Who is the DCA? Have you written your letter of complaint and diispute yet? If not do so at once. Send it recorded delivery. Give a full story in your letter and include what EON have said to you.. In your letter say that you cannot see them sorting this out themselves so would like them to send you a deadlock letter at once so that you can go to the Ombudsman. Alternatively invite them to take you to court so that the matter can be sorted out fairly and sensibly. At this point the DCA is probably acting as agent for EON who are using them unfairly to put pressure on you to pay an incorrect bill. So they are in effect EON and you can ignore them. Once your complaint and dispute is into EON they (or their agent DCA) cannot persue the debt until they have dealt with the dispute. If they do so complain at once tto the Energy Ombudsman for EON and to OFT and Trading Standards for the DCA. Threatening to send someone round is a favourite tactic of DCAs. People are frightened that these people are bailiffs and can intimidate them -they have no powers. Mostly these visits are a waste of time so they rarely happen. There are many Caggers who prepare tea and cakes for these visits but are disappointed. You do not have to let them in but if you do want a chat waste their time by talking about anything other than EON. The most important thing in all this is to know your rights and not to be bullied. Very often the lower echelons in utilities make it up as they go along and you cannot believe what they say is even sensible let alone fair. No doubt the get a bonus for a 'success'- DCA staff certainly do.

They will always win undefended applications at about one a minute!! If you are there to defend they they will withdraw the application from these rubber sttamp sessions and investigate properly. Only those cases that they know they will win then go through to a full hearing. So NPower appears to always win either by default or with properly prepared cases. You will not see cases in court where the application has been withdrawn and they cannot sustain a case. The moral is to always turn up in court and never have a default warrant against you. At the worst you will gain time and at the best no further application will be made. If all applications were defended it would stop cosy rubber stamping of warrants by magistrates and would force utilities to properly consider threatening disconnection. It would also swamp the magistrate's court!!

Note that you only have to pay (billing code) for the 1 year before the first CORRECT bill. If the bills that they have sent you are using the incorrect meter numbers they are not correct bills. Personally I would inform them (as you have done by email) just once that they are still using an incorrect meter number. Then sit back and wait. The longer they delay in sorting this the more free gas you will get. You cannot be asked to pay anything until you have received a correct bill - so I wouldn't. . I would keep copies of all further incorrect bills and any communications from their collections department. I would send the originals back with a note that these bills and comunications are incorrect. Has anybody from British Gas bothered to check your actual meter number? When this kind of thing happened to me when I moved into a newbuild apartment it turned out that the only addresses recorded for the whole block were the buider's plot addresses and that every single meter number recorded against 12 addresses was incorrect. I suggested to them that they sent soebody from their office (not the agemcy meter reader) to the block to check it out but they declined to do this. They appeared to prefer to muddle along resulting in billing code and compenstion losses rather than somebody travelling 20 miles and sorting everybody out in a half day. The last billing code and compensation I know that they paid was £750 2.5 years after the newbuild was occupied for the first time. I got £240 but i was stupid and did my best to sort things out myself. If I had not bothered I would certainly have got more! so think on.

Nottslad What do you suggest that Kate999 puts in the notice of correction? The default marker is correct and if she pays in full it will be marked satisfied. What is there to correct? The default marker will be there for six years but has a decreasing effect as time goes on. Mortgagers offering secured loans would give her the oppotunity to explain. On the other hand she is very unlikely to get an unsecured loan for six years even with a 'correction' - I have suggested that an unsecured loan would be unwise from her point of view in any case..

Utility contracts these days are nearly all deemed contracts and it is unusual to have a written signed contract with one person. A deemed contract is with all adult occupiers and this can include adult offspring. It is joint and several which means that any one of the occupiers can be asked to pay. So they are entitled to send a bill to the occupier or to one or all the occupants by name. Putting your wife's name on the bill does not increase their options - the possiblity of asking your wife to pay is already part of the deemed contract.

To get your CRA file marked as settled you will need to pay the debt in full. Mortgages are secured debts and your credit score (if used at all) dies not have much effect, Your financial situation will be looked at in depth and should this default marker come up in their investigation you will be able to explain this as a temporary matter as you have done in your first post.

