Old water debt

[catlady38]

Dear all, wondering if anyone can offer some advice?

 

My partner received out of the blue today, a letter from SRJ Debt recoveries titled in red REFERRAL FOR LITIGATION. It says that they are acting on behalf of their client Anglian Water. All the letter has on it is a old address of ours which we lived at over 6 years ago. We did have a dispute with Anglian water at the time as the property we rented had a septic tank. We only lived there for a short time as the landlord lived next door and made our life hell.

 

Anyway we never heard from anglian water again and the letter from SRJ has no dates the water bill was for. After we moved out the landlord rented to polish tennants, they left without paying bills and we were chased for a gas bill that was theirs. We later found out that the landlord gave our new address to British gas and it took me a year to prove this bill did not belong to us.

 

Do utility bills become statue barred after 6 years. There is no default for it on my partners credit record. Are we best to ignore it as dont really want to communicate with SRJ, as from experience with the gas bill our life was made a living hell. The landlord has since passed away

.

Many thanks for your help in advance

[silverfox1961]

Hi

If you are not 100% certain this debt is SB, send the 'prove it' letter from the library.

 

It may come back with dates you were not there so it is important that they include all dates.

[National Debtline]

Hello there,

 

The water debt would fall under ths statute of limitations, the time period is 6 years.

 

As the Silverfox has already mentioned you can either send them a 'prove it' letter - or send them a letter stating that you believe the debt to be statute barred. The onus would be on the other party to prove that it isn't. If you moved out over six years ago it sounds likely that the debt is statute barred.

 

Best wishes,

 

David @ NDL.

[catlady38]

Thanks everyone. It def is over 6 years since we lived there. My daugher was 6 in october and we lived there at least 2 years before she was born. Think I will just ignore letters till something more formal arrives. Not sure who the debt actually belongs to as srj say that they are acting on behalf of Anglian Water. Dont really want to get into the stressful situation I had a few years back with the gas bill. Once I made contact they wouldnt leave us alone.

[Ros1609]

You need to send the SB letter otherwise they will keep trying to collect the debt. Have you checked your CRA file?