Letter received from debt recovery company about outstanding energy balance from previous address

macman

Your credit score is a fictitious number that no-one but you can see, Ignore it.

Ectophile

Now though, my concern is should I pay the debt collection agency or EDF as the lady said I could make the payment to them.

You can pay the money to me if you like.  It will make me happy, but won't do anything to stop the debt collectors.

If you do owe money, then you need to pay it to the people you owe money to.

Arthur_Pewtey

From your description, you may owe no money to anyone, and should not admit or accept liability for this debt. Energy companies are governed by the back-billing rules not just the statutes regarding civil limitations:- (google ofgem back-billing rules) Where energy companies have failed to bill you within one year they are not permitted to subsequently attempt to bill you. The debt collectors have no enforceable claim against you and you should tell them to get stuffed - I believe someone has already pointed you toward a letter which sets out the rules. You have no need to worry about the register of county court judgments - as the name implies debts are registered here after judgment is given in a court - given that neither GNF or EDE have a valid claim you have a good defence.

pochase

Arthur_Pewtey said:

From your description, you may owe no money to anyone, and should not admit or accept liability for this debt. Energy companies are governed by the back-billing rules not just the statutes regarding civil limitations:- (google ofgem back-billing rules) Where energy companies have failed to bill you within one year they are not permitted to subsequently attempt to bill you. The debt collectors have no enforceable claim against you and you should tell them to get stuffed - I believe someone has already pointed you toward a letter which sets out the rules. You have no need to worry about the register of county court judgments - as the name implies debts are registered here after judgment is given in a court - given that neither GNF or EDE have a valid claim you have a good defence.

Back billing rules only apply to suppliers with a valid license, and GNF does no longer hold one, so it is now 6 years they have time to collect the money.

jenbrooks1990parker

In regards to back billing EDF took over GNE so EDF are asking me for money when the last correspondence I received was over a year ago, am I still covered by the back billing rules ?
thanks

ariarnia

jenbrooks1990parker said:

In regards to back billing EDF took over GNE so EDF are asking me for money when the last correspondence I received was over a year ago, am I still covered by the back billing rules ?
thanks

that's the thing that needs clarifying. the best way to get that answer is to contact edf and say you think back billing might apply then see how they respond. 

if they are collecting the debt but the money will go to the GNE administrators then back billing wont be relevant (and i think thats what is supposed to happen). if they have somehow taken on the debt then it might. 

dale22483 said:

ariarnia said:

Hi dale. 

first to help your worry court and ccj wont happen at this time and you are doing the right thing in asking edf what records they have about you on the account.

but if the debt is being chased by capital resolve on behalf of the administrators for gne then edf might not have anything. 

to formalise that a bit. over on the debt free board theres a template letter you can send to capital resolve asking them to basically 'prove' the debt. in response to that they should send you the info you need to work out if you owe edf any money and if you do how much. 

theres also a lot more info on that thread that might be helpful. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter

reading your op i dont know but wouldn't be surprised if you owe standing charges for feb and march.

then were there any early exit fees from your fix (you signed up for 12 months in september then left in march before being set up with edf so i dont know if the adminstrators would try and argue you owed those fees) 

then theres making sure your account with gne was fully settled as you said you didn't get a final bill from them. if you have your old statements from around that time and your final meter reading then those will be helpful if theres a dispute over the final bill amount. 

but if you are activly discussing and disputing the bill and they've not sent you anything to prove you owe the debt then you dont need to worry about a ccj at this time

hope thats helpful. 

Thanks for your help with this.

Today I have spoken on the phone again with EDF (a lovely lady who has been trying to help me solve this problem) and they have confirmed they have found a closing balance statement from GNE on their system.

Everyting tallies up so I am not disputing that I owe the money and will look to get it paid.

Now though, my concern is should I pay the debt collection agency or EDF as the lady said I could make the payment to them.

I am worried what paying the debt collection agency could do to my credit report and score.

Any advice?

if you are happy you owe edf (that they are using the agency to chase the debt and havent sold the debt on) then you can pay whichever you feel comfortable with.

what i'd probably do is pay edf. then write to them (web chat or email is fine) to say the payment has been made and ask them to confirm back that they have received it and the outstanding balance is now completely clear. then i'd forward that to the debt collector for info. 

the reason i'd do that is because if they dont confirm or if theres a problem down the line (the debt collectors keep chasing) then its easier to complain about an energy company than a debt collector to get it fixed. 

Arthur_Pewtey

The debts of GNE would have been assigned to EDF when they took over this business in administration. The same rules apply to the assignee as to the original supplier i.e. if the original business did not collect the monies owed within the correct time then the back-billing rules apply to them equally.

You are not liable for this debt as it is out of time, you should not admit liability for it. You should equally not approach EDF for their view as they will attempt to get the money from you even though it is not owed.

The only time backbilling rules do not apply is if you have intentionally sought to evade the debt or stolen the energy by, for example, rigging a meter.

You can safely ignore what has been posted by others - it is simply wrong.