Credit Resource Solutions Ltd Definitely not inhouse. DCAs can work in two ways. As agents. In this case you do not have to communicate with them but can go directly to BG - they are BG. The point of employing them as agents is that to many people DCAs are scary and they can make dishonest threats without besmirching the reputation of BG. As owners of a debt. BG will have sold (assigned) the debt to them. When BG do this they must make certain you know they have done so in writing. Your account with BG will be shown as 0. If the DCA can prove the debt (which is seldom the case) they can go as far as a defended court action to recover. They will try for a default (undefended) CCJ if they cannot prove the debt. http://www.debtwizard.com/images/stories/files/oft-debt-collection-guidelines.pdf

Salesmen will say anything to get a sale - bonuses. Next time they come make a show of using a recorder - they will probably leave at once!!

Does having a poor credit score matter in practice? Are you planniing on further credit? Is that wise? In a way BG are doing you a favour in making it more difficult for you to get credit as at present you might have a problem in financing a loan i.e. paying it back. Genarally speaking the older a default marker is the less it matters particularly if it concerns a 'loan' that is subsequently settled. Most lenders would ignore a settled default after three years.

Yes I think you are right. What is worse is that the collection departments ofen seem to have a life of their own and once they start a collection process it continues without regard to anything else going on in the organisation. I recieved a bill from BG that was in my name but addressed wrongly with the meter number incorrect and for supply to the apartment upstairs. Naturally I disputed this bill and this took 9 months to sort. During the whole of this time I was bombarded with red and purple bills (all incorrect) and harrassing phone calls from a DCA who I would not talk to. OFT says it is unfair to continue any kind of collection activity while the bill is in dispute but the fact of a dispute did not seem to be something collectors could be bothered with. The property was a newbuild and nobody had bothered to fit a water meter. Not surprisingly the bill they sent was vigorously disputed by me but for 4 months collection activity continued despite the dispute and even after the dispute was settled and paid.

Newbuild again!! I have written this post for gas supplies only but electric supplies are just the same. First thing to do is to ring National Grid. Have ready your correct postal address and your meter number. Ask them who supplies your property and ask for the MPAN number. It is fairly likely they will have a problem with the address! Less likely but not rare is incorrectly recorded meter numbers and this can be a very real problem in apartment blocks. If they have your correct address on their database ask them when they changed it from the plot address. (Do the same for electricity but make a separate call. You are looking for errrors before they correct them.) When a builder wants a gas supply for a property he first contacts a distributer - usually National Grid. The distributer owns all the pipework up to and including the meter. If it possible to supply gas to the property National grid fits the pipework and the meter. NG sit in offices so they use agents to fit the pipework etc. If the builder has the correct qualifications it is common for NG to use him as an agent to do the work. The builder gives the address of the property and the meter number. NG records this on their computer database and gives the meter an MPAN number. Then it is up to the builder to choose a supplier - the utility who reads the meter and bills and expects payment - in your case ?Scottish gas. The builder will supply the address and the meter number to the supplier who will contact NG to tell them they are supplying and then commence billing the builder. Fine so far but how can it all go wrong? Address. The address on NG's and the supplier's data base is that given by the builder and to start with it will be a 'plot number' address used by the builder to identify the property. At some time usually before the property is sold the Royal Mail get into the act and give the property a full postal address and this may be completely different from the builder's address. Meter number. Not surprisingly the builder who has fitted the meter somtimes makes errors when giving this information to NG. NG do not seem to make any checks (nor do the suppliers) so it is quite possible that everything goes wrong thereafter and the utilities do not appear to have the systems in place to pick up these problems. In your case you would have given Scottish Power your postal addrees. They only have the plot number address so they cant find you. They may have asked you for your meter number or MPAN number but it is unlikely you had these to hand so nothing happened . No change when you rang again later. The rest of your story can be explained by a meter numbering problem as well as the address problem. The obvious solution is for NG and the suppliers to make checks of the correct address and meter numbers on-site but they say that 'we cannot do this'. There may be problems all over the estate particularly if there are apartment blocks. It needs sorting -but that is their problem not yours. If you do ring them make sure they have the correct address meter and MPAN numbers and that these are correct on the bill i.e. is a bill for your property. No harm in setting up an account if all these are correct but do not let them apply incorrect information to the account. You may not have to pay for any gas that you have used since moving in !! Are the meter readings on the bill estimated? Are they consistent with your actual meter reading?

