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Hey, sorry if this ends up a long one but there is a tl;dr at the bottom
So quite a few years ago (not putting any specifics in here) I moved into my first rented home with my partner. I had several at the time undiagnosed physical health and metal heath issues and my partner was under mental health services. We switched to a new energy supplier which at the time had plenty of good reviews and the lowest prices available. Being our first home we were kinda new to everything, and health issues made managing more difficult that we expected. We were entitled to housing and council tax benefits which were constantly being refused by the council as they accused us of having a "commercial relationship" with the landlord (this was later resolved but far too late), so we ended up spending most of my wage on the rent and just getting by. Utility bills were often unpaid because the money just wasn't there, or my payment by cheque (in the 2010's!) was made on the last working day of the month with no local bank branch open to deposit it.
Over a few years this led to a large balance of about 3 grand over gas and electricity and every effort to come to an arrangement was turned down on the grounds of "not being enough to pay the monthly bills and a reasonable amount on the debt". Not much happened for a while, until a notice of application for a warrant appeared to fit smart meters for prepayment, which I had no issue with. I contacted them to say I will gladly have new meters as I was sure the electricity meter was over-reading (it was, even with debt repayments our electricity costs went down) and it would end the refusals to make a payment arrangement. They however refused to make an appointment to fit until they "had the warrant to make things easier". Few months later my partner is at the door at work crying because our neighbour called her as our door was about to be broken through to fit new meters with a warrant. We got home and I absolutely ripped into them, well specifically the arrogant so and so who couldn't care less that a known vulnerable customer was having a mental breakdown over it. Had a chat with the engineers about smart meters as they were lovely, but the pratt who came with them needed a good slap.
Anyway we got new meters installed, were paying the debt back at 20% of all top-ups and all was fine. About 6 months later I was given a few days notice that I would be made redundant that month if I didn't accept part time working hours, which ultimately led to a huge drop in pay and having to move out of the property. The new flat we found had sub-metered energy so obviously we couldn't simply switch supply and keep the payment arrangement. The supplier however refused to accept this, and bluntly said "when you give us your new address we will attempt to switch supply at the property", completely ignoring that it was the landlord's supply. After a long argument on the phone over the flat not even having it's own utilities and the sub-metering, I gave up after the threat or a forced supply change at the building and refused to give them the address.
Fast forward a few years and we are looking for a new home after abuse from the landlord, and threats of court action appear from the supplier. The amount they stated didn't add up at all, it was hundreds over what the debt was even before starting to repay. I disputed this and asked for copies of bills, statements, details of the repayment plan etc. The next communication was a claim form, and my defense ended up being along the lines of "I have nothing from the company, what they claim doesn't make sense and I have been ignored after sending letters with proof of postage". The defense was ignored and I got a judgement against me. After this copies of bills arrived, showing every single meter credit as a debit and no mention of the debt repayments. Each month the bill amount was going up by the amount we topped up minus the 20% debt payment. I very un-calmly flipped at them over this and a lot of emails resulted in "please be assured this is correct". They claimed to have never setup the debt repayment plan, however we had receipts stating the split between credit and repayment. The new tenant was also being charged this for a short time after we had left. I asked for meter data showing how much was credited for each top-up which they refused to provide. We ended up with a hearing date to set aside which due to the amount of painkillers I was needing I was unable to attend. I wrote to the court requesting an adjournment, explained the billing issue and that I had just moved home and busted my back meaning I wasn't able to attend court. There is more to this part however the company is known for what they did and would be easy to narrow them down (and for them to potentially work out who I am).
I never heard from the court again but the supplier started emailing me again as they had told the court they didn't want to adjourn to enable me to attend a later date, and that the billing issue was resolved. I had only written to the court about this so they obviously received my email (and new address, at no point have I ran from this). I disputed the bills again and this time they agreed there was a deadlock and promised to send the deadlock letter for the ombudsman to get involved. Unsurprisingly this letter never materialised. The years passed with me having given up trying and pretty much being relieved when Sundays arrived because that was the one day a week that bailiffs couldn't turn up unannounced. They had already been granted a warrant of execution after the CCJ, however we were pretty much moved out of the previous flat by that point and they had turned up once when no-one was in. Since the last promise for a deadlock letter, there has been nothing from them. The CCJ is now dropped off as it was over 6 years ago, and although I still live at the last address I gave, I have since changed my full name for completely unrelated reasons, have a new phone number and have long stopped using the email addresses I would have used when this was all happening.
TL;DR and question:
Close to a decade ago I got a CCJ against me for an energy account debt that I never disputed until the amount they claimed in court was provably wildly inaccurate, but supplier was seemingly deliberate in making sure I was unable to defend myself or prove disputes until after they got what they wanted. They sent bailiffs to my previous address once and the CCJ has since dropped off. It is a lot of money, however do they realistically have any chance of getting court permission to pursue the debt after sending bailiffs to a previous address once, then taking for no action for so long the CCJ dropped off public record?
