Flow energy debt collectors :-(

barbachecks

Hi! I’m new here… when we moved house at the end of 2019 our gas / electricity provider was Flow energy. They sent us a bill that seemed high (around £144 - not high by todays standards!!) so I phoned with our meter readings from the date we moved in until the date I rang and they confirmed that it was an estimate and they needed to send us a revised bill. The revised bill never came and the company then went under and passed our ‘debt’ to a debt collector, this had now jumped up to £740. I emailed the debt collector and flow energy explaining the situation and never heard from either of them again.

Now 3 years later we have been passed on to JC International acquisition llc for the same amount of money £740.

We absolutely do not want a bad credit rating as need to remortgage soon, but feel we are being stung for over £600 just because flow energy went under and it was more straightforward for them to pass debts over than send revised bills. Is it worth us fighting this? We are very stressed at the moment and I’m not sure we have the capacity for a huge battle over it, but it is a lot of money :-(

[Deleted User]

The first thing to note is that The Energy Ombudsman has no interest in complaints against failed suppliers. You still need to treat this as a potential debt and you need to send a ‘prove it’ letter to JC International. There are plenty of templates on the web.

QrizB

As above.

Also, there's a "prove it" letter and instructions in one of the pinned posts over on the MSE "Debt-free wannabe" board.

barbachecks

thanks so much, I’ll have a look at this. Does anyone know at what stage your credit score is affected? Thanks again

QrizB

barbachecks said:

thanks so much, I’ll have a look at this. Does anyone know at what stage your credit score is affected? Thanks again

After you get a CCJ, which will be after you have been to court and lost, which will be after you receive a summons, which will be after you receive a Letter Before Claim.

Basically, until it gets to Letter Before Claim stage you can continue to ask for evidence of your alleged debt. Or ask once then ignore the threatograms if you prefer.

FreeBear

QrizB said: Basically, until it gets to Letter Before Claim stage you can continue to ask for evidence of your alleged debt. Or ask once then ignore the threatograms if you prefer.

But never, ever admit that you owe money, not even a penny.

wild666

Never admit owing money just send them a prove it letter and in many cases the claim is dropped. If anything you could give them readings from the day you acquired the property to the date you gave them a meter reading, or the date a SOLR took over the billing if you never had an accurate bill from the company but then they would have to work out the bill on the rates per kWh up to the time the company went under and I doubt anyone but the firm sorting out the mess would have that info, it certainly wouldn't be a debt collection agency as they just get the amount that is owed by the person for pennies in the pound and are hoping to make a large profit from the person that they say owed the supplier the money.