A bill or invoice is simply a way that utiities use to let customers know what they owe. The deemed contract is written in terms of customers paying their agreed bills within 14 days. Even though the service has been provided there is no obligation to pay until a bill has been sent - there is no debt. If the bill is disputed then collection procedures cannot be started until the utiliity has made a final response and the customer has said he does not wish to involve the Ombudsman. In court a debt must be proved and no judge would allow a case to proceed without seeing a bill. DCAs do take cases to court without proof of debt and they often get a default CCJ simply because there is nobody in court to defend and make them prove the debt. This is why it is imperative to make a defence - the DCA will usually withdraw or not turn up to court -case dismissed. A bill is an essential part of the whole process. Eon have not sent one and at this stage because of the BIlling Code any bill they send now is not payable. They may have provided the service but they cannot enforce payment - and this is right and proper. Instead of accepting their loss totally they have sold the debt to SRJ for perhaps 5-10% of its face 'value'. There is no proof of the debt but SRJ do not care as they know that they can get payment (15% will do) by harrassment and intimidation. I do not like the way that Eon have gone about this. They have made an error in billing which came to light after the billing code ruled out any payment. They had to write the account off there and then but in addition they have taken the dishonest route of selling a 'non existent' debt to a DCA who they know can only collect by dishonest means. If SRJ say there is a debt they are immediately being dishonest because they cannot have proof - there is none. If SRJ continue to chase this 'debt' they should be reported to the OFT - as should Eon.

Best not to have paid anything until the whole matter was settled but your action is understandable. As a matter of interest what court were they threatening? a) Magistrates court for a warrant of entry. b) Small claims court to obtain a CCJ for debt. You now have even more reason to get that complaint in - they were threatening you with court action when you were disputing the bill. Have you received a 'corrected' bill?

This is clearly not going to be sorted out by phoning customer services. Have you made a formal complaint yet? If not put the whole story in writing and send recorded delivery. Eon have made a complete mess, error after error and their persuit of you is simply damage limitation. They used estimated readings from Mar 2004 -Aug 2008 !! Where was their meter reader? If he could not gain access what did they do about it? They sent no bills and got no payments at all during this time -what are they playing at? They appear to have charged the usage over the whole period at the same rate - whatever happened to the lower early rates? Surely they realise that rates have gone up since 2003.? From 2003 to the tenancy altough the house was empty you as the owner would have been a technical occupier but no usage = no bills. Your tenant is responsible for the bills while he was the occupier. Their management of the account has meant they have probably lost their chance of even finding him. Even if they did find him he would be able to rely on the billing code to pay nothing. So they are trying to con you into paying the lot. You are responsible for the bills since your tenant left. There are a lot of ways as I indicated in a previous post that you can prove the tenancy - the tenancy agreement is the simplest but in its absence they will have to accept other proof. What happened to the old fashioned ideas that most people are honest and that the customer is always right.

Unfortunately the word definitely is the word most commonly misspelt in the English language. Sorry about my misspelling of Nottsladd (whoops). I have learnt a lot from Nottslad and I am not so pompous that I cannot learn more.

You should immediately make a full complaint to NPower in writing and by recorded delivery. Threaten that you will go to the Ombudsman. Claim that the transfer from BG was erroneus and that you have only realised that a transfer had been made when you received their recent bill. You have not received any previous bills whatever they claim. You have been conned into signing up to NPower by a trick that their salesmen were using (to get bonuses or so NPower claimed). NPower have been fined for this by the Ombudsman. Clearly the copies of the bills they say they sent are a nonsense and you should point this out in no uncertain terms. Make absolutely certain that you go to court - if you do not do so the court will grant a default (undefended) warrant. Take your complaint letter to the court and show it to NPower's warrant officer who will be there to present the applications to the magistrate. He will withdraw the application and it cerrtainly will never be presented again. Then await the result of your complaint. Once this is in the account is in dispute and they cannot make further collection attempts (but may do so!!) until this is sorted either by NPower or the Ombudsnan.

You may have a septic tamk or you may be connected to a communal septic tank. If it is a communal tank you will have had requests for a maintenance contribution from whoever maimtains it. If you have had your own septic tank for 12 years you had better find it - it needs maintenace as is probably now not working properly. If I were you I would tell them ' as far as I know I am not connected to the main drains for main drains for sewage nor for surface water'.

Notslad Definitely not definately.

