I think I'm being scammed by EON

Xbigman

I think you've had bad advice. If you send a prove it letter and they write the debt off you can be defaulted. You're not dealing with an energy company now but debt collectors who have been known to do this. The correct course of action is to write and dispute the debt as it relates to a period after your tenancy ended. A photocopy of the tenancy agreement and final bill will provide all the proof needed. 
Why send a prove it letter when you have a defence anyway?

Personally I'd be inclined to complain to EON too. They provided incorrect information about a non existent debt. Even if its no longer their responsibility they are still the ones who made the initial mistake. You might get something, you might not but I'd give it a go.


Darren

anonymous_poor_lady

Xbigman said:

I think you've had bad advice. If you send a prove it letter and they write the debt off you can be defaulted. You're not dealing with an energy company now but debt collectors who have been known to do this. The correct course of action is to write and dispute the debt as it relates to a period after your tenancy ended. A photocopy of the tenancy agreement and final bill will provide all the proof needed. 
Why send a prove it letter when you have a defence anyway?

Personally I'd be inclined to complain to EON too. They provided incorrect information about a non existent debt. Even if its no longer their responsibility they are still the ones who made the initial mistake. You might get something, you might not but I'd give it a go.


Darren

I understand, my only concern is that the final bill only contains my name, and not my husband's.

Somehow they managed to create a new EON account number with his name. Can he be made responsible to pay for a period outside the tenancy agreement?

EssexHebridean

anonymous_poor_lady said:

Xbigman said:

I think you've had bad advice. If you send a prove it letter and they write the debt off you can be defaulted. You're not dealing with an energy company now but debt collectors who have been known to do this. The correct course of action is to write and dispute the debt as it relates to a period after your tenancy ended. A photocopy of the tenancy agreement and final bill will provide all the proof needed. 
Why send a prove it letter when you have a defence anyway?

Personally I'd be inclined to complain to EON too. They provided incorrect information about a non existent debt. Even if its no longer their responsibility they are still the ones who made the initial mistake. You might get something, you might not but I'd give it a go.


Darren

I understand, my only concern is that the final bill only contains my name, and not my husband's.

Somehow they managed to create a new EON account number with his name. Can he be made responsible to pay for a period outside the tenancy agreement?

The previous poster is incorrect, you have had precisely the right advice. The Prove It letter is absolutely the right thing to send, and no, you absolutely should not send anything else with it. The DCA are alleging that a debt is owed - the onus here is on THEM to prove  that is is you that owes it, not on you to prove that you don’t. You certainly don’t want to give them any more information than they already have! 

BobT36

From reading these threads as far as I understand it:

1. You get your final bill and move out. Your account is closed.
   
   
2. Someone else moves in and uses energy, in-between signing up with another supplier (instead of correctly registering with the existing one first). Eon are supplying the property during this time, but don't have anyone to link an account to.
   
   
3. Eon now have a gap between when you moved out, and when they stopped supplying the property (or a new tenant signs up), but energy has been used in this time, and they've no idea who it's for. (They correctly know it's not YOU, as they've given you a final bill. This is why the debt isn't in your name).
   
   
4. Rather than spend time, money and reputation finding who owes the debt and recovering it, they sell the debt to a recovery company. (Who buy the debt, then slap on their own fees to make a profit). It's now out of Eon's hands. All Eon will have "sold" is that there is "an outstanding debt at this address".
   
   
5. The Debt recovery company now goes "fishing", looking up ANYONE ELSE (other than the final bill holder as they know it's not you) who might have been linked to that address around that time. They'll use previous electoral vote records and whatever they can get their hands on. They find your husband. All he is to them is a name.
   
   
6. They spam out letters to your husband (and anyone else linked with that address in that time) and hope someone gullible pays up, due to the threatening nature of the letters.

As someone else said the onus on them is to prove the debt. They ONLY have a name and an address, and a debt, they have no idea if those all link together or not until you admit it and/or pay up. 

Really these companies should be prohibited from sending letters to people if they can't outright prove it already. Why should your husband (or anyone else who doesn't owe it) have to waste time and anxiety sending prove it letters and getting themselves cleared, all because a debt company has a few unjoined dots and wants to make some money? They should be regulated and made to prove they KNOW (with a high level of certainty) that the debt is owed, and be prohibited from random fishing trips.

