Three Valleys Water Sending us to Court

ryandj

Me and the OH moved into a new house in October. we soon received a bill from three valleys water for the portion of the year that we are in th house, works out to £117.96.

So, all good so far. We set up a direct debit. £39.31 for 3 months. We have paid that every month Nov, Dec and Jan. So thats all fine and we got a letter to confirm the DD was set up correctly. And I checked my bank, and it has gone out.

7 November - we received a RED letter saying 'Your Account is Overdue for Payment' stating that £22.71 is overdue. I have no idea where this £22.71 came from, and neither did Three Valleys when we rung them up to ask about it, and we never got a bill for it, only a RED overdue notice. So we thought that is fine, no need to pay it as they can't tell us what its for, maybe its from the previous resident or something.

Now today, we have got a letter from their Debt Enforcement Agency basically saying they will take legal proceedings against us if we do not pay, CCJ, etc etc.

So what can I do?

I will obviously ring them on Monday to try and sort it, but in my experience of these things I usually end up speaking to someone, being put on hold for half an hour, then the line goes dead, or I get put through to someone who has no idea what i am on about and i have to start again with the whole story.

We can afford to pay it, its not a problem, but i dont know what the charge is for so I dont want to pay it.

Cardew

ryandj wrote: »

I will obviously ring them on Monday to try and sort it, but in my experience of these things I usually end up speaking to someone, being put on hold for half an hour, then the line goes dead, or I get put through to someone who has no idea what i am on about and i have to start again with the whole story.

Then write to them - an email, follow up by snail-mail, and copy both to the Regulator.


Put in a formal complaint demanding compensation for your account being wrongly handed to a debt collection agency.

This practice of morons in the Utility Company accounts departments handing over accounts to DCAs, without proper investigation, is a disgrace.

ryandj

THat sounds like the thing to do, thanks Cardew.

Who is the regulator for water? Or how do i find out?

Cardew

ryandj wrote: »

THat sounds like the thing to do, thanks Cardew.

Who is the regulator for water? Or how do i find out?

The Regulator is ofwat www.ofwat.co.uk

They will doubtless pass the buck to the Consumer Council for Water
http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

They won't do much initially but it will put the 'frighteners' on the Utility company and you might get some action!