accounts but the PAYG accounts, yet the account numbers have not changed and their letters say very clearly, that there is NO outstanding debt, the meters are set to collect £0.00 per week and the debt will be repaid by 18th may 2021.
Since receiving the letters, I have topped up on the meters and indeed they are still collecting the £15 per month.

I could understand that errors may sometimes be made on bills etc, but multiple letters stating there is no outstanding debt and there is no weekly recovery, would indicate to me that Scottish Power have written off the arrears, am I alone in thinking this, bearing in mind that sixteen times, SP have stated in writing that there is no outstanding debt?

It appears from the letters that SP have written off the debt, am I right?

any help or advice would be very welcome

niktheguru

i'm no expert at prepay so you may have to wait for someone more knowledgable,
But surely if you are topping up your meter and it is taking £15 before providing you with energy you are still paying off your debt? or maybe i'm misunderstanding it.

andyyy71

Yes, I am repaying the debt by the PAYG meter....after SP has said that there is no longer a debt and that nothing will be collected. I dont dispute the debt, my dispute is that seemingly after writing off the debt, they are still collecting.

niktheguru

surely they have written it off by adding it to your meter or am i missing something?

btr30

I would suggest they have transferred the debt from your credit meter to PAYG and are collecting it through that means.

Obviously a mistake in their statement. I would suggest contacting them for updated details of debt state.

andyyy71

If someone owed me money and I wrote to them several times saying they no longer owe it, I cannot simply knock on their door when I feel like it and demand the debt I had written off, this is what SP seem to be doing. The advice Im looking for is what can I do about it legally? The letters say I no longer owe it, they also say they wont be collecting from the meter....yet they are....

Robin9

@andyyy71  Pleas see btr's post immediately above - it is a mistake. Take btr's advice. 

Others may be able to advice how to get this info yourself directly from the meter.

Reed_Richards

andyyy71 said:

If someone owed me money and I wrote to them several times saying they no longer owe it, I cannot simply knock on their door when I feel like it and demand the debt I had written off, this is what SP seem to be doing. The advice Im looking for is what can I do about it legally? The letters say I no longer owe it, they also say they wont be collecting from the meter....yet they are....

Okay, so your first step is to write to SP and tell them that as they have written to you repeatedly saying that the meter is set to collect £0.00 per week and is in fact collecting £15 per month so could they correct this please.  If they so no you could make a formal complaint.  If the complaint is rejected you could take them to the "small claims" court to ask for your £15 a month back from the time of their first letter.  I don't think you could get legal aid for this sort of court action so you would have to argue your own case.  You have not convinced others on this forum that you are in the right so your court action, if it came to that, might not succeed.   

andyyy71

Reed_Richards said:

andyyy71 said:

If someone owed me money and I wrote to them several times saying they no longer owe it, I cannot simply knock on their door when I feel like it and demand the debt I had written off, this is what SP seem to be doing. The advice Im looking for is what can I do about it legally? The letters say I no longer owe it, they also say they wont be collecting from the meter....yet they are....

Okay, so your first step is to write to SP and tell them that as they have written to you repeatedly saying that the meter is set to collect £0.00 per week and is in fact collecting £15 per month so could they correct this please.  If they so no you could make a formal complaint.  If the complaint is rejected you could take them to the "small claims" court to ask for your £15 a month back from the time of their first letter.  I don't think you could get legal aid for this sort of court action so you would have to argue your own case.  You have not convinced others on this forum that you are in the right so your court action, if it came to that, might not succeed.   

Thank you Reed, that is good advice. The debt itself I did not dispute until such time as SP sent letters saying they will not be collecting whilst they continue to do so. Naturally, their letters leave me confused.

[Deleted User]

andyyy71 said:

Reed_Richards said:

andyyy71 said:

If someone owed me money and I wrote to them several times saying they no longer owe it, I cannot simply knock on their door when I feel like it and demand the debt I had written off, this is what SP seem to be doing. The advice Im looking for is what can I do about it legally? The letters say I no longer owe it, they also say they wont be collecting from the meter....yet they are....

Okay, so your first step is to write to SP and tell them that as they have written to you repeatedly saying that the meter is set to collect £0.00 per week and is in fact collecting £15 per month so could they correct this please.  If they so no you could make a formal complaint.  If the complaint is rejected you could take them to the "small claims" court to ask for your £15 a month back from the time of their first letter.  I don't think you could get legal aid for this sort of court action so you would have to argue your own case.  You have not convinced others on this forum that you are in the right so your court action, if it came to that, might not succeed.   

Thank you Reed, that is good advice. The debt itself I did not dispute until such time as SP sent letters saying they will not be collecting whilst they continue to do so. Naturally, their letters leave me confused.

I would caution about taking any supplier to Court in the circumstances that you have outlined in your various posts. Suppliers have a complaints process which you appear not to have invoked. If the supplier does not uphold your complaint, then you have the option to take your complaint to The Energy Ombudsman. I don’t dispute that the latter course of action isn’t without risk; however, the risk is probably not as great as taking a supplier to Court; losing your case, and ending up paying the supplier’s legal fees.

In the circumstances you have described, I would not expect any supplier to write off a debt because of what appears to be a misunderstanding on your part. That is not how business works. The supplier clearly has evidence of debt otherwise it would not have fitted PAYG smart meters. Neither your MPAN nor your account number would have changed when a smart meter was fitted. What has changed will be the meter serial number. Whenever a meter is changed, a supplier will normally raise a statement ( a final statement if you like) using the meter readings on the old meter. In your situation, there was no debt against the old credit meter as it was transferred to your new PAYG meter. 

mac.d

Don't agree that's good advice from Reed_Richards.
The OP owes Scottish Power money, that is not in dispute. SP have fitted smart prepayment meters to recover the debt.
The only issue is confusion over letters saying there is no debt and as others have already pointed out, this is most likely to do with switching from credit to prepayment billing, and the "no debt on account" refers to the old credit billing. Confusing and unhelpful, but probably to do with computerised billing systems. As Dolor has just said, there's no way they have written off the debt.

Could send them a written complaint saying these letters are causing confusion when you know you owe money and are currently paying it off via the prepayment meter they installed. Can they give you an updated statement of your account showing how much you still owe.