Xbigman

EssexHebridean said:

anonymous_poor_lady said:

Xbigman said:

I think you've had bad advice. If you send a prove it letter and they write the debt off you can be defaulted. You're not dealing with an energy company now but debt collectors who have been known to do this. The correct course of action is to write and dispute the debt as it relates to a period after your tenancy ended. A photocopy of the tenancy agreement and final bill will provide all the proof needed. 
Why send a prove it letter when you have a defence anyway?

Personally I'd be inclined to complain to EON too. They provided incorrect information about a non existent debt. Even if its no longer their responsibility they are still the ones who made the initial mistake. You might get something, you might not but I'd give it a go.


Darren

I understand, my only concern is that the final bill only contains my name, and not my husband's.

Somehow they managed to create a new EON account number with his name. Can he be made responsible to pay for a period outside the tenancy agreement?

The previous poster is incorrect, you have had precisely the right advice. The Prove It letter is absolutely the right thing to send, and no, you absolutely should not send anything else with it. The DCA are alleging that a debt is owed - the onus here is on THEM to prove  that is is you that owes it, not on you to prove that you don’t. You certainly don’t want to give them any more information than they already have! 

Legally you are correct, they must prove any debt to take enforcement action. However, if the debt holder believes the debt is real and they have an account number they can default the OP. The most likely scenario is that the new occupant switched away before registering and EON  have a void period and they have filled it with the last known occupants. It's simple to sort out, just prove when you moved out and the problem gets thrown back at EON. 
Again I ask, why send a prove it letter when you don't owe the money and can prove it from your end. Trying to get a default removed later will be a lot harder than sorting this out now.

Oh, and check your credit history just in case they've already done it. 


Darren

Patr100

Debts must apply to individuals not properties.
If you were the only person who had an account with EON (you said only your name was on the bills)
then why are they now  targeting your husband? Did you ever hold a joint account with EON?

anonymous_poor_lady

Patr100 said:

Debts must apply to individuals not properties.
If you were the only person who had an account with EON (you said only your name was on the bills)
then why are they now  targeting your husband? Did you ever hold a joint account with EON?

We didn't have a joint account together with EON. I was the only one to have my name with them. 

I guess I learned my lesson, next time I will include both names to save us from this trouble. 

Armengar

prove it is the correct way to go. have a chat with citizens advice as well as posting here.  They will say the same.

The defence comes later if necessary.

EssexHebridean

Deleted_User said:

Xbigman said:

Again I ask, why send a prove it letter when you don't owe the money and can prove it from your end. Trying to get a default removed later will be a lot harder than sorting this out now.

Oh, and check your credit history just in case they've already done it.

Does sending a "prove it" letter ...

1) give them any more right to put a default on your record?

2) make it more likely they will do so in practice?

3) make it harder to get it removed if they do?

Presumably the point of sending a "prove it" letter is so that you can proceed to throw the (FCA) book at them if they continue to pursue you? Though I admit I'm not sure how useful the letter is when you're completely confident it's not your debt, as opposed to when you're not quite sure.

I agree that checking your credit record anyway is a good idea, if you're going to be applying for credit.

1) No
2) no - less if anything, usually the prove it letter makes them move on in circumstances like this. 

3) Definitely not - if they have been unable to “Prove it” then it gives you a clear route for a fairly serious complaint! 

The Prove it letter in a case where you know a debt is not yours, but there is potential for the company linking you to it, is the equivalent of saying “s0d off and try elsewhere”. They can’t prove it, you know this, but there’s nothing else to do if you want to acknowledge the contact (which in this situation is a sensible thing to do) that won’t lead to giving a DCA - not always the most scrupulous of companies - more information about you than they already have. This is why we say just send that letter, and NOTHING else. People muddying the waters by saying “send this as well” or worse “send this instead” are risking creating a serious financial headache for the OP and others like them. 

anonymous_poor_lady

My husband sent the prove it letter. We didn't add any extra info to the letter, just the standard template as advised. While it was tempting to send evidence that they are wrong, it would also get my name involved (since the bill was on my name) and make things more complicated. 

Hopefully that will be enough. I will post any update I get here.

Thanks again for all the help!  This forum is amazing.