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Advice needed - debt companies

My father in law has dementia and is in a home. We rent his property which pays a contribution towards the home costs. We pay a letting agency to manage this. One set of tenants left a just over a year ago and we go a new family in last September. Scottish power sent a ridiculous estimated bill for the period the property was unoccupied which we sorted out eventually - their error. Totally rubbish company by the way. It seems at some point, they sold the debt - which isn't a debt (under my father in law's name) to a debt recovery company. We have explained and sorted out with a number of these as it seems when they realise they cannot recover the debt, they move it on to another company. This is upsetting my wife and becoming harassment - when you explain to them, they are not interested in the fact that it was a Scottish Power error. I am thinking to resolve this, I need to go for Scottish Power, but any advice would be welcome.

Comments

  • Contact Watchdog?
  • Maybe contact an energy ombudsman
  • Just tell them to go away. Cite the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 to them Tell them they are in breach of section 1 of that legislation and are committing a criminal offence. Report then to the plod.

    The Act (Section 3) also provides a civil remedy. Under section 3 you can sue them for damages for "any anxiety caused by the harassment and any financial loss resulting from the harassment." Explain this to them.

    Now, technically as I understand it "harassment only applies if there has been more than one instance of it. BUT the Act also provides that "A person’s conduct on any occasion shall be taken, if aided, abetted, counselled or procured (my emphasis) by another—
    (a)to be conduct on that occasion of the other (as well as conduct of the person whose conduct it is); and
    (b)to be conduct in relation to which the other’s knowledge and purpose, and what he ought to have known, are the same as they were in relation to what was contemplated or reasonably foreseeable at the time of the aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring.

    It may be that you could argue that by on-selling the non-existent debt, they are "procuring" the harassment and that a single instance of it from another party would constitute harassment. (You could certainly argue that - they wouldn't know the difference anyway!)

    If you want to go full belt and braces add in the Malicious Communications Act 1998 for good measure. This deals with among other things "information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender".

    You could also check to see if there are any "no win, no fee" lawyers who would take on a damages for harassment case. (There certainly are specialists in the field but they may want a fee!)

    Hope that helps!
  • Thanks - Very helpful. I pretty much told the latest company that this is harassment and threatened to contact the police but I didn't know the details of the act - when they pass it on to another agency, I will quote what you have said and say that I will deem them passing the debt onto another agency as harassment. The alleged debtor is an old man with severe dementia and it is very upsetting to my wife.

    I have also raised a complaint with Scottish Power - telling them that I have no confidence in their ability to resolve it, but that I have to give them a chance to before I take further. I think they have caused the harassment so they should be responsible for sorting it out.
  • I feel your pain, had a few of these on my dads house (he too is in a home with dementia) and it took the original company (NPower in this instance) to sort it out although it took a lot of phone calls. They owed him nearly £1800 yet reckoned he owed them nearly £100.

    Part of the reason I'm selling my Dads place, just a lot of hassle and potential CGT issues if you ever choose to or have to sell it.
  • Rob7Lee said:

    I feel your pain, had a few of these on my dads house (he too is in a home with dementia) and it took the original company (NPower in this instance) to sort it out although it took a lot of phone calls. They owed him nearly £1800 yet reckoned he owed them nearly £100.

    Part of the reason I'm selling my Dads place, just a lot of hassle and potential CGT issues if you ever choose to or have to sell it.

    These utility companies are either evil or rubbish, I suspect it is a bit of both.
  • Rob7Lee said:

    I feel your pain, had a few of these on my dads house (he too is in a home with dementia) and it took the original company (NPower in this instance) to sort it out although it took a lot of phone calls. They owed him nearly £1800 yet reckoned he owed them nearly £100.

    Part of the reason I'm selling my Dads place, just a lot of hassle and potential CGT issues if you ever choose to or have to sell it.

    These utility companies are either evil or rubbish, I suspect it is a bit of both.
    Rubbish for sure. I always find telling them my dad has late stage dementia, here's the name and number of where he is so see how you go helps....... they tend to soon start being reasonable after that, plus never show them your power of attorney!!

    I admire your determination on letting a property, managing one house is bad enough! The whole main residence aspect once you go into a home is a joke as well.
  • On paper it is much easier than reality.
  • Hope you get it sorted @MuttleyCAFC I totally agree with @cafcfan

    Had a similar issue with 3 network about 11/12 years ago. I stupidly signed up to a new fangled phone with them, even though I was already on O2 and kept that phone. After a year, I got out of the deal but they sent an "upgrade" phone and started charging me. I sent it back and cancelled the Direct Debit.

    A few months later, I was contacted by the 1st of 9 debt collection agencies, who tried to recover £360+ I apparently owed them.

    3 had already accepted that I did not wish to continue, but had been charging me whilst making their mind up and, to make matters worse continued to do so afterwards and were charging for the original phone PLUS the upgrade! Had fun explaining the absurdity of that one!!!

    I wrote a concise letter explaining 3's mistake, including my correspondence with them, and advising I had no intention of ever paying. I never heard from the same collection agency twice and they eventually gave up, although it took nearly 5 years...usually a new one every 6 months. I simply changed the address and date of the template letter and attached the copy the previous letters each time...the last one was quite bulky!! :wink:

    A few tried to insinuate that they were enforcing some sort of legal judgement, which was total bollocks. All tried to say that my credit score would be affected - it never was.

    I invited on the court case a couple suggested would happen if I did not pay and said I was quite happy to stand in front of a judge, explain and see how they felt about paying my costs (I know a lot of lawyers in my job, which is handy).

    Don't let it get to you. Just respond politely. Use the same letter and attach the previous ones for each collection agency and what you have from Scottish Power.

    Oh...one more thing...refuse to speak with them on the phone. Just tell them you will only respond to written correspondence.

    Good luck :smile:

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  • A couple of years ago I bought an internet usb stick formy wife until I discovered that she was no longer using it. Then I found out she hadn't used it for almost a year! I rang 3 to cancel as it was out of contract. They tried to sell me other products, I responded by asking why I would possibly want to buy anything off of a bunch of crooks that were happy to charge me monthly fees for a year for something I was clearly not using.

    Then tried to get my data on my son's EE phone upgraded - was happy to pay more for it of course. They quoted me a ridiculous price but said they advise me to buy a box that will give him extra data at a cheaper price. Apart from him having to carry a box around with him, I realised that this box would be on a contract and actually be more expensive than upgrading the data - plus would be useless when we upgarded his phone a year later. These companies are all crooks as there was no mention of the contract until I questioned it.
  • @MuttleyCAFC here's a link to the policy on accurate billing which I found useful to quote to Scottish Power and, ultimately, the ombudsman when they messed my old dears around. We eventually got something like £700 written off due to their incompetence. That was 2 years ago and they're still sending inaccurate bills, so I'm about to go to war with them again. I don't know anyone happy with them and wouldn't be surprised if they end up going bust!
    http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html
  • edited July 2017
    I have made a complaint to Scottish Power and told them that they were at fault for selling an incorrect debt of a vulnerable person to a debt collection company so I expect them to put it right, even if it involves them tracking through the companies the debt has been sold to. I don't see why we should be in this endless loop which is upsetting my wife because they were too quick to act before the issue was concluded. I don't expect them to resolve the complaint, but will escalate after 8 weeks when they don't. It isn't even that large an amount, but if it is possible to get a claim comapny involved we might do so and give any money to a dementia charity.

    I think more generally, the government should do something to stop debt companies moving debts on when they know they can't collect as this fuels harassment. For each company it is the first time they contact you, but you will have spoken to many before them.
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