Being taken to court by BWLegal

kittennose

We have had several letters from a company called BW Legal over an apparent thames water bill they have seemingly brought.

The only issue that the address of supply on the bill is not an address we have ever lived at (though we did once live on that street it was a completely different number) the date of supply is also a year after we moved out.

When we try to phone thames water, we can't speak to anyone as they require an account number and ours is not recognised on the copy BW legal sent us.

Everything has screamed "SCAM" and reviews of this agency are full of mistaken bills and claims so we ignored it for a while. We then wrote back to them saying please provide proof this is our debt and they just send copies of the Thames water bill with the wrong dates and addresses on them so we have continued to ignore it.

However we now have a claim through small claims court and a CCJ is having over our heads. We really do not know what to do as we have impeccable credit but they will away a CCJ if we don't respond today. 

I really do not want to pay this unless they prove it us but tempted just to stop any CCJ that may happen. We have a day left.

MorningcoffeeIV

Nothing about it screams 'SCAM'.  An error at best, but don't rely on that.

If a CCJ is awarded against you, you can pay it within 30 days and it will not show on your files. So respond with your evidence/statement and see what happens.

sourcrates

Can I ask why have you waited so long ?

You have a reasonable defence to the claim. They say you owe money, you say you don`t, they have started legal action, so you had 28 days to respond (if you opted for service online) and defend the claim on the basis the debt is not yours.

There should be a response pack in the bundle they sent you, although you have left it very late in the process, you may be out of time now.

You never pay a debt you don`t believe is yours, likewise you don`t just get a CCJ awarded against you either, you have the opportunity to file a defence.

But you will get one, by default, if you don`t exercise your right to a defence, and quickly.

The court is there to hear both sides, if the debt is not yours, tell them so, and as your evidence backs you up, obviously you won`t have to pay it.

kittennose

sourcrates said:

Can I ask why have you waited so long ?

You have a reasonable defence to the claim. They say you owe money, you say you don`t, they have started legal action, so you had 28 days to respond (if you opted for service online) and defend the claim on the basis the debt is not yours.

There should be a response pack in the bundle they sent you, although you have left it very late in the process, you may be out of time now.

You never pay a debt you don`t believe is yours, likewise you don`t just get a CCJ awarded against you either, you have the opportunity to file a defence.

But you will get one, by default, if you don`t exercise your right to a defence, and quickly.

The court is there to hear both sides, if the debt is not yours, tell them so, and as your evidence backs you up, obviously you won`t have to pay it.

We responded on day 14. You only get 28 days if you request it.

kittennose

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Nothing about it screams 'SCAM'.  An error at best, but don't rely on that.

If a CCJ is awarded against you, you can pay it within 30 days and it will not show on your files. So respond with your evidence/statement and see what happens.

Depends how you judge a scam but it's scummy how they operate - bulk buying small debts and just mailing them off with court action without even bothering to check the details of the debt.

There are thousands upon thousands of people who get demands for payment relating to properties they have never lived at - half of which will be so scared of court action that they will pay it regardless.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bwlegal.co.uk

MorningcoffeeIV

kittennose said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Nothing about it screams 'SCAM'.  An error at best, but don't rely on that.

If a CCJ is awarded against you, you can pay it within 30 days and it will not show on your files. So respond with your evidence/statement and see what happens.

Depends how you judge a scam but it's scummy how they operate - bulk buying small debts and just mailing them off with court action without even bothering to check the details of the debt.

I judge it by its definition and whether it's a scam or not.

What you describe isn't a scam.

The reason it's important to distinguish between scams and non-scams is that it impacts how you deal with them.

kittennose

MorningcoffeeIV said:

kittennose said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Nothing about it screams 'SCAM'.  An error at best, but don't rely on that.

If a CCJ is awarded against you, you can pay it within 30 days and it will not show on your files. So respond with your evidence/statement and see what happens.

Depends how you judge a scam but it's scummy how they operate - bulk buying small debts and just mailing them off with court action without even bothering to check the details of the debt.

I judge it by its definition and whether it's a scam or not.

What you describe isn't a scam.

The reason it's important to distinguish between scams and non-scams is that it impacts how you deal with them.

A scam is a dishonest attempt to make money. They frequently do this by buying debts addressed ‘to the occupant’ then guessing who it was who lived there, frequently getting it wrong. They also frequently break laws set for debt collectors in doing so.

you can have a legitimate business operating scam collections.

the worst thing is people accepting this as legit, the practice should be called for what it is. 

kittennose

Update: We went ahead and disputed the debt to the small claims court. We gave a defence in writing (online) basically around the fact that the address on the letter doesn't match the address we previously lived, or at a time when we lived on that road, and they have not shown any proof of the debt being ours.

We used ChatGPT to flesh it all out and add some legalese and BWLegal dropped the court claim and have written to us personally to confirm they will cease all efforts to recover this debt and it's now written off.

Hopefully this helps anyone else who is bullied into paying for a debt which is not theirs and gives them to confidence to fight it.

#BWLegal #Courcase

PRAISETHESUN

kittennose said:

Update: We went ahead and disputed the debt to the small claims court. We gave a defence in writing (online) basically around the fact that the address on the letter doesn't match the address we previously lived, or at a time when we lived on that road, and they have not shown any proof of the debt being ours.

We used ChatGPT to flesh it all out and add some legalese and BWLegal dropped the court claim and have written to us personally to confirm they will cease all efforts to recover this debt and it's now written off.

Hopefully this helps anyone else who is bullied into paying for a debt which is not theirs and gives them to confidence to fight it.

#BWLegal #Courcase

Glad you got a good outcome, but never, ever, EVER, rely on ChatGPT to flesh out legal text. There's a very high profile case of a couple of lawyers in the US who did this and are now in very hot water...

https://news.sky.com/story/lawyers-fined-after-citing-bogus-cases-from-chatgpt-research-12908318

Grizebeck

Chat gpt is the worst thing ever for court claims