Claiming compo after being hassled for an energy debt you obviously didn’t owe?

i_like_cats

After setting debt collectors after me, the energy firm soon admitted the debt wasn’t mine, & didn’t even relate to the property I’d been living in.

During our exchanges they opened up a complaint in my name in order to freeze the debt enforcement process.  And then announced it had been resolved when they admitted it wasn’t my debt.  

I said hang on a minute, I haven’t said I am closing my complaint, this is really shoddy behaviour, I want compo!  Or we’ll let the regulators take it up.

They’ve got back to me offering £50.

Should I just accept?  Not really worth rehearsing all the details here but to be fair it was resolved within a fortrnight.   But I didn’t appreciate the threatening letters from debt collectors, and that they obviously didn’t carry out even the most rudimentary of checks which would have shown it wasn’t my debt.

Have any of you had similar experiences and received a payout?
 

caprikid1

What loss did you suffer ?

How much are you willing to invest to try and get a larger payout ?

caprikid1

Just realised the OP has a habit of removing the original post from their threads so maybe little point in replying.

Yorkie006

i_like_cats said:

caprikid1 said:

What loss did you suffer ?

How much are you willing to invest to try and get a larger payout ?

It took me 4-5 emails to resolve as well as digging out old paperwork.  It was also unpleasant receiving debt collectors letters in the mail - you can imagine how threatening they are.

I think £150 would be a fairer amount.

Take the £50 and move on.

You suffered no loss, sending a few emails only takes a few minutes.

I had British Gas/debt collectors chasing me for a debt at my previous address created after my tenancy ended (landlord tried to avoid paying for vacant property during refurbishment by not contacting them to open new account), took over 2 months to solve (threatening emails, debt collector knocking on my door, long & expensive phone calls to premium number etc.) and didn't even get an apology.
They offered you £50 for a minor inconvenience. Just take it and forget about it all.

MWT

caprikid1 said:

Just realised the OP has a habit of removing the original post from their threads so maybe little point in replying.

That is easy to fix...

i_like_cats said:

After setting debt collectors after me, the energy firm soon admitted the debt wasn’t mine, & didn’t even relate to the property I’d been living in.

During our exchanges they opened up a complaint in my name in order to freeze the debt enforcement process.  And then announced it had been resolved when they admitted it wasn’t my debt.  

I said hang on a minute, I haven’t said I am closing my complaint, this is really shoddy behaviour, I want compo!  Or we’ll let the regulators take it up.

They’ve got back to me offering £50.

Should I just accept?  Not really worth rehearsing all the details here but to be fair it was resolved within a fortrnight.   But I didn’t appreciate the threatening letters from debt collectors, and that they obviously didn’t carry out even the most rudimentary of checks which would have shown it wasn’t my debt.

Have any of you had similar experiences and received a payout?
 

For the OP I'd say £50 is about what you'd get wit ha complaint to the Ombudsman, if they rule in your favour, so I'd not waste any time on this and take the offer.

caprikid1

"They’ve got back to me offering £50."

How much do you earn per hour, how much time did you spend writing e-mails ?

PRAISETHESUN

i_like_cats said:

After setting debt collectors after me, the energy firm soon admitted the debt wasn’t mine, & didn’t even relate to the property I’d been living in.

During our exchanges they opened up a complaint in my name in order to freeze the debt enforcement process.  And then announced it had been resolved when they admitted it wasn’t my debt.  

I said hang on a minute, I haven’t said I am closing my complaint, this is really shoddy behaviour, I want compo!  Or we’ll let the regulators take it up.

They’ve got back to me offering £50.

Should I just accept?  Not really worth rehearsing all the details here but to be fair it was resolved within a fortrnight.   But I didn’t appreciate the threatening letters from debt collectors, and that they obviously didn’t carry out even the most rudimentary of checks which would have shown it wasn’t my debt.

Have any of you had similar experiences and received a payout?
 

If you can justify a higher amount then do so, otherwise take the money and run...

FreeBear

i_like_cats said: They also didn’t consider whether the debt would have expired anyway, even if it had been my account, given it relates to nearly 18 months ago.

Debts do not "expire". However, they are limited to 6 years (5 in Scotland) to pursue a debt through the courts. Once that time has expired, all they can do is ask politely for money.

BikingBud

i_like_cats said:

FreeBear said:

i_like_cats said: They also didn’t consider whether the debt would have expired anyway, even if it had been my account, given it relates to nearly 18 months ago.

Debts do not "expire". However, they are limited to 6 years (5 in Scotland) to pursue a debt through the courts. Once that time has expired, all they can do is ask politely for money.

Actually they do in the case of energy bills according to the regulator’s rules.   The phrase is "back billing” and they’re not allowed to do it.

Anyway the whole thing was a nonsense.  One of the other flats in the property had an unpaid gas bill for six months from the date new tenants moved in.  This in itself is odd, because if the cause was that they didn’t set up accounts in a hurry, I’d have thought it affected electricity as well.

 Welll over a year later, instead of speaking to those tenants or the landlord, the energy firm instead assigned that flat’s gas meter to the address of my flat, and sent me debt collectors after me, demanding i pay the bill which wasn’t mine.   

Despite the fact I actually had an account with them for my flat and my meters which was fully paid up and had been closed.

They say there was a difference in how the addresses were recorded - Flat A, 10 Downing Street, and 10a Downing Street - which meant the system didn’t flag up that their bill couldn’t have been right.

As for how they ever thought it was my bill, there was time 8+ years ago when as tenants we’d been mixed up about which meter related to which flat, and the wrong ones were briefly on the national registry.  But this was resolved soon afterwards.  So their statement that it was an error that was reanimated when they took over another supplier in 2023, doesn’t hold any water.  Certainly my last bill from the old supplier shows the correct meter was registered to the flat I was renting.

Anyway - I appreciate people will bring me back to “What loss have you suffered?” and point out that needs to be the principle in calculating any compensation I can argue for.

I just think the principle is really shoddy - it’s obviously cheaper for them to carry out zero investigation beforehand, just sending out these letters willy-nilly with no concern of the distress they cause people.  Then deal with it later when it turns out many of them have been sent erroneously to people who don’t even owe anything!

Mate just crack on and write all this to the service provider and see if they feel that you are worth £150 - job jobbed.

Gerry1

Ask for £150 (so that it seems reasonable), count yourself lucky if you get £100, take the money and run if you get £50.

Only go to the Ombudsman if you get less than £50, or a refusal.

i_like_cats

For the record, yes, they accepted my counter of £150.  Money now received and complaint closed.  Energy firm name is a bit like “Squid” . 

Thanks all for your help!