Thanks DX Pretty much my thinking. I told her it would likely be somewhere in the T&C's. I offered her help in challenging the IVA even before she started but preferred to go that route as she was afraid of possible consequences such as court cases and bailiffs.

Hello all About two months ago my brother and his wife took out a fleet insurance policy with NFU. It has just been cancelled and the reason being give is that his wife has an IVA. According to my brother no question was asked as to the existence of any IVA prior to the policy being offered but as a result of the cancellation my sister in law is anxious because wherever she tries to get insurance she is obliged to declare that a policy has been cancelled and all the offers dry up. She feels she has been done over by the NFU as they offered the policy and then cancelled, putting her in this position. Has she not taken up their policy because they did not like the IVA then she would not now be in this position. I would ordinarily go to the NFU and ask for a SAR to see what was asked (done by phone so a recording should be available) but I suspect my brother set up the policy via his Ltd company so that is not an option. Anybody got any comments or remedies? Thanks in advance.

I have used Linux since about 2008. Nowadays I use Mint running on a Toshiba laptop and a Leonovo laptop. Browsers installed and used are Brave, Chrome and firefox. email isThunderbird Office is Libre office. works great. No antivirus needed, no disk defrag needed. Starts and runs fast and stable. never going back to windows.

Great news. Common sense and justice has prevailed.

Glad it is sorted out. I am a (free) subscriber to all three major credit reference agencies and it is best to check all three at regular intervals as some organisations only report to one. For example I noticed that an Energy provider is reporting to one but not the other two.

"Please may I suggest an extra layer of foil on the tin hat? " Brilliant!

Hello all A colleague discovered he had a CCJ recorded against him by Lowell as a result of them acquiring an old Electricity Bill from around 2011. They lodged their claim in 2019 to my colleagues old address and got a back door judgement. I helped my colleague draft an application to set aside and it was decided by the court service to hold a telephone hearing which took place last week. It was slightly comical. The Judge had got my colleague on the conference call and rang the number provided by Lowell only to reach a call centre person who knew nothing about the case. She offered to find somebody but the judge was not having it and said they had plenty of time to sort out the case and he had called the number they had provided and expected someone to be ready to handle the case. He asked her if she was ready to deal with it. She said she wasn't so the Judge "dismissed" her and was left speaking to my colleague only. It then turned out that Lowell had submitted a response saying they agreed to the Set Aside providing Each party paid their own costs to which my colleague agreed. Our application requested a set aside on the basis that the original claim was not received despite the utility having my colleague's address and for SB reasons. The final outcome was the Set aside was ordered by the Court and the original Claim restored with 14 days to defend. I am running the case here for any CAGers to advise and comment. My next step is to write to the Court and Lowell asking for a copy of the original Claim Form without which it is difficult to defend. The main details are that my colleague paid his electricity bill before moving house and indeed retained the same utility company in his new house, not something he was likely to do if he was evading them. In any event the defence is an SB one as the original bill was around 2011 and any claim would surely have expired about 2017. I will get back to the thread with more details. If anybody wants to comment then all suggestions welcome.

If an energy company applies for a warrant are they meant to write to the address and advise if the court hearing date? Surely the occupier is allowed to attend the hearing and put his objections to the magistrate?

Thanks fkofilee. My own feeling was and is to move on but my business partner is annoyed as we have done nothing wrong and he is reluctant to just move on. Regarding the Business status of the enquiry I sometimes feel that as this is a voluntary site angled towards consumers there might be the feeling that as a business we should have the resources to deal with these matters. Guess if I do a donation that will solve the problem...so coming up!

Hello all As this is a business account query rather than a consumer account feel free to chuck this post off the forum if it is preferred to keep things to consumers. Our business has had a Metro Bank business account for two years. It has always been well run so no overdrafts unauthorised or otherwise, fees and charges levied and paid at the same time, rarely goes above a hundred a month. Last year we asked for another account and they refused to provide one saying "we did not need one"!!!! In the last four or five weeks we have been asked a lot of questions about our business, wanting to see invoices we send out and to provide figures about the breakdown of our business with International sales. We do some export to the middle East (UAE and Egypt) and we also have several "Walk in" customers from parts of Africa and Libya. These guys typically give us cash for our products which are containerised and sent to them. We never send money only receive it. We also sell a lot of product on a cash basis as our customers are shops, take-aways and the like and they are cash rich and would rather buy from us in cash than bank it and get a charge for having done so with their own bank. Consequently we have a lot of cash and we frequently deposit it (via the post office as Metrobank does not have much in the way of branches in the Midlands). Yesterday I was contacted by our account manager to say they were giving us sixty days notice saying they no longer had an "appetite" for our business. This is inconvenient but not a disaster as we have another account elsewhere. My question to the forum is; do they have the right to do this with such a nebulous reason? We have done nothing wrong and kept the account in spotless order since day one. Many thanks in advance for any responses or comments.

