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Received a claim? Yes
Issue Date: 20 Sep 2021
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Not yet
Total Amount Claimed: £860
Claimant’s Name: PRAC Financial
Solicitors Firm: BW Legal
Original Creditor: Eon
Original Debt: Final energy bill
Particulars of Claim: The Claimant’s Claim is for the sum of £720 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant in respect to the supply of energy by E.ON Energy Solutions Ltd to the Defendant under the account reference [12345678]. The rights, benefits and title account have been assigned to the Claimant on 18/12/2020, notice of which has been given to the Defendant pursuant to s. 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925. The Defendant has failed to make payment as and when it fell due and despite demand having been made, the Defendant has failed to settle their outstanding liability.
Is the debt Statute Barred: No
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): None since the claim form
Any Other Information or Background Details:
I haven’t yet sent the acknowledgement as I’m not sure what legal leg, if any, I have to stand on. It wants to know if I intend to defend 'some' or 'all' of the amount claimed, and that’s why I’m here - should I bother, or just accept fate?
I read on a BBC article that as of May 2018, energy firms were banned by Ofgem from ‘back-billing’ energy used more than 12 months before the bill date. As this bill was September 2019 and it charges revised amounts from estimated bills as far back as March 2018, do I have a defence here for at least some of the amount? Is there anything in the fact the actual final bill amount doesn't match the amount they are claiming?
Is there anything else I can do about this, or am I now basically inevitably getting a CCJ (I simply don’t have £850) no matter what I do? I’ve just recently been really trying with my credit score after my earlier mistakes and could really do without it. I’m aware of my own stupidity here and I could well have saved myself £400 odd had I listened earlier, I’m just trying to make the best of it going forward.
Thanks for reading, I’ve been as brief-but-thorough as I can but happy to answer any questions.
Issue Date: 20 Sep 2021
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Not yet
Total Amount Claimed: £860
Claimant’s Name: PRAC Financial
Solicitors Firm: BW Legal
Original Creditor: Eon
Original Debt: Final energy bill
Particulars of Claim: The Claimant’s Claim is for the sum of £720 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant in respect to the supply of energy by E.ON Energy Solutions Ltd to the Defendant under the account reference [12345678]. The rights, benefits and title account have been assigned to the Claimant on 18/12/2020, notice of which has been given to the Defendant pursuant to s. 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925. The Defendant has failed to make payment as and when it fell due and despite demand having been made, the Defendant has failed to settle their outstanding liability.
Is the debt Statute Barred: No
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): None since the claim form
Any Other Information or Background Details:
- Left Eon in April 2019.
- When leaving, the lady on the phone at Eon (I know, shoulda got it in writing) assured is that was the end of it and all monies owed were up to date
- 19 September 2019 - I get a surprise ‘Final Bill’ for £720, covering charges for periods between March 2018 and April 2019. As far as I can tell, these are a list previously ‘estimated’ bills that are now re-issued as a meter reading was done as I left Eon.
- Following several months of back and forth web chats and phone calls disputing the amount, all went quiet
- 16 June 2021 - Letter of claim received from BW legal. Contains all the details regarding particulars, pre-action protocols and 'statements'
- 25 June 2021 - Another Letter of Claim received from BW, exactly the same but with all the dates nudged forward 9 days
- I ask for a better breakdown as I am still none-the-wiser as to how the bill got to that amount and for more clarity around some of the dates listed - the bills are VERY hard to read.
- 5 July 2021 - BW just send photocopies of all the bills
- 30 July 2021 - BW write again offering a 35% Discount.
- I reply asking for a more detailed breakdown as the final bill itself made no sense. Extremely confusing, seemingly random credits and charges, the bill somehow started £720 in credit but then wound up with £1000 in extra charges, seemingly random billing periods, 'Estimated' written on page one but 'revised' written on page 2... Page one said something totally different (in short, it said we started £30 in debit then charged £740 odd)... Also, the actual final bill was for £780, not the £720 they were claiming so it all felt a bit 'made up', like numbers were just being plucked out of thin air.
- 2 August 2021 - BW supply a lazy breakdown, a table merely quoting the same bill amounts as on the original bills, before re-offering the 35% Discount giving us until 29th August to pay before legal proceedings begin.
- I, naively, started to lose interest at this point. It was taking up so much time and stress and the fact they were offering a discount felt as though they themselves didn’t believe they’d get the money if taken to court – if they did believe it, why offer a discount after all? Seems like bad business sense to me. I’ve also had letters like this in the past (I was very bad with loans etc in my early 20’s) and basically always had nothing come of it.
- Today: Court claim documents in – all forms included (N1, N9, N9A, N9B)– for the full £720 plus £140 costs (2 x £70 for a court fee and Legal Representative’s Fee)
I haven’t yet sent the acknowledgement as I’m not sure what legal leg, if any, I have to stand on. It wants to know if I intend to defend 'some' or 'all' of the amount claimed, and that’s why I’m here - should I bother, or just accept fate?
I read on a BBC article that as of May 2018, energy firms were banned by Ofgem from ‘back-billing’ energy used more than 12 months before the bill date. As this bill was September 2019 and it charges revised amounts from estimated bills as far back as March 2018, do I have a defence here for at least some of the amount? Is there anything in the fact the actual final bill amount doesn't match the amount they are claiming?
Is there anything else I can do about this, or am I now basically inevitably getting a CCJ (I simply don’t have £850) no matter what I do? I’ve just recently been really trying with my credit score after my earlier mistakes and could really do without it. I’m aware of my own stupidity here and I could well have saved myself £400 odd had I listened earlier, I’m just trying to make the best of it going forward.
Thanks for reading, I’ve been as brief-but-thorough as I can but happy to answer any questions.
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