PreAction claim for breach of utility contract

WongWongWong

A few years ago I signed up to a utilty company to have my utilties switched and have voice recordings to agree to give this company authourity to do so. At the time I was locked in and the switch dod not happen so I thought nothing of it... A few years must have past and i may have renewed the contract with my existing utilty company and now four years later the previous company have asked PreAction to collect about £6k from me! They say that as I have signed the switch with them and that did not happen I am in breach of contract and now threatening to take me to court as I am liable to all the costs and loss of revenue. I need to respond by 16th December... Or they are threatening to take me to court and add 8% interest.

Please can anyone give me some guidance as ti what to do next?

Much apprecated.

mattyprice4004

You say you ‘may’ have renewed with your other provider - did you or didn’t you? 

outtatune

Is this a business contract?

WongWongWong

mattyprice4004 said:

You say you ‘may’ have renewed with your other provider - did you or didn’t you? 

Yes it is a business contract.

diinozzo

This is the Consumer Rights Board part of the forum.

powerful_Rogue

I would get legal advice. With this being a business contract you could very well owe the £6k. When did you receive this letter and why have you left it until the night before the deadline to look into it?

user1977

powerful_Rogue said:

I would get legal advice. With this being a business contract you could very well owe the £6k. When did you receive this letter and why have you left it until the night before the deadline to look into it?

To be fair, the "deadline" in this case is probably just a trigger for...a slightly more sternly-worded letter. If it was a real deadline to defend a court action it would actually matter.

elsien

Not knowing what contracts you’ve renewed and which ones you haven’t possibly isn’t the most effective way to be running a business. Surely you’ve got some paperwork floating around somewhere with regard to the existing contract and renewal.

powerful_Rogue

user1977 said:

powerful_Rogue said:

I would get legal advice. With this being a business contract you could very well owe the £6k. When did you receive this letter and why have you left it until the night before the deadline to look into it?

To be fair, the "deadline" in this case is probably just a trigger for...a slightly more sternly-worded letter. If it was a real deadline to defend a court action it would actually matter.

Possibly, or they may now go to court action as they have issued the LBA.

MrSirius

I urge anyone who gets a letter from this company to not just "ignore it" like some of these threads suggest. Read the terms you signed because we learned the hard way about signing a commercial contract. Wish we had've taken this more seriously.

Pollycat

MrSirius said:

I urge anyone who gets a letter from this company to not just "ignore it" like some of these threads suggest. Read the terms you signed because we learned the hard way about signing a commercial contract. Wish we had've taken this more seriously.

For reference:

bdfbdiinozzo said:

This is the Consumer Rights Board part of the forum.

Signing a commercial contract does not give you consumer rights.