Hello all I am trying to help a business colleague who has suffered significant business woes as follows: 1. The guy ran a transport business (a limited company) with multiple trucks/trailers which was financed by a combination of different loans some of them backed by different personal guarantees by him and his wife. 2. The business ran into trouble and was made bankrupt by one of the creditors. 3. Subsequently, in pursuit of the personal guarantees the creditors made both he and his wife SEPARATELY bankrupt via two different Hearings on different dates. I believe different loan companies were guaranteed by each of them resulting in different petitions to recover the personal guarantee amounts. 4. Both have done personal bankruptcy interviews and completed the forms and both have legally entered into bankruptcy. They jointly own a small house valued at around £145,000 with 66K owed to the Mortgage co, 29K owed to Help to buy leaving £22K Equity (these figures rounded up from the Insolvency service letter). The insolvency service is dealing with Him directly but she has a third party Practitioner dealing with her. The Insolvency Service is asking him to make an offer to buy the the £22K equity. FIRST QUESTION: If he is able to buy it does that stop anyone from coming back to get the Equity again (The bankruptcy went down like the titanic with several hundred thousand of debt). 5. She is being pressured by a Private Practitioner who is claiming the same equity and asking for the same thing I.E. an offer to buy the Practitioner's interest in the house/equity, failing which they will attempt a Possession order and subsequent sale. That practitioner has already forced a house survey by Bairstow Eves for the purposes of valuation SECOND QUESTION: What is the likelihood of getting a Possession Order (As I understand it there is not currently a Charging Order on the house so I assume the Practitioner would go through the route of Interim Order, Final Order and then Application for Possession. THIRD QUESTION: Is there any traction in trying to get one party to deal with both Bankruptcies? Any comments, suggestions or questions etc welcome. (I might take a while to reply as I have to pass the question on and wait for the answer!)

KJW just to let you knowI assisted a friend with ten debts. CCA's sent to all ten. Not one came back with anything useful, 9 came back with nothing one came back with generic T&C's which were rubbish. He has stopped paying and they are not doing anything and are unable to do anything.

Thanks for your immediate reply Bankfodder. Do you not ever take any time away from this site!!!!?? I got a SAR return from Npower a while ago including call recordings. I could do with a statement to see how they are arriving at their bills. I will get a SAR running with Octopus. Not much chance of anything with Iresa. They were chaotic when they were in business and not likely to get anything from the receiver. All depends how much of the Iresa data was migrated to Octopus.

Hi intrepid, They did not say why they refused. I had no prior dealings with them. I suspect they were concerned because the previous tenant not only did not pay but had another property they did not pay at. Anyway, Npower did withdraw their objection a few days after they raised it.

