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I have now received a formal claim document from the Civil National Busness Centre in Nottingham.
The issue date was 8 July. I note that the claim is deemed to be served 5 days after issue (i.e. it is deemed received on 13 July) and it then has to be acknowledged within 14 days which is 27 July. However, 27 July is a Sunday so my first question is whether, if the deadline is a non-business day (i.e. post cannot be delivered on a Sunday) does it have to be received by the Court Office by the Friday before or by the Monday after?
At the moment, I have not acknowledged or filed a defence but obviously I need to acknowledge by guaranteed next day post on Thursday at the latest.
The amount claimed is £6,000.
The claimant is my current electricity supplier - I would prefer not to name them in a public forum.
Similarly I would also prefer not to name the lawyers at this stage.
I guess I am the original creditor. Can't see that anyone else could be.
This is not a dispute over lending or finance so original debt not applicable.
Particulars of Claim: The claim is for £XXXX.xx relating to unpaid charges for energy supplied by the Claimant to the Defendant for the property known as {address} during the period from **/11/20 to 27/10/24 full particulars of which are detailed on invoices raised by the Claimant and delivered to the Defendant. And the claimant claims any further arrears that may have accrued and become payable since the commencement of these proceedings. And the claimant claims contractual interest on the sum due pursuant to the applicable terms and conditions of supply from the due date to the date of issue at 8.25% per annum above the bank base rate being £xxx.xx and further interest on a daily basis until the date of judgment or sooner payment at a daily rate of £x.xx. The Claimant claims (1) the sum of £XXXX.xx (2) Interest of £xxx.xx (3) continuing daily interest at £x.xx (4) Further arrears that may have accrued and become payable since the commencement of this action. (5) costs.
The debt is possibly part statute barred - see narrative below for details.
I have sent an Subject Access Request to the energy company.
This is the same matter which was initially mentioned in the thread I posted in May about whether I could start procedings against the supplier in the Courts as creditor without having to wait for them to do it.
The story is that I signed up online to an electricity supplier in July 2018 but never had any further contact from them. For a variety of reasons, I didn't realise that they weren't invoicing me and collecting the money. In fact, they had been placed in administration in late 2018. I was also not told of the appointment of the administrator or the appointment of another supply company as supplier of last resort (SOLR) and neither was I told when my supply was transferred to another company. The disputed part of the debt claimed is the amount which actually relates to the period from July 2018 until the SOLR took over billing at the end of 2020.
Given that the signing of the claim form is stated to be subject to proceedings for contempt if false statements are made, I find it fascinating that the statements made are materially incorrect in almost every detail:-
1) The disputed part of the amount claimed was not supplied by the claimant but by the original supplier appointed by me in July 2018. One of the matters which I have been trying to get a straight (or indeed any) answer to over the last three and a half years is on what legal basis the current supplier is entitled to payment for energy which they didn't supply.
2) The essence of my dispute with the supplier is that no invoices were issued or received during the period from July, 2018 to November 2020. The Regulator, Ofgem, has stated that I am entitled to invoices and that proper detailed invoicing is a crucial element of the terms of the suppliers licence. The supplier has stated that they do not have the relevant invoices - hardly surprising since they were not the supplier but if they took over or bought the debt without finding out if it actually existed and getting copies of the invoices I can only say, more fool them!
3) The period to which the amount claimed relates commences in July 2018 rather than in November 2020 as alleged in the claim.
4) The amount is not wholly for the supply of energy but includes a number of random charges (e.g. "warrant fee", "locksmith fee" which have been applied to the account during the time they have been failing to deal with queries.
What that amounts to is that virtually every piece of alleged factual data included in the Particulars of Claim is wrong in one way or another. Slipshod and slapdash!
The disputed amount is of the order of £3,000, and I have a number of questions which I would be grateful for thoughts and advice on:-
1) I obviously need to get the acknowledgment of receipt filed PDQ subject to whether that needs to be in by Friday or Monday as the deadline falls on the weekend,
2) How would I determine if the claim which has been issued is in the small claims channel. There is nothing on it which states that it is. If it has not been issued htrough the small claims procedure, can I have it transferred?
2) I do not know how much of the amount which they are claiming is the sundry charges which I intend to dispute on the basis that they arise from the failings and breaches of contract of the supplier rather than mine. How do I complete the part admission if I do not have full information relating to the amount involved? This is because I do not now have complete invoices from November, 2020 to date.
3) The ONLY evidence for the disputed amount which I have seen is the wording "balance brought forward" on the first invoice I received in March, 2021. I assume that I can require the supplier to prove that they have invoices covering the whole of the debt they are claiming during the procedings in some way. They have already admitted that they do not have them for the period before November, 2020.
It is also annoying that the original problem in this case arises from error and mistake by the supplier and not from anything which I did. The supplier post 2020 appears to have little interest in complying with the conditions attached to their licence as a supplier. I think I would probably have little difficulty in listing 100 breaches of those conditions in just this one simple case. I am looking into the question of damages. Am I right in thinking that there would be no bar to doing so even if I am not able to file a counter claim at the same time as the defence for this case. I have real doubts that I can get that all figured out in the fortnight before the deadline for filing the defence.
Finally, and for a little leavening, as the original invoice showing the disputed amount as a brought forward balance was issued not long before Christmas, I suggested in a letter that the charge was actually for the supply company's board's Christmas drinks tab. No reply was ever received but in reality, they couldn't even actually demonstrate that it wasn't actually their drinks tab!