So quite a few years ago (not putting any specifics in here) I moved into my first rented home with my partner. I had several at the time undiagnosed physical health and metal heath issues and my partner was under mental health services. We switched to a new energy supplier which at the time had plenty of good reviews and the lowest prices available. Being our first home we were kinda new to everything, and health issues made managing more difficult that we expected. We were entitled to housing and council tax benefits which were constantly being refused by the council as they accused us of having a "commercial relationship" with the landlord (this was later resolved but far too late), so we ended up spending most of my wage on the rent and just getting by. Utility bills were often unpaid because the money just wasn't there, or my payment by cheque (in the 2010's!) was made on the last working day of the month with no local bank branch open to deposit it.
Over a few years this led to a large balance of about 3 grand over gas and electricity and every effort to come to an arrangement was turned down on the grounds of "not being enough to pay the monthly bills and a reasonable amount on the debt". Not much happened for a while, until a notice of application for a warrant appeared to fit smart meters for prepayment, which I had no issue with. I contacted them to say I will gladly have new meters as I was sure the electricity meter was over-reading (it was, even with debt repayments our electricity costs went down) and it would end the refusals to make a payment arrangement. They however refused to make an appointment to fit until they "had the warrant to make things easier". Few months later my partner is at the door at work crying because our neighbour called her as our door was about to be broken through to fit new meters with a warrant. We got home and I absolutely ripped into them, well specifically the arrogant so and so who couldn't care less that a known vulnerable customer was having a mental breakdown over it. Had a chat with the engineers about smart meters as they were lovely, but the pratt who came with them needed a good slap.
Anyway we got new meters installed, were paying the debt back at 20% of all top-ups and all was fine. About 6 months later I was given a few days notice that I would be made redundant that month if I didn't accept part time working hours, which ultimately led to a huge drop in pay and having to move out of the property. The new flat we found had sub-metered energy so obviously we couldn't simply switch supply and keep the payment arrangement. The supplier however refused to accept this, and bluntly said "when you give us your new address we will attempt to switch supply at the property", completely ignoring that it was the landlord's supply. After a long argument on the phone over the flat not even having it's own utilities and the sub-metering, I gave up after the threat or a forced supply change at the building and refused to give them the address.
Fast forward a few years and we are looking for a new home after abuse from the landlord, and threats of court action appear from the supplier. The amount they stated didn't add up at all, it was hundreds over what the debt was even before starting to repay. I disputed this and asked for copies of bills, statements, details of the repayment plan etc. The next communication was a claim form, and my defense ended up being along the lines of "I have nothing from the company, what they claim doesn't make sense and I have been ignored after sending letters with proof of postage". The defense was ignored and I got a judgement against me. After this copies of bills arrived, showing every single meter credit as a debit and no mention of the debt repayments. Each month the bill amount was going up by the amount we topped up minus the 20% debt payment. I very un-calmly flipped at them over this and a lot of emails resulted in "please be assured this is correct". They claimed to have never setup the debt repayment plan, however we had receipts stating the split between credit and repayment. The new tenant was also being charged this for a short time after we had left. I asked for meter data showing how much was credited for each top-up which they refused to provide. We ended up with a hearing date to set aside which due to the amount of painkillers I was needing I was unable to attend. I wrote to the court requesting an adjournment, explained the billing issue and that I had just moved home and busted my back meaning I wasn't able to attend court. There is more to this part however the company is known for what they did and would be easy to narrow them down (and for them to potentially work out who I am).
I never heard from the court again but the supplier started emailing me again as they had told the court they didn't want to adjourn to enable me to attend a later date, and that the billing issue was resolved. I had only written to the court about this so they obviously received my email (and new address, at no point have I ran from this). I disputed the bills again and this time they agreed there was a deadlock and promised to send the deadlock letter for the ombudsman to get involved. Unsurprisingly this letter never materialised. The years passed with me having given up trying and pretty much being relieved when Sundays arrived because that was the one day a week that bailiffs couldn't turn up unannounced. They had already been granted a warrant of execution after the CCJ, however we were pretty much moved out of the previous flat by that point and they had turned up once when no-one was in. Since the last promise for a deadlock letter, there has been nothing from them. The CCJ is now dropped off as it was over 6 years ago, and although I still live at the last address I gave, I have since changed my full name for completely unrelated reasons, have a new phone number and have long stopped using the email addresses I would have used when this was all happening.
TL;DR and question:
Close to a decade ago I got a CCJ against me for an energy account debt that I never disputed until the amount they claimed in court was provably wildly inaccurate, but supplier was seemingly deliberate in making sure I was unable to defend myself or prove disputes until after they got what they wanted. They sent bailiffs to my previous address once and the CCJ has since dropped off. It is a lot of money, however do they realistically have any chance of getting court permission to pursue the debt after sending bailiffs to a previous address once, then taking for no action for so long the CCJ dropped off public record?