Hello This is a new thread which follows on from this one: In summary I moved into a new property and switched both Gas and Electricity from Npower to Iresa Energy. Npower objected to the Electricity move but then agreed but Iresa did not follow up by requesting for the move again. Npower continued to bill. Iresa then went bust and Octopus took over the account. This all happened in Sept 2017 through to Sept 2018. I have not paid Npower anything since mid 2018 and despite their threats nothing has happened, very likely in large part due to the Covid situation plus possibly the take over of Npower by Eon. This is a new thread started at the suggestion of BankFodder. He wanted bullet points of the events with a view to suing Npower. Anyway here is the full story and a summary of where I stand at the end: 1. I occupied the property on 15th September 2017 and notified Npower of who I was. 2. A number of letters arrived or were already in the mailbox referring first of all to a previous named occupant, also seeking payment for another address that was associated with this named occupant and finally just to the "Occ. The Occupier. Account numbers were XXXXXXXX41, and XXXXXXXX35. 3. Following my arrival further letters arrived advising "Occ. The Occupier with new account XXXXXXXX98 that they would help the account switch smoothly. 4. I quickly switched to Iresa for both fuels and had confirmation emails from them dated 28th September to that effect. 5. On 3rd October I was advised by Iresa that Npower had objected to electricity being moved and a further email on 4th saying the objection had been upheld by Npower. I contacted Npower by phone and they advised that they would not object and to tell Iresa to apply again. I did this by email to Iresa on the same day. 6. Beginning of October I received a letter in my own name from Npower with account number XXXXXXXX16, finally my own account number advising me that they would help my switch go smoothly. I had two identical letters dated 3rd and another on 5th. Also on 5th was a letter to the "Occ. The Occupier account number XXXXXXXX98 advising him that they were closing the Gas account. Also on 5th October I was advised officially of my Deemed Contract with account XXXXXXXX16. 7. 12th October I got another letter advising me that my switch would go smoothly. 8. On 16th October my first Direct Debit was taken for the full amount of both fuels as expected. 9. 30th October I got an Npower electricity bill which I presumed to be the final one and paid it 14th November. 10. I heard nothing more from Npower until February 2018 when I got a big batch of correspondence in one envelope including an (undated letter) saying there was a delay in sending the final bill, there was multiple bills in my own account number. A separate letter dated 12th February apologised for a system issue delaying their bills. I received 2 x bills in my own name, one for £79 and the other for £340 and another for “Occ the Occupier” for £48 all dated 27th Feb, this last one saying “Your amended final electricity bill”. 11. 15th March asked to pay an outstanding £16.05 gas bill!! and a reminder to pay an outstanding £324!! 12. I received reminders all of which I ignored until threatened by Court action. 13. I sent a letter of complaint by email 11th April. By mid May Npower had responded and they said they were still billing me because Iresa had not asked for the transfer of the electricity to be done. All this time I was routinely paying Iresa (provable). Therefore according to Npower I was still responsible for the electricity to them and would be required to pay (at top dollar of course). 14. I sent them some meter readings and got some more bills and I also started paying them at about £112 per month. Continued to get threatening letters and Field visit letters. 15. In the mean time I asked Iresa to transfer the electricity over and by email they advised this would be done 23rd May, Npower assuring me there would be no objection. 16. I further checked with Iresa and got a message saying they closed the ticket 30th June. I presumed that meant the switch had gone OK. On 27th July Iresa advised by email that they would stop trading. 17. The Npower bills continued to come in and escalated. I stopped paying. 18. Ofgen or whoever manages these things transferred the Accounts to Octopus. Currently I am paying Octopus. 19. In March 2019 I received full data from my SAR request including phone call data. So the current position is that I am paying Octopus for Gas, not paying Npower for electricity on the basis that they transferred the Electricity account to Iresa/Octopus though Npower says according to National Grid it is still with them. Debt collection activity continues which I have thus far ignored. It looks now as if they are getting close to going for a Warrant of Disconnection I would be grateful for advice as to next steps. I must either resume dialogue with Npower and reach some sort of agreement, complain to the regulator, or as some on this site would like, sue Npower. I would be quite happy to make mischief with Npower as long as the site thinks this is still a good idea and is able to explain the basis of my claim and provide support. Somewhere along the line I would like to get back control of the Electricity supply and switch both my fuels to a single deal somewhere. So any suggestions or comments welcome.

Bon-ee-bon Some months ago I found out that a friend of mine was on a debt management plan. I wrote to every one of his (10) creditors and not one could provide the original paperwork in support of the sums they were asking for and collecting on, and one even stated (and I was gobsmacked they would admit it) that the debt was unenforceable but would he mind paying it anyway ha ha! He stopped paying and up to this point nothing has happened. You should be clear about what is needed for them to be successful: 1. They have to deliver a Letter before Action which is required by the Court system. It basically says pay the bill or they will take you to Court and usually comes from a Solicitor. Any other document is just part of their Threatomatic system and can be ignored even though some of the letters can at first glance look serious. (Any doubts come back on here). 2. Having delivered the LBA they can then go on to apply for a County Court Judgement. The cheapest way to do this is by filling out a form on line and they will not upload or be able to provide any paperwork to support their claim at that point. 3. You can easily defend against the claim by asking both the Solicitor and the Debt buyer to provide the paperwork to support the claim. (95% of the time or more they can't do it because when they bought the debt it arrived as a line on a spreadsheet mixed in with a thousand other debts by email. (10 out of 10 in my friends case 100%)). They are running a numbers game and paid 10p in the £ for the entire value of the debts. They only have to get around 10-15% of the money across the whole portfolio to be in profit. Thanks to CAG and others the value of these debts is I suspect going down as they are getting less and less out of them due to people successfully defending them. 4. they might try one or two little tricks such as sending you blank documents and trying to persuade you that they have provided the evidence but in the main their case founders at that point. (The one court case I have been involved with played out this way but I was steered through it by the guys hear at CAG). 5. If they do send a valid document it will likely be re-constituted and you will be able to a) challenge it's enforce ability for technical reasons and b) ask for an original at the Hearing which they will very likely not be able to provide. So relax, because if you stick up for yourself they will likely back off and go after easier accounts on their system that are not fighting back. The feeling of being in control and not being a victim or a cash cow is great. Start to enjoy it!!