The issue date was 8 July. I note that the claim is deemed to be served 5 days after issue (i.e. it is deemed received on 13 July) and it then has to be acknowledged within 14 days which is 27 July. However, 27 July is a Sunday so my first question is whether, if the deadline is a non-business day (i.e. post cannot be delivered on a Sunday) does it have to be received by the Court Office by the Friday before or by the Monday after?
At the moment, I have not acknowledged or filed a defence but obviously I need to acknowledge by guaranteed next day post on Thursday at the latest.
The amount claimed is £6,000.
The claimant is my current electricity supplier - I would prefer not to name them in a public forum.
Similarly I would also prefer not to name the lawyers at this stage.
I guess I am the original creditor. Can't see that anyone else could be.
This is not a dispute over lending or finance so original debt not applicable.
Particulars of Claim: The claim is for £XXXX.xx relating to unpaid charges for energy supplied by the Claimant to the Defendant for the property known as {address} during the period from **/11/20 to 27/10/24 full particulars of which are detailed on invoices raised by the Claimant and delivered to the Defendant. And the claimant claims any further arrears that may have accrued and become payable since the commencement of these proceedings. And the claimant claims contractual interest on the sum due pursuant to the applicable terms and conditions of supply from the due date to the date of issue at 8.25% per annum above the bank base rate being £xxx.xx and further interest on a daily basis until the date of judgment or sooner payment at a daily rate of £x.xx. The Claimant claims (1) the sum of £XXXX.xx (2) Interest of £xxx.xx (3) continuing daily interest at £x.xx (4) Further arrears that may have accrued and become payable since the commencement of this action. (5) costs.
The debt is possibly part statute barred - see narrative below for details.
I have sent an Subject Access Request to the energy company.
This is the same matter which was initially mentioned in the thread I posted in May about whether I could start procedings against the supplier in the Courts as creditor without having to wait for them to do it.
The story is that I signed up online to an electricity supplier in July 2018 but never had any further contact from them. For a variety of reasons, I didn't realise that they weren't invoicing me and collecting the money. In fact, they had been placed in administration in late 2018. I was also not told of the appointment of the administrator or the appointment of another supply company as supplier of last resort (SOLR) and neither was I told when my supply was transferred to another company. The disputed part of the debt claimed is the amount which actually relates to the period from July 2018 until the SOLR took over billing at the end of 2020.
Given that the signing of the claim form is stated to be subject to proceedings for contempt if false statements are made, I find it fascinating that the statements made are materially incorrect in almost every detail:-
1) The disputed part of the amount claimed was not supplied by the claimant but by the original supplier appointed by me in July 2018. One of the matters which I have been trying to get a straight (or indeed any) answer to over the last three and a half years is on what legal basis the current supplier is entitled to payment for energy which they didn't supply.
2) The essence of my dispute with the supplier is that no invoices were issued or received during the period from July, 2018 to November 2020. The Regulator, Ofgem, has stated that I am entitled to invoices and that proper detailed invoicing is a crucial element of the terms of the suppliers licence. The supplier has stated that they do not have the relevant invoices - hardly surprising since they were not the supplier but if they took over or bought the debt without finding out if it actually existed and getting copies of the invoices I can only say, more fool them!
3) The period to which the amount claimed relates commences in July 2018 rather than in November 2020 as alleged in the claim.
4) The amount is not wholly for the supply of energy but includes a number of random charges (e.g. "warrant fee", "locksmith fee" which have been applied to the account during the time they have been failing to deal with queries.
What that amounts to is that virtually every piece of alleged factual data included in the Particulars of Claim is wrong in one way or another. Slipshod and slapdash!
The disputed amount is of the order of £3,000, and I have a number of questions which I would be grateful for thoughts and advice on:-
1) I obviously need to get the acknowledgment of receipt filed PDQ subject to whether that needs to be in by Friday or Monday as the deadline falls on the weekend,
2) How would I determine if the claim which has been issued is in the small claims channel. There is nothing on it which states that it is. If it has not been issued htrough the small claims procedure, can I have it transferred?
2) I do not know how much of the amount which they are claiming is the sundry charges which I intend to dispute on the basis that they arise from the failings and breaches of contract of the supplier rather than mine. How do I complete the part admission if I do not have full information relating to the amount involved? This is because I do not now have complete invoices from November, 2020 to date.
3) The ONLY evidence for the disputed amount which I have seen is the wording "balance brought forward" on the first invoice I received in March, 2021. I assume that I can require the supplier to prove that they have invoices covering the whole of the debt they are claiming during the procedings in some way. They have already admitted that they do not have them for the period before November, 2020.
It is also annoying that the original problem in this case arises from error and mistake by the supplier and not from anything which I did. The supplier post 2020 appears to have little interest in complying with the conditions attached to their licence as a supplier. I think I would probably have little difficulty in listing 100 breaches of those conditions in just this one simple case. I am looking into the question of damages. Am I right in thinking that there would be no bar to doing so even if I am not able to file a counter claim at the same time as the defence for this case. I have real doubts that I can get that all figured out in the fortnight before the deadline for filing the defence.
Finally, and for a little leavening, as the original invoice showing the disputed amount as a brought forward balance was issued not long before Christmas, I suggested in a letter that the charge was actually for the supply company's board's Christmas drinks tab. No reply was ever received but in reality, they couldn't even actually demonstrate that it wasn't actually their drinks tab!
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