Is the CCJ correct in every detail? -particularly your name and address. Getting a CCJ and then a charging order without you knowing anything about it just should not happen. You should have been informed by the court at each stage by post. Is there any evidence that post has gone missing. Both the CCJ and the charging order will have to be set aside. Ring or better write to the Northhampton court to find out what has happened and to ask advice.

It looks as if they have now billed you for the last year May09 until now. This is the only bill you should pay. The bill from Feb08 to May09 is not payable - Billing Code. Make sure that the amount of Feb08 - May 09 is not included in the May09-now bill. If it is then deduct the anount entirely before paying.

I concur completely with Nottslad One problem with deemed contracts is that the utility does not read the meter at the end of the tenancy. You send the reading and they MUST accept this as correct or read the meter themselves. If the reading given by new tenants is not the same as yours then the difference has either been used in the inter-tenancy period and falls on the landlord for payment or the new tenant is not honest. An eficient landlord will take meter readings before and after each tenancy. Did they send you a bill for the extra £100? If not, taking the money using the your direct debit is totally unacceptable. There is no debt if it not billed. This misuse of a direct debit mandates is one of the many reasons that people should think twice about a direct debit payment system. I have sometimes had problems with banks over the direct debit guarantee. If you tell them to reverse the direct debit taken because it was taken in error they MUST do so. Some bank customer service reps seem to think that you must argue this out with the organisation which has made the error - incorrect.

No it is up to them to send a bill - you have no reponsibity to ask for a bill. If they do not have the systems in place to send out bills correctly they deserve to lose out. Otherwise they will not learn from their errors. You have no reponsibility (not even a moral one) to do their job for them. When you leave all you have to do is to phone them with your meter reading. It would be a good idea to send them a leter as well - keep a copy. Tell them your new address so they cannot say they did not send a bill because you 'disappeared' If they still not send you a bill over the next year you can invoke the billing code and pay nothing, The Billing Code was instituted to make individual 'fines' on a utility to give them a monetary incentive to tighten up their billing systems which are appallingly inefficient. If you do not use it then the systems will remain inefficient to the detriment of other utility users - your moral duty lies with other customers.

The Northhampton court cannot make judgements if the case is defended. If you get papers from them make sure you say you will defend.The case will then be referred to your local court and you are in control. The problem with our court system is that if you do not say you are going to defend and susequently do not do so the court will issue a 'default' judgement without assessing the merits of the case. A debt does not have to be proved so people can have CCJs against them when they owe nothing !! The answer to to the Northhampton court is for everybody to defend. There utility to claimants who are looking for a cheap default judgement would then be nil and this court would cease to exist. Why are people do scared of courts? Some people pay debts that tthey do not owe rather than go to court.

Deemed contracts When a property is occupied by adults who use the supply a deemed contract exists between them and the supplier. There is no need anymore for named contracts - a bill to 'the occupier' is perfectly OK. The contract is 'joint and several' which means that any one of the adult occupiers can be asked to pay the bill. However the term 'occupier' is not good enough in a court of law and at some time they will have to name an occupant. Your property was 'newbuilt' three years ago and almost certainly their problem has arisen because they do not have adequate systems in place to deal with new builds. In particular they do not seem to take into account that there will at some time be an address change from a plot address to a full postal address. Hence they do not supply you address etc. So what do you do? Bear in mind that the previous occupier was also 'not supplied' by SP. First check your bill carefully. a) Is it dated from your first occupation? b) Have they used your start meter reading? It is quite likely your call was totally ignored. I hope you have a record of that reading! c) Is any start reading they have estimated reasonable? The previous occupants were probably not billed at all and you do not want to be paying for their usage. If you still have your reading insist that they use it. d)Have you checked that the meter number on the bill is your meter number? It is quite common for meter numbers to be recorded incorrectly for newbuilds. e) have they read the meter or are they using an estimate? They must read the meter every two years. If all seems well then you only have to pay for the electricity used in the one year before the bill. So pay them this saying that the billing code applies to the rest - this shows you know your rights and have no difficulty in paying. If you let them bill you for that year they will always do estimates that suit them and fiddle with the VAT. Particular points to notice a) you will have to estimate the last year start reading. Make sure it is as high as reasonaable - SP will try to con you into a low reading. You only have to pay VAT in the amount you pay - do not let them include VAT on the amount you are not paying.

Have they sent you a bill yet? Untill they send you a bill you owe nothing. So you need to do nothing until you get that first bill.