No need to be embarassed Bankfodder. I get an enormous amount from this site and happy to contribute a bit of dollar along with the occasional encouragement to needy people.

I sent a tenner Bankfodder. My friend is not going to do it, he is hanging on for grim death just now. I am hanging on for Death but not the grim part so welcome to my tenner.

Bank fodder you are forcing me to go out to my car and find my wallet so I can punch in my card numbers. Not even my thread!

Dazza a few months ago I discovered a good friend of mine who had ten debts with cards and catalogues which he was slavishly paying off at detriment to his own family quality of life, and I mean hardship, not just absence of second holidays or flat screen TV's. I wrote to all his creditors asking for supporting documents and not one could provide any material that would allow them to enforce the debt. As a result he stopped paying and they have been unable to do anything, one even admitted it was unenforceable. If circumstances have got to the point where you are finding it unmanageable you must ask yourself why you feel the need to pay. I guarantee you that these companies have built bad debt into their business model and no one over there is losing any sleep over your debt to them! They will see you as a victim and cash cow and they will be reluctant to discuss final offers, only ways to keep you paying with threats of court action or seizing your assets if you have any. They are not your friends and you owe them no loyalty or moral duty, that must remain only for yourself and your family. If it was me I would send them all a CCA request. I would bet that not one will provide the correct response and you can quite legally stop paying them until such time as they do provide a response. Even when they do you should check back here as they mostly send dodgy photo copies or generic rubbish that has no connection with your supposed debt. The money you are paying them should, as far as you are able, be put to a savings account for yourself and as a means of paying of one of these fleecers should they ever manage to get to to the point of a successful court judgement. After six years they will not be able to start court action and that money will then become yours. They will of course pursue you for the funds and pass your file around various departments of their business and out to third parties. Your response is that you should treat it as a hobby. I have numerous files of correspondence each faithfully organised showing the various letters from different DCA;s , solicitors etc with a mix of threats, inducements and offers. It is like my stamp collection and I show it to anyone who is interested!

Just an update. My colleague did not want to ring them. The saving of the application fee was/is not as important as getting a swift set aside and he felt the best way was to apply to the court for set aside without a hearing. He has done so and the court has sent an acknowledgement and assigned it to our local Court, so we now wait for something else to happen, presumably either a set aside or a Hearing.

OK, I will get my colleague to do it once he gets back in today.

I notice you highlight the word ring DX. why is that? Normally we don't do any talking on this forum, only written communications.

Great idea. Will try that.

Well done DX! It is a Lowell back door CCJ. We have today received details from the court. This is the shorthand version of their claim: Claimant: Lowell Portfolio Ltd Solicitors: Lowell Solicitors Ltd Judgement Date: 3rd August 2020 1. defendant entered into supply and service agreements with Eon Energy (the Agreement) (No start or end date mentioned) 2. The agreement later ended but a Liability remained 3. Agreement later assigned to Claimant 12/07/2019 and notice given to defendant. 4. Repeated requests for payment sum remains due and Claimant seeks sum and interest and costs. This is the story from our side: Defendant lived at the address until November 2011, and settled his account with Eon at the time he moved out. He has not lived there since November 2011. It is disputed that a debt exists and the Claimant who is not the original Energy provider has not provided any proof of a debt existing by virtue of either not sending it or sending to an address the defendant does not live at. The Defendant has not received any correspondence regarding the claim as he has not loved at the premises for eight years. Given the length of time that has passed not withstanding whether a debt exists or not this case should be SB. So I guess the next step is to fill out an N244 to apply for the Judgement to be set aside. Should I come up with some wording based on the above or does someone want to suggest wording?