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I have been involved in a dispute with an energy company, stretching back over more than 8 years. During the course of the dispute, the energy company offered 2 ex gratia payments to myself, and another to a third party. These payments were refused, as bearing in mind the losses incurred as a result of poor performance of the energy suppliers staff, were substantial and the offers were trifling in comparison. After the payments were refused, the energy co, was politely asked what they were offered for, and why ultimately all offers of payment had been withdrawn. They refused to answer either of these questions, and any mention of the payments seems to have been excised from SARs made by myself, related to the matter.
I advised the supplier that all payments for electricity would cease, until they were able to answer my 2 questions, thinking I would have the answers quite quickly. However, that was not the case! Fast-forward some 5 years, when the outstanding bill had increased to more than £5000, when I received a notification that the supplier was taking action against me in relation to the debt. After some time, and the supplier once more repeatedly refusing to clarify anything about the payments offered earlier, judgement was entered against me, and a payment arrangement agreed to.
After a while even though payments were up-to-date, I was contacted by a debt collector, who demanded that the whole of the outstanding sum should be paid forthwith. My response to this was to contact the debt collector, advise them that a court judgement had already been made, and I was up to date with the payments. There was no response to this, so thenceforth I decided to make payments in cash, sent by recorded delivery.
This went on for several months, and i asked the supplier if the method of payment was lawful, and in accord with the court order. They advised that it was. Then totally out of the blue a letter from Court Enforcement Services arrived, suggesting a writ of control had been obtained a few months before, and they had been instructed to pursue enforcement action. As I was not in arrears with payments, it appeared that the writ had not been issued in response to any breach of the order, but purely as a result of the supplier not being comfortable with my payment method. I applied for a stay on the writ of control, and when this was heard the stay was granted, and all fees charged in relation to the writ cancelled.
Mistakenly during the stay hearing, I agreed to pay using more conventional means, which I have been doing. After pointing out to the supplier that obtaining a writ of control on grounds that appeared to be spurious, might well be seen as contempt of court, I was then contacted by the suppliers legal department, which after some back and forth, offered to cancel the outstanding debt (£4000), seemingly as a result of the considerable time and expense responding to SARs requests, and emails had meant for them in the past. In conjunction with the offer to cancel the payment, they demanded that any further applications to the court made by myself should be disclosed, and that I should contact them by phone on that same day to discuss matters. The letter, outlining this, was marked without prejudice, save as to costs.
The very latest communication suggests, that should they need to respond to any future applications of mine made to the court, that they would be applying to have these struck out as they hold that I am a vexatious litigant.
I am interested in whether there is any requirement to inform a defendant if a writ of control is being sought, and is seeking a writ on the basis of not being comfortable with method of payment, compliant with CPR, and finally can anyone think of a good reason why an energy supplier, who has been hounding me for more than 8 years, would now choose to cancel a debt of £4000 for no good reason?
I advised the supplier that all payments for electricity would cease, until they were able to answer my 2 questions, thinking I would have the answers quite quickly. However, that was not the case! Fast-forward some 5 years, when the outstanding bill had increased to more than £5000, when I received a notification that the supplier was taking action against me in relation to the debt. After some time, and the supplier once more repeatedly refusing to clarify anything about the payments offered earlier, judgement was entered against me, and a payment arrangement agreed to.
After a while even though payments were up-to-date, I was contacted by a debt collector, who demanded that the whole of the outstanding sum should be paid forthwith. My response to this was to contact the debt collector, advise them that a court judgement had already been made, and I was up to date with the payments. There was no response to this, so thenceforth I decided to make payments in cash, sent by recorded delivery.
This went on for several months, and i asked the supplier if the method of payment was lawful, and in accord with the court order. They advised that it was. Then totally out of the blue a letter from Court Enforcement Services arrived, suggesting a writ of control had been obtained a few months before, and they had been instructed to pursue enforcement action. As I was not in arrears with payments, it appeared that the writ had not been issued in response to any breach of the order, but purely as a result of the supplier not being comfortable with my payment method. I applied for a stay on the writ of control, and when this was heard the stay was granted, and all fees charged in relation to the writ cancelled.
Mistakenly during the stay hearing, I agreed to pay using more conventional means, which I have been doing. After pointing out to the supplier that obtaining a writ of control on grounds that appeared to be spurious, might well be seen as contempt of court, I was then contacted by the suppliers legal department, which after some back and forth, offered to cancel the outstanding debt (£4000), seemingly as a result of the considerable time and expense responding to SARs requests, and emails had meant for them in the past. In conjunction with the offer to cancel the payment, they demanded that any further applications to the court made by myself should be disclosed, and that I should contact them by phone on that same day to discuss matters. The letter, outlining this, was marked without prejudice, save as to costs.
The very latest communication suggests, that should they need to respond to any future applications of mine made to the court, that they would be applying to have these struck out as they hold that I am a vexatious litigant.
I am interested in whether there is any requirement to inform a defendant if a writ of control is being sought, and is seeking a writ on the basis of not being comfortable with method of payment, compliant with CPR, and finally can anyone think of a good reason why an energy supplier, who has been hounding me for more than 8 years, would now choose to cancel a debt of £4000 for no good reason?