Water Rates Problem

[davids]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum but quite a veteran at handling debts as I've handled or fought in some cases issues with nearly all my old debts myself. However here's one I really could use some advice on. I had an old water rates debt which now goes back several years and properties. A while back I tried to sort the debt out with Southern Water and offered them a reasonable monthly payment which they refused to accept. They passed it onto a debt collector and I don't like debt collectors so I didn't deal with or correspond with them, also because they had been so stubborn about refusing my offer of payment. I thought perhaps that would be the end of it as this is over three years or more ago but I just received a default notice and the whole thing has started up again. I have not done anything yet but any advice on what exactly are my rights or not as the case may be. If the debt is dead technically then I don't want to pay it for nothing, but conversely I don't want a CCJ really if possible. My credit score is not great anyway though so it won't matter too much, plus I am a student now and my income level is very low so any payment order would be next to nothing compared to what I offered them before. The main thing is that I am really annoyed that having refused to let me pay it on my terms they now resurrect it years later.

Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

David

[ploddertom]

Re: Water Rates Problem

Do you know how much you owe? Southern Water do Court & if it is over £600 including charges will transfer it to the High Court for enforcement. They are usually pretty sneaky by using old addresses to gain a Default Judgment against you. Be very wary of them and as it does not appear to be Statute Barred they will not let it drop.

[davids]

Re: Water Rates Problem

Hi. Well it's slightly confusing because now I look at it I had correspondence with South East Water over a similar sized amount in 2009 but they refused to accept my payments. This latest from Southern Water is in respect of something for which I think I last had contact in 2010 and so unfortunately that would make it 3 years away from being statute barred. It is around £400. What is my best course of action? I could simply start making payments to their account, in which case would this then prohibit them from taking further action. I don't want to deal with their third party debt agency. I don't want to encourage any other debt agencies whose debts are approaching statute barred status from then also jumping on the bandwagon. I am almost certain they will refuse any offer that I make them but to make them a higher offer would be unfair to other creditors that I have agreements with and I am paying.

To conclude I am thinking my best option would be to start payments and to inform them that this is what I am paying, will this stop any action? I'd appreciate your further advice.

[bluebottle]

Re: Water Rates Problem

If the DCA they have used has refused to accept reasonable offers of payment, that puts them in breach of their OFT Licence and OFT Debt Collection Guidelines, which are linked to their licence. Which DCA are they using, please?

[davids]

Re: Water Rates Problem

The DCA is power2contact Ltd whom I have never heard of. The thing is that I have confused the issue because there are two water boards I think with separate debts. South East Water is the one which refused my offers directly. Southern Water I haven't made an offer to but should I make offer directly to them or to the DCA?

[bluebottle]

Re: Water Rates Problem

It is a breach of a DCA's OFT Licence, per se, to -

a. refuse any reasonable offer or proposals for repayment of any proven debt;
b. encourage a debtor to borrow money to repay a debt, thereby putting them into further debt;
c. harass a debtor;
d. fail to pass on any proposals for repayment from a debtor to a creditor.

The above list is a sample and not exhaustive.

As for SW's intransigence, the Practice Direction and Pre-Action Protocol under the Civil Procedures Rules 1998 make it abundantly clear that every effort should be made to avoid resorting to court action unless all others means of resolution have failed. SW seem to think this doesn't apply to them as they appear to use the courts as a first line of attack, rather than the last resort. Giving the widest publicity to this practice as is possible is one method by which SW can be deterred from bullying debtors.