PRAC/ BW Legal

HayleyD83

Hoping to get some advice on behalf of a friend. She has received a letter from these two regarding a debt that British Gas has sold to them for a rented property she left 5 years ago. She was not living in the property at the time for which British Gas has billed her. All the tenants had left and the house was being renovated. What is the best course of action for her? TIA

[Deleted User]

When did she advise British Gas that she had moved out? Does she have a copy of the email or however she did it?

How long after she ended the tenancy does the bill run to?

HayleyD83

I'm not sure if she ever did. The bill is from April to August 2017. The property was empty at the time as all of the tenants moved out and the landlord had it refurbished 

sourcrates

HayleyD83 said:

I'm not sure if she ever did. The bill is from April to August 2017. The property was empty at the time as all of the tenants moved out and the landlord had it refurbished 

Then she should write a letter to that effect, BW Legal have to produce evidence that she was a liable party, in other words the onus is on them to prove liability, she doesn't have to prove anything, but supplying evidence she didn`t live there would be beneficial to her case.

[Deleted User]

When you leave a home, you must send in final readings and get a final bill to get it closed off. By not telling them she had left they had no way of knowing she had, so she is liable for the bill. Even if you got proof from the landlord when she left they would still have to estimate the bill.

You'd need her to check all 3 credit files and see when they defaulted her which should be after 2-3 missed contractual payments - the record would drop off next year if she was defaulted 5 years ago but if these debt collectors get a CCJ (they may already have done so) it'll be on there another 6 years so you'll have even more problems

I would suggest starting with her credit record and see what the status is

Stixalot

Ive just had one of these letters as well, it seems they have just bought the debt of someone else. I didnt even realise i had a debt with british gas as i have always been with them regardless of where i moved to but it seems a small payment between moves was missed. They were kind enough to give me a 70% discount on the amount owed if i paid before june so i just did that to gain some piece of mind. I was also told they did a soft credit search to check address details only nothing hard like a ccj or default will be applied if i got it sorted out

sourcrates

OP has two threads running on same subject, ideally this should be discussed on DFW.

HayleyD83

sourcrates said:

OP has two threads running on same subject, ideally this should be discussed on DFW.

Ok thank you apologies i wasn't sure which was the correct thread