Lowell County Court Claim Form EDF

[LongDay]

Hi, All advice welcome please. We have today received a Claim Form from Lowell Solicitors relating to a Debt of £564.53 with EDF from January 2013 when i changed supplier. This relates to a disputed final bill. I have contacted EDF and the last time any payment was made on the account was July 2014. We had no contact from EDF for years and the account doesn't show on any credit report but Lowell bought the account in Nov 2017 and have sent some letters since which i admittedly ignored as i wrongly thought the account was statute barred (upon contacting EDF it would seem i unfortunately made a one off payment in July 2014) I am wondering what i should do next as i don't want to end up with a CCJ. I have seen apparently the CCA Request doesn't apply to Utilities and i am wondering if there are any other differences in this case?

[Amethyst]

Could you type the particulars of claim from the claim form please xx

Do you remember why the final bill was disputed?

acknowledge the claim with intent to defend in full for now so you have the full time to gather info and decide whether to defend the claim

send a SAR to EDF now to get any lingering info they hold that might be useful , and once you've posted the particulars of claim we can see what you need to ask for from the claimant solicitors with a CPR 31.14 request.
Links

Acknowledge Claim
CPR 31.14 Request
Subject Access Request Letter

[LongDay]

Thanks for your reply Amethyst, see below for Particulars of Claim:

1) The Defendant entered into a supply and service agreement with EDF Energy Customers Plc under account reference ************ ('the agreement').
2) The agreement later ended but a liability remained outstanding for payment.
3) The agreement was later assigned to the claimant on 27/11/2017
4) Despite repeated requests for payment, the sum of £564.53 remains due and outstanding.
And the claimant claims:
a) The said sum of £564.53
b) Interest pursuant to s69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of issue, accruing daily rate of £0.124, but limited to one year, being £45.16
c) Costs

Total amount claimed: £609.69
Court Fee: £60.00
Legal Representatives costs £70.00
total: £739.69

I am wondering if it is best to try and contact Lowell to try and come to some arrangement/reduced payment or is it too late for that now? i don't want to end up paying even more and have a CCJ on my credit file.

There was a dispute between EDF and my new supplier Sainsbury's Energy over the final/starting bills and who took over when, also i made my Direct Debit payments every month and i was paying double what i am now and my usage hasn't changed so how they can say i had such a large final bill on leaving is very strange?

[Amethyst]

CPR 31.14 can ask for Agreement, notice of assignment, full breakdown of sum claimed ( copy of bills showing how alleged sum accrued )

Definitely send a SAR to EDF and send one to Sainsburys as well. You want anything showing the dispute and any resolution to it.

If you settle now they will want the full £739 - make them do some work and evidence their claim and you may be able to settle further along the line for a reduced amount. The amount won't increase until you get to a hearing fee being required by the court - which will be 4/5 months along the court process - so you can utilise that time to put some money aside to make a potential f&f settlement if it becomes necessary.

There will be opportunities to negotiate throughout the process so for now gather what information you can, and don't just take their word for it the debt is owed. There's a few EDF claims popping up and seems many of them were like yours, a dispute that went quiet without resolution popping back up on the cusp of becoming statute barred.

[LongDay]

Thank you for your reply, just wanted to check one thing as this is all new to me! If I follow your advice above is there a chance this will be recorded on my credit report? We are looking to hopefully move house in the next year and at all costs I want to avoid adverse credit!

[LongDay]

Hi, i have the SAR for EDF and Sainsburys ready to send, just wanted to check the CPR 31.14 includes the below in red on the template letter, do i leave this in and amend or delete it? also what do i need to include with this letter and how do i pay the fee? Thanks

For your information and records I enclose a copy of the formal request for a copy of the credit agreement relating to this claim, pursuant to the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which has been posted to your client with the statutory fee of £1 today, xx/xx/xxxx.

[Amethyst]

Yes leave that off as it's for consumer credit act agreement debt ( loans / credit cards ) rather than utilities.

No fee with the CPR letter.

[LongDay]

Hi,

sorry for the late response, I've been away from home.
further to my earlier post I sent the requests and received no response from Sainsbury's and a request for photo ID from EDF even though i included numerous info for data protection.
I have also received a letter from Lowell stating the below:

"We are writing to you further to your letter dated .....
This matter relates to a former EDF Energy account opened in Sept 2011. The last payment of £25 was made July 2014. The supply of electricity ended Jan 2013 and supply of gas ended Jan 2013.
As this matter relates to a former service account and a copy of the agreement will not be provided to you. Copies of the statement and notice of assignment have been included. You may want to seek independent legal advice.
A claim was issued to you on *Aug 2018 and you should read this fully and respond to the claim....."

They've included a copy of a final electricty bill which isn't very detailed and has no readings...it just says i owe £564.53 with no meter readings ect, on the reverse it shows a £1.26 credit for 6 days in January....i am still not convinced this is accurate as they are saying this is for electric alone and as i was paying a direct debit of £92 a month (the same as i pay now and i am in credit!) This seems very High!

I need to file a defence by the weekend and just wanted some advice as what I should next?

any replies would be appreciated! Thanks

[LongDay]

Hi,

Today is the date I need to add my defence and I'm still confused about what i need to do now, any advice would be very helpful! Thanks

[LongDay]

Hi, i filed my defence online by the date required and have today received a letter from the courts explaining Lowell have 28 days to respond to this.

[LongDay]

Hi everyone,

i recieved a letter from the court about a week ago saying they had received my defence and Lowell had 28 days to respond or the case would be closed...28 days is this coming Saturday and i was feeling hopeful i hadn't heard anything, however, this morning i received a letter from lowell saying they have agreed to mediation and to fill out the reply if we agree to it or to call them to make an agreed payment.

1.Does this count as a reply and stop the case from being closed by the court?

2. I recieved a reply from Sainsburys energy stating as the account opening date was over 6 years ago all records have been archived, should i take this sudden co-operative approach by lowell to mean they have no evidence to go on? Surely if there are no records of opening meter reads ect they can't show they weren't estimated?

I am wondering whether to agree to the mediation or call their bluff and hope they have no evidence and can't claim anything.

Thanks in advance for your replies

[MIKE770]

no they are progressing to mediation stage, court would of stated that they had 28 days or else case be stayed (parked up) and if they continued they would have to pay to unstay the case, normal procedure.
you go for mediation as not to goes against principles of court procedure as to save court time_, read threads as you will then see the procedural pattern, they will have to produce later in the case, lowells etc try to frighten you to give in, = you must read threads and get to know the usual pattern