Obtaining details of old utility debt

The last item on the list you can do something about, go to

and have a look at some of their pdf leaflets. There is one specifically about credit records IIRC. If they ignore clearly worded requests under the Data Protection Act

1998 then they are breaking the law, well worth the typical £2 fee to get this cleared up.

I agree, so contact British Gas for *real* evidence of the debt.

You are wasting your time trying to argue/negotiate with a debt collection agency. And in all fairness to them, it's really not their problem. You should be arguing with the source of the problem, ie: British Gas. Having some experience of them myself, I wish you the best of luck, you *will* need it.

Contact British Gas by phone, get a reference and contact address for correspondence. Write to them and ask for proof of the debt, also ask why they believe it is *your* responsibility.

Write to the thugs (sorry debt collectors), tell them that you are dealing directly with BG and there is now a live, ongoing enquiry (with reference no.), and that you request they put the matter on hold pending the outcome.

From what info you've supplied here, you should be able to show that you don't owe anything.

hth.

But why do I have to pay, and probably many times over, because of their inefficiency?

Mark BR

In message , Mark BR writes

Well you don't have to write to them, you don't have to ring them and you can put a notice of correction on your credit file.

I thought I would post an update to say:

1. Energywatch did as suggested put the wind up BG and persuade them to acutally deal with the matter rather than put me endlessly on hold and transfer me between any number of departments who claimed not to have any responsibility or knowledge.

1. The bill turns out to be for the 6 month period after I sold the property. Obviously they did not try very hard to ascertain who owed them money, they knew perfectly well that the property had changed hands. Far cheaper and easier to harass members of the public into doing their job for them.

2. As a matter of policy they pass no information over to the debt collectors. Related to point 2 this seems to me a deliberate policy of avoiding any responsibility for knowing who actually owes them money or having to play by the OFGEM rules. Curiously they claim both that they have sold the debt and have no responsibility for the way it is chased and that they have now cancelled the debt on their own system and all action will cease immediately. I fail to see how both statements can be true. I would think that if they can cancel the debt internally then the debt collectors are nothing but sock-puppets being used to bypass OFGEM regulations on how debts may be collected.

It seems that when it comes to debts British Gas are happily getting away with a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach. I wonder how many people pay up on debts that they are not even liable for because BG have found a wheeze that allows them to chase "debts" without providing the slightest information about those alleged debts.

For anyone else in a similar situation the suggestion to take it up with Energywatch seems to be the most productive one. When the dust settles I will ask Energywatch if they plan to raise with OFGEM the mechanisms BG are using to chase debts without revealing any of the information to the consumer that the OFGEM guidelines say they must reveal.

Thanks all.

In message , snipped-for-privacy@mailandnews.com writes

Thanks for the update Nic. Sadly, this process is not limited to British Gas, it is inherent in the industry.

It would seem so. Unfortunately whilst OFGEM has lots of guidelines on billing to protect the consumer it would appear that the utilities can bypass the whole issue by using a debt collection agency as a sock puppet. Given the inconsistent statements they made to me it looks like a pretty transparent ruse but for the time being they are getting away with it.

Congrats, at least its now sorted :-)