Moriarty Law/Thames Water

RobinVanPersie

Hope this is the right place as ever!

I recently posted regarding ML chasing me for a debt which didn’t make sense. It was for Thames Water which didn’t make a ton of sense as it was from after I’d left the property. 

They’ve now came back to me with all details from TW saying it is running up to Feb 2019 (id left the property in September 2018). They are asking for Tenancy Agreements (which I don’t seem to have any longer) or demanding full payment over a PP or part payment in full.   

I have offered to send Bank Stats etc to prove when I’d left the property - I’ve since moved twice so trying to ascertain a TA isn’t really working at current. The property I moved into was utilities inclusive so I don’t have any stabdard utility bills I can issue either. 

Is this just one of those things where I am going to have to bite the bullet, or is there something else I can do?

TIA!

Floss

If the property was utilities included, the landlord should be dealing with it. Have you contacted yhem, or redirected ML to them?

Grumpy_chap

I think the OP was saying that the tenancy after the property at which the Thames Water queries relate to was bills inclusive, not the property / tenancy in relation to which Thames Water are making contact.

This is all quite old so it is understandable you don't have paperwork to hand.  Is the Letting Agent you dealt with in relation to the property in question still trading?  Would they be able to provide a written statement on headed paper confirming the date you moved out of the property?

RobinVanPersie

Sorry yeah, that wasn’t clear. The property I moved into afterwards was all in. 

I’ve tried contacting the old landlord/estate agency of the property in question and haven’t heard anything back at all…

sourcrates

Keep in mind the onus is on them to prove you owe the money, not on you to prove you don`t.

I`d be letting them do all the donkeywork.

You deny the debt is yours, if they want to win in court, they must prove its your debt, you don`t have to prove or dis-prove anything.

RobinVanPersie

sourcrates said:

Keep in mind the onus is on them to prove you owe the money, not on you to prove you don`t.

I`d be letting them do all the donkeywork.

You deny the debt is yours, if they want to win in court, they must prove its your debt, you don`t have to prove or dis-prove anything.

I appreciate this, as this is what I thought. However they are constantly emailing me now saying they will take further action in 30 days. I’ve offered them things such as the bank statements etc, but their response is basically, “sorry, we need a TA” so I’m not sure how to proceed…

flipflopflo

Emails mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. They can send all the emails they want, threatening all sorts if they want but it means nothing. The only thing to have any meaning is a letter and not just any letter ( letters you can file away too). The letter that you have to deal with is a letter before action. If you get one of those then come back here and the good folks will help you with that. For now don’t phone them, don’t reply to emails (just file them) and let them go on their merry way and ignore them. 

fatbelly

You could try referring the complaint to CCW (Consumer Council for Water) but i'm not sure how helpful they would be. On balance i'd go with the above advice

sourcrates

RobinVanPersie said:

sourcrates said:

Keep in mind the onus is on them to prove you owe the money, not on you to prove you don`t.

I`d be letting them do all the donkeywork.

You deny the debt is yours, if they want to win in court, they must prove its your debt, you don`t have to prove or dis-prove anything.

I appreciate this, as this is what I thought. However they are constantly emailing me now saying they will take further action in 30 days. I’ve offered them things such as the bank statements etc, but their response is basically, “sorry, we need a TA” so I’m not sure how to proceed…

That`s just typical DCA bluster we see it all the time.

People are under the mistaken impression they have to converse with these companies just because they say you owe them money, well you don`t.

With the meaningless 30 day timeframe, and the "further action" they refer too just meaning they will start writing to you, and calling you again, they copy it from a standard script, and its deliberately mis-leading so as to cause confusion, they tend to prey on your vulnerabilities.

They can say and do whatever they like, all that matters is if they send a letter before action, everything else can be ignored, nothing else means diddly squat.

RobinVanPersie

Appreciate all of your help! Will see if I get this “letter before action” and then go from there. Was just genuinely worried about CCJs etc. will be revisiting if I do receive said letter!! 

Just for info, will this specifically be labelled as “A letter before action”?

sourcrates

RobinVanPersie said:

Appreciate all of your help! Will see if I get this “letter before action” and then go from there. Was just genuinely worried about CCJs etc. will be revisiting if I do receive said letter!! 

Just for info, will this specifically be labelled as “A letter before action”?

Basically, yes.

They must comply with the pre-action protocol of the civil procedure rules.

An example of the process can be seen here -

PRE-ACTION PROTOCOL FOR DEBT CLAIMS Redraft spring 2015 (justice.gov.uk)