Scottish Power Harassment

Greengarden26

My mum has a house in Worcester that is powered by British Gas. For the past 7 years she has been receiving letters and bailiffs threats from Scottish Power.  She has spent hours and hours on the phone trying to sort it out as well as sending endless emails.  They always say don’t worry we will sort it out and then 3 months later she gets a threatening bailiff's letters.  On one occasion she let one of the bailiffs into the property to check the box in the house and he said “oh yes it’s British gas”  this was last year, and yet she is still being harassed.  This is starting to affect her and my stepdads mental and physical health and wellbeing. 
I am seeking some advice on what to do and how we can stop this continuous harassment.

Can anyone help us or advise us?

Thanks you

p00hsticks

Can you please clarify a few things:

Are the letters addressed to her personally or just 'The Occupier' ?

Has she every had gas or electricity supplied by Scottish Power (at the current address or elsewhere)

Have Scottish Power given any explanation as to why they beleive she owes them money ?

Greengarden26

The letters are addressed to the occupier. They do not have her name.

She has never had any services provided by Scottish power.

No, they have never given a reason. What we do know it that it is a database/address issue on their end. As there are a few roads in the area with similar names.

Brie

Anything addressed to the occupier should simply be binned.

If SP has been ringing her or sending her emails she needs to send them a letter stating that as she is not a customer of theirs they need to ERASE her details from their systems. That means phone numbers and emails and address. Furthermore if they continue to contact her she will escalate the matter to the ombudsman for harassment.

Bailiffs should not be allowed to enter the property as they have no right to anymore than a stranger walking down the road. It doesn't matter if it's tipping down with rain and they need the toilet, they can't come in.

ZilianStoleMyMoney

That is strange I wonder if the MPAN and/or MPRN is cloned or accidently used at another property. I would raise a complaint with Scottish Power asking them to explain what the reason is for these bailiff letters and ask them to check Ecoes and XOserve to show the history at her property.
Get your mother or yourself to take pictures of the meters and if smart meters the communication hub (usually above the Electric meter) to prove she is the owner of those.
When raising the complaint tell them that if the complaint is going to go in circles, you will expect a deadlock letter and you will escalate to the energy ombudsman. That will ensure they put the complaint on the system as a full complaint and not a feedback one on a system they call Promise Tracker. Also make sure to set expectations - you want to know why this happened and adequate monetary compensation for the situation caused by them towards your mother's mental health.

Hope you get a quick answer and a resolution to it all.

Greengarden26

Thank you guys for responding so quickly. I will let her know what you have said.

t0rt0ise

If she started complaining more than 8 weeks ago she should start a complaint with the energy ombudsman. The first thing it will ask when filling in the form or phoning is "are you the account holder". She can legitimately answer "yes". I am going through similar with the ombudsman now and they told me that. It doesn't matter either that the letters are addressed to the occupier and not in her name. It's not a fast process but well worth it.

Phones4Chris

@Greengarden26 There's been some good (and a bit of bad) advice here.

Firstly, letters addressed to "The occupier" should not simply be binned. They need to be dealt with depending on what they are. Is the address on them totally correct, including the postcode?

In this case if your mum has never had services from SP then she needs to raise a "Formal" complaint with them. If she's already done that, as advised above, she can go straight to the Ombudsman. However, just for clarification, how long have they lived in the current house?
You haven't mentioned what these letters are actually saying/claiming?

Do not send any meter details to SP, this could all be down (as you seem to think) to them mixing up details and addresses and if they don't have your current meter details then clearly their "claims" have nothing to do with her. If the letters do not make clear what they are about, you can "demand" that they tell you and once it's established that it's definitely nothing to do with her she can demand they remove her details from their systems and STOP sending letters and threats which constitute "harassment" which is a criminal offense for which they can be reported. It may also be worth getting some help from Citizens Advice to resolve this.

What you can do is check your current billing from BG is showing the correct meter details. Look at the meter serial numbers on the bills and look at the meters themselves and make sure they match and are all correct.

It will also be worth checking that the meters are correctly registered at her address with the relevant network operators (the people that send the electricity via the cables and gas via the pipes).
If you don't know, the DNO (Distribution Network Operator) for electricity in the West Midlands is National Grid (0800-6783105) and the Gas Transporter should be Cadent (0800-3898000). Make sure the precise address is correct and not confused with those similar ones.

EssexHebridean

Generally speaking, when you are receiving letters chasing a debt that is not yours, you are best advised to not provide any additional information other than that which the originator already has.

Absolutely never let a debt collector/Bailiff collecting a debt which is not yours into the property.