Debt Recovery agency UKSL asking for water bill from 2017

CumerCanitez

Hello to everyone,

 

I am here to ask your opinions, I will be grateful if you could treat me like 5 years old and enlighten me regarding my issue, I will try Not to bore you, that is why I will be super quick about giving details,

-  I have had a small business back in days between July 2012 to April 2017, it is a small shop, I was selling computer parts and repairing them,

-  My contract ended in July 2017 but I have stopped trading in April 2017

-  I have paid off every supplier including water company which has sent me asking me to pay my debt dated from September 2017

-  I don’t use this email address they have been sending me emails, I have only log in after receiving this letter,

-  I have checked my emails water company very last contact is in November 2017, telling me, they are going to join some other company called Wave which it was Anglian Water,

-  At the time in November 2017, they sent me email which I had already stopped trading but it seems to be automated email,

-  I can see next contact from them is in April 2020, telling me “your account temporally closed…..” something to do with covid-19 and they are assuming I will not be trading during pandemic and telling me general details what to do and how to do things during Pandemic,

-  Then they had sent me an email last June 2021, telling me to pay off out standing debt I owe them, No details of payment, No bill to show what I used, How much I owe etc.

-  Finally, I have received a letter to my home address from debt recovery agency asking me to pay off £370, again no details of what this money asked for, just telling me I owe this to them,

So, Before I go any further with them, I would like to figure out where I stand, should I just get in touch with them to find out what exactly it is about?

In order if I need to provide more details, please let me know I will as much information as I can,

I would like to Thank you for your assistance,

sourcrates

When you contact a debt recovery company, its always best to do so in writing only, if you ring them, they won`t have any interest in your dispute, all they want is payment, they are not too bothered if you owe the debt or not, as far as the screen is telling them, you do owe it, and they will want you to pay it.

So the best way to deal with this is to send them what we term the "provit letter", it can be found here -

Letter when you know nothing about about the debt - AKA "Prove it" letter — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Edit the letter to your specific circumstances.

The company is then legally obliged to send you evidence of your liability, once this is received, you can either accept or dispute it further with them.

You may want to look at "back billing rules" as well, as this may come under that heading.

TripleH

How were you trading? Was it a limited company? Whose name was the bill in?

CumerCanitez

Hi, No I was Sole Trader, small computer shop, it was my name on the bills,

as "sourcrates" suggested, I have now sent a letter to them asking to prove it how and what I owe to them, I will see what their response going to be,

I dug in my old documents, I haven't got a lot left, however I found some water bills, it shows I have hardly used any water, it seems I had been billed every few months, like every 3-4 months, one of them £20+ one other £30+ the most shows £70+ which includes cost of sewerage, What I am saying, the amount they say I owe to them £370 which is approx. worth of 3 years water bills I had paid while I was occupying the property, the amount day ask for which doesn't seem to be correct, anyway, I have used water facility for toilet only, Not even for drinking or for tea and coffee, Water has never seem to be clean enough for drinking purposes, I have always purchased bottled water.

Thank you for your interest to my case and your precious advices,

TripleH

I'd do as per sourcrates.

If you had a company setup, the situation may have been different.

CumerCanitez

After my "prove it" letter, Debt collector company has contacted me with this, I will share details on here and update it time to time, it might be useful for someone in similar situation..

"I have raised a query with our client Wave Utilities regarding your account.

Once we have received a response from our client we will contact you with the outcome."

sourcrates

CumerCanitez said:

After my "prove it" letter, Debt collector company has contacted me with this, I will share details on here and update it time to time, it might be useful for someone in similar situation..

"I have raised a query with our client Wave Utilities regarding your account.

Once we have received a response from our client we will contact you with the outcome."

That`s a standard response.

See what wave can provide in the way of evidence, will most likely be a bill, so you will need to check if its correct, and if it isn`t challenge them on it.

CumerCanitez

I have received some bill which indicates I owe them from May 2017 to September 2017,

I have stopped trading April 2017, Shop was out of Business till July 2017 then emptied before the end of September, Also my contract was until July 2017,

Can you please have a look at attached images and share your opinion with me please? thank you

CumerCanitez

for clearance, shop was empty in July 2017 and I was not there in July August September 2017 which they demand for as well... thank you

CumerCanitez

I have managed to get my closed account statements, I have got payment made to water company, in December 2017 and January 2017, after this, I have closed the shop in April 2017 stopped trading, I have attached screen shots of statements, I will be grateful if you could have a look at these images as well,
ps: I have no idea why they say on the bill "brought forward" the amount they have brought forward is more than what I have paid within 5 years for water charges,